This isn't a real assembly language that has direct access to the hardware. Or even the capability to write "Hello world" (the only I/O is numbers, in either he

This isn't a real assembly language that has direct access to the hardware. Or even the capability to write "Hello world" (the only I/O is numbers, in either hex or decimal). And labels are limited to 3 characters, so not much better than line numbers in BASIC! The one real advantage would be the 16-bit integer arithmetic, probably the main reason for it being faster than BASIC (which only supports floating point numbers on these machines, implemented in software on a 4-bit microcontroller). I had one of these too, but without the manual. The "Asmbl" button was fascinating to me, but I couldn't figure out how to use it until much later when I found a scan of the manual online - you can imagine the disappointment! Figured there had to be some educational purpose behind it, but this is the first time I read about this Japanese standard.