I often wondered if there was anyone who purchased a retro printer. Seemed like it’s quite likely that few people had positive relationships with their printers back in the day.

Can your printer do music? https://youtu.be/VXbP7OkQ8LQ I always was fond of using a dot matrix printer as audio output

I have two 'special' retro printers, but they cant do music. They are vector plotters. I use them for doing fun things with inkpens.

The OP will likely find that their printer emulates an IBM ProPrinter when the "IBM Control Set" switch is enabled, and emulates an Epson FX series (ESC/P codepage) when the switch is not set.

The manual does not *SAY* this clearly, and instead lists what exact ESC codepage instructions it supports, and what IBMProPrinter instructions it supports, in the appropriate switch modes instead, and does not say the word Epson at all.

However, vintage software, like win3x, should supply Epson FX series drivers, and just lying to windows about it (Manually picking say, and FX 80, as the driver), then loading paper, they should be able to print images and text no problem.

The printer in the linked video is an Epson LQ series printer, which speaks ESC/P as well... So... "maybe" their printer could be cajoled into making buzzing tone music?

I haven’t tried making printer music yet. I’ll give it a try once I have the printer connected to my XT. 😀

Okay. OP here. I can confirm it speaks a dialect of Epson 9 pin Escape P when not in IBM mode. I get a lot of weirdness printing to it from my mac with it configured as an Epson, but I suspect the mac epson escape-p drivers are a more recent dialect than the D-200 understands, or some subtle thing is missing from the D-200 that I haven't caught yet.

Haven't figured out how I'm going to connect it to the retroPC yet. Leaning toward RS232. I'm trying to keep my PC all "modern" construction rather than 40 years old, so I'm loathe to throw a parallel board in it. I'd also have to find the darn thing, and we moved recently. Whether I have the resources free with a picoGUS and an ethernet board in it already is also a question.

USB to Centronics cables exist.

https://www.amazon.com/usb-centronics/s?k=usb+to+centronics

You just cant use one for general purpose IO, like you can use a REAL LPT for. For printers? They work fine, most of the time.

From what I have been hunting for you, the "Closest match" might not be an FX series, but rather an LX series.

I have also read that maybe MX-80 might be a good match, but will have... not great... graphics printing ability.

Your printer's manual says it supports 240 dpi print mode, which is... VASTLY better... than the MX-80 could do. "LX series 1" or "LX80" are the best matches from the anectdotal things I have seen turn up in search results.

Good to know, thanks. @weird_w, clearly I’ve muddled something I said. I have one of those cables, and was able to get my mac m1 laptop to talk to the printer via cups/lpr. That’s how I found out about the esc/p 9 pin dialects. Lpr prints fine but in graphical mode, it only partially works.

I now have a parallel printer cable and found my old isa multi/io board to connect the printer to my xt class pc. (Micro8088).

Also, I’ve acquired what is probably a lifetime supply of tractor feed paper from Acmezon, for slightly more than the printer cost. No joy on ribbons yet. We’ll see how this one does as the WD40 soaks in.

It's also possible to re-ink the old ribbon if you buy the liquid dropper ink meant for inkpads and stamps.