The Legend of the HP Palmtop Computer
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- čas přidán 14. 09. 2023
- The HP 200LX is an MS-DOS Computer the size of a phone, from 1994. This machine has achieved legendary status as a highly capable handheld computer. That greatly enhanced portable business applications in the 1990s. The result is a dedicated fan base of enthusiasts that continues in the vintage tech scene today.
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Article:
The First Real Palmtop
hackaday.com/2020/12/21/the-f...
The Golden Age of HP Palmtop PCs
www.pcmag.com/news/the-golden...
Video:
Palmtop Tube: HP 100 / 200LX: Disassembly for Repairs and Upgrades
• HP 100 / 200LX: Disass...
Janus Cycle: Taming Nokia's Wildest Linux Smartphone
• Taming Nokia's Wildest...
HP in space
• HP in space
Music:
Super Metroid "Concealed Caverns" OC ReMix By Gaspode
ocremix.org/remix/OCR04324
Image:
IBM PC XT with green monochrome phosphor screen and 10MB full height 5,25" hard disk drive
by Ruben de Rijcke
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... - Věda a technologie
Not sure how you got Star Trek Generations playing on that thing, but I'm glad you did haha. Very appropriate.
Astrometrics lab scene?
yep, Generations!
In the second half of the 90s, the 200LX was my main machine. I always had it (and a big PCMCIA flash drive) with me, read and wrote 1000s of emails and Usenet posts on it, traded megabytes worth of files on BBSs and all that good stuff. I think it was the most important computer I ever had.
Nice, I really enjoy hearing how much of an impact this had.
japan made nec
I still have one. This is really a wonderful piece of technology 😊
I wonder what it would have been like to bop around with this thing back in the day
How did you connect to BBS?
I was so obsessed with mobile computers back then. The first were personal digital assistant devices my grandfather didn't use anymore. When I had my own money, I got a Palm, an iPaq and later a Pocket LOOX, and a Samsung PDA/smart device.
Ooh, some nice machines you had there.
These and even some of the Windows CE Machines are great in their own regard. 😊
@@1blisslife I loved the Windows CE stuff. Even after the iPhone came out, I still laughed because the Apple users neither had Exchange syncing, nor copy-and-paste. Obviously that's all stuff from past.
it is quite empressive how such a small device is able to play back from the future and star trek
japan made nec
@@user-zm2pv2zq7j ?
...impressive
Not sure why but I just love when it's possible to get something to work through two or more layers of adapters, it's the visual of the nested nonsense that works regardless, seeing that old tiny PC reading a micro SD thanks to three different adapters brought a smile to my face :)
Well that reminds me of my iPod Video. I wanted to replace its dying harddrive. It is storage is a 32 GB microSDHC in several adapters: microSD->SD>CF->IDE. Works like a charm :D
it’s like me using a usb c to a cable, then an sd adapter, then a micro sd adapater
When you're an Apple fanboy this happens daily. You can charge your iPhone 15 from firewire using a firewire to 30 pin, then 30 pin to lightning, then lightning to usb c adapter.
There is no such thing as not compatible! *Sometimes it just takes a tower of adapters*
japan made nec
Oh this makes me so happy to watch. Can't tell you how many hours I spent working with my 200. I also had the 95LX first! Incredible machine. I had a bootable PCMCIA card and ran an accounting software on it. It went everywhere I went for a long time. I wish I had it back.
Nice, this must have been an awesome experience to have these.
Star Trek: Generations! Even text based I would recognize that beautiful ship anywhere!
EDIT: For bonus points, its the scene in stellar cartography right before they warp to Veridian III.
I'm going to go get a life now!
If you could see that in the text based video then we’ll done!
The silhouette of Patrick Stewart was a clear giveaway, the shining baldness plus the Starfleet uniform is just too iconic to forget. I'm super impressed you were able to point to the exact scene, that is way beyond my level.
I knew right away from the two color uniforms, then the ship brought it home. Sir Patrick's aura shines through even if it's only text based graphics 😂🖖
I know it gets a bad rap but it's still one of my favorite trek movies 😂I remember seeing it in theaters when I was 13 so that might have something to do with it
Yep recognised it instantly too😂
Glad you mentioned the n900. IMO, one of the most capable mobile devices ever made for its time, bar none. It could even run a full debian linux GUI.
