DosPara's Prime Note Altair TB: a 14-inch laptop for low-end gaming

With a name like the Prime Note Altair TB, you'd think this new 14-incher would pack all kinds of swank. You'd be wrong, however, so wrong. This budget box is heading to DOSPARA shops in Japan courtesy of Third Wave Corp targeting the low-end gaming market, uh, if there is such a thing. As such, you get the yawntastic specs of a 1.3MHz Celeron M 350 proc, 40GB 5400RPM UltraATA disk, and DVD multi-drive coupled with a WXGA (1280x728) resolution on a glossy screen, up to 2GB of DDR2 RAM, and built-in ATI RADEON Xpress 200M graphics. Hell, it might just pull-off duty as your low-end, 5.3-pound portable gaming machine after all. And that low (for Japan) pre-order price of ¥87,580 or about $733 (sans OS) certainly helps the cause.

[Via Impress]

[eric Silverman @ Oct 24th 2006 9:43AM]

it really is an Altair! 1.3 MHZ!

[CB @ Oct 24th 2006 9:44AM]

Hmm, just bought a Toshiba with the 200M GFX card, works pretty well for most modern games as long as you turn all the sliders down, the biggest problem is the 5400rpm disk, just doesnt cut it for loading incoming baddies.

Got a 7200 on order

[Matt B @ Oct 24th 2006 10:20AM]

Celeron and gaming don't belong in the same sentence. Unless, low end gaming means online poker and such.

[HughJass @ Oct 24th 2006 10:35AM]

Well said :-D

[strider_mt2k @ Oct 24th 2006 10:35AM]

"Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory was originally planned as an add-on for Return to Castle Wolfenstein, but soon became it's own game, a separate entity with full single player, multiplayer, AI opponents and teammates! Well that didn't happen and what we got, while less than planned, is amazing...and FREE! Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory is a free, stand-alone multiplayer only product, which means it's for online play only, but all you need is what you download. You do not need anything else to play Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, than what you download for free. No Return to Castle Wolfenstein, no additional file packages or monthly charges, just one phat lump of action, and did I mention it was free? (Sorry but people still can't believe it)."

http://www.planetwolfenstein.com/enemyterritory/

The specs are quite low on Enemy Territory.
I was just setting it up on my Dell B130!

Lots of older games have online capability and are still fun to play, like Quake 2 for instance.

[FantasiaWHT @ Oct 24th 2006 12:00PM]

I've got a widescreen Toshiba with 200XM graphics, and like CB, I can play any modern game I want to as long as most of the sliders are down to minimum or just above it. I'm not a fan of FPS, tho, so I don't have to worry about the heftiest games, but MTW2, Company of Heroes, Civ 4, Stronghold 2 have all been playable without looking horrid. I even got Oblivion running, although when I went into combat my framerate was like a slideshow hehe. Looked pretty until things started moving ;)

[Tony Rayo @ Oct 24th 2006 12:07PM]

The PC gaming community in Japan is much different than it is in America/Europe. This kind of rig makes sense for Japan although it makes NO sense whatsoever to have a 5400RPM drive in a computer these days, even for a low-end design - 7200 costs just a tiny bit more and make a world of difference. Anyway back to Japan, many games released for the country (even news ones) have a recommended CPU of 700mhz at most. You have to remember the kind of games popular in Japan are text and click or puzzle games and such. Of course this doesn't apply for everyone. Also if someone was to buy a 1500$+ computer, it's much more likely they would buy a Mac than it would be here or in the US. Most of commercial work in done on these machines, although Macs have a good hold in that dept over here as well. You have to remember arcades are still huge in Japan and most people want to bring that experience home, so systems like the PS2 are more desirable than a PC a lot of the time.

- Tony R.