The Sinclair QL Forum

Who is d..3?
Will d..3 share scans of manuals and maps, or content of diskettes?
And, what is the status of FTC - is it free, abandoned, or still commercial?

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Vintage-Sinclai ... _cvip=true

As far as I know, it's still commercial.

I did some patching of the demo version for QPC2, here http://www.dilwyn.me.uk/games/index.html There is also a user manual for the game.

I did try to contact Di-Ren - run by Robin Barker, one time chairman of Quanta.

Unfortunately, there is no sign of him now anywhere - I even wrote to his old address in Walsall, but no joy.

Just out of curiosity, I seem to remember that there was a PC version of FTC. Which had the wire frame graphics block filled with colour. And could connect with the QL version.

Has any one got one of these? I did a quick internet search, but could not find a mention of it.

I looked arl ower for the pc version and only found a screenshot on a single site.

dex wrote:Who is d..3?
Will d..3 share scans of manuals and maps, or content of diskettes?
And, what is the status of FTC - is it free, abandoned, or still commercial?

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Vintage-Sinclai ... _cvip=true

Ok, ok, it was me! I was d..3. I didn't want to own up to it until I had it in hand, and I do now.

I will happily share decent scans/pdfs of the manual and maps - even though they are still copyright, I don't really see any commercial issue with doing that as they are useless without the actual software, and will do so at my risk. I also have some other interesting literature including FTC newsletters (1 and 2) and a letter from Di-Ren which indicates they were struggling in 1992. I actually grew up near where they were based in London SE23 - I know they are no longer there and Robin Baker has disappeared! I respect the code copyright and wouldn't openly share the disk content. It really is a bumper pack of goodies with 2 of everything, even 2 pencils and 2 erasers. The manual (there are also 2 of those) is fairly chunky and there really is a lot to learn, probably more than most people would have had the patience to dedicate themselves to in order to actually get the most out of it. It's massive and quite overwhelming. One thing I found amusing is that the saltire on the cover of the box isn't actually part of the design, it's just where the crosses of sticky tape have bled through the coloured paper!

Vanpeebles, perhaps we could compare content notes.

Chr$ wrote:Ok, ok, it was me! I was d..3. I didn't want to own up to it until I had it in hand, and I do now.

Nice to see one of the folks collecting some of this stuff from eBay being a forum member. I saw a new YouTube video on the QL pop up last week showing a boxed one...so some of the boxed ones may be going to retro channelers doing bits on the various machines out there...this one was a bit negative on all the early production flaws and technical issues of the QL. I wish when doing these retro documentaries all the cool stuff it had would be pointed out and put into context where things were at that point in the industry. For instance, the fact that the Mac was successful wasn't as much to do with the initial offering of a "black&white display model with single 400K floppy" but more that Apple (Steve Jobs) was dedicated to making it a success (and there was plenty of internal strive about potentially abandoning the successful Apple II and I believe Wozniak wanted the company to concentrate on that color model and add the GUI on it instead of creating new, initially limited, hardware). It wasn't even a sure thing whether the new 3.5 inch format was the best way to go (veering away form the 5.25 standard). Of course hindsight is 20/20 and Sinclair didn't do things optimally. I think Clive Sinclair articulated his vision best, to paraphrase "some people invent to make money and other make money to invent" and to be successful in business you need to do more of the former and not the latter. I personally like his philosophy but it doesn't make for a great business model.

I wish I could collect more but I'm moving in with my better half later this summer so I have to keep things a bit in perspective. I did see a ZX81, US model, it it's original box on eBay yesterday. Those came in non-styrofoam low-profile cardboard boxes which I like much better than the TS1000 containers. I had forgotten how it came to me back in 1982 as a kid until I saw it the other day. Better for the environment too. The QL is a bit too big to really try that with but the TS1000/ZX81 is small enough where that works well. My QL came in styrofoam but didn't have the silver shell, just a shipping box, all of which I still have.

Chr$ wrote: Ok, ok, it was me! I was d..3. I didn't want to own up to it until I had it in hand, and I do now.

Now that you said that you are d..3 I know who beat me to some other QL-stuff sales on ebay ....

Andrew wrote: Now that you said that you are d..3 I know who beat me to some other QL-stuff sales on ebay ....

I haven't bid on very much in the last week or so, so it must have been another item from the same seller? eBay do change the hidden bidder names for other sellers don't they?
Perhaps we could have a chat next time and we might actually end up not paying so much for certain things.

Chr$ wrote:I haven't bid on very much in the last week or so, so it must have been another item from the same seller? eBay do change the hidden bidder names for other sellers don't they?
Perhaps we could have a chat next time and we might actually end up not paying so much for certain things.

Not in the last week - older bids. I do not buy very often (or at least I try to)
Ebay hides the bidder's name, but I guess that it only has a couple of algorithms for it. A couple of times I checked and the same hidden name was the same person that won the previous sale. (By clicking on the hidden name you could see the list of last 20 winning bids of the bidder - now I think they removed this feature)