90s technology really is fascinating
How some companies made devices we never thought they did, devices that are similar to our current tech and yet so different in terms of specs and functionality or similar and predating current things.
I owned a 95LX in the 1990's, and used it in math/engineering college classes with Derive symbolic calculus software on a PCMCIA care, now owned by TI and in their fancy calculators all these years later. It was a neat machine and batteries lasted a long time. I had a SCSI adapter and also a little printer. Eventually while in college I stepped up to a Dell Dimension XPS 90 tower system, which was a major improvement. I think I still have the HP somewhere. Cool video. Brings back memories.
It might sound desperate, and that's because I am... I believe you're the only living person I know who knows about DERIVE. I've been searching for it for years for my HP 95LX since it's my everyday computer. I can't get hold of any copy of those files from that version, nor can I buy or locate a PCMCIA like the one you mentioned. I earnestly implore you that if you have it, please contact me so I can purchase it from you because, as I mentioned, I'm desperate to obtain it. Thank you so much in advance.
I can only recommend getting a PCMCIA memory card and putting the Derive for DOS files on it. I have never seen it show up on ebay, let alone the windows version of it (5) which I never did buy, only 4.0 but that was buggy. Good luck.
Do you have does files? Cant get It on web. I have 32mb sundisk pcmcia But no derive. THX btw
I remember being handed one of these during a computer & technology-focused summer camp as a kid. I was absolutely blown away by the little device! When they said "Palmtop" I didn't think such a thing was possible outside of your cheap pocket organizers.
I was working for one of HP’s instrument divisions when these came out. I ended up using these to interface to mechanical measurement devices and network analyzers to run statistical process control software we wrote. We also worked on some CNC projects to assist manufacturing with assembly tasks. It was an incredibly capable device that could punch well above its weight. The various HIL peripherals made it possible to interface with a lot of external devices.
I love hearing how these were being used at HP, thanks for sharing.
I had the HP95LX and was awesome as a design engineer writing my own solver equations. Later I had the Toshiba Libretto, and ran the companion pack HP software so I could still use all my solver equations.
I also bought the Rex too!
Couldn't believe my eyes seeing the whole PCMCIA Card fitted inside the device! This makes the size of this device even more astonishing!
I love to see this video because it make me feel like I sat in Delorean and bring me back in the time that I was young. Technology in 90s were always so cool, exciting and fascinating moment.....
I growing up with 286...386...486...pentium 4...
or monochrome....cga/ega...vga...svga....
or super famicom/ gameboy...play 1/wii...
or VHS/laser disc...vcd...dvd...bluray...streaming
or Symbion phone...pocketPC phone...smartphone (iOS/Android)
....It's extraordinary experience to see everything around us changed step-by-step during we 're growing up 😉😉😉
There did seem to be a rush of new technologies as digital rapidly kept advancing at the time.
I exactly agree with you especially during 1990s to early 2000s...
Always good to see a new video
Thanks for doing the captions! They're of very high quality and I'm sure many people like myself also appreciate them.
I'm very pleased you find them useful.
@@JanusCycle Extra useful!
That was my organizer and I used most of it's functions for a few years. Really a very helpful little computer.
90s stuff is so hardware amazing and ahead of its time that it still fascinates me and I'm always happy when i nab a cool piece of 90s tech!
I still have a newer Jornada 720 w a color screen but it's not in a good shape, still want another working one and also a Psion 5mx those things were amazing, I regret selling mine 20yrs ago.
Nice video!
Theres something beautiful about 90s tech
Thank you! This was fun!
When I was a kid, I saw one at a store. I wanted one so badly! I begged my parents for one. They laughed and said yeah, right. I vowed to one day have such a device.
I had blackberries. The first Android phone. An iPhone in my pocket right now. :-)
Love your channel, presenting somewhat obscure devices, especially for my age, and very soothing calming voice to present. Nice video this one. Cheers.
Thank you :)
This was amazing!!!
I had one of these (HP200LX) back in the day. Carried it around and the battery can last a long time. I had several ebooks on it. Ran spreadsheets on it, wrote notes and so on. Even had a infrared port. Very capably device for its time.
