A reasonable brand Pentium 100 would do. We recommend starting at Pentium 133 up wards, but avoid using later models with USB ports only. Also Kalmaker is still MS-DOS based, and will not work with Windows XP.

There are 2 parts that effect the use of Kalmaker on a Laptop or PC.

Firstly, the Graphics and Screen Resolution
It must have minimum screen res of 800 x 600 in DOS, otherwise screen can either be jumbled, ( more likely graphics card), or page doesn't fit on screen, which means you  cant access Kalmaker Buttons.
Later laptops with larger screen res 1076 X 800 often only shows Kalmaker as small screen
This can be changed when opening Kalmaker, by typing after the KAL3 prompt -GVE:35
eg, KAL3 -GVE:35. This varies from laptop to laptop. You can try different numbers eg 33.
If your laptop spits it and says :- "Initial Grafix error", type in the same code as above.
What it is saying is, Kal 3 is 800 x 600 and the laptops screen res is 1024 x 800.
If this works, you will need to change the config file which is dead easy. This applies to both.
At the KAL3 prompt, type edit, and then press enter. A blue screen will appear, select File, and then select Open. A drop down box will appear with a list of files. Select KAL3.TFG, and then OK it.
Another blue screen appears, and half way down it you will see [grafix] and under that  GfxGod=ve:20.
Change the 20 to the numbers that work for you eg. 33, then Save, then exit.
Now just type Kal3 at the prompt again, and it will always go straight to the large size from then on.

Secondly, many later laptops will load and display Kalmaker perfectly, but will not Link to ecm/pcm
This is because the Comm Ports have been changed from software controlled to hardware
controlled, mainly thanks to Microsoft….. Some will link using Parallel Port, others have no Serial Port and have switched to USB. Usually these will not work.
There are settings you can play with to control these. In the Bios, the parallel port LPT1 must be set for Bi Directional, not ECP, and if using Parallel port you need to run a Link Test in Kalmaker to determine the most suitable clock speed and delay. Enter these figures and Save.
Something that often upsets the Serial Port is the Infra Red. You can disable this by right clicking on My Computer, then Properties, Device Manager, Infra Red, and then disable it.
I have found that if you get an old mouse that has a DB9 plug on the same as the serial port, plug this in. If it works, you will get the serial port to work and Link. If the mouse doesn't work, guess what, and I don't know how to fix this. Does Anyone know out there?????

We can supply used laptops with good battery, complete with 3 month warranty
We can install the software, and all manuals, and completely setup for you.
The prices approx $480