Pocket 386 - A NEW Modern Windows 95 & MS-DOS Laptop - Review & Unboxing

[@angieandretti]

Imagine a version with a 486 DX2-66, 16-32MB RAM, and a PicoGUS built-in!! THAT I'd drop the money for!

[@retrotv1tech]

That would be epic!

[@warlockd]

Unfortunately that's a step up. The 386 embedded chip they are using is all in one, with an easy to slap on isa bus (and a few free gpio ports separate from the printer). When the 486 came around you have to start using BGA chips and from the Book 8088 and what I have seen on this unit I suspect the people building them don't have that ablity. Something like the Elan SC410 is an amd 486 WITH both a isa bus AND a VL local bus. That said I don't expect much on that end. I hope this product does well enough for them to think about it.

[@mmadmic]

@@warlockd And 486DX/DX2 usually needs active cooling.

[@EriolGaurhoth]

@@warlockd I think there's an SC410 that goes all the way up to 100MHz. If they wanted to max out a hypothetical 486 like they seem to do here with the 386 all the way at 40MHz, would be one amazing machine. But also likely a lot more expensive to source those SOCs and thus a significantly more expensive product than the $200ish they're charging for the 386 variant.

[@rebeccaschade3987]

@@mmadmic It did back then. There exists embedded 486s today, manufactured on more modern nodes that don't need any cooling.

[@AnimalFacts]

With WirdPerfect or Word for DOS, this might be an excellent distraction free writing device.

[@newq]

I was thinking the exact same thing!

[@tristan6509]

definitely not distraction free with the amount of games you can play on these lol

[@greenknight9000]

My thoughts exactly! I'd love to write stories and whatnot on there, and it can be anytime and anywhere!

[@sergeantgunny]

This keyboard is really tiny, and typing mistakes would be common.

[@grantfraser3156]

A big hello from the UK and a big thanks for your in-depth introduction in the Pocket 386. I’ve always been a retro gamer/computer enthusiast and have just received my pocket 386 from Ali Express. I was never really knowledgeable on the 386/DOS so your video was a HUGE help so I can’t thank you enough. I look forward to any updates 👍. Keep up the fantastic content! ❤

[@billalverson6168]

I bought one of these and have been happy. I cloned the original OS image to a 4GB WD/SiliconDrive CF card and made some minor changes by adding a boot menu so I could have a pure Real Mode environment along with various driver options (i.e. USB enabled). I am experimenting with DOS 6.22 + Win95 now, on this system. I think this should enable the most flexibility for people that want to be able to run in Real Mode or V86/Protected Mode, depending on which programs they want to run. I have a couple of Book8088 systems with various ISA expansion cards, including game ports and UMB cards (i.e. monotech microram) which are working great as well. Thanks for the video!

[@retrotv1tech]

Nice! Keep me posted on anything else you discover about this system!

[@damian9303]

When I bought the Hand386, the seller provided me a package that included a GHOST image of what’d be flashed to the CF card

[@billalverson6168]

@damian9303 The seller has been great, and did provide a .gho image for the system. I'll post it and link it on vcf.

[@billalverson6168]

@vardekpetrovic9716 People have successfully installed OS/2 Warp on the Hand386 but I'm not sure about driver support.

[@thecorruptedbit5585]

My first thought after seeing the Book 8088 and Hand 386 was "What if they made a Book 386 instead"? And now they did. Wonderful

[@retrotv1tech]

I had the same thought, so when I saw this one, I was literally like, “shut up and take my money!” Of course, a 486 or Pentium would be even better, but this is pretty awesome!

[@oidpolar6302]

​@@retrotv1tech486 or 586 has the heat dissipation issues already. Will require more complicated casing

[@Eyepatchfilms]

been trying to tell myself I dont need this for weeks. its just so cool though. I think if he is able to make 486 or P1 versions in the future they will sell out instantly.

[@retrotv1tech]

This is so true! I suspect that 486 and P1 chips are much harder to source, but if he pulls it off, they will definitely sell out quickly!

[@KomradeMikhail]

Tiny 486 and Pentium subnotebooks already exist (Toshiba Libretto, etc.)... This 386 makes sense because 386 laptops are uncommon, and small ones are super rare. Though I do suppose if there is a bulk supply of extra 486 chips just sitting around, something should be made with them, rather than getting scrapped.

