1980s Zenith Supersport laptop computer

[getgot1]

Web 1.0?

[jnichols3]

Had a Tandy 1000 EX with an 8088. I had used it very little and it was kept packed up over the years. It was in mint condition, and I could not bring myself to throw it away years later. Fortunately the local university took it in and it now it resides in a display case in its computer museum.

[XxKenManxX]

how the fuck did you upload this video? the video file is 500x the size of that things i dont even know lmao

its so old the mother boared is brown

[Sheep221SK]

Nice collection of vintage hardware you have

[Ejak2021]

SuperSport; Is it a Camaro?

[mung0jerry]

Yes, those Tandy monitors were good quality, especially the CM-11 you have but it was expensive. I had a CM-4 that came packaged with my original Tandy 1000 I bought in '85. I still have a CM-5 and a Tandy 1000HX that I acquired later.

[iryan74656]

And now we have a world smallest laptop computer and desktop:)

[Techno1053]

The white thing looks like c4

[landovers]

454kb. 179kb free. awesome :P

[girlstorm09]

im only 21 so this is way b4 my time...i didnt know some old computers were like how gameboys were...where you cant play a game on the gameboy without a cartage....so here i guess the computer wont do anything at will with out floppies:P Also internet wise what could you do on there?

[vwestlife]

@girlstorm09 Using a modem and dial-up service offering Lynx, you could get on the Internet with it, but only in text mode... no graphics.

[schemaia]

What about the Blu-Ray and Hdmi cable support?!

[4543563]

Alienware 17x is still bigger.

[LegacyMusicHome]

if you trow that against somebodys head, he will be dead

[cyrix1986]

Good stuff man, my first laptop was a zenith! was a Z-noteflex. 486 @ 50mhz, 210mb hdd and 16mb of ram and an 8 bit DSTN color display. I remember installing windows 95 on it via floppies as it lacked a cd-rom drive. good times :)

[therealandycook]

i wish my laptop had a handle :(

[Dell0304]

cool, surprised that an old laptop would survive that long!

[bummers]

ah ... the beige 80s!

[TheMadcroc23]

@pandaenjoi13 : lol no, the internet was invented in 1990. The 90's was a huge era for computer programers, and revolutionized gaming. Lol thats y i love 90's games for the PC. my personal favorite is ElderScrolls: Daggerfall, and blood.

[vwestlife]

@TheMadcroc23 APRANET, which later became the Internet, was invented in 1969, but the modern Internet as we know it today was created with the introduction of the World Wide Web in 1993.

[wasssup1990]

@TheMadcroc23

Go 90's! Go Duke Nukem!

[crazydog99007]

Dosent iy have a 2in floppy disk drive?

[vwestlife]

@crazydog99007 It was the Zenith MiniSport that used the special 2-inch floppy disks. The SuperSport uses regular 3½-inch floppy disks.

[crazydog99007]

@vwestlife Ah

[XxKenManxX]

Lmao he walks in like starbuckz wit that thing haha lol I walk in with my 4 Tera bite six core intel ice-fire note book ...it's not on production yet the six core prossesors but I work on making proccesors out of cheaper materials so u get the latest tech early my computer runs 6000 ghz YA

[PratosKS]

@XxKenManxX

6000 ghz? I call shenanigans

[XxKenManxX]

@PratosKS lmao it was a joke haha i think the earth simulator runs a total of like 1000 ghz thats the fukin earth simulator haha i got 2.40 ghz

[TheMadcroc23]

lol what was dos? was that like the internet back then, on my computer i have something called the dosbox version 0.73, and they look similar, what was the purpose of dos back then?

[vwestlife]

@TheMadcroc23 Ever hear of Google? Go there, type in "DOS", and do a little research on your own.

[Garrettization]

@vwestlife where did you get this laptop vwestlife?

[4543563]

i herd dos is used for teh haxxors

Lol.

[crazydog99007]

@TheMadcroc23 An OS

[Kbrusky15]

@TheMadcroc23

Chirst man how old are you? ._.

[123RADIOactive]

That looks pretty cool!! How much does this vintage item cost nowadays??

[sezjackproductions]

wow very modern lol

[tigerintermusic]

holy shit

[remagoediv]

Wow I have one just like it except there is no handle and it says Zenith Data Systems not Supersport. Mine works on a super nintendo adapter

[MrPlug]

Hey I got one of those too! my battery is toast but the thing works awesome!

[susreebbsr]

I am proud of zenith computer

[dan1986ist]

wasn't there a model with a hard drive?

[vwestlife]

Yes. I mention it in the video description.

[GopulAnand886]

Please talk about specs with Zenith Supersport laptop

[vwestlife]

@GopulAnand886 Google "zenith zfl-184" and click on the first result.

[user12119]

Do not click on the first link! fortunecity is a know site for malware.

[ChowderHeadFilms]

does this have internal battery or only the external

[vwestlife]

@ChowderHeadFilms The battery clips on the back. There is no internal battery.

