I had one of these…NEW! 🙂 I picked it up in the late ’80s at a surplus store, marked way down. Put a "6-pack" card in it and had a blast. Games, including MS Flight simulator… and even ran an early version of AutoCAD on it. (had to swap floppys back and forth to run FS and AutoCAD. At the time I ran it on DOS 3.31 that I’d lifted from my Compaq work machine. Really ran in to very few compatibility issues.
Loved the "pinch" floppy drives. I replaced one with a 40m harddrive and controller…. there was room for an additional ISA slot on the bottom bussboard… I had to solder in another ISA socket, canted at a bit of an angle, to get the drive controller board in there and still have my other cards.
I got a lot of use out of that machine. I gave it to a friend years later after upgrading… I wish I’d held onto it now of course!
I had one of these and I fitted this with a HDD on a card. Also the crystal failed and I replaced it! I also fitted a network card and connected it to my IBM Activa.
Sanyo seems to have been making small color TVs with the same size screen as that computer at the time, is it possible the screen is just being reused from their color TVs and that is why it is color when none of the software supports color?
I have one of these. Mine has 640k of RAM and runs regular msdos 6.20 just fine. The front of the computer is grey. I’ve kept mine away from fluorescent lights so my case has not yellowed over time (thats why the bottom of your computer is still white, the computer sits on it). I’ve not noticed any compatibility problems running software on it, but I don’t have any games.
I just got a keyboard for this computer and i must say that even tho it is dirty it still has smoother actuation than mx red switches. I don’t know what I will do with it since its not easy to convert it for modern PCs
I had a MBC-555 back in the day with similar issues. It would play Leisure suit Larry in B&W just fine though. Lol… It seems these were made back in the day just before IBM compatibility became a thing and many computer makers were getting weeded out at the time.
It’s too bad because if this was 100% IBM-PC compatible it probably would have sold like hotcakes. But oooh that weight! I used a Compaq luggable with a CD-Rom piggyback and it was less than half that weight!
I wonder if in the early days of driving cars, people had to plan out their trips with thoughts about locations and availability of gas stations! Although i think people would haul fuel canisters in the back of their cars and im fairly certain it was the courteous thing to do, to give your guests who had driven from far away, canisters of gasoline
At 6:53 the article mentions that Lotus 1-2-3 works well on this computer. I never liked using Microsoft Word and got comfortable using Lotus Wordpro on a 1995 Gateway computer. I have used Wordpro ever since, lol! It’s loaded on my new PC, it would be hysterical if I can finish my entire teaching career using that ancient word processor for my worksheets! I’m about to begin teaching my 27th year. 🦖
The TI Portable Professional Computer came out in 1983. Not fully compatible PC clone. Came with a 9" colour screen which could do 720×300 in 16 colours!
It’s possible to have a library of CGA software that might have titles that do not run on the Sanyo portable because some later CGA software took advantage of later DOS memory improvements and configurations that were required to run the game. Some CGA cards were better than others and video often had conflicts with drives and systems. The 80s time period was a both a great time for operating systems and bugware. A lot of work was being done on technological compatibility with software which was pioneering but happens much differently today; back then, development was in the early phase of adopting standards to be used later on. I would also mention that hardware struggled to catch up to software needs but often opened new avenues for software to take advantage of ideas which sometimes didn’t happen (I’m thinking of IBM microchannel and such or visaversa OS/2, Amiga OS, etc). The driving demand of the new found personal computer market and rise of home business offices powered a revolvution of computer sales and development. Portables like this were meant to take work home and usually came with a deal on business software. The Sanyo Portable is a real treat meant for executives to show off a portable computer which also represents the vision of an 80s computer product with great specs, performance and convenience but what is really impractical, incompatible and cumbersome.