[@TheGamesZilla492]

that the era I suspect more ppl are interested in ie era where wolf,doom,quake,wins 98 etc@@retrotv1tech

[@futurepastnow]

Absolutely, I am hoping for a 486 version.

[@Eyepatchfilms]

@@KomradeMikhail yeah i have a few of them but they all have terrible screens. I think there is a market for several segements of laptops sporting older processors and compatibility woth older devices with more modern ergonomics/conveniences

[@danandtab7463]

someone pretty much said this already, but if there's a 486 version of this they'll have to shut up and take my money.

[@retrotv1tech]

Very true. Maybe someday!

[@tookeydookey]

Yes, if it'll be a 66 Mhz 486 CPU that is!

[@someguy3186]

Same. I don't have any nostalgia for the 386, but the 486 was my first PC. Either that or a Pentium 1 is a definite buy for me.

[@Atomhaz]

I emailed the seller directly a few months ago and they plan to make a 486.

[@danandtab7463]

@@Atomhaz not surprised! I'm totally interested

[@ArtRogers-tw6si]

I don’t understand a whole lot but I certainly enjoyed watching and learning! I’m going to watch more! Thank you!

[@Simone_Stefanelli]

I’m waiting for the pocket 486! ;)

[@magicalcelebrations8670]

Wow! That's a cool device and I enjoyed watching your thorough tour of it's features! Would be fun to have to play with once I'm retired and have more time. 😄 Thanks, Josh, for an awesome video!

[@retrotv1tech]

Thanks for watching!

[@Kevin.odonnell]

Oh man. This was like a Time Machine.

[@mmadmic]

Indeed, and this kind of configuration in the late 80s/early 90s was very expensive 5-6000+$ (+-12-15000 in today's money), it was a dream laptop in these days : 386-SX40, 8MB, 4GB, VGA, color monitor, sound card, 4h+ battery, ... in less than 500g. My father bought a Toshiba T3100e in 1988, 80286-12, 2MB, 40MB, CGA 640x200/400 B&W orange, 720Ko DD(upgraded to 1.44) + Internal modem (no battery, no sound card, no color display, 8Kg ...) , I still have the original invoice, it was in francs as I'm Belgian but converted it's +- 6500$ (+-15K today). Not a bad buy as I still use it today.

[@jabali_lion]

Thanks for posting this review! I wasn't aware this was a thing before, but it's pretty cool that it is. Kinda crazy that so many of these components are still just off-the-shelf parts, especially the Yamaha OPL3 chip. And I agree, I'd love to see a 486 or even a pentium variant in the future!

[@screamengine]

A high end 486 (DX2 66 and up) would absolutely kill. An actual built-in-to-the-case serial & gameport jack would be a must however. Would make a great midi brain for some of us external module nuts. DX2 66 was the last 486 not requiring a thick heatsink/fan combo. This is the problem going forward in this form factor. But if possible, an AMD 133 would be incredible. Some linksys routers basically had an embedded 486/586 SOC in them with very little or no cooling. So there is hope yet.

[@Ryan_Christopher]

This is the machine I wish I could have had in college with which to play Doom. I remember playing the Shareware version on someone's monochrome 386 laptop running Win3.1 & DOS.

[@nikkitobin527]

Such a cool laptop! It was neat to see the set up process for it too! 😊 The mousepad looked like it was bigger than the whole computer lol

[@retrotv1tech]

Yes it was! And thanks!

[@koenradofrinbe]

I like how you're showing things that don't work out of the box and how to actually make them work

[@retrotv1tech]

Thanks! I hope it helps someone!

[@plymouthrock7282]

Looking forward to seeing this 👏👏

[@hakoninnerdal7049]

Very good video Josh! Great review, I really enjoyed watching this, waiting for more!

[@tookeydookey]

Fantastic video on this system! If they released the Pocket 486, here's what I would want it to have: 486 DX-2 66 Mhz CPU 16 MB RAM (I'd prefer 20 to have some breathing room) Windows 3.1 cuz some childhood games of mine are 3.1 compliant. And as such, it will meet the minimum requirements far as CPU and RAM is concerned. And yes, I would rather use it as a Windows 3.1 machine since I've never owned a Windows 3.1 PC in all my life haha😆

[@daved5288]

Awesome video as always Josh! Cant wait for the next one!

