Do you remember the days of Autoexec.bat and config.sys fondly?
Ever code in QBasic?
This is my kind of pocket sized IBM XT compatible from Hewlett Packard.
Unlike my Atari Portfolio, these machines still have an active community!
As well as having the PCMCIA slot for storage, it uses a watch battery to power the clock etc while not in use.
You’ll also notice an IR LED, serial port, and DC jack.
This version was slightly upgraded over its little brother. There’s also I believe a 200 in the range.
This guy has 1mb and “high” resolution of 640x200.
Not bad to say it runs on 2x AA batteries or 12v DC.
The weird thing about the DC is it’s reverse of the usual ground and power arrangement which makes it super easy to accidentally fry.
Right now I have a 64mb compact flash memory card in my adapter, but it requires a driver to see the full capacity.
So far as well as DOS 5.0 I’ve managed to get Tetris running but unfortunately not Turbo C or any BASIC IDEs :(
I’m definitely going to code a game for it, of course. As well as full text it has CGA graphics!
I’m also told it’s still possible to connect to the Internet, as it comes with a terminal program via infrared or a serial modem …
Ah yes, I do. And the challenge to get the lower memory free for some game with high requirements.
Playing Monkey Island and NHL Hockey on a 386, some of my most cherrished childhood computer geek memories.
Have a merry Christmas.
!HUG
Ha yes kids today don’t know the frustration of having to configure drivers, IRQ, and memory just for a demo to even run 🤭
Oh right, the IRQ. Printer, Joystick and Soundblaster where always fighting for either IRQ 7 or 15. Those were the days, man....
I totally miss mine I had in the mid 90s. I had dreamed of a hand held for years and was stupid happy to finally get one. There was a pcmcia modem that worked but at 2600, I used it to get on my buddies BBS but it had to be plugged to the phone line and was as slow as my original 286-10.
Somewhere I have a pcmcia wifi card from when I had a windows ce handheld, wonder if that would work :)
If you can find or make the drivers I bet it would. Sounds like a solid experiment.
I would have loved one of those. I did have a Psion 3 that was fun. I had some other PDA devices that had no internet capability. Still got a couple of them.
I have a couple of those too and a Palm III :)
I've gone through a bunch of devices right up to my first iPhone. While I have been helped out of a tight spot a few times having them (working on the internet as I do) I have to admit I just think they're neat 🤭
I still have my Palm III