SquallStrife wrote:

Picked up a HP 200LX, listing said it doesn't work, hoping I can repair it. […]
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Picked up a HP 200LX, listing said it doesn't work, hoping I can repair it.

Edit: For fun I chucked in some batteries....

You bugger! I was watching this listing on eBay! I ended up having a nap and overslept and never got a chance to bid hahahaha! Such a cool little machine 😀 Congrats!

SquallStrife wrote:

It should run games too, it contains a CGA chip. Basically an IBM XT in your pocket.

Oh, it does run games greatly!

SquallStrife wrote:

Picked up a HP 200LX, listing said it doesn't work, hoping I can repair it.

Great little thingy! I'm so glad that finally someone around here got his hands on this gem! I have one, the 2MB RAM version. Only 640k is available to DOS, the rest can be used as a RAM drive. Since it works great with CF cards via CF to PCMCIA adapter (I got mine with a 128MB card and it's much more than I can ever need on an XT!), there's no use having more RAM than 1 or 2 MB versions.

Apart from being so cool, this thing:

Helps you run your budget (Pocket Quicken software in ROM)
Lets you take short notes and manage them as database (Note taker software in ROM)
Has great scientific calculator and Lotus 123. There's also an option to download Mathcad 2.0 to turn this machine into a really awesome tool (althogh you can imagine how slow goes the calculation)
Helps you manage appointments, special software is way better than what I have on my Nokia phone
Has a great Hearts and Bones game, slightly similar to winmine, x00LX-exclusive

Please let me know what games you tried playing. Every PC XT game I tried either looks aweful/undestinguishable on this weird 3 shades of grey screen, or is very hard at that speed (alley cat, anyone?).

P.S. How much did you pay for it? I got mine for $120 from a collector who sold out his goods, awesome condition, well looked after.

I paid $16.50 AUD.

The listing said "Doesn't work at all". Slipped in some batteries, and it works just fine.

On top of that, enter and space work just fine (I read that they're prone to stopping working), and there is no hinge crack.

I'm currently waiting on a PC->CF adaptor and 1GB CF card to come from China.

I probably won't get to try any games until then, since it's just a 1MB model, so th RAMdrive is only 350KB or so.

I kinda wanna give that little guy a hug. Just .. so .. cute ...

RacoonRider wrote:

Please let me know what games you tried playing. Every PC XT game I tried either looks aweful/undestinguishable on this weird 3 shades of grey screen, or is very hard at that speed (alley cat, anyone?).

I thought Alley Cat is one of the few games which work fine with faster CPUs? Or is this what you are saying?
The display is what I would worry about most, only shades of grey and probably low contrast, and wrong aspect ratio.
Did you try any games that use 620x200x2 CGA mode? The early Sierra games offer this mode, might look better than 4 colour CGA mapped to grey levels.
I don't know if Spacewar tolerates faster CPUs, we played it on a 8MHz 8086 and the speed was OK. The wrong aspect ratio might make it harder, though.

I tried a few PC booter rips (that's all I have room for, until I get my CF card and adaptor).

Graphically they're OK. The contrast is actually pretty good, and the 4 grey levels are distinguishable. Motion is another story. Moving things all but disappear.

Another problem I have is that although there is no joystick connected, games are receiving a constant stick-left and button 1 command. It's OK most of the time, but makes games that start with "Press button 1 to play with joystick" unplayable.

Digger doesn't work. The game runs and the Digger is controllable (it makes all the sounds), but the graphics are scrambled, like when you try to run Digger on non-CGA adaptors.

Boulder Dash and PC-Man had the joystick issue, although Boulder Dash would honour keyboard presses, but return to moving left when keys were released. In both, the graphics are clear and discernable.

Dig Dug worked perfectly and I played it for about 30 minutes, until the batteries died. Apparently this thing's fabled battery life doesn't apply to cold-booting DOS without the System Manager.

idspispopd wrote:

I thought Alley Cat is one of the few games which work fine with faster CPUs? Or is this what you are saying? The display is wha […]
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RacoonRider wrote:

Please let me know what games you tried playing. Every PC XT game I tried either looks aweful/undestinguishable on this weird 3 shades of grey screen, or is very hard at that speed (alley cat, anyone?).

I thought Alley Cat is one of the few games which work fine with faster CPUs? Or is this what you are saying?
The display is what I would worry about most, only shades of grey and probably low contrast, and wrong aspect ratio.
Did you try any games that use 620x200x2 CGA mode? The early Sierra games offer this mode, might look better than 4 colour CGA mapped to grey levels.
I don't know if Spacewar tolerates faster CPUs, we played it on a 8MHz 8086 and the speed was OK. The wrong aspect ratio might make it harder, though.

