• Please review our updated Terms and Rules here
  • From now on we will require that a prefix is set for any items in the sales area. We have created regions and locations for this. We also require that you select a delivery option before posting your listing. This will hopefully help us streamline the things that get listed for sales here and help local people better advertise their items, especially for local only sales. New sales rules are also coming, so stay tuned.

Wanted: PC Laptop with 640x480 color display

J

jmetal88

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 23, 2010
Messages
878
Location
Derby, KS
I'm posting this kind of early as I don't have any money yet, but I'm looking for a PC laptop with a 640x480 color display. I'm guessing it'd probably be easiest to find one of these with a 486 inside.

Let me know what you have and what you'd want for it, and I'll try to get back to you at the end of the week.

This is a want that just kind of struck me as I realized when I play DOS games on my old Compaq LTE 5150, all of them have black borders around the screen due to the 800x600 resolution and no support for stretching on the graphics card. Also, my 286 laptop has a greyscale EGA display that blurs fast-moving graphics horribly. As for my modern laptop, well, it just doesn't feel right for playing DOS games with.
 
You can also use early P1 laptops as those would most likely have TFT screens. Try to find one with a soundblaster compatible sound card if you just want to play games.
 
I have a P1MMX-based Dell Latitude CP with lots of accessories, a dock, several functional batteries, etc.. but I haven't gotten it to work with DOS sound, so I can't promise it can do that (you can do the research on that I presume). It can stretch or use a portion of the screen for lower-than-native resolutions on-demand.

With all of this stuff verified working and all of the addons, I will want a bit of cash for this, though, and the shipping will be hefty.

Personally I'm not a big fan of Dell's designs (with a few exceptions, such as the 21" laptop or the l550r and friends), or I would use it myself for that very purpose. It doesn't have the right retro vibe for me.
 
Raven said:
I have a P1MMX-based Dell Latitude CP with lots of accessories, a dock, several functional batteries, etc.. but I haven't gotten it to work with DOS sound, so I can't promise it can do that (you can do the research on that I presume). It can stretch or use a portion of the screen for lower-than-native resolutions on-demand.

With all of this stuff verified working and all of the addons, I will want a bit of cash for this, though, and the shipping will be hefty.

Personally I'm not a big fan of Dell's designs (with a few exceptions, such as the 21" laptop or the l550r and friends), or I would use it myself for that very purpose. It doesn't have the right retro vibe for me.
Click to expand...

I appreciate the offer, but I'm not really a Dell fan either. My modern laptop is a Latitude D400 anyway, so if I wanted a Dell experience with my DOS games I could just load up DOSBox. :)
 
Unknown_K said:
You can also use early P1 laptops as those would most likely have TFT screens. Try to find one with a soundblaster compatible sound card if you just want to play games.
Click to expand...

I'd have to be pretty careful with an early P1, I think. That's what my Compaq LTE is, and it's 800x600. I like it for DOS games, except for the screen border (and the somewhat sticky keyboard, but I can clean that sometime). If I could find a way to stretch it, I'd probably be happy with it as-is.
 
I may have something that'd fit your bill...I'll have to dig through the pile of state auction laptops tomorrow, and will report back.
 
Older IBM ThinkPads will stretch out any resolution to fit the whole display if you enable it (by pressing Fn+F8 or setting the option with PS2.EXE), but it looks ugly and pixellated because it doesn't do any anti-aliasing (smoothing). And I know Toshibas give you "Text mode stretch" in the BIOS setup, but I don't think it has any effect on the graphics modes.

If you want a laptop with a native 640x480 LCD, my all-time favorite would be the ThinkPad 701C with the "butterfly" folding keyboard.

429840719_48a4e72864.jpg
 
jmetal88 said:
I appreciate the offer, but I'm not really a Dell fan either. My modern laptop is a Latitude D400 anyway, so if I wanted a Dell experience with my DOS games I could just load up DOSBox. :)
Click to expand...

