Sinclair QL arrives at Chez Farrell

My latest acquisition...
A Sinclair QL computer, working but needs a new keyboard membrane and bubble mat ( on order ) as a bonus it came with a Kempston QL Disk Interface so I can use 3.5” Floppy or Gotek instead of the flaky Microdrive. That said Microdrive 1 works okay but the second one not so much.
I will take some pictures for you all tomorrow.

Matt this can be expanded to 4MB RAM and have a 24Mhz 68020 CPU, CF IDE Interface with an expansion card ( you will need deep pockets though )

 

A QL, at least you can use it for flood defense

Or door stop

 

You're just saying that because you KNOW you want it don't you sir! OOoh sir!

 

Do you have anything thing in my size....Oooh sir....

Mr Whitehouse to one side, never had a QL or Spectrum, yes to an 80 and 81 but never those two others. Is there much software for the QL? Something about Quill is ringing a bell...

Just like Quasimodo....And he had the hump from it.

 

LOL! He's only Quantitively Looking (on in envy), Richie - Paul's more your C5 sorta low-profile retronaut!
Any road, I also acquired a QL a couple of years ago and I also found that the twin microdrives were a little "flaky". One just about worked and the other was having none of it. I managed to get the Quill word processor loaded but other apps wouldn't play ball.

Nevertheless, Dazza Cercamon fancied it and bought it off me for a decent deal all round - I got it as part of a bundle with a Speccy and ZX81 plus a load of tapes thrown in.

I don't think there was ever much in the way of commercial "arcade" games software for the beast - maybe the odd adventure and stategy game, AFAIK, but I am sure Richie will have fun getting her all back to her best.

Nice acquisition, Richie - the shape of things to come - not quite - but it was a strategic move by Sir Clive to try and provide a cheap business machine before the likes of Amstrad, Apple, Atari and of course IBM clobbered the market.

 

That's one thing I've never been called before, low profile

Poor old Sir Clivies, not his best push, truly a C5 of the computing world. But for a doing it up idea its a fine one. I'd seriously like to know if any games ever did make their way on to it..

 

There was this one, buddy, that almost made it...

 

Apparently, these did:

 

Steve Davis snooker, is there a machine this was not on!

 

YEP... the Oric, mate!

 

Can you imagine playing snooker on a ZX81? ...

Thinking about it there may have been a pool game for it.

cannot believe there was no Snooker game for the old Oric.

 

There is a fair bit of software on the QL, just a lot of it was not very high profile. There is a small but friendly community and they are spread all over the globe as well. Baz is right about Bandersnatch I have seen pictures of it on a QL, I think they were using one to write it?
I have my Gotek running on it now and there is a version of Rainbirds’ “The Pawn” and a parody you would like Paul called “The Prawn”. There are also something to do with Infocoms’ interpreter for adventure games.
Microdrives are very unreliable these days and the two on my QL work, although number two will not format just read and write. So the floppy card makes it a far better machine and SuperBASIC is looking pretty impressive as far as BASIC’s go. I don’t know how fast it is compared to my other machines. The Beeb seems the fastest BASIC so far. The 68008 seems to be a 16 Bit CPU with a 8 Bit bus so you have to write words in two goes.

 

I'm glad to hear there was a lot of software for the QL, there's nothing worse than a computer with limited software. As for it not being high profile, Jeff Minters initial stuff wasn't high profile but it was seriously good stuff

I do mock some machines but its a laugh in truth, we had Sord M5's and other Forth based machines at Maplin which I never got on with but a computer is always a good thing, anything that helps teach people and makes the old noggin work gets an up vote in my book even if I never had one.

As for the limpet that is Steve Davis Snooker, amazing the Oric never got it, and lol, Snooker on a ZX80, I bet somewhere there is one in the archives. I used to play Pool 400 / 800 on the Atari and just set the friction to its lowest just to see how many times I could pot all the balls from a break off

Snooker and especially Pool was my great love, played it at but never professionally although I beat some of the top players in tournaments such as a real misery guts Maltese Joe Barbara, talk about a poor loser. Sadly Steve Davis Snooker was just so crap Best Pool / snooker games stand as Archer Mcleans Pool and Virtual Pool on the PC.

 

Yes, Bazza is right. I fancy the QL, because a good friend of mine bought one back in the 80s and I used to help him discover the features. I remember him using it for coding in Pascal, while following a course at the University (Math). Not much software was out for the elegantly designed Sinclair's attempt to go into the 16bit market. We used to play Match Point with keyboard, one against the other and Cyrus Chess by PSION. The microdrives were a real PITA but with a 3.5" floppy disk it can resemble to a good machine for professional and entertainment purposes. So I admit it, my interest is bound to nostalgic reasons, mostly. Still a good machine for geeks like me.

