Compaq Portable Plus (1983)


The Compaq Portable was the first successful luggable IBM-PC compatible computer. Since Compaq had reverse engineered the original BIOS, IBM could do little to stop them except create their own luggable. However, by then the damage was done and the Compaq Portable continued to sell very well. My unit is the “Plus” model which is identical to the regular model except for a built-in 10MB hard drive and nice gold badges placed on the case. It is quite a unique experience playing classic DOS games on a ghosting green screen.

Here’s my review and tear-down video for the unit: