News Retro Pocket 386 Win 95 laptop arrives for less than $200 — comes with 40MHz 386 SX processor, 8 MB RAM, and replaceable graphics

[USAFRet]

Pretty much all the games he listed are on steam (or other platforms) and run on modern systems.
There might be the need to apply some patches or tweaks for best possible but they run well enough as is.

Indeed.
I have Quake I, II, III running on my Win 11 system, via Steam.

 

[t3t4]

Win 95, $200 — 40MHz 386, 8 MB RAM?​

Which number does not fit in that sentence above???

If you said $200 you're damn right!

 

[TerryLaze]

Win 95, $200 — 40MHz 386, 8 MB RAM?​

Which number does not fit in that sentence above???

If you said $200 you're damn right!

It needs molding for the case tooling to put it together a whole new design for motherboard and they can only harvest that many old CPUs, it's expensive but you can't do this kind of stuff (any more) cheaply.
It's not a cheap android board running emulation like all the mini consoles.

 

[USAFRet]

It needs molding for the case tooling to put it together a whole new design for motherboard and they can only harvest that many old CPUs, it's expensive but you can't do this kind of stuff (any more) cheaply.
It's not a cheap android board running emulation like all the mini consoles.

Add in testing, marketing, lawyering, shipping, blah de blah....
"selling stuff" ain't cheap.

 

[t3t4]

It needs molding for the case tooling to put it together a whole new design for motherboard and they can only harvest that many old CPUs, it's expensive but you can't do this kind of stuff (any more) cheaply.
It's not a cheap android board running emulation like all the mini consoles.

I get all that, but the thing still serves no purpose! There is nothing in that package that can't be done way better for way less. If nostalgia is the only purpose this thing serves, then just find the real version of the same thing.

I just don't see $200 worth of nothing sitting there!

Oh, and put them in contact with me, I probably have a few of their chips laying around.... I save that stuff for gold recovery!

 

[TerryLaze]

I get all that, but the thing still serves no purpose! There is nothing in that package that can't be done way better for way less. If nostalgia is the only purpose this thing serves, then just find the real version of the same thing.

You would have to find someone that would sell it for a normal price, then you would have to jury rig the battery because it will be dead, if even included, then all the caps on the board would have to be replaced to make sure that it will keep on working or to even make it work, not only will you spend a lot of money but also a lot of time and the end product will still be less dependable.

If someone has access to a well working 386-486 laptop then obviously, yes, this has no purpose for such a person.

For me it's not worth it, I have a small ideapad that supports sbemu and I can play some dos games on it natively with sound and that's enough for me.
But that doesn't mean that some people won't like having this.

 

[fivebarpipes]

Should be getting mine, the isa breakout board and quad fdc card on Monday or Tuesday. Hoping to replace my two windows 98 se machines as I have software that needs real dos and real fdc to work. Always fearful one day they will just stop working.

Got it for 164 with coupons. Way less than ebay sellers are trying to get for retro systems in who knows what shape.

Also getting a PicoMEM ISA expansion card by FreddyV just for fun.

 

[t3t4]

You would have to find someone that would sell it for a normal price, then you would have to jury rig the battery because it will be dead, if even included, then all the caps on the board would have to be replaced to make sure that it will keep on working or to even make it work, not only will you spend a lot of money but also a lot of time and the end product will still be less dependable.

YES, all that! Which is why this thing is pointless. There is nothing it can do that cannot be emulated way better for way less. The thing just serves no purpose in my mind.

 

[t3t4]

Should be getting mine, the isa breakout board and quad fdc card on Monday or Tuesday. Hoping to replace my two windows 98 se machines as I have software that needs real dos and real fdc to work. Always fearful one day they will just stop working.

Got it for 164 with coupons. Way less than ebay sellers are trying to get for retro systems in who knows what shape.

Also getting a PicoMEM ISA expansion card by FreddyV just for fun.

ISA, now that's an abbreviation I never thought I'd hear/see/read again.