My father owned a 200LX for his business back in the 90s and I wrote a software tailored for his uses and made especially for this system. These were my first steps in software development. I remember the pure feeling of freedom when running this machine, opening the whole DOS world in a pocket, and that with amazing specs for the times! And thanks for your video - it's a wholesome appreciation for this powerful device!
I love your description of freedom. You have just articulated some of what I feel about this as well. Thank you.
Amazing to see this today. It was a dream machine for nerds in those days.
I always being fascinated by the charm of older machines.
Thanks! Love your well researched and understated presentations
You are awesome! thank you. This will help make even better videos :)
@@JanusCyclelike videos about the fujitsu f-07c
This looks like a fun device for retro computing hours even without games.
Really reminds me of the whole era of PALM handhelds except as full blown PC.
The adaptor-recursion was just perfect! Had a good laugh. Also great use of the REX card!
Thanks!, it was fun making that bit :)
Thanks for the video! I’ve had several HP Palmtops in the past and love them so much that I even started making videos about them recently. Its great to see people are still interested in such devices like I am.😊
Hey, I was recommended you channel recently. Great stuff! keep it up.
@@JanusCycle thank you for the kind words and for providing us all with such quality content!!
I made so many webpages in the lates 90s when I was supposed to be paying attention in class. I had macros for common html tags to help write them. Thanks for bringing back those memories.
I had the 100lx, always wanted to get the 200 but as a student it was out of reach.
10:30 You magnificent bastard.
Also, I actually recognized some of those demos going by on its tiny screen, so it was doing something right!
Ooo, that outro track is an excellent cover! Interesting how they transposed the key. It made it simultaneously familiar yet strange, like going back to your home town and the roads aren’t quite as they used to be.
Yes, I really dig it.
I bought a second hand one in (I think) 2000 or 2001 and used it daily for about a decade. Lovely little machines. One drawback was that it was possible to lock it up so badly that even the ctrl-shift-on combo wouldn't work. Frequent backups were a good idea.
I did read that it could lock up so badly that all the batteries would have to be removed for several minutes to reset. Thanks for confirming this, and that ctrl-shift-on is not necessarily a full hardware interrupt.
some of these things could be seriously defective we tried one from a new company in the 1990s callled velo and it would work great then start randomly resetting. My parents thought it would be better for me then a full sized laptop at the time. My aunts company got these to and some of them had defective batteriest to. @@JanusCycle
I used a h95lx and later a hp200lx from 1992 to around 1999 or 2000. I had software carousel installed, which swapped different apps in and out of memory. I used them for a lot of tasks, and I don't remember this hard lockup issue at all. I did get the faster chip upgrade and the memory upgrade aftermarket. I had to ship it from Australia to the USA and back to get that done! I used to read and type emails while standing on the London Underground when I worked in London. PCMCIA modem and a landline at home to do the send and receive. There was a great email list group for the HPLX. The only real issue i had was the hinge cracked, which was common, but i used the email list group to repair it and the crack is barely noticeable to today.
please make more of these videos, you did a great job
Thank you. I will do my best to keep exploring tech and making these videos.
I remember this machine as our Industrial Technology teacher had one.
I miss this era of computing. Although I had no access to a computer back then I would see all these great devices in magazines (the closest I could get to a computer) and fawn over them. The internet was still new to most people and utterly fascinating. I always imagined how cool it would be to have a job when I grew up where I would have these types of computers and travel all around.
Used it up until iphone2. For about 10 years. Their replacement program was awesome.
I can't believe I recognised star Trek generations from the first video... either I'm a huge nerd or that screen just worked
Sir Stews aura shines through any medium 😂
yep, Generations!
I am so absolutely impressed with your tone of voice when you said 640K. Lol most excellent delivery better than I’ve ever heard before props to you dude
Thank you! I wasn't sure how well that would be noticed :)
A PIM inside a Palmtop PC running full DOS. These were super cool at the time.
Even the voice over sounds retro. Very nice😊
thank you
I had twice of this wonder computer in midle 90 here in Brazil, use the worksheet a lot on my business, controling production and results. Useg also with a moden on internet and e-mail!!! Just run very fast, very trustfull and very ease to use & understanding.
