bjwil1991 wrote:

I wonder if the ThinkPad 760LD has an external floppy port on the side or rear? My 380D has both an FDD and CD drive in 1 combined piece that can be replaced easily.

Yes it has a 21 mm FDD connector on the rear.

Gered wrote:

Yeah, the 760LD is one I would just love to get my hands on. Never seen it for sale. 🙁

I found one locally for less than $15, but the screen turned out to be faulty. Now I'm waiting for a replacement to arrive.
There was a seller in US that had 50+ of NOS screens for 760LD for sale. But when I ordered one, it was the first order during last 20 years, the seller discovered that all screens were ruined with age. The protective plastic just melted and stuck to the screens. He found only ONE screen that was stored differently and wasn't damaged. Now it's on the way to me.

I need to get a TFT active display for my 380D. DOS runs perfect on it, but fast scrolling games, like Planet X3, looks like crap on a DSTN display, especially during the memory count and GUI BIOS.

Bondi wrote:

There was a seller in US that had 50+ of NOS screens for 760LD for sale. But when I ordered one, it was the first order during last 20 years, the seller discovered that all screens were ruined with age.

I had a similar problem doing an LCD downgrade on a 760ED (from 1024x768 to 800x600, because the screen scaling at 1024x768 was hilariously bad, but I knew that the 800x600 screen scaling was much better in comparison). Found a seller who had a bunch in stock but they probably had just been sitting in a warehouse for 20 years and they clearly were not testing them before selling (they claimed that everything they sold was "fully tested"). When the one I ordered arrived, I installed it and discovered it had serious degradation. They were happy to send a replacement, but that replacement was also clearly untested (lol) as it still had this degradation problem but significantly less visible. I just decided that I didn't want to deal with these guys anymore and that I could live with it. I think you kinda have to treat these sellers with NOS replacement parts as a "box of chocolates" (as Forrest Gump might say) ... you never know what you're gonna get! 😀

bjwil1991 wrote:

I think the ThinkPad 600X has an option in the BIOS to disable the HV stretch. My R40 has that feature and I can honestly say, it looks pretty good with it.

Yup, the majority of Thinkpads that supported screen scaling of any sort usually had a key combo you could use, Fn+F8, to toggle scaling on or off (in addition to the BIOS option, which just served to set the default mode). This key combo works on all the Thinkpads I own. It's one thing that really makes me appreciate the 600X the most (and to a lesser extent, my downgraded 760ED)... I can use the screen scaling for games and applications where it looks great, but easily turn it off on the fly when it looks poor (such as pretty much any game which has dither patterns in it's artwork).

If this is all about gaming, why does it not have a Clevo (or one of its resellers) sitting in one of the recommendations? I recall that they had the fastest possible performance you could get from their portable desk-laps.

For your defined eras, I would say that the Clevo M590KE should fit in Era 5. For Era 6, the Clevo P570WM should be in there too. These were the one of the most powerful laptops available in their time period, so I don't exactly see a reason to not mention them in your original post.

Solplay wrote:

If this is all about gaming, why does it not have a Clevo (or one of its resellers) sitting in one of the recommendations? I recall that they had the fastest possible performance you could get from their portable desk-laps.

For your defined eras, I would say that the Clevo M590KE should fit in Era 5. For Era 6, the Clevo P570WM should be in there too. These were the one of the most powerful laptops available in their time period, so I don't exactly see a reason to not mention them in your original post.

Yeah, sure, those Clevo/Sager ODM models are powerful for their time period, but they are much like the older Alienware gaming laptops - they are rather rare...at least in the US, both to buy and to service (i.e. if the plastics crack, the hinges fail, the RAM slot door goes missing, where would you score replacements). I mean, I would LOVE an Alienware m11x R1 for playing era 5/6 games, but not at the ridiculous prices they command on the secondary market.

I see, I did not know that you also factored in the cost of keeping the said machine running. I initially thought that you only factored in the cost of buying the machine altogether, at least that was my assumption from your recommendations.

I suppose that I do not have anything else to say, as most of the laptops that I know of are basically money pits if something goes wrong with them.

Solplay wrote:

I see, I did not know that you also factored in the cost of keeping the said machine running. I initially thought that you only factored in the cost of buying the machine altogether, at least that was my assumption from your recommendations.

I suppose that I do not have anything else to say, as most of the laptops that I know of are basically money pits if something goes wrong with them.

Oh, anything collectible is a money pit if you get too focused on them.