 

[USAFRet]

I get all that, but the thing still serves no purpose! There is nothing in that package that can't be done way better for way less. If nostalgia is the only purpose this thing serves, then just find the real version of the same thing.

I just don't see $200 worth of nothing sitting there!

Oh, and put them in contact with me, I probably have a few of their chips laying around.... I save that stuff for gold recovery!

Or, one could buy a Commodore C64 remake for about the same.

https://myretrocomputer.com/

Some people will buy these things. Not me, nor you. But people will.

 

[USAFRet]

YES, all that! Which is why this thing is pointless. There is nothing it can do that cannot be emulated way better for way less. The thing just serves no purpose in my mind.

There have been countless threads in here about people wanting to build up a retro system, for the 'authentic feel' when playing games.

Seriously.

 

[fivebarpipes]

YES, all that! Which is why this thing is pointless. There is nothing it can do that cannot be emulated way better for way less. The thing just serves no purpose in my mind.

I have DOS software for my business that WILL NOT WORK in an emulated enironment with a usb floppy drive. So yes, there are 100% things it can do that cannot be emulated at all for any cost.

 

[fivebarpipes]

ISA, now that's an abbreviation I never thought I'd hear/see/read again.

Weirdest part is both ISA cards I'm getting are brand new, made in 2024. Long live dead tech.

 

[bit_user]

I get all that, but the thing still serves no purpose! There is nothing in that package that can't be done way better for way less.

Volume manufacturing is what makes stuff cheap. If the volume is too low, then it won't be cheap.

If nostalgia is the only purpose this thing serves, then just find the real version of the same thing.

Depends on whether someone wants it in such a cute, little package.

Also, this supports CF Cards for storage. I have no idea whether you can get that to work on real systems of that vintage, but the good news is that they've already done all the work to make it robust on their platform.

Oh, and put them in contact with me, I probably have a few of their chips laying around.... I save that stuff for gold recovery!

Nobody wants your heavy, bulky, dirty e-waste. Check ebay, if you don't believe me.

 

[TerryLaze]

Also, this supports CF Cards for storage. I have no idea whether you can get that to work on real systems of that vintage, but the good news is that they've already done all the work to make it robust on their platform.

You can get 'cf to ide' or 'sd to ide' cards from ebay or anywhere, just plug them into an ide port and they will show up in any system that can see ide, obviously if you use a huge card that is way beyond the bios limit you will have issues.
And yes I have tried it on an old PC, not 386 old, but first gen pentium.

 

[t3t4]

There have been countless threads in here about people wanting to build up a retro system, for the 'authentic feel' when playing games.

Seriously.

Yeah,,, sorry if I'm way late to the party. Got this in email and wtf is all I see after reading it. We all got our kinks though, if this ancient tech floats somebody's boat, then I'm certainly not arguing.

I just don't see $200 worth in this item, not when it can be done better for free using what you have already. All of anything I said is just my opinion. I'm certainly not trying to change anyone else's! But I would like to try and understand what they see that I do not.?!

Because all I see is ancient tech with no value.

 

[USAFRet]

Yeah,,, sorry if I'm way late to the party. Got this in email and wtf is all I see after reading it. We all got our kinks though, if this ancient tech floats somebody's boat, then I'm certainly not arguing.

I just don't see $200 worth in this item, not when it can be done better for free using what you have already. All of anything I said is just my opinion. I'm certainly not trying to change anyone else's! But I would like to try and understand what they see that I do not.?!

Because all I see is ancient tech with no value.

I probably have a couple of laptops in the stack of crap in the garage that would do exactly the same.

I'm not in the market for such a device either.
Just like that C64 I linked above. I actually have a working C64. Still in the original box.
I think I've cranked it up twice this century, just to verify it "works".
I have little use for it...the only reason it still exists is because I haven't tried to sell it or toss it.

But some people will buy these things.

 

[t3t4]

Volume manufacturing is what makes stuff cheap. If the volume is too low, then it won't be cheap.

Shur, the same as it ever was always.

Depends on whether someone wants it in such a cute, little package.