The proprietary DOS versions were a bit annoying. I remember after having a damaged DOS boot disk for one of our older Compaq computers (one that natively ran Windows 3.1) I had to get a new disk from Compaq. Granted the computer didn’t need a DOS disk to boot normally, but if you upgraded hard drives, you had to re-install DOS and Windows again. So this got annoying and it wasn’t exactly easy to copy the disk either (to create a backup). Luckily what I did do was create a set of bootable disks (using some of the DOS tools) that I could use so I didn’t have to use the original disk. I think once Windows 95 came along, Compaq ditched the OEM DOS system (if I remember correctly, but we never upgraded that Compaq to run Windows 95 as it was from 1991 I believe and came with Windows 3.0 installed so we weren’t sure if would actually run Windows 95 with only 4MB of RAM I think (being a Compaq Prolinea 486 — looking back, it probably could have run Windows 95 with 8MB of RAM, which the computer would have supported (and likely would have even supported up to 16MB of RAM but back then, RAM was expensive, but even so, it would have barely been able to run Windows 95 anyway, being only a 33 MHz computer). Of course we used that computer until my father finally bought a Dell Pentium 60 machine (this was one of the first ones that had the notorious floating-point math bug where the square root of 1 was some long floating-point number). Of course that computer also came with DOS. First Windows 95 machine actaully was a 233 Mhz Pentium MMX system.
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Looks like a tower, which a monitor crammed in.
Honestly, I like 8bitguy because of that. Demoing with X3, which allows you to sort of compare the machines if you want to.
Got my first Pod today!
I keep going back to 0:00 to listen to that 80s lushness
I had one of these…NEW! 🙂 I picked it up in the late ’80s at a surplus store, marked way down. Put a "6-pack" card in it and had a blast. Games, including MS Flight simulator… and even ran an early version of AutoCAD on it. (had to swap floppys back and forth to run FS and AutoCAD. At the time I ran it on DOS 3.31 that I’d lifted from my Compaq work machine. Really ran in to very few compatibility issues.
Loved the "pinch" floppy drives. I replaced one with a 40m harddrive and controller…. there was room for an additional ISA slot on the bottom bussboard… I had to solder in another ISA socket, canted at a bit of an angle, to get the drive controller board in there and still have my other cards.
I got a lot of use out of that machine. I gave it to a friend years later after upgrading… I wish I’d held onto it now of course!
I had one of these and I fitted this with a HDD on a card. Also the crystal failed and I replaced it! I also fitted a network card and connected it to my IBM Activa.
I keep forgetting how large Texas is!
Sanyo seems to have been making small color TVs with the same size screen as that computer at the time, is it possible the screen is just being reused from their color TVs and that is why it is color when none of the software supports color?
a computer of course with disabilities, but you could not say frankly that it is bad, it is not beautiful in front of the person who gives it to you
I have one of these. Mine has 640k of RAM and runs regular msdos 6.20 just fine. The front of the computer is grey. I’ve kept mine away from fluorescent lights so my case has not yellowed over time (thats why the bottom of your computer is still white, the computer sits on it). I’ve not noticed any compatibility problems running software on it, but I don’t have any games.
A closet was considered "portable" back then, I see.
The Sanyo Luggable.
Woooooooooow this is soooo fantastiiic
LOL – live in the now. my cellphone has more processing power than that!. Get a real car with a good internal combustion engine !
I don’t think a $7k computer is going to sell well to a lot of gamers in 1984
Interesting, but those machines are mostly obsolete garbagw imho.
Imagine if that machine was dropped bottom first
I just got a keyboard for this computer and i must say that even tho it is dirty it still has smoother actuation than mx red switches. I don’t know what I will do with it since its not easy to convert it for modern PCs
hey if it runs planet x3 yay
Yeah! Go Tarleton! Stephenville was a great town and I loved living and going to school there
The only tech my dad had as a teen in the 80s was the intellivision with 4 crappy games
I had a MBC-555 back in the day with similar issues. It would play Leisure suit Larry in B&W just fine though. Lol… It seems these were made back in the day just before IBM compatibility became a thing and many computer makers were getting weeded out at the time.
I hadn’t seen this one, I was afraid to watch it fearing he would paperclip the power supply. Glad he didn’t destroy _this_ piece of history.
WTF are you crazy using tesla!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
$9k inflation adjusted bodge wires, those were the days lol
try running lotus spreadsheet
It also came with a suite of software, including Wordstar, Datastar, etc and Supercalc on 5" Floppies.
Be prepared for the next week…
0:28 "Tesla"
I love the sound of an old computer fan starting up
Does retrobright really hold?
