The Sinclair QL Forum

Hello,
I live in Argentina, a place where Siclair QL is a complete rarity..
My first Computer ever was a Czerweny CZ1000, that's an Argentinean rebranded TS1000... from there I have the passion for Sinclair Computers and of course their local clones. QL was never sold in this country. The one I have has it's own history as it was brought here from UK by one of the Czerweny Electronica main partners.
It's an Issue 7 that I'm working on get functional.
I've already met (virtually) some of the people from this forum I It's been a great help so far.

A warm welcome to the forum! I'd love to hear more about the Argentinian Sinclair clones

These are some of them
The first ones CZ1000 and CZ1500 are nothing else than renamed Portugal made TS1000 and TS1500 all runing 50Hz video as we have PAL-N system. The third one is a Spectrum like any other but in a black TS1500 like case.. those were made in Portugal too and named as CZ2000 here.. RF modulator was the needed to the PAL-N System, that being 50Hz has a different colour carrier frequency..
Later they made the local versions with new cases and boards. All of them had ferranti ULA and original ROMs as there were an agreement with Sinclair through Timex Portugal to produce these machines here.. they had joystick ports (just wired to the keyboard) reset button and Composite video output..
The later one was the CZ Spectrum Plus that had a Spanish rom from investronica and the Spanish keyboard from the ZX Spectrum +48..
The case was shorter than the ZX one as they used the same bottom case for all the models from CZ1000 plus to CZ Spectrum..
These cases has a big resemblance to the QL one.. the plastic feet and the ruber feet are the same .. as well as the case border with the step shape underneath..

Interesting stuff! Thanks!

Greetings, and welcome.

Cheers,
Norm.

bola_dor wrote:Later they made the local versions with new cases and boards. All of them had ferranti ULA and original ROMs as there were an agreement with Sinclair through Timex Portugal to produce these machines here.. they had joystick ports (just wired to the keyboard) reset button and Composite video output.

Hola. You didn't mention microdrives so did the QL clone have them? They were the reason I bought a QL so there was somewhere to store files and didn't have to wait hours for the tape loading.

Ruptor wrote:Hola. You didn't mention microdrives so did the QL clone have them? They were the reason I bought a QL so there was somewhere to store files and didn't have to wait hours for the tape loading.

I believe that Czerweny never built a QL clone - only ZX81, Timex SInclair 1500 and Spectrum clones

Andrew wrote:

Ruptor wrote:Hola. You didn't mention microdrives so did the QL clone have them? They were the reason I bought a QL so there was somewhere to store files and didn't have to wait hours for the tape loading.

I believe that Czerweny never built a QL clone - only ZX81, Timex SInclair 1500 and Spectrum clones

Yep. The QL by far didn't spread as many clones as the ZX Spectrum. Merlin Tonto and the ICL OPD (which is the same thing with a different name) are the only known ones (and BTW the OP did mention his is a rare imported QL.)

Welcome!

welcome. glad you made it

Ruptor wrote:

bola_dor wrote:Later they made the local versions with new cases and boards. All of them had ferranti ULA and original ROMs as there were an agreement with Sinclair through Timex Portugal to produce these machines here.. they had joystick ports (just wired to the keyboard) reset button and Composite video output.

Hola. You didn't mention microdrives so did the QL clone have them? They were the reason I bought a QL so there was somewhere to store files and didn't have to wait hours for the tape loading.

No they never made a QL clone, nor microdirves, although they adverticed microdrives and mentioned in some manuals to be used with the Spectrum clones they never got to make nor import/rebrand any...