Monthly Archives: April 2017

uQLx 2017

A newly revised version of the Linux QL emulator uQLx (uQLx 2017) is now available.

Graeme Gregory has “brutalised” (as he puts it on github) the sources to bring them up to date. New binaries are available for 32- and 64-bit x86 systems, as well as ARM (6/7/8). Includes binaries ready to run.

Includes documentation from Timothy Swenson to get you started along with a small QXL.win file.

The binaries are available to download from the emulators page on my website

http://www.dilwyn.me.uk/emu/index.html#uQLx_for_Linux_etc.

while the sources are available from the Sinclair QL Github at

https://github.com/SinclairQL/uqlx-fork

The sources are available from my website too in case of difficulty, but I recommend you get them from the github repository to make sure you get the latest sources.

XTC Compiler – Updated Sources

Updated sources for XTC68 cross-compiler for QDOS C68 for POSIX systems (e.g. Linux) is available from Jonathan Hudson on github (thanks to Graeme Gregory for the tip).

https://github.com/stronnag/xtc68

I’ve put a copy of the master zip file onto the C page of my website under XTC68 in case it ever gets removed from github.

http://www.dilwyn.me.uk/c/index.html

QED

Jan Bredenbeek has released v1.02c of QED, a fast and compact freeware text editor originally released back in 1988. The configuration program for this version allows you to alter the window position and size for use on high resolution displays such as QPC2.

Download QED from http://www.dilwyn.me.uk/editview/index.html

Wander

After porting the Colossal Cave adventure game (http://www.dilwyn.me.uk/games/adventures/ccave.zip ) Graeme Gregory has now ported an earlier adventure game system called Wander.

Screen dump from opening screen of Wander

Wander is a tool for writing non-deterministic fantasy “stories”. The product is a story whose unfolding is affected by decisions made by the “reader”.

The author is Peter Langston (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Langston ), who when asked if this is really from 1974 says: “As I remember I came up with the idea for Wander and wrote an early version in HP Basic while I was still teaching at the Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA. Then I rewrote Wander in C on Harvard’s Unix V5 system shortly after our band moved to Boston in 1974. I got around to putting a copyright notice on it in 1978.”

Here you can find some more information on Wander: https://ahopeful.wordpress.com/2015/04/22/wander-1974-a-lost-mainframe-game-is-found/

Sources for Wander available here: https://github.com/SinclairQL/wander/tree/qdos-gcc

Please note that, at the time of writing, the program had an issue with the Signal Extension, which caused it to fail. The program should only be run without the Signal Extension being present.

SMSQzine #4

The fourth issue of Timothy Swenson’s eZine called SMSQzine is now available to download free of charge from his Google Sites page at https://sites.google.com/site/svenqhj/home/

Scroll down the page and look for smsqzine04.pdf and smsqzine04.zip

This issue includes articles on a new front end program for Digital Precision C, a game called Orbit, array searching, the new release of uQLx and a recently released version of Wander, an original adventure game system for mainframes from the 1970s, one of the earliest adventure games.

SMSQzine cover

ADV770 – Colossal Cave

Graeme Gregory’s port of the ADV770 version of Adventure or Colossal Cave now available to download zipped from http://www.dilwyn.me.uk/games/adventures/index.html  (Adventure Games page on my site)

Remember that the executable alone is a massive 1.2MB, so it needs a minimum of a Gold Card or an emulator set to 2MB or RAM or more.

Wonder if this takes the title of the largest QL executable so far?

ADV770 – Colossal Dave adventure15

QL MultiMon

Jan Brdenbeek has re-released MultiMon – a QL Monitor, Disassembler and Debugger written in 1986/7 – on GitHub.

It was already available from PD websites, but now there’s an English manual and source files too.

MultiMon v2.1 is entirely written in machine code and less than 10K bytes in size.

It may be started with an EXEC command or installed via LRESPR as a SuperBASIC extension called MON.

https://github.com/SinclairQL/QL-MultiMon

QTImage

QTImage is a photo editor and viewer for QL-compatible systems and emulators with high colour modes.

Based on the David Westbury PHGTK (Photon General Toolkit) software, QTImage by the team at Quantum Technology in Italy allows us to view JPG, GIF and PNG graphics on our GD2 systems.

In addition to viewing, it is possible to rotate, flip, resize, zoom, alter brightness and colour levels to improve the pictures.

A number of filters can be applied to pictures, such as smoothing, sharpening, raising, motion blur, box blur, Gaussian blur, edge detection, coarsening and feint.

Screenshot showing several copies of QTImage running at the same time, all displaying different pictures.

The program can be run in English or Italian.

Download it from the Quantum Technology website at http://www.hunggartorino.it/ql/qtimage-2/