fUSION Anomaly. HP200LX Palmtop PC

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HP 200LX Palmtop PC
This nOde last updated June 7th, 2001 and is permanently morphing...
(1 Chicchan (Serpent)/1 Kan (Snake) - 105/260 - 12.19.8.5.5)

Update 1/15/99

well, after losing this sucker september of last year at a thrift store of all places, i got over it real quick and went and got myself a palm III that same day. as for data loss, i had a 9 month old backup, and i transferred most of the data over. i did lose a lot of important phone numbers but i can't dwell on it. the palm III sucks for data entry but the go-type keyboad should do the trick. the best thing about it is the 2 megs and hot synch. no more worries. the 200lx was the bomb while it lasted. several reasons: it was free. a gift from work. i learned a hell of a lot about mobile data using it in pure geek fashion. i now have a better picture of what i need, and the palm III suits me in this respect. a big reason is the user base. it's unfortunate, but that is the only reason why i'm still using microsoft products. - @Om* 8/3/98

I own the 1MB RAM model. no flash card, single speed.

external DOS programs running:
LXPIC - graphical viewer (can view .jpg and .gif)
Tai Pei - game
Search - grep text search
Solitaire - game (klondike)

internal applications contain:
database of personal music/video/book inventory
appointments/to do/calendar/pim
phone/address book

the greatest by-product of this whole thing was the little reading light that illuminated the HP in dark places. backlight or indiglo technology wasn't around then either so the next best thing was to buy a ten dollar booklight which clipped on perfectly to the side of the unit. i maybe have lost the palmtop, but i still have that light and use it quite frequently.

back in 1996, this machine was the shit. it ran MS-DOS programs, which meant the biggest library of free downloadable software in the world until the palm pilot came along. this worked because tap technology wasn't around at the time and point and click was completely useless.

Some known HP-LX Easter Eggs:

1. Lair of the Squid credits (200LX only):

Run Lair of the Squid. At the beginning of the game, you will see the first walled corridor. Type GALLERY and you will see a new corridor. Pictures of the development team's faces line the walls ahead of you to the left and the right. To view the faces properly, move forward then turn to look directly at them. At the fourth step forward and on your right is a plaque that reads:

     Very special thanks
     to all the people in HP
     and all the companies
     that made this palm-
     top possible.
         The Felix S/W Team

("Felix" was the developers' code name for the 200LX.) Go through the door to start a normal Lair of the Squid game.

2. Self Test poems

(95LX, 100LX and 200LX):
When the palmtop is off, press <ESC><ON> to run the Self Test.
Press <CURSORDOWN> once to select the Display test. Press <ENTER> 14 times to step through the test screens. You will see a poem that reads:

     There once was this thing from HP
     That fit in your pocket, you see.
     A caveman would stare
     And pull out his hair
     And wonder. "What could this thing be?"

Press <ENTER> until you return to the Self Test menu, then quit.
Your palmtop will reboot.

(100LX and 200LX only):
When the palmtop is off, press <ESC><ON> to run the Self Test.
Press <CURSORDOWN> once to select the Display test. Press <CTRL><ENTER> then <ALT><ENTER> 13 times to step through the test screens. You will see a poem that reads:

Felis Concolor

     A funny thing happened on the way to the forum
     When I encountered a group in search of a quorum.
     They came from a city. The Burg On The Wire,
     If I tried To describe it you'd call me a liar.
     They wanted to charge me a really quite large fee
     For the dubious pleasure of sharing their treasure.
     "I'm a very Good man (Mark my words if you can),"
     "But, the Dickens, I say, I simply won't pay!"
     And with poetry, then, I proceeded to bore ?em
     Then preceded myself on my way to the Forum.

(My Latin is poor, but I interpret "Felis Concolor" as "Cat of the same color". Maybe this has something to do with the developers' code names for the LX series. The rest of the poem is a mystery to me. Any guesses?) Press <ENTER> until you return to the Self Test menu, then quit. Your palmtop will reboot.

(200LX only):
When the palmtop is off, press <ESC><ON> to run the Self Test. Press <CURSORDOWN> once to select the Display test. Press <CTRL><ENTER> then <SHIFT><ENTER> 13 times to step through the test screens. You will see a poem
that reads:

     Nine lives has a Cat, and each Cat a name.
     All of them different, none are the same.
     Jaguar was the first, it made quite a roar.
     Cougar was next, oh, how it did soar.
     Felix is third, my heart it does quicken,
     knows what comes next, the clock is a tickin'.

(Again, the developers' code names for the 95LX, 100LX and 200LX were "Jaguar", "Cougar" and "Felix", so this poem is rather easy to understand.) Press <ENTER> until you return to the Self Test menu, then quit. Your palmtop will reboot.

3. System Manager hex data (200LX only):

>From the System Manager, while holding <ALT> press <F9> four times then <F10> once. As long as you continue to hold <ALT> you will see six columns of hexadecimal information for each program managed by the System Manager. (Thanks to the crew at the old EduCALC website for this one! This may be less an Easter Egg than a development tool that was never edited out of the production release.

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