Thoughts on the Psion Series 5/5mx, the Gizmondo, the Dell Axim x50, Windows 98 SE, retro computing, and DOS emulation

So I had a little play with my recently purchased #Psion Series 5mx, and it's an impressive bit of kit; apart from the communications cable and the stylus, everything else is complete and in place, which surprised me as I was expecting the comms-link software to be missing as well! The unit itself is in really good condition, except the battery compartment doesn't fully close when there are batteries in it, unfortunately - yet it does close when there are no batteries in it! In any case, I want to start playing some #games on it, and so far I have found that there's a demo of V-Rally (yes, really) and also a version of SimCity for it available, both of which I have, along with other games! It also has #C64, #Spectrum and #DOS emulators available for it, although the DOS emulator is really only emulating a 4.77MHz 8088 CPU, which isn't a bad thing either, as I am planning to try Planet X3 (PX3) on it (with the associated video), and for the craic, I'll also do another video of me playing it on the 3DS XL as well, seeing as there's a more powerful DOS emulator available for that!

Technically speaking, I could also play Planet X2 via the C64 emulators on both devices, so maybe I should do that as well in the video, as it's not too much extra work, although I would first introduce the emulators in separate videos, or at least having videos for emulators available for each device anyway! Going back to the stylus on the Psion Series 5mx, they aren't that cheap to get a hold of; a single loose stylus is around 16 quid, whereas 2 packaged styluses (or whatever the plural is) is around 24 quid, so by getting 2, I'm saving money slightly, as they average ar 12 quid each then, although there is also the option of 3 for 60 quid, if I'm desperate, seeing as 20 quid a stylus is quite pricey! As for the cables, they are 50-60 quid, and therefore, I need to find a cheaper way of picking up a cable! Admittedly, these are eBay Prices, but I do know a site that does them more cheaply, so I may go down that route... maybe the styluses are cheaper too!

I managed to also get a 2GB Compactflash Card with the 5mx, which is actually tons of space for them, seeing as, at the time, CF cards were measured in MB! After having a look at the CF card specs on Wikipedia (regarding revisions), I'm not entirely sure what the maximum CF card that the Series 5 or 5mx could hold; I know that the SD to CF "Extreme" adaptor doesn't work though, as I actually tested that out many weeks ago, using 2x512MB SD cards, so it has to be an issue with how the adaptor works, as the Micro SD cards themselves work. I have a 4.4GB "microdrive" which I'm using with my Dell Axim x50 #PDA, so I really don't want to mess around with that, as I have everything working how I want it in that regard, though I really want to get an x51v to see how well it works gaming-wise, and that in itself would definitely be worth another video! In any case, I do want to upgrade the 1GB CF card in the Series 5 to at least a 2GB one, although maybe I should look into testing a 4GB one in the Series 5mx to see what happens; there's always fun involved with working out how well newer hardware/accessories play with older systems.

All that said though, there is the option of purchasing a 6GB Microdrive (same form factor as CF, but literally a mini HDD, but equally, they're a bit less reliable than CF as they're mechanical). It does seem though that you can get a 4GB CF card for 5-6 quid though, so it might be worth the punt. I can get 2GB CF cards of the same brand if things don't work out with 4GB, plus I know that 2GB is the maximum. All that said, however, Wikipedia says that Microdrives are pretty much obsolete, given that flash memory has replaced them. In any case, I'd probably only get a microdrive if I absolutely needed one; looking at the prices of CF cards ordered from Hong Kong/China, it may be worth actually getting a few of different sizes from there for my P2 and P3 laptops, seeing as it lessens the power consumption, and the weight of each unit, as well as meaning that there's one less component that can fail! Plus, given I now have a decent CF card reader I can use in my current system, copying files is going to be a lot easier, though now I need to see what the maximum storage I need, vs the maximum that Windows 98 SE can take.

I know on one level that it's important to have systems be "pure" in terms of retro builds, but I think that this doesn't apply to storage drives, seeing as there are far too many benefits (plus ease of transferring files) to go down the purist route in that regard; laptops will especially benefit from this, and it's a damn site cheaper than PATA SSDs, which are quite expensive these days. That said, however, I do need to research any potential issues with larger flash drives, seeing as they use a different specification compared to older cards, but maybe it's not as fiddly as it is with SD cards, seeing as 2GB is peak storage for certain devices, though it looks like the Gizmondo can handle up to a 4GB SD card, so that's good to know. Of course, where does it stop with the Psion 5s? Better yet, can the 5mx handle larger CF cards as it's newer? This is somewhat uncharted territory, as many of these older systems have become extremely niche because they're for all intents and purposes obsolete, and no one but the most dedicated retro computer enthusiasts would experiment with such things anyway!

Due to having issues with "missing posting authority" when making the full-sized post on here, I have cut this post down by about half, with the rest being available on my WordPress blog via this link.

#psioncomputer #psionseries #psionseries5 #psionseries5mx #videogaming #retrogaming #retrocomputing #blog #stormkeepergu