Hello from Stockholm, Sweden!

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Tord
ROM Dongle
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Joined: Sun Dec 20, 2020 2:13 pm

Hello from Stockholm, Sweden!

Post by Tord »

Hello all,
My name is Tord and I have been a QL owner since 1985 although not very active in very many years. It all started when I was working at Ericsson and the computer club there (EDKX) was interested in getting computers for engineers to tinker with at home (in those days all work was done on mainframes using terminals).
The battle stood between 2 computers (I don't recall what the other one was, possible a C64) and the QL "won".
I did use my QL for many years, tried a bit of programming both in SuperBasic, Pascal (Computer One) and assembler but I never made any really large programs.

After a while the QL had to "move" up to my attic due to space constraints and other computers made their way into the home such as PC laptops and now MacBooks, but I was always intending to unpack it again once I got the time (which for some reason never seemed to happen).

I have been following this forum since its start and all the other sites related to the QL but it was the #QLvember initiative that made me bring down (quite a few to be honest) my QL collection and see if it still worked. I have got 5 QLs in total, my own has worked flawlessly always and did so once again at least for a few hours before something happened and now it won't start. The others have never worked (at least not in my possession) and the ambition was to try to make them work once again and based on the very good videos presented as part of #QLvember, there might be a chance although I am not an expert in electronics.

A few years ago (quite a few actually) I got a collection of QL stuff from a danish guy Gunter Strube who had left the QL scene but did not want to throw away all his things. Part of what I got was a QVME emulator sitting in an Atari Mega 2. This one also worked for a very small amount of time before the screen went all black and now the computer won't start, either in QL "mode" or as a Mega ST2. Unfortunately I have not been able to find much information about the card as such so any pointers towards where to search for information or where to start a trouble shooting activity will be much appreciated.

I have attached a few pictures of parts of the QL-collection, not that it presents anything new, but I think it is good to see that items still exists :)
Attachments
Inside an issue 6 QL, not sure what the mods are
Inside an issue 6 QL, not sure what the mods are
PCML Q+ disc interface
PCML Q+ disc interface
Some expansion boards, one actually faulty
Some expansion boards, one actually faulty
The QVME board inside an Atari
The QVME board inside an Atari


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Chr$
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Re: Hello from Stockholm, Sweden!

Post by Chr$ »

Tord wrote: A few years ago (quite a few actually) I got a collection of QL stuff from a danish guy Gunter Strube who had left the QL scene but did not want to throw away all his things. Part of what I got was a QVME emulator sitting in an Atari Mega 2. This one also worked for a very small amount of time before the screen went all black and now the computer won't start, either in QL "mode" or as a Mega ST2.
Hello, welcome.

Wow, nice stuff. So the QLVM is very much like the equivalent of the QXL(II) for the IBM PC. Fascinating. All I can find is this, but I expect you've already seen it:

https://qlwiki.qlforum.co.uk/doku.php?i ... :qvme_card

Does the Atari start up without the card present?

It looks like Derek on here had one of those last year. Do you still have it Derek, if/when you see this?


https://QXL.WIN
Collector of QL related computers, accessories and QL games/software.
Ask me about felt pads - I can cut them to size and they have proved excellent for mdv data recovery.
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vanpeebles
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Re: Hello from Stockholm, Sweden!

Post by vanpeebles »

Welcome! Some lovely stuff there! :D


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mk79
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Re: Hello from Stockholm, Sweden!

Post by mk79 »

Chr$ wrote:Wow, nice stuff. So the QLVM is very much like the equivalent of the QXL(II) for the IBM PC. Fascinating.
Technically it's almost exactly the opposite ;) The QXL card provides the CPU and the PC is downgraded to provide the graphics and a bit if I/O. The QVME just provides the graphics and the rest remains on the Atari side, i.e. it's a QL compatible graphics card.


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Chr$
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Re: Hello from Stockholm, Sweden!

Post by Chr$ »

mk79 wrote:Technically it's almost exactly the opposite ;) The QXL card provides the CPU and the PC is downgraded to provide the graphics and a bit if I/O. The QVME just provides the graphics and the rest remains on the Atari side, i.e. it's a QL compatible graphics card.
It's a 'QL' card in a foreign machine, close enough ;).


https://QXL.WIN
Collector of QL related computers, accessories and QL games/software.
Ask me about felt pads - I can cut them to size and they have proved excellent for mdv data recovery.
Derek_Stewart
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Re: Hello from Stockholm, Sweden!

Post by Derek_Stewart »

Chr$ wrote:
It looks like Derek on here had one of those last year. Do you still have it Derek, if/when you see this?
Hi,

I had a QVME card in an Atari Mega STE, which worked quite well. I bought an Atari TT030 and put the QVME card in the VME expansion slot, gave a nice fast QL system.

I sold the Mega STE to someone in USA, wanting to use the Atari TT and QVME. But Atari TT developed a fault, so will not work, maybe the power supply fault.

I thought about reverse engineer the QVME, but the hardware designer could be found to ask permission, so I gave up and sold the QVME card, on SellMyRetro.

Anyway, the Q68 does all the QVME did and more, I think it is better, and the Atari is so noisy and I do not really like GEM...
Last edited by Derek_Stewart on Thu Mar 07, 2024 9:14 am, edited 1 time in total.


Regards,

Derek
Tord
ROM Dongle
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Joined: Sun Dec 20, 2020 2:13 pm

Re: Hello from Stockholm, Sweden!

Post by Tord »

Chr$ wrote:
https://qlwiki.qlforum.co.uk/doku.php?i ... :qvme_card

Does the Atari start up without the card present?

It looks like Derek on here had one of those last year. Do you still have it Derek, if/when you see this?
I am not sure off the Atari starts as intended without the QVME card attached, I do not have a monitor made for the Atari so I will have to either find some way of connecting another monitor, or try to trouble shoot the card. I will try to find some more resources on how to go about this.


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