The ultimate portable old school RPG machine?

[Chewbacca]

After reading this I kinda want one!!!!


http://arstechnica.com/gaming/guides...pg-nirvana.ars

excerpt:

Great art stands the test of time, and demands of us a commitment commensurate with its greatness... or, at least that's the kind of thing I only half-ironically told myself as I pulled the trigger on the purchase of an obsolete, slightly brickish, $1,300 tablet PC, which I bought to turn into a portable console for classic computer RPGs. I'm a sucker for old-school isometric RPG titles—Temple of Elemental Evil, Icewind Dale 1 & 2, Planescape:Torment, Baldur's Gate 1 & 2, Fallout 1 & 2—because they're true classics in every sense of the word, and when I began actively collecting used copies of them a little over a year ago, I wanted to make sure that I enjoyed them in style. After some long searching, I found that Samsung's overpriced "Origami" tablet PC is as close to the perfect platform for retro-RPGing as any I could imagine.

[JrKASperov]

What I don't understand is why he didnt just use the widescreen patches on a normal desktop, and why the tablet pc is so good.

I played PST on my 19' screen with that mod, and it did look awesome. At the right resolution one can truely appreciate it as the most beautiful game of the IE games. This is something that tended to get unnoticed at the low resolution it ran at.

[Chewbacca]

Originally Posted by JrKASperov What I don't understand is why he didnt just use the widescreen patches on a normal desktop, and why the tablet pc is so good. I played PST on my 19' screen with that mod, and it did look awesome. At the right resolution one can truely appreciate it as the most beautiful game of the IE games. This is something that tended to get unnoticed at the low resolution it ran at.

I think it's the portablity combined with how the tablet's touchscreen changes gameplay as opposed to a keyboard and mouse. Not to mention 6+ hours battery life is great for travel.

[JrKASperov]

I cant imagine playing such a game without the precision of a mouse though. A touch-pen or just your finger will have trouble hitting the right buttons or finding small objects methinks.

[Felix The Assassin]

Originally Posted by JrKASperov I cant imagine playing such a game without the precision of a mouse though. A touch-pen or just your finger will have trouble hitting the right buttons or finding small objects methinks.

I had long been interested in the idea of playing these games on a touchscreen tablet, because the point-and-click interfaces seem well-suited to this type of interaction. These RPGs are largely mouse-driven and offer fairly large click targets—character models, corpses, furniture, locations—that are easy to tap with stylus or a finger

Metinks that bout wraps it!

[Chewbacca]

That particular tablet has an interesting design. The split keyboard and PSP-like control sticks sound appealling, but I'd have to try it all out to be sure.