My current retrogaming laptop is a Dell Latitude XPi CD M166st
Year: 1996
Processor :Pentium MMX 166
RAM: 32MB
HDD: 1.5GB
Audio : ESS 1887,ESS 690 wavetable music synthesizer
Video controller: NeoMagic 2093 LCD
Dimensions (active area): 800X600
Height . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184.5 mm (7.26 inches)
Width . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246.0 mm (9.68 inches)
Operating System: Windows 95 OSR2 version B
Games installed:
Duke Nukem 3D 1.5 Version + Nuclear Winter
Quake
Doom 95
Abe Oddysee
Mah Jongg Solitaire 1.1
Dxball

It's a good little laptop,it seems big but it's actually pretty small,perhaps it loads a lot of DOS Games ,it has a nice MIDI Synthesizer,unfortunately it doesn't have a good video codec,it's a little bit slow when you try to load a mpeg video like weezer etc..otherwise it boots up fast and does a lot of stuff for a 1996 laptop.

I have this obscure laptop:

Other specs: AMD K6-2+ 500MHz and a 12.1'' TFT 800x600p.

It's a really low hour laptop, looks like new, including the excellent screen.

But is it any good for Win9x 3D gaming? What is the best 3D game that I can run with acceptable frame rate (>30fps) on it?

SpectriaForce wrote:

I have this obscure laptop: […]
Show full quote

I have this obscure laptop:

20191215_145433 (002).jpg

20191215_145338 (002).jpg

Other specs: AMD K6-2+ 500MHz and a 12.1'' TFT 800x600p.

It's a really low hour laptop, looks like new, including the excellent screen.

But is it any good for Win9x 3D gaming? What is the best 3D game that I can run with acceptable frame rate (>30fps) on it?

Looks like my first ever laptop (Nec Versa Premium with 128 MB RAM) 🤣

Try Quake or Carmageddon,i have a compaq presario with an AMD K6-2 and runs quake pretty good.

stelth wrote:

My current retrogaming laptop is a Dell Latitude XPi CD M166st
It's a good little laptop,it seems big but it's actually pretty small,perhaps it loads a lot of DOS Games ,it has a nice MIDI Synthesizer,unfortunately it doesn't have a good video codec,it's a little bit slow when you try to load a mpeg video like weezer etc..otherwise it boots up fast and does a lot of stuff for a 1996 laptop.

Nice machine!
ES690F doesn't sound very impressing to me, but it's VERY nice to have it built into the laptop. It's far better than any FM synth.

stelth wrote:

SpectriaForce wrote:

I have this obscure laptop: […]
Show full quote

I have this obscure laptop:

20191215_145433 (002).jpg

20191215_145338 (002).jpg

Other specs: AMD K6-2+ 500MHz and a 12.1'' TFT 800x600p.

It's a really low hour laptop, looks like new, including the excellent screen.

But is it any good for Win9x 3D gaming? What is the best 3D game that I can run with acceptable frame rate (>30fps) on it?

Looks like my first ever laptop (Nec Versa Premium with 128 MB RAM) 🤣

Try Quake or Carmageddon,i have a compaq presario with an AMD K6-2 and runs quake pretty good.

Lol I'm pretty sure software rendering Quake works on the AMD K6-2+ 😀

It needs a new RTC battery and a fresh reinstall of Windows first, so it's still a project. I'm thinking about selling this laptop if there's no hope for decent early 3D gaming, so I'm not quite sure whether I want to invest any more resources into it.

stelth wrote:

SpectriaForce wrote:

I have this obscure laptop: […]
Show full quote

I have this obscure laptop:

20191215_145433 (002).jpg

20191215_145338 (002).jpg

Other specs: AMD K6-2+ 500MHz and a 12.1'' TFT 800x600p.

It's a really low hour laptop, looks like new, including the excellent screen.

But is it any good for Win9x 3D gaming? What is the best 3D game that I can run with acceptable frame rate (>30fps) on it?

Looks like my first ever laptop (Nec Versa Premium with 128 MB RAM) 🤣

Try Quake or Carmageddon,i have a compaq presario with an AMD K6-2 and runs quake pretty good.

In your case, it's not the CPU (the AMD is more than competent) - the issue is the GPU. Most K6 laptops that I am aware of are considered "budget" machines, and as such, it is usually bundled with S3 VirgeMX, Trident Cyberblade i7 or ATi Rage Pro LT - all 3 are not considered strong performers.
The Cyberblade is slightly better than the Intel i740, the Rage Pro LT is around the same as a base model Riva 128, and the VirgeMX...well, the Virge 325s have a reputation for being bad - the MX is based on the VX2 improved version. Still not great, but it's not as much as a joke. In terms of 2D/DOS the VirgeMX is probably the best one, followed by the Trident while the RagePro LT show glitches in DOS. Keep that in mind when you shop for an AMD K6 machine.

