Small, all in one form factor like the Tandy 1000?

[+AtariPhreak]

Greetings - pretty much exactly what the topic says. Tandy made for a while a computer called the. Tandy 1000 and the early models combined the keyboard with either a 2x3.5 floppy (hard disk optional), or single 3.5 (hard disk optional). 

 

Now I love the form factor of these for a certain hobby I have, but Tandy was using proprietary ports and limited the amount of memory and (I believe) they did not support DOS 6.22 either. 

 

My REQUIREMENTS are: all in one (keyboard and CPU all in one), real RS232 port, VGA out, and I would PREFER 1 3x5, 1 5.25 and hard disk plus VGA. If the 5.25 was external that would be fine too — processor is no faster than pentium 90 - finally, 1 meg of RAM total (more would be fine! lol) 

 

More than anything though I need to be able to pick it up off the desk, stick it in a backpack and take it elsewhere.

 

No, a laptop will not work as a laptop will NEVER have an internal 5.25 FD, and I doubt any supported external 5.25 either..

 

Does anyone know if such a beast existed?

 

Thanks!

 

.ap

[carlsson]

While it doesn't directly answer your question, you might get some ideas to investigate from this thread:
https://forums.atariage.com/topic/269326-were-there-any-other-computers-like-the-tandy-1000-exhx/

 

[+AtariPhreak]

1 minute ago, carlsson said:

While it doesn't directly answer your question, you might get some ideas to investigate from this thread:
https://forums.atariage.com/topic/269326-were-there-any-other-computers-like-the-tandy-1000-exhx/

 

hey thats perfect!! thank you!

[Krebizfan]

Many laptops supported external 5.25" drives. Examples include the Sharp PC-5000, the Gridcase 2, and much of the Toshiba lineup through the early 90s. Some of the Toshiba models could even swap the drive settings to boot off the external drive. Some of the Toshibas had VGA. Getting the proprietary external drives and cables will be nearly impossible now. Many laptops (even ones late enough to have VGA) could accept a parallel port 5.25" drive which would be easier to find but won't handle disks with unusual formats. 

For internal, there is the Visual Commuter which IIRC lasted for years in the DAK catalogs. http://oldcomputers.net/commuter.html Alas, too early for VGA. The fictional Cardiff Giant looked like a cross between this and the Tandy 600 in its chunky brown. 

 

Unless you can find one of the limited footprint chassis (fancy name for computer in keyboard) from the 90s that were advertised in the back of magazines, you will have to check if computer can accept a VGA card in the undersized expansion slot. The Tandy and Amstrad keyboard computers came with improved CGA.