Hello all - can someone please tell me the difference between the Commodore MPS 801, 802 and 803 printers as far as performance/print quality. Is an 802 better than an 801? Did some searching, but would like to actual user experience facts. Thank you!

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On Thursday, September 28, 2023 at 8:29:09 PM UTC-6, Frodo Baggins wrote:

Hello all - can someone please tell me the difference between the Commodore MPS 801, 802 and 803 printers as far as performance/print quality. Is an 802 better than an 801? Did some searching, but would like to actual user experience facts. Thank you!

Hi Frodo I own an MPS803 its way smaller, I think its maybe a 9pin printhead.
I had always just used it in GEOS/Wheels with Geowrite and for a Dot Matrix printer the quality is better in GEOS/Wheels since it offers different selections for
print quality. This printer can actually print all of the Petscii characters I believe, even with basic listing printouts. (From Commodore basic).
The MPS 803 at least is only friction feed so continuous paper tends to go sideways and messes up the printout, but you can print just a page at a time so
you can use just photo copy paper. I believe Commodore made a tractor feed mechanism too, for a fact the owner of Commodore4 Ever mentioned he found a
tractor feed for an MPS 803 on Ebay. I bought this little printer used in 1992 so it has been very useful.
Its just if you have long printouts the friction feed tends to mess up, so just 1 sheet of paper at a time works.
If you need any Commodore manuals go to: www.bombjack.org website has just about any Commodore book, etc.
Hope this helps, good luck.

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The MPS-802 is the same as the 1526. It's a business class printer with "push" tractor feed so that you don't waste a sheet of paper every time you load the printer or advance to the next page. It has tru decenders (j, y, g, etc) under the line. It also has a ton of text and formatting commands for printing forms and reports. In stock form it isn't supported by most graphics programs (other than GEOS), but you can download a graphics rom for free, burn it to a 2764 eprom, and replace the original rom. This retains all original features and adds 1525 compatibility so that programs like print shop, etc, all work correctly.

Of the three you mentioned, the 1526/MPS-802 with graphics rom is my favorite.

It's built like a tank and will run forever.

-mykrowyre
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