QL Nostalgia

A place to discuss general QL issues.
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qbits
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QL Nostalgia

Post by qbits »

So I finally managed to get into the loft space and check out my QL artefacts.

I found 2 QL’s I think one is a JM the other a JS. Twin floppy drives with a TRUMP card extension for interfacing the drives and adding 256K of memory. One of the QL’s has a nine pin D type adapter fitted on the back which goes with the Mersey mouse kit add-on I bought. A QL Centronics printer interface that plugs into a serial port and last but not least two Medalist Delux Joystiks.

As to microdrive cartridges, the original PSION programs and backup copy set, the PSION Match Point twin cartridge and Game instructions. In addition I have a number of other 4x microdrive wallets and a Transform storage box for twenty mirodrives holding a dozen cartridges. Then a couple of boxes of 3½ inch floppies, various copies of bespoken Software programs, some my own and the rest, nearly half, which seem to be a collection from the QUANTA’s Archive Library of about 1992. With them is a collection of QUANTA magazines from Feb 1991 to Jan 1999 (my passed membership years).

A few years back I purchased a USB external floppy disk drive for my desktop PC and using Qemulator have read the QDOS files on some of my collection of QL Floppies. That has only intrigued me the more to now read the microdrive cartridges I have. What I would really like to do is check out if my QL kit is still working the TRUMP card and floppies, but to do that I will need a Monitor. I’ve checked out a few options and now need to pay a visit to our local computer repair shop to seek out the parts.

However my biggest surprise was to find I still have my collection of QL User and QL World magazines.

QL User Mar 1985- Jan/Feb 1986
QL World Jul-Aug 1995 (first six month)
QL World incorporating QL User Mar-1986 to Jan-1987
QL World Feb-1987 to Apr 1990
QL World Dec 1990 to Apr 1992
QL World Jun 1992 to Mar 1993
QL World Volume II issue 5,6
QL World Volume 2 issue 7
QL World Volume 2 issue 7 on the cover, but Vol 2 issue 8 inside.
QL World Volume 2 issue 9,10,11,12
QL World Volume 3 issue 1,2,3,

If anyone has been trying to obtain an article written in any of the above I’m happy to scan it and post it on the Forum.

Note: For my own good and just to clarify the law on such, the copyright of the actual typographical layout of published editions (magazines) in the UK only last for 25 years. So reproducing the magazine or sections as I understand it by scanning does not pose a problem. It would be different if the request was to republish an article for sale.

So this one for the QL Nostalgic

Qbits
Attachments
QLUB issue 4.jpg
QL WORLD Vol 1 Issue 1.jpg
MatchPoint.jpg


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Cristian
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Re: QL Nostalgia

Post by Cristian »

Qbits,
you've just found a little gold mine 8-)
Your availability for scan and share your magazines is REMarkable.


qbits
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Re: QL Nostalgia

Post by qbits »

Hi thanks Cristain, that has certainly given me food for thought!

It took me approx three hours to scan 80 odd pages (QLUB issue 4 & QL World Volume 1 issue 1, tidy things up produce the pdf files with reasonable resolution so when blown up there still readable. Then file it all away as the beginnings of a QL Archive. I have around 100 magazines so at this rate if I dedicate an evening a week it will take couple of years and judging by the files size 20 GB of hard disk storage space.

However just to give a small sample of what you might expect:-

QLUB issue 4
Page 6 Interface Inquest - Details for Joysticks and a neat little SuperBASIC program to check out.
Page 18 /19 Music micro please! Info on use of the BEEP command

I also found a copy of James Lucy’s Composer from QL User Sep/Oct 1985

Qbits
Attachments
Composer.zip
(9.43 KiB) Downloaded 149 times
QL Joystick.jpg
Ql BEEP01.jpg
QL BEEP02.jpg


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Cristian
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Re: QL Nostalgia

Post by Cristian »

Great project a QL archive :-) And thanks for sharing. By the way, the resolution of your .jpg samples seems too low to allow reading the program list: I suppose your PDF files have a higher resolution, am I right?
Anyway, don't worry: I'm sure that with some practical experience you will be able to speed up the process :-) I hope someone else has already scanned some magazines so you don't need to rescan everything


qbits
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Joined: Sun Dec 11, 2016 3:32 pm

Re: QL Nostalgia

Post by qbits »

You’re quite right Cristian in saying the uploaded quality is not great, unfortunately due to the files size restrictions those presented are about a 1/20th of the files size produced by my scanner.

Anyway, the progs are in the zip file if anybody wishes to try them out.

Qbits


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