[NTLK] Atari Portfolio/ST Pad

From: Doctor Clu (drclu_at_swbell.net)
Date: Fri Apr 19 2002 - 22:47:40 EDT


Previously....

From: Victor Rehorst <victor_at_newtontalk.net>

Heh. I personally seem to be starting a collection of old DOS
portables.
I've got my NEC Ultralite, and I just picked up two Atari Portfolios
with
all kinds of stuff (still in box!).

@>-->---------------------------------

    You don't say! Someone who has mentioned the "Atari" name on this
list that wasn't me! Ha!

    I had a Portfolio during 1999 when I was trying, for the fun of it,
to only use Atari products. During that year I expanded beyond my
trusty Atari 400/800 of the 80's to get my first Lynx handheld game
system, one of the last three Atari Jaguars in the Dallas area toy
stores, my first ST's, an Atari TT, and a beat up Portfolio.
    I had been watching that poor Portfolio in a used electronics store
for about five years. Finally bought it.

You can see pictures of it....
http://www.geocities.com/lady-aramis/Portfolio.html

(Or you can see the entire artcase of that and others at...
http://www.geocities.com/lady-aramis/Artcase.html)

   Fixed up that poor Portfolio by getting parts from a company in
California (Best Electronics). Replaced the missing hatches, replaced
the mylar keyboard, ect, ect. Finally I had a good running unit. Then
I packed up my Newton 2000 and tried seeing what my life would be like
as a Portfolio user.

    At first it was nice having a handheld device that sported the Atari
logo. Loved it loved it loved it!
    Well, suffice to say, 1989 technology did not compare with 1997
technology. Hehehe...

    Three days later I packed up the Portfolio, never to use it again
till the day I sold it in the hopes of finding it a better home. :^)

    You see, I love Atari stuff, but I had to admit, Newton abilities
(and sporting a Apple logo..eewww...) far outweighed my handheld Atari
device in several important areas.

    1) Battery life... was about four hours on good batteries. But I
had a power supply for it, so that wasn't too bad.
    2) Static ram vs. dram... when I changed out those batteries, I lost
EVERYTHING! Arrgg!!
    3) Keyboard on the clam shell Portfolio was nice, but the Newton add
on keyboard was more realistic.
    4) While there have been adapters made to make 1 and 2 meg PCMCIA
Newton cards to work on the Portfolio, that was about it. :)

    However! Advantages of the Portfolio over the Newton....

    1) Dos based. Therefore PC compatible. At least at a XT level.
;^)
    2) The fan base has made things available the Portfolio, like
PCMCIA support, ZIP DRIVE support, ect.
    3) Atari made a card doc that you could use to read Portfolio cards
on a PC with. (We Atari fans thought it was stupid that Atari didn't
make this card doc also work with it's own ST/TT line... but hey, Atari
had its many faults like everyone else....)

    Add in battery alternations, backlight additions, memory upgrades...
it is amazing what people have done with that early handheld computer.

    If I had discovered the Portfolio before the Newton, I would
probably be writing this article on a Portfolio newsgroup right now.
But truth is, like I couldn't really go back from a Mac to a ST; having
experienced Newton, Portfolio was a faint echo of what could be.

    Speaking of Newtons, Portfolios, Cadillacs, and GridPads like we
have been talking about recently, I have a fun theory page where I go
into explaining how Atari influenced the Newton MessagePad. ;^) A fun
page I put together one day. You can see it at...

http://www.geocities.com/lady-aramis/theconnection.html

    So after 1999 what parts of Atari did I stay with? Well, I have a
smantering of everything Atari. But really, the irony of it all is, I
use my trusty Atari 800 more than anything else Atari I have. Hehehe...

   Sometimes you have to start from home, circle the world, and then
return to home to truly realize you had it best where you started.
(grin) Same feeling with the Newton in the handheld area.

    Laters,

    Doctor Clu

-- 
Read the List FAQ/Etiquette: http://www.newtontalk.net/faq.html
Read the Newton FAQ: http://www.guns-media.com/mirrors/newton/faq/
This is the NewtonTalk mailing list - http://www.newtontalk.net



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Sun May 05 2002 - 14:04:32 EDT