With much appreciated help from Rich Mellor, the GST QL Assembler, Macro Assembler and Quanta Q-Mac are now available to download from the Dilwyn Jones website at http://www.dilwyn.me.uk/asm/index.html

The Macro Assembler is available as a floppy disk version, or a two microdrive cartridge (program and library cartridges) version. The editor is included now.

Manuals are also available to download as PDF files. Note that the manual for the QL Assembler is rather large by QL standards at about 10MB.

Urs Koenig got permission from GST’s founder to release GST’s QL software as freeware a little while back, and Quanta committee decided after that to allow the Q-Mac (Quanta modified version of the Macro Assembler) to be made available for all QL users (previously only available to members).

A user in the Netherlands has produced a rather neat little Microdrive simulator which stores Microdrive files as multiple MDV images on an SD card interfaced to the QL.

The picture below shows a prototype board which plugs into the Microdrive expansion slot on the right hand side of the QL. Follow Gert’s progress on QL Forum at http://www.qlforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=584

RWAP Software have made available to purchase once more the arcade game Lands of Havoc for the QL, at 5 pounds plus postage from http://www.sellmyretro.com/offer/details/Sinclair-QL-Arcade-Game%3A-Lands-of-Havoc-2886

Lands of Havoc is a large graphical arcade adventure, where you have to explore a large maze made of 2000 screens, in order to collect items which will open up new levels. Your task is to explore the Lands of Havoc, and collect various items (starting with the Book of Change) which can be used to defeat the Dark Lords.

Now that the final issue of QL Today has been published, Brian Kemmett has put together a complete index to all 17 volumes of the magazine. The index is available to download as a PDF file from http://www.dilwyn.me.uk/gen/qltoday/qltoday.html

QL Today went out in style, with a DVD jam-packed with all sorts of QL software and content of all sort. The DVD was put together by Urs König in Switzerland and includes such gems as a copy of the ARM processor version of the uQLx emulator by Tobias Fröschle, including a version for the Raspberry Pi. This is also available to download from http://www.dilwyn.me.uk/emu/index.html

Tobias Fröschle let us know about this.

If you’re only looking for a similar environment (i.e. not an exact copy of SuperBASIC), it might be worth looking into SpecBAS, an evolved reMake of 1980 Spectrum Basic for various modern platforms. It’s not exactly SuperBASIC, but “feels like it” (Or, rather, like a “Spectrum on steroids”)
See https://sites.google.com/site/pauldunn/

QemuLator for Mac OS X has a trial mode now that allows unregistered users to run QL software on it. In trial mode, emulation is limited to a 128 KB QL and some advanced features are not available.

The new “Try” button in the startup/registration window allows emulating a QL with 128 KB or RAM and speed similar to that of the 68008 CPU.

I noticed some posts on QL Forum from non-members asking if Quanta is still here. We are, but realise this website is perhaps not our best advert.

If anyone is prepared to help us with content on this website, please contact Keith, our webmaster, to discuss it. Ideally, you’d be a member, but not necessarily a committee member in the short term at least (although we could always co-opt someone onto committee in the short term to help us out).