Am 09.08.2005 um 11:18 schrieb Darren Branagh:
Hi and good morning everybody,
my name is Alex, coming from Germany and just found my old QL in the
cellar... after blowing the dust off the keys I recognized it again.
How cool it looks... still one of the most beautiful devices I've
even seen.
Hi Alex - and Welcome to the QL mailing list.
Agreed. I remember seeing one for the first time circa 1986, and
recall
thinking it looking like it fell off the back of a low flying
millennium
falcon :-) Coming from a humble ZX Spectrum, it was a different
world. It
was only when I got a PC several years later I realised how bad that
keyboard was... :-))
Yeah... I came from the C64, and we all remember this one... huge and
blocky. The QL was somewhat elegant compared to this... and it still is.
Jochen Merz of JMS Software is in Germany - see his website on :
http://smsq.j-m-s.com/main.htm
Yes, that was one of the first sites I found. I'm just a bit confused
about the fact that all the stuff on the net for the QL today is
commercial... I thought there should be a lot of abandonware after
all these years?
When I bought it in 1989, I was fascinated by this machine, but in
this pre-internet-time I was not able to make some contacts to get
some news or software.
Indeed - one good thing about this list is it has helped a lot of
people
blow the dust off their QL.
Well, I hope there is much traffic here, because I'm also interested
in reading from others... that's an interesting way to learn.
- Is there a way to get software from the net onto microdrive
cartridges, e.g. with a cable or something?
Probably, but in this day and age though the way to go is to pick
up a cheap
disk interface for a few euro - a trump card would be ideal and are
often
given away free at shows on even on this list from time to time...
This
allows up to 4 disk drives to be attached, but only supports DD
disks. It
also gives you an extra 768K of memory. A gold card, the next step
up, gives
you HD floppy support, a 68000 processor giving a huge speed
increase, and
2Mb of additional RAM. Both also come with toolkit 2 (a piece of
software
giving you very useful additional commands) These are available for
peanuts
nowadays, and almost an essential purchase. All you do then is
download the
file to disk, use QLtools or get SMSQ/E to read PC disks on the QL,
unzip on
the QL, and away you go.
Well, and here it starts again ;-) I don't even have a disk drive. We
Mac-users don't even remember how these devices looked, you
know... ;-) And to buy a disk drive with usb-port just for this
single purpose? Hmm... that's why I asked how to connect a CD-ROM.
I'm interested in this "Aurora" thing... is this a good solution? I'd
love to see the old QL case equipped with more power sooner or later.
- Where can I find good FTP Servers with QL Software? (Most links
that I found seem dead)
Dilwyn Jones website is the best source of sortware I find. A huge
collection of QL software, and he also has a links page to all the
other
major sites of QL interest with more software, and its written in
Dilwyn's
easy to understand way of doing things, so a beginner can easily
get the
info he needs.
The URL is : http://www.dilwyn.uk6.net/index.html
Noted. Thanks. :-)
- I found some QL-World Scans with some game reviews in it. I'm
interested in collecting games for the (standard) QL, as most of them
don't seem to be just conversions from other systems but QL-specific
developments. Is there some source on the net for this or do I have
to buy them all, the real old stuff too?
Well, this is an issue that comes up time and time again. The
status of most
games is unknown (ie. Is it freeware, still commercial, charityware or
whatever) as most authors have slipped into the unknown and cant be
traced.
Most of these games are now 2 decades old, and would yield the authors
little are no financial gain now, but yet as the status is in the
dark the
legal implications (and good manners) prevent us from releasing
them. Many
can be picked up on the original microdrives cheaply, and some have
been
updated and are sold again (RWAP software do a range of games)
while a lot
are available free to download on the Dilwyn Jones' site I
mentioned above.
Well, I would treat it this way: if there is no source on the net to
find to buy this very old stuff legally, I think there is no problem
downloading it, as far as the moral aspect is concerned. That's the
way they deal it in the C64 scene, for example. And there is some
unspoken agreement not to crack or spread new commercial software.
- Is there a kind of SCART-cable available? (The TV output is so
terrible...)
Tony Firshman can do this for you. I have a QL to SCART cable, and
I'm sure
Tony knows the wiring - He is on this list - Tony?
That would be great. I could try it myself with the schematics from
the manual, but I don't know the pins of the SCART-plug...
- How much effort is neccessary to connect a cd-rom-drive to the QL?
(Because I think it's the easiest way to get new software)
You'll need a disk drive interface like I mentioned above, probably
a Gold
card or Super Gold Card for extra RAM at least. An ATAPI CD-ROM
drive can be
connected via a QubIDE interface (a hard disk interface for the QL)
and
using software by Thierry Godfroy (ATAPICD) and Duncan Neithercutt
(QCDEZE)
it is possible to read CD's on a QL.
So I need two interfaces, right?
I'd be glad if someone could help me for a good start...
I'm curious and want to spend some fun time with this machine - don't
want to spend much money on hardware and stuff.
Hopefully you would have to - is there some generous sort out there
with a
disk interface and the like they'd want to give to a good home??
I'd be happy to host it... or any other hardware, software,
cartridges ;-)
Thank you very much
Alex
And to you. I hope you stay with us and contribute now and again.
And any
questions, just ask. You'll find us all a friendly bunch willing to
help
were we can.
Fine. I'm glad to be part of this here :-)
Thank you all...
Alex
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