Thank you! Looks like a lovely semi-portable DOS setup. Mad respect for Roland plus external speakers combo - it must sound real nice.

henryVK wrote:

Presumably it's a 755C with a somewhat rare PCMCIA Roland SC-55 card

http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:755C

Very, very nice, especially the speakers, but isn't it a bit uncomfortable to rest your hands on the keyboard when the laptop is so damn tall?

Yeah you wouldn't want to write a book on it. But for games it's OK, can use the gamepad instead.

DotC with a gamepad? 😁

Yeah, it's a good looking machine. I briefly owned a Thinkpad 770, but what kind of put me off most was the stickyness of the coating. Do the 486 Thinkpads have the same rubbery coating? It's hard to tell from just looking at pictures.

Anyway, these guys are nearly impossible to find right now! I hope you have lots of fun with yours.

bjt wrote:

Yeah you wouldn't want to write a book on it. But for games it's OK, can use the gamepad instead.

One could use some kind of portable wrist rest.

But really to properly game on a laptop one needs an external keyboard as well. Laptop keyboards jam at many 3-key combinations, plus they lack the numpad.

For a high-end DOS, entry-level Win9x game laptop I would consider a Thinkpad with a CS4624 sound device. It has surprisingly good (although not perfect) DOS game compatibility, and under Windows even has General MIDI compatibility:
DOS FM Music on Crystal SoundFusion CS4624 PCI

Relevant Thinkpads would be A20, A21, A22 and T20, T21, T22 (but not T23!).

dr_st wrote:

Relevant Thinkpads would be A20, A21, A22 and T20, T21, T22 (but not T23!).

Any input on what the VGA scaling for older DOS games looks like with the ATI Rage mobility/S3Savage graphics on these?

I can perhaps run some tests on the A21m if you tell me what to look for.

Just how (or whether) they stretch VGA (320*2xx) to fullscreen. The aspect ratio might be weird and the image stretched unevenly because the scaling just adds lines here and there, or the aspect ratio might be correct but there are artefacts, like some pixels are larger than others. But since this generation of laptops already offer 3d acceleration, mabye they are capable of a lot more advanced scaling as well, which the 486-to-Pentium 1 era machines certainly weren't.

Thanks for the pointers to your other thread about the CS4624, I'll be checking out the samples!

It's funny reading this topic - I always ignored laptops for retro gaming for all the many MANY issues. It's bad enough to build a good compatible PC let alone finding a laptop with fixed parts that is suitable out of the box. Add hardware problems and irreplaceable (or impossible to find) parts and you're in for a fun ride!

It's not nearly as bad, if you know what to look for.

There are lots of models that make perfectly adequate gaming platforms, but, as with desktop PCs, there is no perfect machine. With a little patience, though, anyone should be able to find a laptop that runs 90% of all DOS/Win9x games.

Besides, to me at least, figuring out which ones are good and which ones are duds is half the fun!

Interestingly, regarding spare parts:

It's true, for a lot of more esoteric laptops it will be quite a challenge to replace a faulty part. However, for your average Toshiba Satellite there are dozens of pages of spare parts on ebay at any given time, at least in Europe and GB. So, it really depends on what model we're talking about.

red_avatar wrote:

I always ignored laptops for retro gaming for all the many MANY issues. It's bad enough to build a good compatible PC let alone finding a laptop with fixed parts that is suitable out of the box.

henryVK wrote:

It's not nearly as bad, if you know what to look for. There are lots of models that make perfectly adequate gaming platforms, but, as with desktop PCs, there is no perfect machine. With a little patience, though, anyone should be able to find a laptop that runs 90% of all DOS/Win9x games.

I've been using latops for DOS gaming due to interesting limitation - I don't have enough space for desktop PC and the monitor from DOS era. I could, theoretically, squeeze them on my desk, but my wife doesn't like them - and it's not about just one (I have Tandon Hercules PC, Spectrum, Amstrad, couple DOS comps... you get the idea). Plus, laptops can be closed and hid in the wardrobe or a drawer.