This was my first ever laptop:

Nec Versa Premium

Year: 2001
OS: Windows 98 SE

RAM: 330MB

HDD: 40GB

Screen: TFT 14' LCD XGA

Processor: CPU Intel Pentium III EB Tualatin socket 370 FC-PGA 2, 1200Mhz

Sound chipset : SiS 630ST

I used a lot when i was a kid,plays any kind of DOS games without problems,even if it has a huge screen it scales nicely,even 3D games run good,it's rare to see on sale on ebay

stelth wrote:

Processor: CPU Intel Pentium III EB Tualatin socket 370 FC-PGA 2, 1200Mhz

Nice one! Rare to see anything higher than 900Mhz!

ragefury32 wrote:

stelth wrote:

SpectriaForce wrote:

I have this obscure laptop: […]
Show full quote

I have this obscure laptop:

20191215_145433 (002).jpg

20191215_145338 (002).jpg

Other specs: AMD K6-2+ 500MHz and a 12.1'' TFT 800x600p.

It's a really low hour laptop, looks like new, including the excellent screen.

But is it any good for Win9x 3D gaming? What is the best 3D game that I can run with acceptable frame rate (>30fps) on it?

Looks like my first ever laptop (Nec Versa Premium with 128 MB RAM) 🤣

Try Quake or Carmageddon,i have a compaq presario with an AMD K6-2 and runs quake pretty good.

In your case, it's not the CPU (the AMD is more than competent) - the issue is the GPU. Most K6 laptops that I am aware of are considered "budget" machines, and as such, it is usually bundled with S3 VirgeMX, Trident Cyberblade i7 or ATi Rage Pro LT - all 3 are not considered strong performers.
The Cyberblade is slightly better than the Intel i740, the Rage Pro LT is around the same as a base model Riva 128, and the VirgeMX...well, the Virge 325s have a reputation for being bad - the MX is based on the VX2 improved version. Still not great, but it's not as much as a joke. In terms of 2D/DOS the VirgeMX is probably the best one, followed by the Trident while the RagePro LT show glitches in DOS. Keep that in mind when you shop for an AMD K6 machine.

Thanks for your information. It sounds quite promising.

RetroPC_King wrote:

My old Gateway 2000 Solo 9100 laptop with Intel Pentium MMX 150Mhz, 48MB RAM, Yamaha OPL3-SA audio card and Chips&Technologies 65554 4MB video is good for retro gaming?

I rebuilt dozens of those in the late 90's.
I liked them because they weren't wimpy and fragile and they didn't feel like toys to me.
Including sub-revisions there were like 15 different revisions of the Solo 9100 during the model run.
The later ones (IIRC E4.x and up but I could be mistaken) had Trident video, different sound IIRC and an internal space for a hardware DVD decoder card by C-Cube.
The early had Pentium 1 on a 430TX and the later Pentium II on a 443BX. The CPUs were on MMC modules.
The early were MMC-1 but I don't remember if the later models used MMC-1 or MMC-2.
The later were a major improvement over the older Chips&Technologies model you have but yours isn't like useless either. It will work fine for some things.
I found that (on the later models) upgrading to CPUs with the 512k cache gave more of an improvement than going for faster CPUs with 256k.
.
I used some of the later revisions for several years. I still have one together that served as a DVD player for a long while.
I'm not into futzing with optimizing or exotic games with special needs like most people here but they handled anything I threw at them.
Not saying much. My choices in games don't need much.
.

Oh yeah. The NEC Versas are not very popular stateside, and I don't think it's that big in Europe either (at least when compared with Fujitsu/Siemens, Dells, HPs, IBMs or Toshiba) - hence it won't show up on evilBay often. Even if it does, NEC is not nearly as nice as IBM or Dell in being clear and concise with the specs, so your typical search for an "NEC Versa" can end up pointing to a myriad of different things.

The choice of a SiS chipset is a bit...unusual (probably because Intel charges a Prince's ransom for the Tualatin compatible 830 chipset, and vendors didn't want to over-invest in an alternative mobile platform when the P4m was around the corner. That being said, the P4m turned out to be a real dog). The SiS 305 GPU isn't all that weak (it's roughly equal to a Riva TNT and doesn't have much graphical glitches), it's really too bad that they were released late and against competition that moved much faster than them (oh, you bought a cheaper TNT? We already got a Geforce2 Go 200...and etc).

The audio chip on your machine (SiS 7018) has a DOS driver which is "okay" for general midi. It's a pretty decent machine for all intents and purposes otherwise. I wonder if it's a native NEC design, or NEC bought/rebadged a Taiwanese ODM design?

Law and Order used NEC Versa P/75 machines to track down a possible suspect using a Yagi and connecting it to the Internet (modem) to lure the suspect out.