[@BurkenProductions]

You can always hook up an ISA memory card to it to get more memory, but would make it slower.

[@televiciousgoober]

I just got the isa expander. Works awesome. Hope they develop cpu upgrades since it's modular. Also really needs an RTC.

[@walterpintus1734]

Hi! Can I ask you if it's possible to connect a Sound Blaster 16? I would like to know if Fastracker can run on this machine!

[@televiciousgoober]

​@@walterpintus1734​ totally, I'm running an aztech sound galaxy nx pro II 16bit card in an 8 bit slot. So 8 bit sound will work, 16 bit will stutter though unless you make the 16-bit extension slot, so just stick to 8-bit.

[@DisneyBoyMom]

Great video! Awesome seeing all your different retro stuff. Especially love seeing all the gaming

[@user-lw4nt5uc3p]

I built a 486SX/25 in order to play Doom. It was still kind of slow, but it was playable.

[@retrotv1tech]

Nice!

[@stevenrosscarpenter]

Can't you just minimize the size of the playing window in game to increase speed?

[@acalthu]

WIn 95 is going to be majorly slow on a 386sx. I mean it was slow on my 386DX-40 with 8MB ram. I don't know why this didn't ship with Windows 3.1 instead, that would have been perfect.

[@quincy1048]

thank you for the in depth review...I saw some videos on the book8088 and they scared me...this has a bit more power, for me as a software developer it's where the machine got really useful but didn't jump the shark with 6 ways to do the same thing. Going to be getting one and start diving back into old tools I used to use back in the day...

[@quincy1048]

The trick would be to put a raspberry pi pico on the usb as your drive and then download to that drive from a windows box on the network and then access the files from the procket 386.

[@JimProfit357]

I bought a GPD Win Mini recently and I thought to myself, man, wouldn't it be cool if I had something in this form factor for DOS/9x. I remembered about the Japanese PC110 that came close, and could even be used as a phone, and lamented the fact that it didn't come to the west, or saw any successors. Hopefully someone ends up making a Pentium MMX version (or K6-2+/3+) that can be slowed down to 486/386 speeds. Even better, if they somehow manage to recreate a docking interface a la IBM Selectadock for added expansion cards, now THAT I'd buy in a heartbeat.

[@RyanAumiller]

If they really wanted to be retro they would have stuck with Green/Amber/Red LEDs (NO BLUE) Green was power, Amber was turbo and Red was HDD

[@Waltkat]

I was about to order one of these when I found this video. The one I'm getting has a clear case instead of the transparent black. I still have most of the DOS games and applications that I ran back in the day so this will be fun. I have Windows 3.11 in case this thing is too slow for 95. I think I still have an AOL install disk somewhere too, not that it will do anything since AOL is gone, Lol. I'll have to come up with an adapter to accept an external floppy disk drive just for fun. BTW, the parallel port is useful for plugging in an old school dot matrix printer, in case one has one laying around. Not sure why I'm buying one of these because I still have my 386 powered laptop, along with a 286 and 486 laptop.

[@davidgiffordsr.930]

Thanks. I'm a big DOS fan, since the earliest versions. Have set up many DOS systems in the last 20 years for myself to fool around with. Now it's getting tough to get DOS and Windows OS to run on newer machines. So, I am contemplating getting one. I have many olf hard drives with DOS Programs, and many on USB drives as well. Thinking it would also be good for FreeDos on a stick.

[@matthewtymaja3760]

A pentium-1 version of this, with a sound card that can play sound samples, would be awesome. Graphics … 3DFX would be amazing, but any graphics chip with decently fast framebuffer access would also be very good. Will keep an eye out!

