Rob's Weekend Find-8/31-Atari Portfolio

[rbudrick]

Hi Folks,

I found this little handheld computer, the Atari Portfolio for $5 this weekend.

Strange little device, it has a full keyboard and came with a 128k memory card. Strangely, it boots to a standard DOS prompt. It weighs less than a pound...very cool.

I really had never head of it before...don't know much about it...
Thoughts? Suggestions?

-ROb

[Pantechnicon]

A Portfolio for $5?! Very nice find :D

Altairboy is pretty knowledgable about those things. Sooner or later he'll probably pop up in this thread and can tell you whatever you need to know.

You might also want to visit Best Electronics (http://www.best-electronics-ca.com/portfoli.htm) website and order one of their catalogs as I believe they actually sell quite a few accessories for the thing.

I can tell you one interesting bit of non-technical trivia about the Portfolio. Remember the scene in Terminator 2: Judgement Day when Eddie Furlong is hacking the ATM? That's a Portfolio he's using to do it! If you figure out that little trick then let us all know how, `kay?

[rbudrick]

Holy Crap! I thought that was the machine from T2!! I kind of joked it to myself and said "Naaaah."

Thanks for the tips! So what's the good word, Altairboy?

Thanks!

-Rob

[rbudrick]

http://www.palmzip.de/palmzip/shope.htm

Here's a shop with much more reasonable prices (in euros)...very cool site on the item too.

Seems all I can do is get a dos prompt on this baby...

-Rob

[ubikuberalles]

I haven't used my Portfolio since the ribbon cable to the display busted years ago and I haven't repaired it yet (I got the part but it requires a lot of delicate soldiering).

When I first got my Portfolio back in the early ninties I used it mostly as a PDA. It had appointments, contacts and notebook software. I don't remember if that software was built-in or not but it did come with a utilities card. The keyboard is pretty good albeit a tad small. The small screen is a pain so if you type a lots of notes in the thing, like I did, you'll have to do a lot of scrolling.

I bought the Basic card and I was able to program a Lunar Lander program on it. Memory is limited but with a 64K card I was able to store my filles and programs easily.

You can get a serial port and/or a parallel port for the Portfolio. They fit in the expansion slot (only one port fits in the slot at a time). With these ports came software for both your Portfolio and your PC which allows you to transfer your files. I used my parallel port to backup all of my Portfolio files to my PC. Good thing too as I lost battery power a couple of times on the machine and lost all of the contents on the Portfolio and had to recover them from my PC.

IIRC the CPU is an 80C88 and it is SLOOOOW. So be patient if it takes a while to load a program.

128 K is good to have! If it's like my 64K card then there is a watch battery in the card. I don't think the Portfolio can tell you how much battery life is left in the card so it would be in your best interest to back up its contents (to PC if possible) regulalry.

If you don't have a power adapter for one, get one. That thing eats batteries almost as bad as my Game Gear.

Best Electronics has all of the parts if you need some replaced. They are at: http://www.best-electronics-ca.com/ There also are lots of other places you can get parts and accessories. The Portfolio was and still is big in Germany and so there are lots of web sites out there if you use Google to search for them.

Your post has inspired me to dig out my Portfoilio and check out what I have. I might even start working on replacing the bad ribbon cable and get the old thing going agian. It can't compete with my Cassiopeia but I might find a place for it.

If you have specific questions about the machine post them or PM me. It's been a while since I used a Portfolio but I'll try to answer as best as I can.

$5 for a Portfolio!!! Good work! :)