First post, by lcdrugo
Despite their limitations, I've always enjoyed collecting and gaming on classic laptops instead of desktops. They're easier to store and set up. I'm going to take a few days and show you my collection, starting from the oldest.
Gateway Nomad 325SXL
25 MHz 80386SX CPU
4 MB RAM
80 MB HD
Cirrus Logic CL-GD 6420 Graphics Chip with 512 KB RAM (SVGA)
PC Speaker Sound
Floppy, Serial, Parallel, PS/2 mouse port, VGA out, proprietary expansion port
Here's a closeup of the logo on the lid. Despite the labeling, this is actually a Texas Instruments Travelmate 3000. Even the case is the same. Only the labels are different.
Here's a view with the lid open. The keyboard is very responsive. The knobs to the right of the screen adjust the brightness and contrast of the passive-matrix greyscale screen. There's also a switch for reverse video (light text on dark screen or vice versa).
The screen isn't bad for reading text. But of course, the lack of color and massive ghosting make it unsuitable for gaming.
External video works quite well. The only real drawback is the lack of any sound hardware. The tiny PC speaker sounds charmingly retro at first, but gets irritating after a while. So I usually just put on some other music while I'm playing. I'm currently running DOS 5.0 and I don't see any need to install anything else. For my oldest laptop, this works well.