QL-Quality (Was: ZX-81 Question)

From: Adrian Vickers <avickers_at_solutionengineers.com>
Date: Tue Mar 26 20:13:06 2002

At 13:30 26/03/2002, you wrote:


> >> It sold for \pounds 399 in the UK.
>
>Yup, paid my money ...and waited...and waited! Worth it in the end.
>
>
> > My view is that had it sold for \pounds 600 or so and had a real disk
> > drive, real serial ports, and a useable keyboard then it might have sold
> > rather better in the UK.
>
> >Maybe they should have had a 'professional' version with an
> >external keyboard and disk drives, to satisfy both markets.
> >Anyway, history.
>
>Can't remember - did Sinclair license the technology to ICL and *cough* BT?

Yup.

>Would the Merlin Tonto and ICL OPD (one per desk) have covered off the
>professional market perhaps?

No - the ICL OPD was a niche product, designed for telephony (e.g.
reception work, possibly telesales - although I'm not sure if "telesales"
really existed in the mid '80s).

The pro market was sort of catered for by the Thor, started as a QL in a
big beige box with a beige monitor and XT-style keyboard. It moved on quite
rapidly, eventually becoming an accomplished 68000 (not 68008) machine with
an improved OS (SMS/Q - still alive & well today). Unfortunately, the Thor
was too late - the IBM PC had already begun to claim dominance, primarily
due to the rapidly emerging clone market.

>For those of us that were serious about computing, that didn't have access
>to the kind of money a PC or Mac cost, the QL was a godsend. 68k assembler
>was a bit of a jmp after Z80 though!

More of a JMP.L, surely? :) (Actually, it may be JUMP.L, I forget now...)

-- 
Cheers, Ade.
Be where it's at, B-Racing!
http://b-racing.com
Received on Tue Mar 26 2002 - 20:13:06 GMT

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