You are not saving the planet with that car
It’s too bad because if this was 100% IBM-PC compatible it probably would have sold like hotcakes. But oooh that weight! I used a Compaq luggable with a CD-Rom piggyback and it was less than half that weight!
Thanks.
It’s a real life Lappy right down to its "allegedly portable 42lbs"!
at 7:43 he’s holding a very very great masterpiece
First time I see the CTRL key at the CAPS locks location in over 20 years since I dumped my XT clone.
It looks very similar to my portable Televideo , but it was monochromatic.
YO HE IS A TESLAMAN HE IS A TESLAMAN
the coolest thing is that the guy leaves a lot of subtitles so anyone from any country can watch it 😀
I wonder if in the early days of driving cars, people had to plan out their trips with thoughts about locations and availability of gas stations! Although i think people would haul fuel canisters in the back of their cars and im fairly certain it was the courteous thing to do, to give your guests who had driven from far away, canisters of gasoline
Tesla o.0
By 1984 a PC that was not 100% IBM compatible was already a liability. This machine would have been great if it had been made 100% compatible.
At 6:53 the article mentions that Lotus 1-2-3 works well on this computer. I never liked using Microsoft Word and got comfortable using Lotus Wordpro on a 1995 Gateway computer. I have used Wordpro ever since, lol! It’s loaded on my new PC, it would be hysterical if I can finish my entire teaching career using that ancient word processor for my worksheets! I’m about to begin teaching my 27th year. 🦖
The TI Portable Professional Computer came out in 1983. Not fully compatible PC clone. Came with a 9" colour screen which could do 720×300 in 16 colours!
It’s possible to have a library of CGA software that might have titles that do not run on the Sanyo portable because some later CGA software took advantage of later DOS memory improvements and configurations that were required to run the game. Some CGA cards were better than others and video often had conflicts with drives and systems. The 80s time period was a both a great time for operating systems and bugware. A lot of work was being done on technological compatibility with software which was pioneering but happens much differently today; back then, development was in the early phase of adopting standards to be used later on. I would also mention that hardware struggled to catch up to software needs but often opened new avenues for software to take advantage of ideas which sometimes didn’t happen (I’m thinking of IBM microchannel and such or visaversa OS/2, Amiga OS, etc). The driving demand of the new found personal computer market and rise of home business offices powered a revolvution of computer sales and development. Portables like this were meant to take work home and usually came with a deal on business software. The Sanyo Portable is a real treat meant for executives to show off a portable computer which also represents the vision of an 80s computer product with great specs, performance and convenience but what is really impractical, incompatible and cumbersome.
12:30 He said that only, because he doesn’t own Sanyo 😉
The keycaps on the keyboard aren’t yellowed because they’re made of PBT which doesn’t yellow
The proprietary DOS versions were a bit annoying. I remember after having a damaged DOS boot disk for one of our older Compaq computers (one that natively ran Windows 3.1) I had to get a new disk from Compaq. Granted the computer didn’t need a DOS disk to boot normally, but if you upgraded hard drives, you had to re-install DOS and Windows again. So this got annoying and it wasn’t exactly easy to copy the disk either (to create a backup). Luckily what I did do was create a set of bootable disks (using some of the DOS tools) that I could use so I didn’t have to use the original disk. I think once Windows 95 came along, Compaq ditched the OEM DOS system (if I remember correctly, but we never upgraded that Compaq to run Windows 95 as it was from 1991 I believe and came with Windows 3.0 installed so we weren’t sure if would actually run Windows 95 with only 4MB of RAM I think (being a Compaq Prolinea 486 — looking back, it probably could have run Windows 95 with 8MB of RAM, which the computer would have supported (and likely would have even supported up to 16MB of RAM but back then, RAM was expensive, but even so, it would have barely been able to run Windows 95 anyway, being only a 33 MHz computer). Of course we used that computer until my father finally bought a Dell Pentium 60 machine (this was one of the first ones that had the notorious floating-point math bug where the square root of 1 was some long floating-point number). Of course that computer also came with DOS. First Windows 95 machine actaully was a 233 Mhz Pentium MMX system.
サンヨーはこんなの作って輸出してたんですね。初めて知りました。
日本にはアタッシュケース型のポータブルコンピュータの市場はありませんでしたから。