[@videooblivion]

What does the keyboard feel like? Parallel port use: • Snappy • Commodore 1541/1571 Interface • Zip Drive • Networking • EEPROM burning

[@jwoody8815]

I HAVE to get me one of these! Had a desktop with extremely simular specs back in the mid/late 90s, ran Windows 95 quite well (AMD 386-40), The first machine I built entirely myself. Alot of nostalgia, having essentially the same machine in Laptop form in the modern day is just amazing to me, would have been my 'Dream machine" back then. And actually Windows 95 was optimised for 486s, (though Pentiums were essentially just two "486-class pipelines" and a much improved and more advanced FPU, granted you could say "optimised for Pentum") the 486-40s from Simens and AMD were roughly the same performance as a 25MHz 486SX. I guess you could say ive been an AMD "Fanboy" ever since. Fast 486s, 66MHz or higher were still the most common PCs in use at the time of Windows 95s release and especially during its development, as the Pentium was still quite expensive being relatively recently introduced in late 1993.

[@retrotv1tech]

Nice!!

[@tanacobus]

Probably a basic question but can you tell me how you set up the flash drive with games so the directory would come up with them? I'm not doing it right.

[@MJR_heyfunny]

I also still have my first proper hardcore gaming rig which was a Pentium 3 I think that had both a 16 MB Riva TNT 2 as well as a 12 MB voodoo 2 3D accelerator. Still think it's crazy how far we've come in PC gaming parts.

[@jeancaras5232]

Hi. Nice video. What size is your USB drive ? I've tried with one 2GB USB drive formatted as FAT16 but my Pocket386 does not seem to be able to mount it. With what utility have you formatted yours ? Does it matter if the partition type is guided or it has MBR ?

[@retrotv1tech]

Mike is just an 8GB old geek squad drive from Best Buy. I didn’t specially format it at all. I think mine is FAT32. I’ve heard some usb drives just don’t work with it for some reason. Of course, you do have to reboot the machine every time you plug in another usb. But you probably already just knew that.

[@jeancaras5232]

@@retrotv1tech Thanks. I managed to make mine to work by disabling the floppy from BIOS that enabled for some reason. Another question, can you xcopy files from the CF drive to the usb stick ? I can do it the other way around, but if I try to write anything on the USB drive I get a write error.

[@retrotv1tech]

That I’m not sure about. I haven’t tried that. Sorry!

[@KingGameReview]

I've been trying to talk myself out of buying one of these. I think I might wait around to see if they come out with a 486 or Pentium version in the next couple years. If they do, I'll definitely pick one of those up. 386 might just be a little too slow. I mean, I still might get one of these. It looks perfect for older dos games.

[@kenk910]

It would be fun to try some of my old favorite Sierra games! Let's hook up an external disk drive!

[@retrotv1tech]

I need to try that! But I can also put Sierra games on the USB as well. :-)

[@jasonprivately1764]

Love it... I had a bla k sharp slc 50 mhz system with all of 256kb memory and 20mb of hard disk space with win 3.1 which booted Dos. Damn I miss it. Used to run meade starfinder on display with a control port for my 3 meter dish.. never failed and ran for over 20 years

[@dkmillares]

Nice review! I’m considering to buy one of these and play with old minix

[@djsbriscoe]

Please let me us know if you get minix to work and which version (and book) you get working. Thanks.

[@markianclark9645]

I've got a very old Dell Latitude LS400 from around the Millennium..works fine..cost me some 25 British Pounds (around 35 dollars ) in spare non working LS to replace broken parts..installing Windows 98se was a bit of a struggle..aren't all retro devices if you don't have driver disks and accessories..got the touchpad to work fine and external PS/2 mouse..i prefer the mouse control..no annoying missing .dll or missing entry points etc notifications finally..that Laptop on the video..limit for games is about Prince of Persia..even pinball might be a push for it

[@Bittyabitme]

This was so awesome! So much fun to watch! I love that people are making modern tech made to play old games. I still have all my windows 98 timeframe games and I like to play them (some I’m saving for the kids to play when they get older) and this makes me really happy! Haha. Also love how you describe what you’re doing as you’re doing it! I need step by steps! Hehe.

[@retrotv1tech]

Thanks! So glad you enjoyed!

[@Bittyabitme]

@@retrotv1tech anytime! I always enjoy retro tech! Even if I don’t always understand it 🤣

[@spyder2041]

Chuckled a bit at the Faded with Alan Walker midi somebody placed on this machine. That one is so out of place, yet not at all out of place😅

[@DrYak]

> 9:00 "windows key probably doesn't do anything" The windows key basically just sends a different scan code from the keyboard to the computer just like any other key, it's not handled differently (unlike the "Fn" key). So it's up to the software whether it does something or not. I am sure some DOS game could allow the user to bind the key to actions.