That must have been an amazing experience and really turned some heads! Thanks for sharing.
Love these kinds of unique devices
So my mom actually had one of these, well both my parents before they upgraded. They bought it used for a okay price back then, it was in color and she used it for invoices and accounting. The both of them were making a shit ton of cash in the mid 90s-early 00s through their construction business. They would use laptops and stuff, but would use these when they didnt want to lug around a laptop. I always tried to get either this or the PDA from my dads truck to "play" on.
Meetings, customer info, invoices, material invoices, manifests, phone numbers, equipment info, equipment insurance, emails, the whole lot was on those things. My mom eventually got rid of it in a yard sale around 2006? Just before the crash was on the horizon. She sold a lot of her business computers for like $30 when in reality she couldve netted around $200 or more each. She still has the mentality that if she tries to sell a PC or whatever that no one will want it and will sell it for god awful cheap.
(I being a very young child fondly remember playing on it with note pad and stuff. Just typing gibberish or playing with a calculator function lmao)
Great memories, thanks for sharing. Tech has a cycle where prices keep falling for about ten years. It's hard to keep it around because it just seems to be taking up space. Then begins rising again after 15 - 20 years and become intriguing again. But in a different way.
I wish someone would make something like this nowdays, surely a full high end 486 dx2 100 with a bunch of cache 16mb ram (maybe 32?) Sound blaster and such can be made small enough to fit and work well, real good screen from a modern phone, but the same form factor and actual real usesable keyboard, perhaps with a thinkpad nub style mouse in it and a pair of micro sd card slots, usb type a, and of course a gameport. It would be great to be able to windows 95 in my pocket. I had always hoped i could one day mod my nokia n97 to run a different os, but i dont have the patience to learn to code, let alone port a bunch of software to it.
1:31 It's the stellar cartography scene from Star Trek Generations.
Correct scene and film! double points award :)
it would be fun to try coding assembly for these old devices to write code that's as optimised as possible and try to get some 3d graphics out of it. This tech is so fascinating, it's really fun to see a pda fit inside another pda, if one battery dies, you move on to the other.
This is just early x86 PC with very minor improvements. It isn't even fast enough to redraw full screen at acceptable FPS. You can do 3D, but using clever tricks, that minimize amount of updated pixels every frame. You could also use text mode as 80x50 display. On such small LCD screen it should still look fine and allow for quite fast polygonal 3D graphics or fast 2D with scrolling like shown in Magiduck.
Anyway regular x86 PCs are a bit more fun to play with. You have various CRT tricks and CGA has also composite output with artificial colors that can be pushed to display up to 1024 colors on screen (as seen in 8088 MPH demo).
@@Leeki85 I'd just remove all electronic, leaving just keyboard and display. Then put some modern board there. ;)
It was SO cool. We were issued one at work, and were always shocked at how much it could do. Loved having it on me all the time.
It must have been amazing to carry this around with you,
@@JanusCycle Honestly, it REALLY was. It's hard to describe what the PC landscape was like back then. Laptops were barely 'a thing'...and they certainly weren't small. And you know, it was honestly useful for YEARS. Just having an serial terminal with you all the time was a joy. Same thing for a spreadsheet. I hate to admit it, but I think I threw it away just maybe 10 years ago.
Great video!
Loved the card > adapter > adapter > adapter solution.
I do have one with manuals etc, but not used for long time. Loved this device when I worked in HP back in the 90.
thanks for great content!
Thank you, your're helping me make even better videos!
I still have mine and it still works great...
I worked in a hotel as a security guard, where we used the HP on a daily basis to open room doors and open safes where people had forgotten the electronic code. Ow, and your question that`s Data and Picard!
Nice, such a versatile little computer. Yep, Data and Picard, well done.
I had one of the follow ups, the HP 320lx I think, loved it at the time, gonna go digging in the attic and see if I can find it now!
I got an ad for a flagship windows 11 laptop before this; what a fun comparison
Great video
Mind blowing!
great video mate I love your content
cool, thank you!
Awesome Video !
