Where to begin?

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Simon_Carr
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Where to begin?

Post by Simon_Carr »

Okay, as I have already mentioned in my 'hello' post, this will be the first of no doubt many dumb questions and queries!

Having bought a QL, which I am bringing home tomorrow, what can I do with it?!

I have wanted to try/use/own a QL since 1984, because I think it is a fantastic piece of engineering design of its/my time, but I have never even laid eyes on one before (I've got that night before Christmas feeling about collecting it tomorrow, which is lovely, but a bit weird!). So now that RWAP has fulfilled my childhood dream, what the **** can I do with it?

Im looking forwards to experiencing the joys of working with microdrives for the first time, and I think I have got the basic Psion suite to have a play with, but I am conscious that the QL is a very different beast from the ZX Spectrums, in terms of the availability of software etc... I am doing a little relearning of basic programming using my Spectrums (BASIC, Forth, Assembly Language etc...), which I justify to my wife as helping me become a better user of software like MATLAB, which I use sporadically at work, but I don't really know what the options are with the much more restricted size of the QL world...

I'm thinking of setting a retro ZX Network between the QL and ZX spectrums just for the hell of it, but Im trying to think of how best to use this new addition to the family. More importantly, what additional hardware do I need to get some decent use out of it? I've read quite a lot about using external disk drives and hard drives, which seem to be essential in terms of getting any realistic use out of the QL with new software, but what would people recommend as the best place to start?

Sorry for the completely open ended question, but I'd really value some suggestions!


Unpacking a JS-ROM QL, with a QL-SD and SuperQBoard, and busily refelting millions of microdrives
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tofro
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Re: Where to begin?

Post by tofro »

Simon,

as always: It depends ;)

Let's see. If you want to experience how life used to be in the first 5 years of the QL's existence, you can live with what you have (the basic QL), probably extended by a disk drive because Microdrives tend to become more and more unreliable.

A lot of us QL users didn't have Memory Expansion or disk drives for quite some time.

Most games (if still available) and quite a bit of the still available software will run on a basic, unexpanded QL - And the Psion suite. The Basic bit of programming can also be done on the unexpanded box.

If you are looking into exploring how life changed after the advent of Software like QRAM, the Pointer Interface and the QLs first steps into WIMP and modern user interfaces, you will certainly at least need disk drives and a 640k memory expansion. A mouse, probably.

Today, I would guess, only the most hard-core retro enthusiasts will work with an unexpanded QL.

Most users working with "serious" software (is there something like that on the QL?) today are working with expanded or emulated QLs. The knack of the QL is not necessarily the old-style hardware, but rather its operating system - It still works with 16Megabytes of memory, hard disks and CD-ROMS and it is still fascinating how well it does cope with stuff that wasn't even invented when the QL was designed.

The ultimate expansions for the original black box would be a Miracle Gold or SuperGold card. Problem is, those beasts are quite rare, and, if found in good condition, expensive. Further down the list, the next option would be a 896k Trump Card with disk drives - Not easy to find as well. More realistically obtainable would be a Sandy SuperQBoard or similar with 640K RAM and disk drives. It takes a bit of searching, however.

Hope you have all the fun we have!

Regards
Tobias


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vanpeebles
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Re: Where to begin?

Post by vanpeebles »

A floppy drive setup is a must have as it allows you to use software downloaded from the internet etc. The microdrives now are showing their age, the little felt pads drop to bits inside the cartridges etc. Hopefully someone will bring out a new bit of kit that uses sd cards or similar :)


Simon_Carr
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Re: Where to begin?

Post by Simon_Carr »

I'm on my way home with my new QL tucked in my bag, hoping that my SCART cable has arrived in today's post!

First comment is that I didn't realise how small microdrives are! teeny little things!

Im looking forwards to trying them out, but I can see that in the medium an external 3.5 inch disk drive is kind of important, although I worry that this is also old technology. I bought an IF1bis for my Spectrum collection, which is a very clever gadget allowing me to use the standard microdrive commands to access an SD card full of software (.tap file format). What I like about this, compared to the more popular DivIDE card is that the SD card becomes essentially a stupidly large number of microdrives in the Spectrum's eyes, rather than needing additional software interfaces. Looking around so far I haven't seen anything similar to the QL, but does anyone know whether anything is in development or production?

Anyway, Im looking forwards to seeing how the QL works!


Unpacking a JS-ROM QL, with a QL-SD and SuperQBoard, and busily refelting millions of microdrives
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vanpeebles
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Re: Where to begin?

Post by vanpeebles »

Exciting times! There are one or two microdrive projects on the go, check the hardware section :)


Simon_Carr
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Re: Where to begin?

Post by Simon_Carr »

Wow... A whole new world is opening up before me!