[@retrotv1tech]

Totally makes sense! And then I found out later it actually did work as intended in Win95. That is interesting that it could be mapped to other actions. I thought it was more like the fn key, but that’s cool that it’s not.

[@vikkigillespie8663]

I'm excited 🎉❤

[@ChrisLI-m8j]

Thanks for your share! This pocket386 also sales in Amazon now, also have pocket8086, are you interested in?

[@runderwo]

26:00 On a 386 you have to use the hotkeys to reduce the screen viewport for smooth DooM performance.

[@mikenone4077]

I actually want one just to relive my childhood. Windows 95 is actually older then me but i had a windows 95 computer handed down to me from a family member. My parents unfortunately threw it out once they got a windows xp computer. I should have told my parents to save it but i was just a child back then i miss it alot know.

[@ericmalitz]

Why the hell is this 386 plus windows 95 instead of 486 plus 3.1

[@amymoore1109]

I’m excited for this

[@inggi]

Great review. Does it work with usb keyboard and mouse?

[@retrotv1tech]

I think the USB is only for storage devices according to the manual, but you can use PS/2 keyboard and mouse.

[@annette4833]

I need to go Josh. Need to get things done before it gets too late. Have a great night. Goodnight all.

[@retrotv1tech]

Good night!

[@sergeantgunny]

Your video influenced me into buying one of these Pocket 386 PCs. Having fun playing around with it so far, but I'm not having any luck getting the built-in mouse to work. I tried enabling/disabling PS2 mouse in BIOS, toggled internal mouse on/off with FN+5, and checked it with Fn+F5. Nothing I do seems to get the mouse to move using the arrow keys... Do you have any suggestions???

[@mmadmic]

I already have the book 8088 and ordered this one. I have a real 80386 at home but as it olds, I prefer to play with this one.

[@retrotv1tech]

That’s awesome!

[@StingyGeek]

A version with a decent big screen and keyboard would be good. I'd like to power up wordperfect 5.1 and go to town. Pointless to to do that on a small keyboard version.

[@LosZurdosYT8227]

Gonna save my money for this lol its worth it

[@penguin10916]

Hopefully, someone will come out with a 486 laptop with 12MB+ of ram. That's what I'm waiting for.

[@retrotv1tech]

Absolutely!

[@robertscott3399]

Parallel port for older vintage printer port . So if you had an old okidata decal printer.

[@arnolduk123]

This is a super helpful review. I own the Book8088 and it's nice to know that the display is much more improved! Not sure why a socketed 386dx wasn't implemented instead of the 386sx though ? The volume controls are on the board and it appears that in order to make the case design sleak and simple the volume controls and ports are all provided on cables. I'm not a fan of those cable dongles as these things can easilly get misplaced or lost :[

[@retrotv1tech]

That is very true… and it is a pain removing a panel to adjust the volume. I’m surprised this couldn’t have been implemented as part of the pop-up menus since you can turn the sound off and on this way.

[@arnolduk123]

@@retrotv1tech I guess an updated BIOS could add a pop-up volume control but it looks like the volume control is analog and not digital if controlled by the pots.

[@retrotv1tech]

That is probably true.

[@susanboatman7913]

Really great small laptop Josh

[@Mainyehc]

Heh. They’re just using standard Half-Life key mappings… WASD+mlook for movement and E for actions. If I got one of these I’d likely keep them unchanged, I have too much muscle memory from playing Quake and HL/HL 2/Portal/Portal 2 to be able to use classic mappings at this point. Also, my very first PC also rocked a 40 MHz 386SX, but it didn’t have a sound card and had a paltry amount of memory… I’d love to have one of these just for nostalgia’s sake and for loading some of my old games. Sure, I can run them in Boxer/DOSBox on my Mac but it’s not the same as doing so on actual hardware.

[@suebaribass]

I just thought of this: My current laptop is so outdated and slow, one of these days I'm going to see Josh fixing one on this channel!! 😂

[@retrotv1tech]

😂

[@JimJimPlays]

reminds me of the Toshiba Libretto

[@purpasmart_4831]

It would be really cool to see a period correct version of Linux (like slackware) runs on it.

