25 Mar
2002
25 Mar
'02
5:08 a.m.
> Well, Sinclair sold it and called it QL.
> A 68008, running at 8 (?) MHz, (almost) Real
Keyboard (at least as
> good as most PC keyboards in the $10 range), Reak Memory (128K, as
> much as the first Mac, but expandable to 640 or 900) and two tape
> drives with ~100K each.
> Furthermore: Serial Interface, Joystick Ports and
a full figured
> Network. As cream ontop of the cake a complete application suite
> with Word Processing, Spreadsheet, Database and Business Graphics.
> And all together at about 900 Mark (back than
~250 GBP). Lower
> than all other comparable systems (in fact even lower than the
> C64 in some shops)
First I live in CANADA so we get more US stuff than
from the UK in
computers.
AFAIK there are still copyright issues for the ROMs in the US and CA.
While Amstrad allows the distribution of ROM images for emulators/new
machines, it is restricted to Europe, since there are still valid deals
with some US companies holding the QL rights in North america.
This and that is still was a BASIC machine with no
real disks.
Come on, first of all, a basic like the QL Super Sasic is quite
different from everything else you know ... QDOS is a multitasking
OS, and the Basic incooperates all features to use the windowing
and taskingsystem from within. it is jut not comperable to all the
MS-Basic crap found on 90% of all old homecomputers.
And second, yes, no disks, but for what ? the microdrives where (in
the 1983 timeframe) quite comperable to any SOHO System - 100k per
media and an access time comperable to most small systems, including
the Apple (of course quite faster than unmodigfied C64s :).
And adding a disc controler wasn't that expansive (720K 3.5"), if
your need did ourtgrow the microdrives.
I found out that it cost APPLE $100 ??? to make the
$500 ??? floppy
system for their computer reading the history of the apple from a web
site.
That's called best bussines practice :))
Gruss
H.
--
VCF Europa 3.0 am 27./28. April 2002 in Muenchen
http://www.vcfe.org/