Linus torvalds lbtsoft sinclair ql activities sinclair ql. Software sites tucows software library shareware cdroms software capsules compilation cdrom images zx spectrum doom level cd featured image all images latest this just in flickr commons occupy wall street flickr cover art usgs maps. It would be interesting to have a development blog for new hardware developments or mods. The qlusers mailing list is the traditional virtual meeting place for all things ql. Games, file handler, sound and graphics programs are included. Prism ql14 monitor for sinclair ql computer nightfall. The sinclair ql is a 68008 processor computer, launched in 1984 by sinclair research. A q68 was acquired and one irritation was the eddicon could not run on the 512x384 16 bit colour resolution screen as it only used a window 640x480.
While the inexpensive microdrives sounds like a good idea, they are limited in speed and data capacity. Use the original sinclair device driver to access microdrive images. Dilwyn jones sinclair ql blog the world of the sinclair ql at. Backed with the success of the millionsellers zx81 and zx spectrum, sinclair research limited put everything on one card and established a complete ecosystem for the ql. The prism ql 14 is a color monitor for sinclair ql. Its actually pretty common for ql software to contain bugs that cause unhandled exceptions as when running on sinclair roms most of these exceptions where simply ignored by qdos and many software authors didnt even have a chance of noticing the problem. Kodi archive and support file community software vintage software apk msdos cdrom software cdrom software library console living room software sites tucows software library shareware cdroms software capsules compilation cdrom images zx spectrum doom level cd. Sinclair ql for sale in uk 15 secondhand sinclair qls. The repository sinclair ql preservation project sqpp. Quanta the sinclair ql user group sinclair ql wiki for indepth information about the sinclair ql, its hardware and software sinclair ql forum for help and general discussion about the sinclair ql sinclair ql homepage general information pages and the largest download site for software rwap software the last remaining sinclair ql trader. Originally released in 2007, stiqqies has had a small update in 2019 to add home directory support and fix a few minor bugs. However, there is still a blossoming trade in second hand software on sellmyretro. Home news wanted ads guestbook environmental about us contact us site map blog forums.
Welcome to dilwyn joness ql information and pd software download pages. This is the most common format for distributing ql software. Note i took the opportunity to install the minerva rom v1. Since i started a real preservation exertion for all the software produced during the 80s and 90s, in order to avoid the socalled digital oblivion, the colleague stefano guida interviewed me about the work being carried out.
Ive added quite a few ql software packages from qbits to my site this week. All of the material here is for the sinclair ql and compatible computers and emulators only, unless otherwise stated. It has been some time since there was time to update this blog. Use it on a ql to create images of your microdrive cartridges also works with any copyprotected software you own that can be used with the emulator.
This former commercial program was originally written by chris boutal and later sold with some updates by rich mellor through rwap software ukas part of the 30th anniversary celebrations of rwap software, it has now been released as freeware, complete with all sources to to. Qxlwin is a cross platform application that allows the internal structure of a qxl a sinclair ql emulator pseudo hard drive file to be explored and manipulated almost at will. We sell a wide range of software and services for the retro sinclair ql home computer for you to purchase. These are mostly updated versions of older ql software from the company. Jan 10th 2014 this new website is the repository to host the files of the sinclair ql preservation project sqpp. A wide range of hardware, including addons, upgrades and interfaces has been developed for the sinclair ql over the years, so much so, that it soon became apparent that the single ql expansion port was not sufficient for the average ql user. Tynemouth software llp old computers, new computers, bespoke web design and software development, computer repairs, it and media services uk thursday, 3 december 2015 day 3 sinclair ql usb keyboard. Some months ago in the sinclair ql italian mailing list we talked about microdrive cartridges imagingdumping.
Unfortunately the thing never really took off and the world is now dominated by intel based pcs and arm based portable devices. Unfortunately, the ql was slow to market, while sinclair was fixing hardware and software bugs. Media in category sinclair ql the following 23 files are in this category, out of 23 total. When these were announced on ql forum, many of the early adopters remarked. Blog index and site links software for a sinclair ql. Its an interesting computer the sinclar ql, well interesting to me because its an underdog.
Peter joined psion and started work as software engineer in their london converted warehouse. A broken sinclair ql from 1984 now functions as an enclosure for the rather more recent raspberry pi. The professional was really for the apple mac market but i didnt have a mac at the time so i wrote it specifically on the ql using digital cs compiler and then later ported it to the mac it was actually a crazy plan that i had and it worked perfectly. Rich mellor of rwap released 4 in a series of boxsets of ql software, to mark the 30th anniversary of the sinclair ql. Erano registrati anche sulla cartuccia per microdrive allegata. This, of course wiped out a massive opportunity for the machine to have an huge established software collection. If you are just interested in finding out more about the sinclair ql home computer and trying out some of its games on your pc, we also offer the sinclair ql games collection, which is a package designed to be run under windows, and includes a runtime ql emulator package and. Qlpui is a prototype of a modern gui for qdos, running on a q60 video card. In 1982, tebby was hired by sinclair research as software engineer, part of the companys same grab for talent that brought david karlin into the fold. Qemulator is an emulator of the sinclair ql home computer for mac os x and. Qblog in spanish, but you could try automatic translation regularly posts articles about the ql and retrocomputing. A powerful beast for its day 1984 but hobbled by pennypinching design constraints.