[@jhonwask]

Interesting. One thing, I think DOS 7.10 is the Chinese DOS. I've never tried it, but it looks good.

[@retrotv1tech]

I tried it, but of course, everything was in Chinese, so I couldn’t use it.

[@robmclaughjr]

My first pc after Amiga was 386sx, minimum for Windows 3.1. 1990

[@runderwo]

53:00 A PS/2 mouse could never be hotplugged. The original hardware wasn't designed for it and you could even blow the keyboard fuse by doing so.

[@retrotv1tech]

It’s been so long since I’ve used PS!2, and I think I’m just used to USB hot swapping. Lol. Thanks!

[@josephaltman460]

Windows System Sounds can be fixed by installing an OPL3 Windows 3.1 wav driver. I found one readily available on the web. My main squipe is the time and date are so screwey, like there's a disconnection with the bios, Windows, and DOS clocks. Y2K bug for real!

[@JJGhostHunters]

Hi Josh...Do you know what would be needed (or even it is possible) to connect the VGA output of the expansion card to a modern monitor with HDMI? I see simple cables and then I see more complicated converter units. Not sure if you have tried this already.

[@MrLurchsThings]

Looks like he’s using a much better screen than the garbage one that came in the Book8088. Wish I’d never bought that one, but this looks a lot more interesting

[@NdxtremePro]

Since this has the 16-bit ISA in the back, I wonder how well you could make an adapter for one of those SBC ISA Backplanes and then just start sticking in ISA cards? ISA is a shared bus, so it should in theory just work. And, that could give you access to some PCI devices if Windows 95 can handles them. PCI is backwards compatible with ISA with the right chips, and I think the right ISA/PCI SBC Backplane will have that built in.

[@danielmantione]

I do not see why an external ISA backplane wouldn't work. Emulating PCI over ISA is more troublesome, for example PCI DMA is fundamentally different from ISA DMA. This could only work for a few select examples and I do not know if there exist any chips for this.. PCI-to-ISA-bridges exist, but they need extra signals from the chipset that are not available in a normal PCI slot.

[@djbare9]

40MHZ 386 wow, the best I ever had was the 25MHZ 386, though it was complemented with a 387 floating point math processor, by today's standards my calculator has way more compute power, but still.

[@soviet9922]

Great video

[@retrotv1tech]

Thanks!

[@MJR_heyfunny]

Is it bad that I still have a fully working 486 system in my back room? I wanted to keep it around if I had room just in case my kids were ever curious about early PC gaming back in the dos days

[@pmktsh]

Ждём обзор от Седого на "Подвальчике")

[@iridium130m]

That’s too bad the ISA bus is only 8 bit, was hoping to plug in my GUS and AWE32 in mine.

[@annette4833]

Fun to see this

[@runderwo]

Digital audio can be played through the OPL chip. See thread "Digital Audio from a Yamaha OPL2/3 chip". At least for games which can run in virtual 8086 mode, one could create a TSR that traps SB DSP port traffic and streams the samples to the OPL chip via this technique.

[@retrotv1tech]

Whoa! That’s super cool! Thanks for the tip!

[@fluffynl3390]

Would love to have an enclosure like that

[@puppylove3781]

Can it run a Covox Speech thing in place of an Adlib OPL3 externally? I don't see why not, but it would be good to test it out. I'm thinking that either an ISA card would suffice for a classic Sound Blaster 8 bit card, or you could really go all-out and put a riser card atop the system to extend the bus to a full system literally. The question is whether it will support that or not, and whether it is able to properly handle DMA requests, or if it is hard-coded to only just use one slot and a pre-configured. Also, does DPMI access all 8mb in protected mode for any program? Or do you have to have other DOS extenders that are proprietary in nature and might/might not work based upon it? Dos32 should be the the usual, but I'm wondering if programming in Turbo Pascal, Assembly Language, or C has any hangups or gotchas that I have to worry about beyond just using Dos games? It should be fine with general Dos games and maybe Nesticle as far as emulators, but I am concerned about whether or not I will have full control as a programmer. Can I use existing programs that I have written and expect them to run like before, or will I have to rewrite it and change it accordingly?