I've only switched the thing on and Im hooked! What astounds me is how different the approach is compared to that of the Spectrum... It took me a while to work out how to delete text, but I'm getting there.

I bought an RGB to SCART cable from Retro Computer Shack, which works in both TV and Monitor modes on a Hitachi CRT screen, but I get an annoying shift to the left with the monitor, such that the first 5 characters of text are missing. It is a bit late I the day to mess around, as I have a early start for work tomorrow, but is this something quite common, and can I do anything about it?

I have connected all my spectrum +2's (a grey +2 and a black +2b) to this screen using their own SCART adapter cables from the same supplier, with no problems, so it seems to be a bit odd for the QL to not work. I might quickly try it on my little LCD which I use for a Spectrum 48k, although I have been told that LCDs are no good with these scart leads.

I can see the winter ahead being full of fun!

Simon


Unpacking a JS-ROM QL, with a QL-SD and SuperQBoard, and busily refelting millions of microdrives
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vanpeebles
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Re: Where to begin?

Post by vanpeebles »

Monitor mode doesn't really work with scart via a tv as it's more like a hi-res monitor mode. I use an rgb to vga adapter and a proper monitor.


Simon_Carr
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Re: Where to begin?

Post by Simon_Carr »

Thanks for the responses, which are all helpful. I am surprised at how different the look and feel of the QL is compared to the Spectrum, although it is a relief to see that SuperBASIC is pretty similar to BASIC on the Spectrum.

In terms of what I want to do with the QL, I'm honestly not that sure. As I said I my initial post, my excuse for getting into all of this retro computing is partly wanting to relearn som basics of programming to better inform the work I do using packages like MATLAB. However, as with all of the things, once you start doing one thing, you end up exploring games, utilities and additional hardware, just to see what can be done.

It is good to know that I don't 'need' anything substantial for the QL to make use of it in the short term, although I am definitely keen on the idea of a better mass storage system based around a CF or SD card system. I'm frankly amazed, given how much of this has been done for the Spectrum, that there has been nothing similar developed for the QL. Other than this, there doesn't seem to be anything radical that is required.

For the time being, I am quite happy learning a little bit of programming and trying out the PSION suite, and I am sure I will be buying some software from Rich Mellor to see what is out there. The QL works really nicely on both a small CRT and also an LCD TV (in TV mode), which I am happy with for the time being, but I may well end up trying to get a monitor to work with it, if I can get an RGB to VGA adapter of some sort (any clues or suggestions welcome!)

Anyway, so far so good.


Unpacking a JS-ROM QL, with a QL-SD and SuperQBoard, and busily refelting millions of microdrives
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Dave
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Re: Where to begin?

Post by Dave »

Wow! We head into the summer break, so I think it's safe to go get my wisdom teeth out, and I come back to 3,000 emails and a few dozen posts on here. Oh well! *digs in!*

Welcome to the QL, Simon.

I think your comments about SuperBASIC are spot on, and more. Spectrum BASIC is a good subset of the QL's SuperBASIC, and it works very well using those old technique, but the revolution of PROCedures and FuNctions really does help the QL knock it out of the ballpark! BBC BASIC V has a lot of the same concepts, but I think they're better implemented in the QL's SuperBASIC. It would be time well spent to explore them, and they'll help you to write much more efficient, flexible and readable code.

Second, it would be smart to get off those microdrives as quickly as possible. I recently sold a QL (the only one I have ever, or will ever sell, alas) and the microdrive issues ruined everything -with a little help from a tornado (meh, long story...) I think my advice to anyone playing with a QL will always be to get a floppy or QL-SD if/when that comes along. I'm not working on a QL-SD type project, but I'd be happy to, or to buy one or two if they became available.

Finally, yes, it's exciting to see a brand new QL user in the, ummm, typing! Welcome!

Dave


Simon_Carr
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Re: Where to begin?

Post by Simon_Carr »

Hi Dave, and thanks for the welcome.

I admit to being a bit surprised at how delicate microdrives are. We don't get too many big tornadoes here in the UK, although apparently Southsea near Portsmouth is the global capital for (small) tornadoes! However, I can see even one of those would put paid to a microdrive fairly easily!

I am content for now to work with SuperBASIC, I can see lots of similarities with BBC BASIC (my brother was a 'serious' programmer back in the early 80s: I just used to play his disk version of Elite), and I do like the simplicity of BASIC, after all these years.

However, seeing your post on the hardware section, I would be VERY keen on an SD-based storage system, so best of luck recovering from your dental surgery, and keep me posted!

Regards,

Simon


Unpacking a JS-ROM QL, with a QL-SD and SuperQBoard, and busily refelting millions of microdrives
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