[Lachlant1984]

Why do they call it SuperSport?

[vwestlife]

@Lachlant1984 Actually they spelled it "SupersPORT", with the PORT emphasizing "Portable."

[delwi1]

how much was that laptop in the 80s?

[vwestlife]

A Consumer Reports article from 1989 says that the list price for this Zenith laptop was $2399, but they only paid $1188 for it. It also had the largest screen of any laptop they reviewed back then.

[stereomann83]

i seen one like this at the thrift store today for $10

it came on but it said it was missing the os

do you think it is worth $10.00

and where can i get the os for it

can you download it online?

[vwestlife]

You would need to get DOS on 3.5 inch 720K floppy disks... which is a bit hard to do from scratch because almost all floppy disks made in the past decade are the high density 1.44 MB kind, which will not work in these older laptops. I'd say to pass on it unless you can find these 720K disks or if you just want to fool around with it and not really try to use it.

[Kittymittenmuffify]

Were do they sell those laptops that you introduced to youtube? (The zenith thingy)

[vwestlife]

Flea markets... thrift stores... garage sales... eBay... Craigslist... you just have to look around and maybe you'll find one.

[Kittymittenmuffify]

Were do they sell those? Please answer....

[vwestlife]

Where do they sell *what*? Be more specific...

[ForgetfulCollector]

This video made me want one. Except I think I might rather go for the one with a hard-drive and built-in modem to help simplify things a little.

[mrxgerman]

With this Notebook you can kill someone

[Mycatisbigfoot]

the only thing i know in dos is dir and setup and /?

[AnalogueJosh]

Co-processor, I guess that's like having a co-pilot on board youe Zenith :D

[lilmissfaboulous343]

I saw it on EBAY!! for 60.00 bucks me and my are trying to get it

[NameNotaNumber]

Looks like it's built like a tank. Early examples of new technology always were since they had to prove themselves in the market. I still have a Marantz CD player from the early 80's, one of the first to come out....it weighs a ton and still works like a dream.

[jonytonybonk]

i wonder if it will run farcry 2 jk

[kingcrimson234]

that thing won't even run wolfenstein 3d.

[NiGhtMarEs0nWax]

lol made me laugh mate ^^

[jonytonybonk]

guess what i don't care for comment rating if you don't know jk means just joking.

[vwestlife]

Actually, it means "just kidding." ;-)

[sawu101]

it means both

[vorkev1]

i have this and want to bet its the same one. It looks just like mine witch is suposed to be a 386 acording to the people i got it from. but after i looked it over i d termined its a 8086. hase the modem and 2 floppy drives and a working battery and the case and disk for it.i am actuley going to pute it up for sail soon along with my kaypro 4.

[Zagroseckt]

brandonkr This is an old school pc man. aside from saving your work Befor you switch it off theirs no special procedure .. Power switch on = start booting Power switch off = i'm off.

[Noyjeetut]

Cool little machine.

[vwestlife]

It's cool, but it sure ain't "little" by modern standards! :-)

[hjortekid]

Great video, with a great computer

[BryanBeatsYouAll]

well the oldest thing i have is a toshiba satelite t2010cs that runs on windows 95.

[bbishoppcm]

My two favorite notebooks were the SuperSport line and the Macintosh 170. I owned dozens of these in my high school years. I had several SupersPort 286es and one 8088 like yours. Good find!

[hotchalupa]

The good ol' Tandy CM-11... My favorite CGA monitor of all time. I had one of the "all beige" versions, mated to an EGA card that I ran at 640x200x16 mode with a special setting via DIP switches on the EGA card. Not many programs supported that mode, but a few games did (Flight Sim 4, for example). It also ran low-res EGA games perfect (320x200x16). Oh yea, I also had a Zenith Supersport 8088 with the 21mb HD and 2400bps modem... Reason I ran into your video. :)

[brandonkr]

is there a certain way that you have to turn that computer off or do you just flip the switch off? because todays computers you have to go to the start menu and click turn off. i was wondering if you have to do something like that.. because i dont want to buy one of these and not know how to turn it off.

[vwestlife]

On old computers which run DOS, like this one, you can just switch the power off when you are done.  There is no "shutdown" command.

[brandonkr]

ok thank you

[bluenazz]

Back in 1993, I supported a fleet of Zenith 386 laptops at work and they were excellent quality units, far better than the IBM's that we were also running.

[turewarrior0]

wow thats old.

[spatsbear2]

Nice!

[everyonelovesbutters]

i always thought cga was 4 colors and ega was 16...

[vwestlife]

Standard CGA has 16 colors in text or 160x100 graphics modes, 4 colors in two palettes as the foreground plus one of 16 colors as the background in 320x200 graphics mode, and 2 colors in 640x200 graphics mode. EGA gives you 16 colors in both of those graphics modes plus also a hi-res 640x350 graphics mode with 16 colors out of a palette of 64.