[@dontmindbeingblindd]

I have a genuine question about retro computing. I don't know much about this topic, and I more know about coding and modern technology. Why use hardware over a virtual machine with a few adapters? With a virtual machine, you could have all the operating systems on one device, and maybie adapters for things like paralel ports or serial ports.

[@retrotv1tech]

Good question! First, retro hardware is just fun to play around with… and the fact that this is mostly new but with a retro processor is really fun. Also, Virtual machines for Windows 95 and MS Dos are far from perfect and have bugs and errors on certain software. Also, it’s just fun to tinker around, and for me a virtual machine takes the fun out of that.

[@bitwize]

I just bought one of these and it's great. Completely useless for most of what I use computers for nowadays; I can't believe I'm this excited over an obsolete machine. Mine came with DOS 6 and Windows 3.1, meaning it can't read FAT32-formatted disks (which most USB drives are). But it did come with CANYON.MID!

[@sluxi]

There's certainly some potential for more reliability since at least some of the parts are new but these probably do use chips harvested from old hardware just like the Book 8088 so I would not oversell it on that point. It also seems like more of a passion project than a thing that got created because it makes business sense but I guess we will see. That also factors into the reliability a bit since it may not be as professionally engineered as the vintage systems. I think it is cool these exist and hope to see more of this kind of thing in the future but keeping vintage hardware going is certainly still awesome and serves to both preserve history and the environment.

[@retrotv1tech]

Only chip harvested according to the website is the 386, and it’s a 386 SOC that’s newer than an original 386. Apparently everything else is new.

[@sluxi]

@@retrotv1techI wonder if they made a similar promise with the 8088 or if this is new with the 386 because there were some pretty sketch ones in the Book 8088 that Adrian fixed on his channel, he suspected at least one of being relabeled. Could be down to how reliable the vendors they source the chips from are too. Things like the OPL chip may be pretty hard to source as genuine new old stock as well.

[@retrotv1tech]

Very true! I saw that video on Adrian’s channel as well. It’s hard to tell how honest that claim is.

[@KeyFilmation]

Great video. Wonder if there’s a way to get windows 95 and the graphics card to display full screen 800x480 for that panel. I think the card it ships with can display resolutions up to 1024x768, so there’s got to be a way to fill that screen without stretching. Anyone have ideas?

[@retrotv1tech]

That’s a great question… not sure which driver is being used in Windows for video. I’ll have to play around with it.

[@KeyFilmation]

Just learned that Toshiba Libretto 100CT came with an 800x480 display and ran Win9x. Wondering if I can replace the pre-installed video driver with the Libretto’s to get that display mode. My unit arrives today. I’ll report back.

[@retrotv1tech]

@@KeyFilmation please let me know! That driver should be easy enough to find.

[@RitaDisneyMom]

It was a cool video!!

[@zJericho101z]

Would love to have one but think it is a bit on the small side for regular use, otherwise it's a great all in one solution for retro computing.

[@TheJakfish]

MS Word 97, though a slow install, actually loads well.

[@tato-chip7612]

god i would love to use one of these with bsd.

[@rebeccaschade3987]

I don't understand why on earth they'd ship a 386 (SX even!) with Windows 95. Even a 486 is extremely slow in Windows 95. Putting MS-DOS and Windows 3.1 would be a much more sensible choice. I get that to make this work, using an SoC like solution like this makes sense. The M6117 has everything you need for a system like this built in. The only addition is the OPL3 synth chip. To me though, this is just a bit lacking. If it had at the very least had digitized sound playback (i.e. sound blaster compatibility) it would've been great for adventure games. But then again, when would I need to play those on a tiny little laptop with a tiny little screen? A handful of times a year when I'm out travelling perhaps, but then a good book will be just as useful. This should simply have been larger. Bigger screen, about 14", more powerful hardware, digitized sound... Then this could have been the "one size fits most" retro gaming solution for those who want real hardware, but don't want the hassle of sourcing actual old parts etc. As it is, it seems like a case of making something simply because they could, without asking if they should. Then again, I'm sure they are cheap to make, and as long as people buy them, they're making money, so what the hell do I know? :P

[@retrotv1tech]

So, the good news is that you don’t ever have to use Windows 95 at all for any reason. As you can see in the video, it boots straight to DOS, and you can remove 95 and add 3.1 if you want. It’s pretty easy to do. Also, I agree about having a soundblaster. That would be very helpful having a DAC over just an OPL3.