Alley cat is very fast and, as Squallstrife mentionned, moving things are hardly seen. That's the main problem.

I tried Defender of the crown, it's distinguishable, yet I did not go further investigating.

Pirates! CGA are indistinguishable, perhaps there's a monochrome version?

I don't remember other games I tried, it was too long ago.... I wish I could find some slow-paced strategy like Master of Orion or HoMM for it, a game where you don't have to react when you see a grey shade moving towards your direction.

idspispopd wrote:

I thought Alley Cat is one of the few games which work fine with faster CPUs? Or is this what you are saying? The display is wha […]
Show full quote

RacoonRider wrote:

Please let me know what games you tried playing. Every PC XT game I tried either looks aweful/undestinguishable on this weird 3 shades of grey screen, or is very hard at that speed (alley cat, anyone?).

I thought Alley Cat is one of the few games which work fine with faster CPUs? Or is this what you are saying?
The display is what I would worry about most, only shades of grey and probably low contrast, and wrong aspect ratio.
Did you try any games that use 620x200x2 CGA mode? The early Sierra games offer this mode, might look better than 4 colour CGA mapped to grey levels.
I don't know if Spacewar tolerates faster CPUs, we played it on a 8MHz 8086 and the speed was OK. The wrong aspect ratio might make it harder, though.

I've run Alley Cat fine on FAR newer systems than an XT; pretty sure I played it on my 1.1 GHz Duron-equipped Vaio, with no issues. I think I even ran it under Vista 32-bit on an i3 2120 or an Athlon 64 X2 3800+ fine as well!

You can cycle through different modes of shading by pressing ON and / at the same time, or ON and * to reverse the black/white.
There are command-line utilities to save battery power by disabling stuff you might not need, like the serial port and IR.
I like your homemade serial cable 😀

Not all CF cards are working directly on the 200LX, you might need to load a driver on the ramdisk if that's the case, there's a list of compatible cards at http://www.hermocom.com/hplx/view-all-hp-palm … 13-storagecards
The RAM above the 640k can also be used as EMS instead of a ramdisk with a 3rd party driver.

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PeterLI wrote:

That little computer reminds me of one of the Terminator movies where the teenager hacks into stuff. :lol:

That was https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_Portfolio

Got an Enermax EG375AX-VE to replace the dying Antec PSU I was using, hopefully this will work a little better. This is going into the P133 machine as it has a somewhat lower +5v rail than the other Enermax (27 vs 32)

easy_john wrote:

PeterLI wrote:

That little computer reminds me of one of the Terminator movies where the teenager hacks into stuff. 🤣

That was https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_Portfolio

Very cool! I always wondered if that was a 'real' device. Brings back so many memories! I keep hearing "Guns and Roses - You Could Be Mine" in my head.... 😀

Yakumo Voodoo Graphics

Creative CT6670

Leadtek GeForce 7800 GS (G71-based)

Found a (claimed) new boxed/shrinked Creative DVD Encore 12x (DVD drive + DxR3 decoder card) on Amazon (actually from Amazon via Fulfillment Services) and threw caution to the wind and ordered it. Worst case scenario I just have a nice new DVD drive for my P4, but I'm hoping to install everything in there just for giggles (I remember back in '01 watching DVDs on that machine with no card and it was fine, but I've wanted to play around with such a card for years, and finding them for peanuts makes that possible).

Also snagged a second 7900GS for the whopping sum of $13.37, with the goal of setting up SLI (I already have one card, and the motherboard, and the bridge, so it seemed like a logical addition). It's just a generic "green" one though - my other card is a PNY with the little alien/cyborg guy on the heatsink. According to nVidia that combo will still work AOK as long as I use newer drivers. We shall see.

And finally, a boxed Razer AC-1 soundcard (image is just generic):

It has XP, Vista, and 7 drivers, does up to 7.1, is supposed to support A3D and EAX, as well as "Razer 3D Positional Gaming Audio Engine" for upmixing and headphone audio. I have no idea what chipset it actually uses (you can see a big image of the board with the shield removed here: http://content.hwigroup.net/images/products/x … rracuda_ac1.jpg), but it looks cool and should make a worthy companion for the GF7900s. 😎

Looks like a nice card! I dig the black PCB and EMI shield like the higher end Asus cards.

SquallStrife wrote:

Digger doesn't work. The game runs and the Digger is controllable (it makes all the sounds), but the graphics are scrambled, like when you try to run Digger on non-CGA adaptors.

Can you try digger remastered in CGA mode?

Yep, Alley Cat definitely runs fine under Windows 98 with my Vaio laptop.

In the thriftstore today I was lucky and got a ASUS P4P800 with 3.2GHz Northwood and CPU mounting bracket (but without io shield) for €6,50. Nice, especially the CPU I'm happy to have 😀