Also, this supports CF Cards for storage. I have no idea whether you can get that to work on real systems of that vintage, but the good news is that they've already done all the work to make it robust on their platform.

Good point, but add on plug in adapters that do this can be found easily. Maybe somewhat more difficult depending on the plug-in part.

Nobody wants your heavy, bulky, dirty e-waste. Check ebay, if you don't believe me.

Good, I don't want to sell it!

 

[t3t4]

I probably have a couple of laptops in the stack of crap in the garage that would do exactly the same.

I'm not in the market for such a device either.
Just like that C64 I linked above. I actually have a working C64. Still in the original box.
I think I've cranked it up twice this century, just to verify it "works".
I have little use for it...the only reason it still exists is because I have tried to sell it or toss it.

But some people will buy these things.

After seeing what some of this original 60's to mid 90's tech sells for now, it makes me furious how I just gave so much of it away! It's worthless to me but somehow pure gold to others. All I've done is strip it down for gold, the few things that I've kept are now only pieces and parts.

 

[Pemalite]

Pretty much all the games he listed are on steam (or other platforms) and run on modern systems.
There might be the need to apply some patches or tweaks for best possible but they run well enough as is.

Not the same or as nostalgic as running it on OG hardware+software and it's quirks.

The amount of stuffing around to get older Windows 98 games to run on Windows 11 and using a Glide wrapper is often a headache.

I do have a Windows 98 PC with a Voodoo 2 in it, but I need to replace the Radeon 9700Pro as it's got memory corruption... And I can't be bothered yet.

 

[USAFRet]

Not the same or as nostalgic as running it on OG hardware+software and it's quirks.

Those "quirks" are why we no longer want to do that.

 

[Pemalite]

Those "quirks" are why we no longer want to do that.

All platforms have quirks.... Including the 386 platform.
I guess you don't want that either?

 

[TerryLaze]

Not the same or as nostalgic as running it on OG hardware+software and it's quirks.

The amount of stuffing around to get older Windows 98 games to run on Windows 11 and using a Glide wrapper is often a headache.

I do have a Windows 98 PC with a Voodoo 2 in it, but I need to replace the Radeon 9700Pro as it's got memory corruption... And I can't be bothered yet.

The games he listed are not win98 games, they are modern games that run fine without doing anything.
For win98 specific games there is PCem that I linked a video for earlier, it's a bit involved setting it up the first time but after that it's the easiest way to play that sort of games without issues on a modern system.

Not the same or as nostalgic as running it on OG hardware+software and it's quirks.

Connect an old keyboard/mouse and get a CRT monitor and it will feel the same.

 

[NedSmelly]

In my experience, retro PC gaming is a highly tiered rabbit hole, if one chooses to get vintage hardware. You need to have a different system for each OS - and likely different generations within one OS.

This 386 laptop is really only meeting 1990-91 gaming specs. Wing Commander 1 should be OK but WC2 was happier with a 386DX. Same with Wolfenstein and Doom, as demonstrated by the RetroTV1 video. 386SX was *not* great for Win95 gaming either - I recall it being happier from 486DX and upwards.

Also need provisions for actual or simulated boot disk for config.sys/autoexec.bat loads for true MS-DOS gaming, e.g. Ultima 7.

 

[fivebarpipes]

In my experience, retro PC gaming is a highly tiered rabbit hole, if one chooses to get vintage hardware. You need to have a different system for each OS - and likely different generations within one OS.

This 386 laptop is really only meeting 1990-91 gaming specs. Wing Commander 1 should be OK but WC2 was happier with a 386DX. Same with Wolfenstein and Doom, as demonstrated by the RetroTV1 video. 386SX was *not* great for Win95 gaming either - I recall it being happier from 486DX and upwards.

Also need provisions for actual or simulated boot disk for config.sys/autoexec.bat loads for true MS-DOS gaming, e.g. Ultima 7.

ISA fdc and a floppy drive will take care of your bootdisk issue. Or picomem isa if you want to load simulated disks.