Sinclair ql tetroid disk interface memory expansion the tetroid disk interface is a memory expansion, disk interface and card reader for the sinclair ql. In 1986 he wrote a software blitter gmove as an extension to the superbasic language of the ql. The sinclair ql home computer was released by sinclair research limited in 1984 the successor to the earlier sinclair computers, the zx80, zx81 and zx spectrum. Supporting two display modes, 256x256 pixels in 8 colours and 512x256 pixels in 4 colours, the sinclair ql was aimed at the small business market.
King amongst these was the qls storage devices, the woeful microdrives. I got some tips how to do that at ql mailing list, but the most valuable was experimenting on real ql and looking at excellent jm rom disassembly from c. The ql was the first sinclair computer to break away from the 8 bit z80 processor and to use the new motorola 32 bit 68000 series processor. This page collects a small sampler of qdos software for use on qls and emulators. Ql software downloads most of the packages on this site are in zip file format ql zip and unzip packages are available from the archivers page on this site, and current versions can also be obtained from the website of the official maintainer of the qdos infozip package, jonathan hudson. This project has been launched as part of the ql is 25 activities way back in 2009. Over the last few years many long lost items have been resurrected and several thousand files, may it be ql software, documentation or pictures became available again. The sinclair ql for quantum leap, is a personal computer launched by sinclair research in 1984, as an upperend counterpart to the sinclair zx spectrum. All the software packages here are for the sinclair ql computer and its. The sinclair ql is still strongly supported with a user group uk and bimonthly magazine, as well as the forums.
It adds 768k memory to the 128 of the plain vanilla ql, totaling the memory to 896 kilobytes. This core should support secondary sd card, but i couldnt find a working combination of sd card format and rom. Qemulator is a software emulator of the ql, running as an application in the windows and mac os environments. The sinclair ql forum is a great web forum for ql related discussions. New and improved psion software sinclair user 37 ql news. So i wrote a few pieces of software back in the early 90s. King amongst these was the ql s storage devices, the woeful microdrives. Sinclair ql adventures a microadventurers handbook pdf 9. Products for the sinclair ql, z88, zx spectrum and zx81. Qlvga lets you connect a sinclair qls rgb video output, from the 8pin din socket, to a monitor or tv with a computer vga video input.
It has a multitasking operating system and open hardware design. Ql discussion lists and blogs follow the official qemulator blog. All of the material here is for the sinclair ql and compatible computers and. Stiqqies is a sticky note program for ql systems running window manager 2 which means any system running a recent smsqe or a very recent version of pointer environment on qdos. Starting from the basics, the internal structure and register. Family tree program for sinclair ql in compiled superbasic and 68000 machine code. When it finally did ship in may 1984, some systems had the operating system in an external rom, which was plugged into the back of the system. Lovely sinclair ql miracle systems in very good condition hardly used. Items for the sinclair ql home computer bring your black.
Here are some of the projects that peter worked on in the first 12 months. For a long time, connecting a ql to a modern monitor has been a problem in two respects. The ql was aimed at the serious home user and professional and executive users markets from small to large businesses and higher educational establishments, but failed to achieve commercial success. The sinclair ql could be used with a tv set or a ttl colour monitor, and had a fullsized keyboard. Sinclair has released version two of the ql bundled psion software, and is shipping it to qlub members as well as with new machines. Qlpui provides a desktop, mouse pointer, window environment, window themes and scalable fonts select font load replace. Commercially a failure and a bitter disappointment to gamers at the time hoping that the word quantum and uberfast microdrives would equate to a box of awesomeness and excel spectrum entertainment to new heights. Here at ql heaven we are interested in the old magazines for sale as some have amazing bits of code as listings to type in and play about with. Here is a glimpse at some of things happening here. The programs, appearing months after the launch of the machine, are a sufficient improvement to make the ql a convincing option as an inexpensive business machine or word processor. Sinclair ql and apple macintosh celebrate 30 years at the computer museum bolo on the epfl cmapus in lausanne, switzerland french.
Only the qdos versions of the zip and unzip programs can write and read the qdos metadata. The monitor has an scart input rgb but unfortunately that is not fully compatible with other devices that use the scart output as video. That does not mean that nothing has been happening in ql heaven. Helpful tips and guides, also new users can ask for help here. Defect white screen ram problem replaced parts replaced 3 x 4264 ram. Unfortunately the thing never really took off and the world is now dominated by intel based pcs and arm based. Unfortunately, over the years, many of the original software houses and authors who supported the sinclair ql have fallen by the wayside or moved onto other markets. Assembly language programming on the sinclair ql explains all you need to know about programming the 68008 microprocessor, one of the most powerful chips currently available. Qlvga lets you connect a sinclair ql s rgb video output, from the 8pin din socket, to a monitor or tv with a computer vga video input. As youll see, display driver for ql dithvide is nothing really difficult. It also shows how to use the hardware and software facilities of the ql, including the 8049 second processor. Rwap software is offering the complete sinclair ql games collection 1 10 commercial ql games for only 5. Its a very good source for information on soft and hardware and many more about the ql. The wiki is a great effort, a huge work task and i visit it very often, just to look at the recent updates.
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