[@JanuszKrysztofiak]

Interesting curiosity, although 386 SX is an inferior choice for Win 9X or even late DOS games. I get why there are hardware emulation options for old consoles or certain computers, such as Amiga (itself rooted in consoles, everyone targetted little Amiga 500 with OCS, only seldom 1200 with AGA) - those were fixed hardware configurations for which games were specifically targetted to exploit all the details and properties. As such, they are invariably a difficult target for software emulation, given many real-time aspects of timings software expected from those systems. FPGA-based emulators (or real components still in supply) enable precise recreation, impossible in software on a general purpose OS. On the other hand, in case od retro IBM PC-compatibles, the situation is slightly different. I don't have a feeling this platform needs retro in hardware as much. PCs have always come in different, modular configurations, and performance profiles, aside from specific titles assuming original 8086 4,77 MHz speeds for delay routines, old PC software is less tied to a specific configuration. Although DOS games supported mostly, say, Sound Blaster audio cards and optionally something else, other vendors made their cards emulate Sound Blaster (then de-facto standard interface). In case of video there were also standard interfaces across many models (EGA, VGA, VESA). So with less focus of intricacies of specific hardware, Dosbox is often a BETTER option than a retro PC (where you have to fight with, say, memory configuration of real DOS or compatibility issues, I remember Jazz Jackrabbit was very fussy and tended to crash on my system).

[@Atomhaz]

You probably won’t see this, but if you do… how would I go about connecting a floppy drive to this? Did they make parallel or serial port floppy drives? This is just outside my memory range.

[@retrotv1tech]

So, the only way to connect a floppy drive at this point would be to get the ISA expansion connector that I showed and get a floppy controller card and hook it up that way, although you’d have to provide power to the floppy drive somehow. I’m not sure if they make any parallel port floppy drives. But really, with the ease of using a USB thumb drive, you wouldn’t technically need a floppy drive unless you just wanted to use one for nostalgic purposes.

[@MichaelStoneham]

A computer Mouse is an external computer accessory, this uses the arrow keys to controll the pointer, thats not a mouse.

[@gemedetvideo]

Some common video resolutions used under DOS are not 4:3 and there were quite a few laptops in the 286 and 386 era that had 16:10 displays not 4:3 displays. This is particularly common on pre-VGA laptops with CGA LCD displays (often monochrome/greyscale with CGA colors mapped to shades of grey). Even some VGA modes are not technically 4:3 and are closer to 16:10 or 16:9. While quite a few games squished their graphics so they would appear correct if the display is stretched to a 4:3 aspect ratio this was not always the case. Even 4:3 CRTs would not always be 4:3 and the actual aspect ratio of the final display depended heavily on the video mode used and how the CRT width and height controls were adjusted with varying amounts of black around the active area of the display. That is why having the option to choose between 16:9 and 4:3 is nice because you can then choose between what appears to be closest to correct for any given game/application.

[@retrotv1tech]

Very cool! Learned something new today! Thanks for sharing!

[@johnzacharakis1404]

I'd love to know how to connect a floppy drive to this, I tried via USB (both FDD and CD-ROM), but that didn't work. The BIOS says that Floppy Disk is Enabled. Any ideas, besides adding another ISA card and connecting the drives that way? Thanks for these videos, they are excellent

[@xville8642]

Is there anything close to this but with more Ram ? I'm looking to run some old Nikon Software via serial port and required ram is 16MB or more :(

[@chinnyvision]

This any more reliable than the dreadfully built 8080 book? Lots of reviews but I was the only one who actually ran it for an extended period and it failed. Not sure I'd trust them again.

[@paulm64]

I just got mine today. It's only been a few hours and I've already screwed up my autoexec and config.sys files. Where can I find the image file mentioned in the manual?

[@rand0mher0742]

that's pretty cool

[@walterpintus1734]

Hi! Did you try to connect an Isa Sound Blaster card? I'm curious if it would work!

[@TsiolkovskySportingLocks]

Yeah doom on a 386SX was never much fun.. You really need a 386DX for that. If this was a 386DX40 I'd be ordering this like a shot.