what is the best (easiest) handheld to hack for DOS use?

[archaic0]

I stumbled onto a hackaday article today about hacking the zipit z2 to run DOS or linux and it made me think about wanting to do this myself just to run a few old school DOS games that we all loved back in the day (which was a Thursday, by the way... nevermind)

The zipit z2 seems to be a pretty good choice, but after some reading maybe a DS or PSP might be good (better?).

I have never owned any one of these handhelds so I'd be buying it fresh just to modify. The zipit is only $50 it looks like but some have said that a DS can be had for that too.

My purpose here is to create a handheld system that can run DOS and some of the old school games like capture the flag, battle chess, even doom and quake if possible (I ran them on a 486DX2-66Mhz). Instead of me starting blind I was hoping for some input maybe from those of you who have done this kind of thing for a while now.

If you had my purpose, which handheld would you buy and if you have links to guides it would be very much appreciated! And I don't really mind if the handheld costs more for better hardware, I just want the best platform for this as I can get. A physical keyboard does seem appealing, but the DS with a screen dedicated to a keyboard is fine too. For a PSP would there be a constant on-demand on screen keyboard?

Thanks in advance! I'm looking forward to joining this handheld mod community.

[Axaj]

I would suggest the Pandora, if you can wait a few more months. The Wiz might have something that will suit you, but you would have to look into that yourself.

[eagle5953]

I've messed around with DOS on PSP - it requires a lot of work up front as far as programming buttons. Also, forget any games that require more keys than the PSP has buttons. Yeah, there's a way to have a full keyboard, but you need to hit two or three buttons per letter and keep a copy of the translation handy. In the end, OK for a few games, but there's got to be something better out there.

[archaic0]

Well if I'm going to go as big as Pandora I could just pick a netbook. I'm sure there are plenty of DOS emulators out there for WinXP (or linux) that run on the netbooks.

I guess the question now is whether I want to have my cake on a mini-laptop or on a tiny handheld game system...

At first this was just a cool little side project, but an actual cheap laptop could be useful for other things I guess. hmmm.

[bicostp]

I'm sure there are plenty of DOS emulators out there for WinXP (or linux) that run on the netbooks.

You want DOSbox. It's the definitive choice for running classic DOS programs on NT/Loonix/Etc.

http://www.dosbox.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It emulates most vintage PC hardware, and you just unzip your games to a directory then mount it as a hard drive in DOSbox (no messing with disk images).

[marshallh]

I have a Zipit z2 and it's cool, but unless you're a linux wiz it's a pain in the butt to get it working.