Why do I still have this computer? Why am I still able to find the DOS 3.2 boot disk? Why does it still boot? Why did I carry this computer around 25 years ago?
The NEC Multispeed EL wasn’t my first computer, but IIRC, it may have been my first portable computer. Portable in that the computer and case with the shoulder strap weighed 12 pounds (5.4 kg). I don’t remember what I was doing with it.
I just powered it on and wondered if the makers of Microsoft DOS thought anyone would ever be entering a date 25 years in the future when it asked for the current date.
My NEC Multispeed EL has a NEC 16 bit, 9.554 MHz V30 CPU (a reverse engineered Intel 8086), 640K RAM, dual 720K 3.5 inch floppy drives, a backlight monochrome LCD display and an optional Hayes compatible 2400 bps modem (CompuServe: GO NECTECH). It booted to DOS 3.2 and had a couple of applications (Telcom, Notepad, Outliner, Filer, Dialer) that loaded into RAM from the boot floppy. The boot floppy also setup a RAMDISK as drive C:.
Unfortunately, in a few days, it will go to the electronic waste at the Monterey Regional Waste Management District.
Do you have the original diskette for this laptop?
Sorry, I don’t have it anymore.
For some reason I was thinking about the older computers I used in the past, and I FONDLY remember this one. It was my first portable machine. I wrote so many programs for that thing in GW-BASIC.
You have a great piece of the past there my friend. If I had the funds right now I would buy that from you in an instant. They were built like tanks. I doubt that anything built today would run as long as that one. Shame to throw it away.
I have 4 of those.
1 Multispeed EL
2 Multispeed
1 Multispeed HD
Kewl machines. The floppy drives in them are worth big $$$ these days because they are 720k units, and the ones NEC used are VERY configurable to most applications where legacy industrial/manufacturing/music etc. equipment requires them.
If you decide to sell it, have someone take the drives out and sell them separately. You will get alot more money for it that way.
I don’t even think about to sell my first Laptop. I used my MultiSpeed as a terminal to mainframes (e.g. Sperry Univac 1100 series or Digital PDP 11). Further on it was my logging machine for RS232 connections.