This was my first computer. It's something as unusual as a 286 "laptop". I got it as a Christmas gift, probably in 1993, so I was around 9 years old at the time (my parents were probably unaware at this time how computers would come to shape my life). At almost 6 kg (10 pounds) it's "portable". Contrary to modern laptops, however, it does not run on battery.
My fondest memory of this machine is the time spent playing Wizard's Castle. I had a word processor (SPCS "Ord") as well, some educational software (spelling and computer tutorials) and of course a few more games (including one with a Star Wars theme and a flight simulator where I never got off the runway).
On the right side we find two 3.5 inch floppy drives and some switches:
From the left: backlight switch, contrast adjustment wheel and the "4.77 / 8" CPU "turbo" switch; yes, it does make a huge difference.
The left side has nothing of interest except for these jacks; "TELCO" and "TELSET". I have no idea what they were intended for.
The back has connectors for 9-pin VGA, composite video (untested), printer (the sticker was there when I got it), external floppy, RS-232 (D-SUB 25), 20 VAC and power switch.
The keyboard layout is an unusual mix of US and European QWERTY (the Ü and É aren't used in swedish). The wide "1" key is somewhat peculiar as well. It also has a miniature numerical keypad.
The suspension for keeping the display upright was broken ever since I got the machine, so I used the power brick to support it. The power brick, BTW:
It weighs about 1.4 kg (3 pounds).
Various LED indicators; "OFF HOOK" (related to the left side jacks, I assume), "CAPS" and "FD1". The last one says "HD/FD2" - perhaps there was a hard disk expansion available?
This machine still works, shown here is the bootup sequence. The "2 RS-232" message makes me jump to the conclusion that the RS-232 connector on the back requires a split cable to be utilised fully.
MS-DOS 3.21 and GW BASIC 3.2. Alas, this disk no longer works - I accidentally reformatted it. I have a couple of other bootable disks for this machine, though, so I have never bothered to make a new one.
Greg Coleman from Australia sent me an e-mail. He had found another of these machines at a garage sale and provided the following information: "These laptops actually were designed to run off batteries, so I found out when I pulled it apart. It runs on two 6V sealed lead-acid batteries. As they are going on for 25 years old, they were completely dead. Upon replacement, the laptop ran for about 2 hours on a full charge before the disk drive stopped working."
To-do: Upload picture of my printer for this machine. Upload picture of MS-DOS manual.
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