Thank you :)
Another upload and a perfect ending to the week. Keep up the good work and pls remember never to sll out to nebula when youre big. Cheers !
Thanks and don't worry, I'm not a fan of paywalling videos.
They were awesome. I grew up in the same city where they were produced and my friends parents worked at HP. So we had early access to them.
Very cool!
I remember this one vividly. I also almost bought their later Windows CE based version.
I bought the later CE version, it was horrible compared to the LX200
Modern computers frequently do not format SD cards properly. Try formatting with a different device for formatting (e.g. a good camera, pda, etc.). And look on forums to see what SD card brands/sizes are confirmed to work with your HP 200LX (or other old device).
I had to try many cards to find the few that worked. Seems kind of random which one do.
One of my teachers had one of these and I so badly wanted to play with it! thank you for reviewing it and showing the games! It's so cool what it could do for that time.
japan made sharp japan products
beers on me, thanks for showing us such an unique device!
That's very kind of you, thank you.
your content is so good, its a crime to watch with an adblock. the algorithm blessed me with your channel so even youtube knows whats good
This is one of the last products to bear the DNA from the HP-35, the first pocket scientific calculator, from 1972. HP was still innovating at that point, but the seeds of ruin had already been planted in 1987, with the introduction of the HP PaintJet. Now, HP is just a big corporate cash grab.
It is a shame what became of such a once innovative company
Perhaps they employed Steve Balmer after the first success. Just like MS did with Windows 8.
Replace “HP” with “The World”
You wanna buy some toner?
What did the PaintJet do?
I still have my 200LX with a custom internal memory upgrade and few different expansion cards for more memory and WiFi. I even have the book that came with it. I can't throw anything away.
Still have that Ark of the Covenant lying around? 😀
Adaptors on adaptors on adaptors. I love that it actually worked >.
That star trek video with 1 bit sound reminds me of watching tv on a 13 inch black and white tv in my grandparents house in the 90s.
640k is all you'll ever need. A real vintage nerd
I had this. I loved it
I wrote a lot of my short fiction on it. Some was published. Also did note taking for college.
Nice presentation. I especially like the Rex syncing at the end. That was a trick I always wanted to try, but never bought a Rex when they were big. I still have my HP200LX (and a 100LX too) and a bunch of add-ons. I have a 4GB Sandisk CF card that works in the HP (although partitioned into multiple disks IIRC). I have the DoubleSpeed variant with the 8MB expansion. I used it for on-the-go DOS development (mostly scripting) back in the day. You could even run AOL 1.6 on it (via the serial port) and get on the internet at one point!
Nice, your HP sounds really decked out (and having a 100LX as well). I was able to get a 512MB card working but slow calculating the free space under DOS. Partitioning sounds like a good idea. But 4GB? you must have many partitions. The double speed must help speed that up as well.
Reminds me of my old Nokia 9110 communicator. I loved that device.
CZcams will probably recommend my 9110 Communicator video to you as well then :)
@@JanusCycle yes, I already watched it although at the time I didn't realize it was from the same CZcamsr 😉👍
Still got mine 👍🏻 Those were the days 😁
Cool! and I hope you never part with it.
PDA inside PDA! Wow, amazing 👍
i still have have mine. it's cool!!
Had a 200LX in the 90s since I couldn't afford a "real" laptop that cost thousands and were too clunky and huge so didn't really want one anyways. The fact you got a real x86 powered machine in a handheld size was truly unreal back then. This wasn't just some watered down chipset running a proprietary OS, but the real deal MS-DOS that had tens of thousands of software titles out for it and most non-gaming ran just fine.
awesome thanks
12:32 I really do appreciate that you (and some other content creators) put captions / subtitles im their videos. It helps me a lot since English is not my native language (but your accent is a joy and make understanding very easy). Also, and most importantly, this is very respectful and inclusive to those who are deaf / hard of hearing. Even some music videos from big labels nowadays are providing captions too since they can enjoy the visuals together with the lyrics.
And lots of 'CZcamsrs' does not even turn on the automatic captions in their videos. Sure, they are far from perfect but it helps a lot and most mistakes are easy to guess.
So, thank you very much for the captions too. 😊
Thank you. It's really good to know that the work I put into making correct captions is helpful and appreciated.