I have brought the number down to Panasonic CF-41 (Pentium, CD-ROM) and Siemens-Nixdorf PCD-4ND (486) - both have 640x480 TFT screens, SB-compatible sound cards, HDDs replaced with CompactFlash for speed and convenience. I reall like them. Siemens is smaller and virtually noise-free (passive cooling), but you won't run everything on it, as it's just 486. Panasonic is bulkier, but faster and allows for CD music (Quake etc.), unfortunately it will be noisy when it gets warmer, which is usually after 15-30 minutes. I also have a replacement one for each of these (so effectively two of each kind).

In the past, I had a couple of Toshibas with 800x600 TFT screens (500CDT and others), but have given up on them, because they had weirdly sounding SB emulation and badly stretched VGA resolutions). Also, wife kept nagging. 🤣 I've only kept two ones for VGA DOS and early Windows gaming, because they are small and cute: Toshiba 3020CT (11 incher with 800x600 screen) and Libretto 50CT (littlest thing ever, size of VHS casette, 640x480 screen). I also kept a couple of Toshibas with monochrome plasma screens (T3100, T3200SX, T5100), but that's just my personal kink, I wouldn't really recommend those to anyone else.

There's a lot of good laptops with Pentium and TFT screen, such as Toshiba T2130CT, Compaq LTE (recommended by 8-bit guy) and various no-names (meaning some weird brands that have perished in the rivers of time, but left decent hardware behind), there are some cool 486 ones too (DEC HiNote Ultra CT475 - ultraportable with TFT and 486, passive). So, if you're low on space and/or your significant other is not a fun of bulky monitors and old hardware, there are options for small footprint DOS machines with decent specs. You just have to find the good ones.

Ah, I was waiting for you to chime in, Oldcat 😀

I can definitely second most of your sentiments. My wife is generally more accepting of things that can be stowed away!
Also, having a desk job, I've taken to playing games sitting on the couch in our living room, rather than sitting at my desk. Or least I like having the option of switching places.

I have a Toshiba Tecra 510CDT as well, which bulky but has a really good screen and speakers. But my daily driver is the Siemens PCD-4ND, which is a good compromise because it is very light, makes no noise and has a pretty good screen. Contrast and colours aren't quite as good as the Tecra, but this is only really noticeable with games relatively drab games (like, say, Doom).

Since I started getting into laptops, I've owned about 8 or 9 and it's been tons of fun, though I will say that disassembly can be harrowing. So far I have not damaged any of my machines and even made a small profit from re-selling them on ebay (not accounting for the time spent hunting for them, which I consider leasure 😀).

Plus, I always discover new models that I might get some day, like this classy Italian Olivetti Philos:

What's that?

Why, of course it comes in a leather clamshell with stamped logo and model name! 🤣

henryVK wrote:

Just how (or whether) they stretch VGA (320*2xx) to fullscreen. The aspect ratio might be weird and the image stretched unevenly because the scaling just adds lines here and there, or the aspect ratio might be correct but there are artefacts, like some pixels are larger than others. But since this generation of laptops already offer 3d acceleration, mabye they are capable of a lot more advanced scaling as well, which the 486-to-Pentium 1 era machines certainly weren't.

I didn't notice any major artifacts, but I'm attaching some examples here for your own judgment. The files are deliberately very high res, so you can zoom in.

Included are DOOM II, Duke Nukem 3D, Mortal Kombat II and Warcraft (all 320x200), as well as Lost Vikings (320x240).

Figure i post the 2 i had good luck with dos and 95 and 98 games:) compaq presario 1692 which is my first laptop i ever got brand new in 98 or 99 and a compaq presario 1675 which i had to replace it with 2 years ago..

Amd k6 433mhz 128mb ram and a 380mhz 192mb in the 1675 both have the ESS 1946 Solo1 audio and ati rage. I just got my first one going again a few hours ago:) The bios chip or what ever dies on them in their sleep at times which happen to my 1692 powers up but no response at all not even cap lock.
I had another 1675 which was pristine i found off ebay days later after oiling the hinges ...which was a mistake... Plastic around the hinges started too crack everywhere.... Pretty much was on its last leg i guess abs plastic doeisnt like some oils?