 

Yeah I was into Snooker in the last few years of my Secondary education around '82-'84. My mate had a full size Snooker table in the garage and we were round there all weekend sometimes.
Still cannot play for toffee thought
I know you were messing about Paul, we have the same sense of humour. I do the same myself sometimes, the days of playground rivalries is long gone.
I do like the obscure computers that never really caught on along with the more common suspects. The Sord M5 is quite rare now and sounded interesting with the different types of BASIC on cartridges. I used to get a magazine called "The Home Computer Course" from the newsagent and in it there used to be a feature on the various computers available and had an exploded view of the computer with the PCB visible. I used to be fascinated with PCB design and how they worked and the design choices as I was doing Design & Technology at School/Sixth Form.
The QL is an interesting machine and if we could turn the clock back and make some different decisions it could have competed more favourably with the competition. That being said I think Sir Clive was not someone who would change his mind once made and the focus on keeping costs to a minimum and releasing it in an unfinished state did not help.
The expanded QL with a modern Gold Card clone with Floppy/CF Card and expanded RAM gives you a machine that is a very capable machine. It can run a multi-tasking windowed environment more akin to the early Acorn machines from what I have seen. I haven't explored that side of it much as I'm just getting started with the machine. I am a Sinclair fan along with Atari & Oric so it was nice to add one to my collection, now I need to seek out a Spectrum 48K+ and a ZX81 to round out my collection.

 

There are times I have wanted a ZX80 and 81 back but then I remember the ram pack you had to velcro on and the wanting just stops dead. And yes, like most people I suffered at the hands of that git rampack and I did actually velcro it in the end.

Ah, a full size snooker table in the garage, jeez, I would have spent weeks in there

Pool was my passion, snooker was just a bit of fun, now if I won the lottery I'd probably have both tables but saying that, my eyesight is rubbish now, I'd have to buy a guide dog to get me to the table (its not THAT bad)

As for a Spectrum, never has done a thing for me, saw the colour clash and just could not bring myself to buy one, went the Vic 20 instead and loved Radar Rat Race on cart..

Just checked my area for coronvirus cases 2hrs ago and it was 5, just checked pre to posting this and it was 8, I fear it could get worse

Now if only my b*stard neighbours upstairs could get it, they are the reason for my sig..

 

The Spectrum was my first introduction to computers. Our Design & Tech teacher was playing “The Hobbit” up to that point I was still using my VCS2600 so I was blown away by what it could do. Money was tight so my Dad wouldn’t cough for a C64, Atari or Beeb. I had seen Manic Miner running on the Speccy and was quite happy to have one. Later on things changed and I was able to get a better machine.

 

Sorry to be late to your QL party @Vyper68 ! I've been busy with work and chores.

Yes, I have been very intrigued by the Sinclair QL for many moons. I always thought it was so cool looking and had a very stylish keyboard. But as you said, these things are pretty expensive. I should have tried to pick one up about 10 years ago when they were still affordable on the second hand market. Kudos to you for acquiring one! But I have sort of lost a bit of interest over the last few years just like the other 16-bit lines like the ST and Amiga. Though at least I owned those for a while.

Mostly my interest has waned because I have come to realize I don't even have enough time to do all I want with my Atari 8-bits, so when would I ever find the time to give some "lurve" to other micros, especially 16-bits, let alone some of the other 8-bits I admire. But at least the C64, which will most likely be my next non-Atari 8-bit has a small footprint that will fit next to my 800 and 1200XL. The rest will have to wait until I have more room and time, if that ever happens, and the QL and Amiga are down the list beneath several 8-bits I want first.

 

C64 & Amiga Matt, a perfect pairing, some great great stuff on both, the Amiga is still my fave OS to work on and the C64 with a Ultimate 1541+ cart just gives you everything you need but knowing you it will mean a 1541MrkII and a Tape drive for that real hardware feel

The unfortunate thing is the 1541 standard drive weighs a TON so any shipping involved means almost certain damage unless you get a PROPER seller who cares.

 

While I thank you for your compliments on my PC choices, I prefer to think of Jay Miner's 800 & Amiga as being the perfect pairing, and the C64 & ST lines as the other perfect pairing, being from the same engineer heritage as each other as well. Brand names mean nothing to me anymore since they are all dead, it lineage that matters to me, in as much as any of it matters, I like them all! Though...depending on the model of C64 and Amiga I get, I could have the perfect aesthetically matching pair, and same with the XE & ST lines. But I want a bread-bin 64 and I want an Amiga 2000 I can upgrade, with 68030/60 and extended memory and AGA board, etc., like I had 15 years ago.

 

I hope you have a lottery win in your future

 

Just saw this sleek looking smart Sinclair QL desktop on one of the FaceAche retro micro forums - gaze and drool, Sinclair Simons!



Giving you any ideas, Rich?!

Some actual QL workstation "action" here too, chaps:



Hope to catch some of you online for a Skype/Zoom a bit later, fellas.

Cheers - stay safe and stay well - keep yourselves occupied with a good ol retro BLAST and feedback on Atari Owner when you get the chance.

 

I am waiting on some PCB’s to build an internal 512KB RAM expansion and a ROM adapter to allow a 27c512 EEPROM in one socket instead of the 32KB & 16KB mask ROMs. That way I can end up with a 640KB QL with the Minerva OS and ToolKit II fitted.

 

Just noticed the avatar, I knew you and Baz were close...No doubt swapping data...