The removal of that protective plastic film on the power supply blew my mind! It has literally been generations waiting to be satisfyingly peeled off so that the actual info plate could fully reveal its precision manufacture. I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up as you did so.
The 8mhz V30 in the PPC512 was actually quite reasonable for the period it launched in and the V30 (usually at 10mhz) was a popular choice for Japanese laptops at that time. The 386 was released in 1985 but it was pretty much limited to high-end enterprise PCs until prices became more reasonable in 1989-1990. Similarly the 486 launched in 1989 but weren't really common until about 1991-1992. In the 1987-1989 period, home PCs were primarily either turbo XTs with a 8-10mhz 8088/V20 for budget systems (US$500-1000) or 12-20mhz 286s for mid-range ones ($1000-1500). In terms of performance the 8086/V30 was about halfway between a 8088 and 286 clocked at the same speeds and should be fine with most 80s applications as well all CGA, most EGA and even some of the early VGA games.
It was affordable! My first new PC. It had a full-size keyboard, a monitor (LCD), software, 640k RAM, and a 2400 bps modem! To get that all for a little over $740 was a bargain when I bought it in the mid-1980s. It was ready to go out of the box!
Did you ever invest in any expansion for it? I've managed to cobble together an external ISA card for it and use it with some peripherals. I'd love to use it with a cga monitor but I'm struggling with that one
@@TechMadeEasyUK I think I will make it a winter project to upgrade beyond it's worth. LOL. RTC chip, color screen, expansion port use and some type of mass storage. I'd like to get the mass storage inside. We'll see.
Well, I've made some upgrades. I put a Real Time Clock in it. I built the expansion board (works!). Bought a color LCD to replace the SuperTwist. I have a CGA-to-HDMI converter. I may look at the GoTek. Is there a specific model / version to look for? I will use the CGA-to-HDMI external and not try to fit in the case. What I wish was in the case is the expansion board with the Compact Flash Card. The PPC uses a lot of desk space and needs more for the expansion board. I don't play games so sound is not important to me. Fun project as this was the first time I ordered a circuit board and built it. Fun when it worked.
This was my first "IBM type" PC. Did loads with it. chess master 2100, F1 games, microsoft Golf, upgraded ram to 640 and added a CF Card for HDD. Fitted in battery compart. still loads of room under hood but fiddly to be able to close case together. Once all assyd, worked beautifully. But 720K disks, not 1.44MB. Had a CGA Monitor for it. say on top no problem.
Check out my other video where I upgrade this one. I added a Gotek Floppy emulator and some fixed storage via the expansion ports on the back. Only thing I still need to sort out is a usable external monitor
@@TechMadeEasyUK Any CGA or now a CGA/MDA to composite/vga or HDMI are available. By the way, you didnt need to keep changing the DIP switches as there was a setting which showed both and switchable by the Right Ctrl key.
XT and Turbo XT machines were popular into the 1990s - there was a ton of DOS software available that wasn’t too demanding on CPU power, and they were a good affordable option until Windows took over the world.
@@TechMadeEasyUK Nice video - I had forgotten how awful early LCD screens were! Color TFT screens were not readily available at the time and were really expensive. Some good games to try are Lode Runner, Boulderdash, all the Infocom titles, and Drug Wars! I think Monkey Island will be too slow, but worth a go.
what are your views on this machine? im not sure I like it as a retro gaming option, but in its time I can't see anything else touching it at this price point
I used one back in the day and they were seriously woeful. The screen was unreadable and the battery life from its huge stack of consumer batteries was mesured in mins.
Completely agree, by modern standards (and even those of the time for much more expensive devices) it's woeful. I'd suggest at it's price point though it did fill a certain niche