But anyways found another pristine 1675 year and a half ago which i got lucky cause these presario are hard too find anymore Which been working great!

Than last july a storm took the motherboard out... Wouldn't power up at all so days later i took the motherboard out of the cracked 1675 and pop it in the good case.

Than when i went for it a week ago too mess with it i saw it had a little hair line crack on the right side were the hinge is at which yea the laptop hardy got used and just sits lately 🤣... I used a old soldering iron to close up the crack and so far its holding...

Than hours ago i was thinking of my 1692 which been sitting for like 3 years now dead which it does have sentimental value to me 🤣. Than i decided for the heck of it to try the motherboard that got hit by a power surge which was barebones sucker power right up and beep at me........ i was like wtf why is it working now... So i did a few hours project poping that motherboard in the 1692 case and yep powered right up!

Ony thing i had to do is set the jumpers for the display on the 1675 board to match the 1692s cause the 1675 has a 14.1inch screen vs the 1962 12.1 screen all i got was a blue screen and lines but after doing that it lives!

so i got 2 working presarios again!

Lets say they are pain in the asses mainly when the plastic just decides to crack at the hinges for no reason even tho the hinges are good ... But they do work great other than that and make a great dos 95 98 gaming laptop 😀 I have always had a heart for these old presario just nice looking machines:) Wish they was built like my toshiba 430cdt tho.... 🤣

1692 on the left and 1675 on the right.

Gentlemen, I have a dilemma, looking for a good laptop for games from 1997-2001. I have two types: Compaq EVO N600c (ATI Radeon Mobility 7000 16mb) or Toschiba satellite pro 4300 (S3 Savage IX 8mb) which laptop can do better with 3d acceleration?
Thank you for your reply

pieciak wrote on 2020-02-19, 21:34:

Gentlemen, I have a dilemma, looking for a good laptop for games from 1997-2001. I have two types: Compaq EVO N600c (ATI Radeon Mobility 7000 16mb) or Toschiba satellite pro 4300 (S3 Savage IX 8mb) which laptop can do better with 3d acceleration?
Thank you for your reply

Games and software for 600MHz laptop with S3 Savage/IX?

S3 Savage IX : similar performance to desktop Riva TNT2, maybe little better. DirectX works great, but OpenGL does not.
ATI Radeon Mobility 7000: similar performance to desktop(?) Geforce 2 MX. DirectX works great, OpenGL support is decent.

So between these two it seems Radeon 7000 is a bit faster and thus the better choice. Both have Direct3D support up to DX7. Savage IX works best with games pre-2000 while with Radeon 7000 you can also dip to games from 2000-01.

Dell Inspiron 8000/8100 or 8200. The 8000 and 8100 are pentium III machines and comes with either a Geforce 2 GO or a Geforce 4 GO. Apparently there is even a version with a radeon 7500 in select markets. The 8200 is a pentium 4 mobile machine and come with either a Geforce 4 go or a Radeon 9000 (full fledged 128 bit radeon 9000, not that radeon 9000/9100 IGP crap). Both have a ESS Technology Maestro sound chip with DOS drivers. Great laptops, well built, but if you get one mind the 7.2v rechargable bios battery as they go bad and leak. Also the speakers on these fail for some reason. The video card is a separete module, and all three models use the same format / type of video card - they are interchangeable. I've been able to install a Radeon 9000 from a 8200 into a 8000 without issues.

HP/Compaq n800v or n1000 - Pentium M machine, Radeon 7500, 9000 or 9600 depending on model/version. Great DOS and win9x support.

HP nc6000 or nx8000 - Pentium M dothan, Radeon 9600. No official win9x support, but you can find win9x drivers for everything but ACPI and the wifi card. Disable speedstep from bios if running win98 - it can cause issues with some win9x games like NFS Porsche. The sound card is a ADI Soundmax. It should have DOS drivers but I haven't tested it myself.

There are several toshiba sattelite laptops with geforce 2 / geforce 4 go graphics and a pentium 3 CPU, but I haven't tested any myself yet.