I understand - heh, no worries.

If anybody here pops up with a 486 Pentium with Soundblaster-compatible (properly compatible, damnit! :p) sound that he's not interested in, feel free to drop me a PM - especially if it's beige or a Thinkpad.
 
The only thing I've got is a rather huge 386-based laptop...it's running 640x480, I believe, but I haven't tested for certain. I've got another either late 486 or early Pentium machine that /may/ support 640x480 fullscreen, but the case is really rough. PM me if you're interested in either.
 
glitch said:
The only thing I've got is a rather huge 386-based laptop...it's running 640x480, I believe, but I haven't tested for certain. I've got another either late 486 or early Pentium machine that /may/ support 640x480 fullscreen, but the case is really rough. PM me if you're interested in either.
Click to expand...

Sent ya a PM a couple days ago, haven't heard back from you yet.
 
Ugh, all the 486 laptops on eBay in my price range are missing power adapters and untested.

There are a couple complete ones that are like $5 out, but my upper limit is more than I think these things should actually be worth anyway.
 
jmetal88 said:
Sent ya a PM a couple days ago, haven't heard back from you yet.
Click to expand...

Indeed...I'm in the process of renovating a house, while also living in it! I haven't forgotten about you, but haven't had time to get pictures of the laptop up and running.
 
jmetal88 said:
Ugh, all the 486 laptops on eBay in my price range are missing power adapters and untested.

There are a couple complete ones that are like $5 out, but my upper limit is more than I think these things should actually be worth anyway.
Click to expand...

What exactly is your budget anyway?
 
Unknown_K said:
What exactly is your budget anyway?
Click to expand...

I'm topping out at $40 including shipping. I'd really prefer it being closer to $30 though.

EDIT: This should be for a laptop with a working floppy and hard drive, and should include include a power adapter or at least the promise that it will work with a universal adapter. I don't need any accessories or software with the machine.
 
I don't think you will find a tested model on ebay for that money ($15 of which will be shipping). Private sellers want more money for their babies, recyclers don't test anything that old (not worth it).

Like the rest of us, you will probably have to take a risk of getting a dead unit and see what happens on ebay.
 
Nabbed one:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320577471321

It's a Pentium, but according to a PDF I found on the internet, the internal display only supports 640x480 at 256 colors - Great for my DOS games! Sound is supposed to be Sound Blaster Pro compatible.

I'm a little disappointed that it only comes with the CD drive, but I think I found the floppy drive for only around $7 more. I'll have to wait 'til after the laptop comes in to make sure it's the right drive though, the seller I found it from has no idea what laptop it's supposed to go to. All I know is the color matches and it comes with a cable to use it externally (the Satellite Pro 405cs does have an external floppy port on it).
 
jmetal88 said:
Nabbed one:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320577471321

It's a Pentium, but according to a PDF I found on the internet, the internal display only supports 640x480 at 256 colors - Great for my DOS games! Sound is supposed to be Sound Blaster Pro compatible.

I'm a little disappointed that it only comes with the CD drive, but I think I found the floppy drive for only around $7 more. I'll have to wait 'til after the laptop comes in to make sure it's the right drive though, the seller I found it from has no idea what laptop it's supposed to go to. All I know is the color matches and it comes with a cable to use it externally (the Satellite Pro 405cs does have an external floppy port on it).
Click to expand...

Is that the dual scan screen or TFT? Once you get into P1's your options for finding deals grows (486 laptops with good screens are hard to find cheap).
 
Unknown_K said:
Is that the dual scan screen or TFT? Once you get into P1's your options for finding deals grows (486 laptops with good screens are hard to find cheap).
Click to expand...

It's the dual scan, 405CS. 405CDT would be TFT. I've found I don't mind the blurring on the later passive matrix screens much, it's just the earlier ones (especially the monochrome ones) that are hard to handle.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top