Portable x86 Device (size of PSP) to play MS-DOS games natively

[andwan0]

I've been playing oldskool 1990 PC games on my PSP (via PSX ports or SCUMMVM or even Amiga ports). DOSBox and DOS emulation on PSP is way too slow. Even FreeDOS on bochs emulator is still slow (well it's not slow to run DOS and use DOS but it's slow to run the DOS games under DOSBox or FreeDOS on PSP).

So I was thinking... PSP is a 333MHz MIPS machine. Wouldn't it be cool if someone made a x86 portable device as small as PSP? Am not talking about laptops. If we took a x86 motherboard and shrunk it down to the size of a PSP... then using the Memory Pro Duo or MicroSD as the hard drive... and have USB or PS/2 ports for the mouse & keyboard... and the small LCD screen. then the power consumption would be similar to that of PSP... and can use a small 9V battery. Then can install/use MS-DOS natively and play all oldskool 1990 MS-DOS games like Alien Carnage, Duke Nukem series, and many more.

I read an article of some guy made a portable PS2 virtually similar size as the PSP. If he could do that then one could do a self project in making a x86 portable gaming device size of a PSP too.

Would this be feasible? Does anyone know about x86 motherboards, batteries, LCDs, storage (Memory Pro Duo / MicroSD), PS/2 or USB connections, etc)?

 

[Darkchild]

well, there's ITX boards which are actually REALLY small, and a guy once put one of those inside an old school gameboy. you should look it up

 

[andwan0]

Just updating all my followers of finding a "Portable x86 Device to play MS-DOS games natively". Am quite happy with my Libretto 100CT (overclocked to 266MHz, 96MB EDO RAM, 8GB HD) that I bought off eBay. I wiped the harddisk and used MS-DOS 6.22 boot disk to create FAT16 partitions (each is max. 2GB). Why FAT16? Incase I am in MS-DOS 6.22 native mode and want to access ALL my partitions (MS-DOS 6.22 can't read FAT32).

However I installed Windows 98SE instead into C:\. Installation was quick and easy, and I didn't even need additional drivers. The generic Windows 98SE CD detected all Libretto's devices (sound/display/etc) and had drivers for them - (though I still update ALL drivers from updated drivers from Toshiba's website).

I carry about JUST the Libretto... minus the floppy disk peripheral... on 2 hour commute trains. How does one boot into native DOS (with sound/cdrom/mouse and memory ems/xms configurations... but have all those features OFF when booting into WINDOWS 98)?? Easy, Windows 95/98 comes with 2 NATIVE MS-DOS shortcuts (different from the prompt window).... found in:

C:\WINDOWS\MS-DOS for games.pif
C:\WINDOWS\MS-DOS for games with EMS/XMS.pif

The pif (shortcuts) contain configurations for memory/display, autoexec.bat & config.sys setup. One just needs to add the Sound Blaster Pro & mouse loadup lines into autoexec.bat and that's it! When you double-click on the MS-DOS shortcuts... it TEMPORARILY replaces io.sys, msdos.sys (the bootstrap loaders)... aswell as autoexec.bat & config.sys... then reboots.

When I want to go back into Windows 98 I just type restart (or reboot)... and it'll replace the original io.sys, msdos.sys, autoexec.bat & config.sys (the ones without loading DOS sound, DOS cdrom, DOS memory manager... hence saving memory in windows).




Small keyboard and crappy Libretto mouse? No problem. Just get a optical PS2 mouse and PS2 keyboard, plus 1 PS2 to COM1 (serial 9-pin convertor).


Games happily playing while commuting on 2 hour train:

Constructor
Die By The Sword
Dungeon Keeper 1
Lands of Lore 2
Magic Carpet 1 & 2
Starcraft
Syndicate Wars
Theme Hospital
Total Annihilation
Warcraft II



PS: Next device I'll buy is the asus eee pc 1005ha

 

[andwan0]

Just showing how small a Toshiba Libretto is compared to another Toshiba...

and another

 

[XsavioR]

Have you checked out the pandora handheld?