I chose the Toschiba satellite pro 4300 (S3 Savage IX 8mb), bought it for funny money and converted to dollars - $ 12. I hope I will be happy - they will not have it until 2 days because the package is coming. Currently, it has 600mhz celeron, maybe someone knows what max processor can be inserted there? I would like some full-fledged pentium III 😀

Socket3 wrote on 2020-02-21, 23:26:

Dell Inspiron 8000/8100 or 8200. The 8000 and 8100 are pentium III machines and comes with either a Geforce 2 GO or a Geforce […]
Show full quote

Dell Inspiron 8000/8100 or 8200. The 8000 and 8100 are pentium III machines and comes with either a Geforce 2 GO or a Geforce 4 GO. Apparently there is even a version with a radeon 7500 in select markets. The 8200 is a pentium 4 mobile machine and come with either a Geforce 4 go or a Radeon 9000 (full fledged 128 bit radeon 9000, not that radeon 9000/9100 IGP crap). Both have a ESS Technology Maestro sound chip with DOS drivers. Great laptops, well built, but if you get one mind the 7.2v rechargable bios battery as they go bad and leak. Also the speakers on these fail for some reason. The video card is a separete module, and all three models use the same format / type of video card - they are interchangeable. I've been able to install a Radeon 9000 from a 8200 into a 8000 without issues.

HP/Compaq n800v or n1000 - Pentium M machine, Radeon 7500, 9000 or 9600 depending on model/version. Great DOS and win9x support.

HP nc6000 or nx8000 - Pentium M dothan, Radeon 9600. No official win9x support, but you can find win9x drivers for everything but ACPI and the wifi card. Disable speedstep from bios if running win98 - it can cause issues with some win9x games like NFS Porsche. The sound card is a ADI Soundmax. It should have DOS drivers but I haven't tested it myself.

There are several toshiba sattelite laptops with geforce 2 / geforce 4 go graphics and a pentium 3 CPU, but I haven't tested any myself yet.

For anybody looking at the N800v or N1000 it does NOT have DOS or Win9x support. I've tried for over a year to get my N1000 to work with windows 98 without any luck. No video or sound with 98.

Centauri0 wrote on 2021-11-08, 13:21:

Socket3 wrote on 2020-02-21, 23:26:

Dell Inspiron 8000/8100 or 8200. The 8000 and 8100 are pentium III machines and comes with either a Geforce 2 GO or a Geforce […]
Show full quote

Dell Inspiron 8000/8100 or 8200. The 8000 and 8100 are pentium III machines and comes with either a Geforce 2 GO or a Geforce 4 GO. Apparently there is even a version with a radeon 7500 in select markets. The 8200 is a pentium 4 mobile machine and come with either a Geforce 4 go or a Radeon 9000 (full fledged 128 bit radeon 9000, not that radeon 9000/9100 IGP crap). Both have a ESS Technology Maestro sound chip with DOS drivers. Great laptops, well built, but if you get one mind the 7.2v rechargable bios battery as they go bad and leak. Also the speakers on these fail for some reason. The video card is a separete module, and all three models use the same format / type of video card - they are interchangeable. I've been able to install a Radeon 9000 from a 8200 into a 8000 without issues.

HP/Compaq n800v or n1000 - Pentium M machine, Radeon 7500, 9000 or 9600 depending on model/version. Great DOS and win9x support.

HP nc6000 or nx8000 - Pentium M dothan, Radeon 9600. No official win9x support, but you can find win9x drivers for everything but ACPI and the wifi card. Disable speedstep from bios if running win98 - it can cause issues with some win9x games like NFS Porsche. The sound card is a ADI Soundmax. It should have DOS drivers but I haven't tested it myself.

There are several toshiba sattelite laptops with geforce 2 / geforce 4 go graphics and a pentium 3 CPU, but I haven't tested any myself yet.

For anybody looking at the N800v or N1000 it does NOT have DOS or Win9x support. I've tried for over a year to get my N1000 to work with windows 98 without any luck. No video or sound with 98.

No OFFICIAL win9x support yes - but you can install win9x drivers from other manufacturers and they will work just fine. It just takes a bit of searching and experimenting.