On ebay there are many batteries for Libretto. It is not a problem. If I will find a good deal, I will buy one.

I might test try netbooks since they now should be USB bootable. Can easily setup a MS-DOS with games on a bootable USB ( eg. with help from http://blogs.sun.com/dragonfly/entry/dos_boot … usb_flash_drive ) ... and see how it runs... ofcourse taking into account it might be a little sluggish when running off USB... but it's just to see compatibility and whether it REALLY can run without freezing or crashing.

Next problem is sound.... since most 1990 MS-DOS games mainly used Sound Blaster Pro compatible or Gravis Soundcards..... any ideas on sound? Can you get a Sound Blaster/Gravis PCMICA or USB? I think the last Sound Blaster Pro compatible was Audigy 1??

Menkau_ra wrote:

On ebay there are many batteries for Libretto. It is not a problem. If I will find a good deal, I will buy one.

Don't buy a battery that is more than a few years past its manufacture date. They age regardless of usage.

andwan0 wrote:

Next problem is sound.... since most 1990 MS-DOS games mainly used Sound Blaster Pro compatible or Gravis Soundcards..... any ideas on sound? Can you get a Sound Blaster/Gravis PCMICA or USB? I think the last Sound Blaster Pro compatible was Audigy 1??

Most of the previous page was discussion of sound. You won't get sound in DOS from any recent machine because nobody makes DOS drivers anymore. Even when they did, the PCI sound chips are terrible for compatibility and put out some really terrible FM / MIDI. DOSBOX is the only option IMO for both max compatibility and quality.

swaaye: then let us wrap the sound compatibility from DOSbox around the sound processor, cause making a little fucker like the PSP into a DOSbox, is just another emulation machine again. Then I would rather take the Libretto and work from that point. Because that is already an X86 machine.

It really just comes down to whether or not your device can run DOSBOX. DOSBOX is essentially the ultimate DOS PC. Instead of being built out of old school obsolete buggy non-standardized disaster zone hardware, it's pure clean software designed to run DOS games first and foremost.

And since CPUs just get faster and faster, eventually everything will be able to run it no problem. We're almost there. And there are people working on dynarec CPU cores for non x86 CPUs so that will make it work better on phones and such.

swaaye: I think you are a fan of the portabilising people like Ben Heckendorn among others . After all he is one of the big "gurus" in that area.

Yeah I like portables and small devices. Netbooks in particular were very exciting when they arrived because you can get for $400 or so what used to cost > $2000. PDAs were great too. I had a Sharp Zaurus 5500 that ran Linux and people ported all sorts of crazy apps to it. I was running ScummVM and Doom ports w/ software MIDI back in 2002. But that was definitely a pointless novelty and that's why PDAs went bye bye.

However, I'm not into the "smart" phones or portable game machines because the screens are too small IMO. When I was a kid I had a Gameboy and Game Gear but these days staring at those tiny screens gives me nausea and that is a great way to cancel out fun! 😀

By the way, I am about 90 miles from Milwaukee, where Ben Heckendorn goes for the Midwest Gaming Classic convention. I might have to go to that!

swaaye wrote:

Menkau_ra wrote:

Back in 90's I remember there was a perfect laptop for that! It called Toshiba Libretto...

I bet it has audio issues with DOS. 😁

The OPL3-SAx provides hardware SBPro and WSS compatibility in DOS.

It's not a perfect solution, but all the same...

Cool!!! 😀 since you are the owner of Tosbiba Libretto, what is your opinion, what's better: Libretto or Netbook + DosBox?

The Librettos are mini subnotes from an era when few really cared about machines that small because of 1) cost 2) loss of functionality. Netbooks are the result of companies learning how to build mini subnotes with fewer drawbacks and the availability of dramatically better hardware.

Advantages for netbook:

-touchpad
-bigger and significantly better screen
-display adapter that scales well
-thinner
-wireless ethernet built-in
-3x USB 2.0 ports
-DOSBOX will run many more DOS games and run them better
-vastly superior video accelerator with DX9 D3D support. Intel GMA will run Win 3D games up to ~2002 fine. It can run Glide emulators fine too.
-hardware that's not painfully slow for modern apps?
😁

Really, I'm not sure why one would choose a retro-mini at this point. The only advantage I can think of is the ability to run Windows 98SE. But is that really an advantage?

While the Libretto is rather neat, I actually prefer the netbook + DOSBox combination as a portable, DOS-gaming solution. (I, too, have an ASUS Eee PC 900.)

Bet you didn't see that coming, eh? 🤣

Cloudschatze wrote:

(I, too, have an ASUS Eee PC 900.)

Bet you didn't see that coming, eh? 🤣

we're EeeBros! 😀

swaaye wrote:

You guys are forgetting at least one major DOS challenge. There was never good notebook sound hardware for DOS.

Hey! Don't knock the CS423X chips! I love them!

Just bought myself Toshiba Libretto 100 off eBay. Going to test it out for MS-DOS and maybe FreeDOS also.... and also Windows 98SE.

I am planning to get myself a netbook also... and in future an Open-Pandora (once they get better at it ironing all the nacks and crookies - since they're still early stages).

Which one did you buy? 70 or 100?

Some years ago, I noticed something werid. I managed it to run a SB Live 5.1! under DOS. Commander Keen worked... But... The sound was really strange and crappy. I think the OPL commands were reinterpreded as GM or something. It sounded very strange, not as the good old FM sound from the Yamaha chips... I tested Prince Of Persia 1 (v1.0), too. The sound was as strange as of commander keen. Only the PCM-Sounds of Prince were normal.

I used a special DOS driver for the SB Live 5.1 wich I downloaded at Creative Labs. Don't know if this download is still there. It gaves some strange mode and managed it to emulate an SB Pro ISA card, redirected the commands to the PCI card and then the sound came. But as I mentioned, very strange sound.

I had Windows 2000 dual boot with MS DOS 6.22 on a Pentium III 1,1 GHz machine with 512 MB or 1 GB RAM. Don't know how much I had...

Only the 50CT and 100CT were on eBay. Ofcourse I got the 100CT. Would've like the 110CT but I think that's VERY hard to find.

Yep... all we need are MS-DOS 16-bit C programmers 😖

Could fix MS-DOS sound drivers for ANY modern sound card...

Not too many C-programmers could create device drivers, besides that a
driver is quite useless in this case unless the device already behaves like
a dos-common sound card or you're able to translate/emulate device
calls for such a device.