Toshiba Satellite Pro 430CDS - Why it's unsuitable for DOS gaming on the go.

This is very quick demonstration of my Toshiba Satellite Pro 430CDS.
It's almost an ideal laptop for DOS gaming, but not quite for a few good reasons.
Firstly, check out that crazy motion blur.
That unfortunately is a product of the type of display it uses, the thankfully no longer used Dual Scan Twisted Nematic LCD technology. Another system that used this sort of technology (as well as old computers of the era) were probably most recognisably, the Sega Game Gear.
As you can see, they're very slow response time, and are very prone to smearing, noise, low contrast, and are just generally pretty unsuitable for gaming.
The other reason is its screen resolution. This machine has an 800x600 display, but the vast majority of DOS games were happiest in 640x480. On a laptop like this, because the LCD displays of the time couldn't scale their display, that means rather than getting a full screen image, you got a 640x480 portion of the screens pixels, with a black border all round.
Otherwise, this machine is a pretty decent DOS machine.
The specifications are as follows:
Intel Pentium @ 120Mhz
16MB RAM
1.26GB HDD
CD-ROM drive
Sound Blaster compatible sound card
Windows 95.
You can always connect it to an external monitor, then everything displays fine, and external monitors can often scale the image to the screen size correctly, but that of course somewhat diminishes its worth as a portable DOS gaming machine.
The machine of this era that seems to be the holy grail of the above requirements is the Toshiba 400CDT. That has a modern style TFT display which suffers from none of the problems previously described, and that panel is also 640x480, which gives you full screen gaming.
Finding one though, might be tough.

Пікірлер: 12

  • @shabazz18
    @shabazz185 жыл бұрын

    Is it possible to swap out the panel? I have a 435cds. Of course, finding a screen might be harder than a different computer

  • @BaumInventions
    @BaumInventions6 жыл бұрын

    Hi i own a Satellite Pro 430CDT (T is for TFT). It is equipped with a TFT Display instead of a STN Display and 32MB Ram.

  • @ShokaLion

    @ShokaLion

    6 жыл бұрын

    That's awesome; that's the version of this laptop you really need for old games. The CDS is almost perfect other than the screen, so the CDT fixes that problem completely. Nice machine to have.

  • @gnome3467
    @gnome34672 жыл бұрын

    is my toshiba good? it has i5-2410m 320gb 4gb intel hd graphics 3000 2.30 ghz

  • @retrox7192
    @retrox71923 жыл бұрын

    Cc tu à les cd usine ?

  • @ThePixelPolygon
    @ThePixelPolygon7 жыл бұрын

    In some cases, games like Duke Nukem 3D will support SVGA resolutions. But, there's nothing you can do about the DSTN screen, unless you use an external monitor. You said it can diminish its worth as a gaming machine, but it may be diminished anyway if the battery is dead. Like actually dead, can't hold a charge anymore. Not trying to hate, but just bringing up a few points.

  • @ShokaLion

    @ShokaLion

    7 жыл бұрын

    Fair comments. I know some DOS games worked in SVGA, but a lot didn't, if you were going for a DOS machine specific, you'd pick one that would play most games in the most pleasing way, I'd reckon. Battery wise, that laptop is actually pretty good. You can get an hour out of it, which isn't bad for a twenty year old laptop. In any case most people who have these old machines aren't planning to take them on the train with them, they're just a much neater way to do true DOS gaming on a machine of the era (as opposed to having a full 486/Pentium desktop machine set up.

  • @playgroundsinc
    @playgroundsinc2 жыл бұрын

    Can I ask you a question

  • @ShokaLion

    @ShokaLion

    2 жыл бұрын

    You just did! :D But you can ask another if you want. :)

  • @playgroundsinc

    @playgroundsinc

    2 жыл бұрын

    @@ShokaLion could you replace the screen on this model with a diffrent one

  • @ShokaLion

    @ShokaLion

    2 жыл бұрын

    @@playgroundsinc I honestly don't know. Considering the TFT variant of this laptop, the 430CDT is otherwise practically identical, it wouldn't surprise me if the internal connections are the same. The monitor lid itself is different, because the CDT variant only has one adjustment wheel on the lid - brightness - whereas the CDS has brightness and contrast. But it wouldn't surprise me at all if the bottom half of the laptop, keyboard, the rest of the workings, is identical. That's a long way of saying "I don't know" but I'm going to say "probably".

  • @zeloscars

    @zeloscars

    6 ай бұрын

    @@ShokaLion i just bought a 430CDS with in really good condition with a battery that can last around 2 hours and im looking to replace the screen with the CDT's one, i just need to find a CDT with a good screen in it that i can use