Questions about Mac Handwriter: Does anyone have drivers for it? Has anyone here ever used one?

[JT737]

Hello All!
I bought this on Buyee Japan a little while back. As you can see, it's basically a Wacom tablet for your classic Macintosh. I've been trying to get it to work with either one of my SE's or SE/30's, but with no luck. The good news is that it did come with driver disks; however, everything is in Japanese, and I cannot get these drivers to work.
I know it's a long shot, but does anyone have a different set of drivers for this?

Thanks!

 

[LaPorta]

That’s way cool!

 

[finkmac]

Have you imaged said disks, or are they available somewhere?

 

[tsundoku]

I wouldn't mind running through the installer/documentation, if you can provide the materials.

 

[JT737]

@LaPorta -Isn't it cool??!! I could do some really cool artwork with my old machines with this thing!

@finkmac -I have extracted the drivers from the disks, but unfortunately I have not gotten them to work, even after using several different Mac O.S.'s.

@tsundoku-I would definitely appreciate that! I took a few quick pictures for you to look at. One of them is what I think is the packing list, and another one is a picture of this beautiful looking gold-lettered book that came with it. Additionally, I took some quick pictures of the instruction manual; it will take me a bit to image the entire manual!

 

[finkmac]

@LaPorta -Isn't it cool??!! I could do some really cool artwork with my old machines with this thing!

Indeed, I think you'll be able to use the handwriting recognition to write some really cool letters and kanji with it

@finkmac -I have extracted the drivers from the disks, but unfortunately I have not gotten them to work, even after using several different Mac O.S.'s.

Care to provide us with a copy of said drives so we can examine them for ourselves? Hopefully complete disk copy 4.2 images of the disks.

 

[tsundoku]

I hope you're aware that (as the name implies), this device is a handwriting-based Japanese input method, not a graphics tablet.

That being said, I'd really like to get some disk images and run the installer myself to see what happens. The requirements listed on the quick start sheet (first picture) are not very specific, but that's typical of early Mac stuff - basically "3MB of RAM, at least a minimum usable system, no MultiFinder."

 

[JT737]

@tsundoku @finkmac -I wasn't aware of that. I assumed-at least when I first saw it, before I bought it- that it was something akin to one of my Wacom tablets. So basically, this does what my old Palm Pilot did with handwriting, except in Japanese, which is pretty cool itself!

Still, even with a palm Pilot you could also use the stylus to draw in different programs. Anyways, I will try to upload the installation software in a bit- gotta dig up the copies I made first!

 

[olePigeon]

I did some Googling, and I think it's a rebranded CalComp tablet bundled with a template and software. You might be able to get it working if you can track down the ADB CalComp drivers. Theoretically there are also English language versions of the tablet.

 

[JT737]

@olePigeon -Thanks! I found this; we'll see if it works: https://www.macintoshrepository.org/24046-calcomp-wiz-tablet-for-macintosh

Also, attached is a .sit of the Japanese version of the installation software.

 

[defor]

I've uploaded the 1.0.2 english software package to MG. I hope this helps.

https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/machandwriter

It appears that this version (the 2.0 design) is based around a rebadged wacom tablet... APPEARS.. can you provide a photo of any labels, etc from the bottom of the tablet, and even better, possibly unscrew it and take photos of the insides?
I swore I owned a 2.0 set as well, but I can't seem to track it down, and what you're posting looks fundamentally different.

 

[JT737]

@defor- welp, I downloaded and installed the drivers....and it works! I was surprised that for the most part, it works like my modern Wacom tablet. I haven't tried drawing anything with it yet, so that will be the ultimate test!

 

[olePigeon]

That's good to know. Was probably a 50/50 chance it was one of those two tablet companies. Looks like they also made a MacHandwriter tablet using a CalComp, but my Googling didn't reveal anything about it possibly being a Wacom. So good eye on @defor .

 

[JT737]

Welp, the good news is that it works. The bad news is that it works somewhat ......it has a fair amount of "jitter" when you try to draw with it. In other words, it is just about impossible to draw a straight line with the thing. I've tried it on two different machines-an se/30 running 7.5.5 with alot of extensions, and an SE running 7.0 with pretty much no extensions except After Dark.

Any idea what could cause this? I also forgot to mention that both machines have accelerators; maybe this thing doesn't play nice with them, but that doesn't seem likely. Anyways, I've attached a short video so you all can get an idea of what I'm talking about:
View attachment DSCN8050.MOV