Ooh nostalgic. Got the first of that series, the 95LX, from my grandpa, in the early noughties. Super outdated even by then, but I adored it, as a nerdy kid. Learnt a lot of my first words in english trying to understand the contents of the 1000+ page manual. Must have thrown the computer away after its hinges broke, would love to have it back.
That sounds like a really cool way to learn, thanks for the story.
Production values is off the charts
cool, thank you!
That is awesome.
I have this sitting on my desk right now working. I just changed out the backup battery this week.
Nice, I'm pleased to hear these are still going strong.
@@JanusCycle wondering if I can update the screen to color :) it’s fun I play old dos games on it and I was thinking of getting a huge storage card.
I still have my hp95lx and hp200lx, and the pocket modem and a couple of 1MB and 2MB PCMCIA cards. I used the 200lx for many years! I have installed Software Carousel. Still boot it up occasionally for nostalgia. The Solver function in the calculator was by far the best solver I have used, and wish i could replicate that functionality now.
I'm really glad to hear you still power yours up from time to time.
Thank you!
Ahhh. The memories. I remember parking the HD my buddies $2500 8088. He never wanted to let me inside the thing. That looks like a newer version of a Poqet PC I've still got that a different buddy gave me. It has the CMOS version of the 8088, a 80C88 running at 7MHZ, 64 KB SRAM. Also 640 x 200. Running DOS 3.3. Runs on two AA's. Got the book and mobidem wireless modem too, with spare battery and charger. lol
The Poqet PC looks amazing, another PC I didn't know about. Thanks!
Ive always wanted one of those.
I used to own one of these in the late 90s (post '96). I remember Windows 3.11 could run on this and Ultima was a great game to play on it. I wish I still had mine. I sold it in the 2010s online. Watching your video brought a tear to my eye .. Oh the memories.
Nice, good to hear from an original user. Though it was probably Windows 3.0, since I have been reading that 3.1 was not compatible. Must have been cool to have Ultima on the go.
@@JanusCycle Indeed it was a gool device to have. I passed on the Palm Pilot (tablet with small pen) and kept my 200LX which had gone through the RAM upgrade to 4MB and I still have my 48MB SanDisk Compact Flash memory card in my belongings somewhere. The best part about this was that it was truly a portable PC which I could carry around with me. As a teen, I had this in a small bum bag and my skateboard and my Sony walkman. Arguably the most memorable days of my life. Having DOS and a C-compiler made my engineering student life pretty good as well. I learnt to work anywhere, I could draft reports, code and set up spreadsheets to automate calculations easily.
The 200LX's capability at the time and its footprint was unparalleled.
I was born too late to have had any experience with PalmTops, I only started with PDAs.
Other than that though, when I did learn of it, I was definitely impressed.
My fav laptop of all times. Miss this form factor and mono screen till today. I added extenal COM port, 2 megs of RAM, screen backlight... Pocket Quicken was the best personal finance manager I've ever seen.
A backlight would be an challenging to add, well done. Thanks for sharing your setup.
@@JanusCycleThe backlight setup was quite popular that times. It consisted of electroluminescent foil (like in backlit watches and oldest Palm devices) plus a simple yet small inverter. There even were some tutorials on web pages. The biggest problem was to get big enough foil. Disadvantage was that screen was a bit darker when backlight was not used. Light color was blue-greenish.
I had a 4MB version - I sold it for like $400. I had no idea they were that desirable.
Mindblowing
that outro music sounding real metroid!
Yep, it's a Metroid remix by Gaspode.
I had one of these as a kid... I got it in the early 2000s from a garage sale... I wish I still had it now
That's so COOL! I always dreamed I'd find something cool like that at a garagesale as a kid
@@MaxOakland man the amount of things I found at garage sales as a kid that today are worth so much money and are so rare... sadly 99% of it I no longer have
I actually have this! And it still works! Keep it at the office to show people haha, got it from my father when I was a kid and he didn't want it...
I'm glad you kept this and even more so that you show it off. Great stuff!
I once met a doctor who had one, if not the same, very similar. But as I was never able to use one of these, I was only left with the memory that these PDAs existed.
Awesome