Small laptop for DOS & old Windows games?

Hi all. I'm sort of looking into getting a laptop so I can play my legacy DOS and early Windows games. In any event, here's my criteria, I suppose [not too picky]

1-should be able to boot in DOS [be it in its own partition or in 98SE's boot in DOS mode] without any complications. (so I can run my DOS games natively)..

2-should be able to boot in Windows 98SE, and have a good enough video card/specs for perhaps up to Riven [released 1997] in terms of age. (most of my games post 1997/8 seem to run great on Windows 7 x86...)

3-should be remotely light, not excessive/also should be small. Not too picky on the resolution of the screen, 640x480 would do me good, but no lower...

4-internal CD drive, unless that's too much to ask? I could also ISO up my games, but I don't know how DOS'd like that.. Perhaps the Windows game'd be fine, but I don't know. Also, if it does have a CD drive, should be able to run with MSCDEX in native DOS mode.

5-no heat issues

6-have a port for an external mouse [and maybe keyboard], be it serial/usb/ps-2...

Anyway, so I'm looking for something that kinda fits that. If my post is too unclarity, please let me know and I can try and make things better. I sometimes don't get my points out correctly/clearly, so please let me know..

Any help appreciated of course.. Thanks! :)

Torch, there must be 10 zillion old laptops out there that will do what you want it to without any problem. I mean you can format any laptop hard drive into two partitions...as long as DOS is your first partition, then Win98 can boot off your second.

I just went to eBay and put in the word "laptop" and set the price range for $50-$60, also set the parameters for working and refurbished and this one was the first one that popped out:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/IBM-Lenovo-Thinkpad-R31-great-condition-/280745127936?pt=Laptops_Nov05&hash=item415db6b000

But there are literally thousands more that meet your requirements....

For DOS and yucks, a while back, I bought an IBM Thinkpad 570 for about $70 (I'm sure it's even cheaper now). Thin, wonderful screen, built for and runs 98SE very well. I even got wireless internet running in DOS with Orinico Gold and its DOS drivers and Arachne browser. I supposed I could've networked the machine with my others, but even a working DOS network had too many steps to go through. It was faster to physically transport the file to the other room.

For heat issues, obviously. DOSIdle or some such ilk will be your best friend.

Jake

I'd go for a Toshiba Libretto. Seen some on eBay for 125 bucks shipped. Might be a tad bit small in regards to the screen though. Plus, no internal CD-Rom. But yeah, a ton of laptops out there. A good spec machine would be 300mhz, 128 to 256mb ram and a 30gb harddrive with Windows 98SE. My old Sony Vaio had that and I used it to run old school Windows 95 games.

The best condition Libretto 70 I saw on eBay went for about 30 bucks, while another one that was broken went for about 50. There were a lot of fluctuations in the prices and it definitely has to do with luck. Librettos all have 1024*768 TFT screens though and the Libretto 30, 70, 100, and 110 can all play Riven with their hardware.

I haven't tried to get one since I got my Fujitsu, but they still interest me. This just means one less person to bid war with. XD

Sorry Rich Hawley, I think I was thinking the 'H/PC' mindset where xyz parameters create perfect device. I didn't really think this one through... :P I was merely worried that I'd find a laptop I really like but can't boot in DOS mode well, ie something funky not working, be it sound or CD drive--no drivers for that under DOS. I thought that while the PC'd be running 98SE, that the boot in DOS mode can be finnicky if no correct drivers for certain things are working.. I could be wrong though; I've not dabbled in DOS much since around 2005, losing pretty much all of my command know-how. It's difficult for me to do a cd or . command... Oh well.

Thanks Jake, I'll check that one out. It looks pretty cool, and prices are pretty good for it it seems.. Under 50$usd would be a good factor for purchase. :)

Oh okay, I'll keep those specifications in mind. 98SE seems to run very well with 128 to 256 I remember.. I could probably stick in a CF card to replace hard drive even for cheap.. Libretto looks nice too..

Oh wow, 1024x768? Awesome. I did not know this.. I'm wanting that Adidas limited edition Libretto.. Haha, that'd be so great. :P

And here I was, wanting to bid-spar with you. Another time, perhaps, my comrade?

Have you considered a modern netbook and virtual PC / vmware? Better battery life for gaming on the go.

That's true, I guess I overlooked that option.. Now I regret giving my Asus netbook to my sister. ahhhh