Guide to Sinclair QL: Hardware You Need and First Use

In this journal entry I'll show someone who's never owned a Sinclair QL what they need to buy and give an initial look at how to use one. The QL is a rare retro computer that many people don't know much about. If you're lucky enough to find one on eBay at a reasonable price, what else do you need to get it working? I'll go over some basics of hardware and give a quick tour of its environment. So join me in looking at this interesting computer from 1984.

[@gregskuza7166]

Unreal, I did not know how powerful QL was in 1983! Great video!!

[@AndyPetrie]

I bought my US version QL in January 1986(still have the original box with shipping label on it). It has been stored away in my collection untouched since 1987. I now have time to play with/MOD it. Keep up the videos, they are very helpful... 🙂

[@8BitRetroJournal]

Oh wow...35 years in storage. Don't use your microdrive cartridges without re-felting because the existing felt will likely disintegrate on first use and gum up the cartridges.

[@firsteerr]

i sooooo wanted a QL back in the day looked cool had wafer micro drives it was powerful at that time and claimed to be a step ahead , im old now and i am contemplating getting one to satisfy my younger selfs hunger

[@8BitRetroJournal]

There's a person on the qlforum.co.uk selling one recently that he grabbed form the attic unused. You may want to hit him up. The forum post is titled "For Sale to a good home a 1986 SinclairQL and printer" so just look for that.

[@firsteerr]

@@8BitRetroJournal brilliant thanks very much for that

[@gogee8510]

Love the video. Love this computer which I had in the UK. Well ahead of it's time when it came out. I did sell it in the end to a collector. I'm glad in the sense that it was not thrown away but went to a good home.

[@8BitRetroJournal]

It didn't do the obvious things well (like faster, or color, gaming, etc), but it did other things so seamless. Like it had built-in networking from the start which even the Mac didn't have for a few years.

[@eebuckeye]

Terrific video! Pretty rare system at least in the US and the more information the better!

[@spinnetti]

I got a QL, Minerva rom, me and a buddy made our own universal power supply to run all the sinclair stuff, QL-VGA in my own custom case, and its all refreshed and ready to go - but I didn't have one back in the day, so don't know what to do with it lol. I mostly enjoy doing assembler on the ZX81.

[@8BitRetroJournal]

Oh cool. Will you post a picture? I also did assembly on the ZX81 in the mid 80's and then moved to the QL in the last 80's/early 90's. I need to try and recover the assembler I wrote on the ZX81.

[@AlexEvans1]

I have a QL-VGA on mine, and would consider it a core upgrade for practical use. There were problems with using a QL-VGA with a US QL, but they have been fixed.

[@8BitRetroJournal]

Yes, that's a good device. Finally we can see both edges of the screen :-) I'm excited about the QL-SD ROM that's been delayed by the chip shortage.

[@paulklasmann1218]

Do you know what thickness felt to get to refelt the microdrive tapes?

[@8BitRetroJournal]

It's about the same thickness as what cassette's have. I usually use old cassette pads and cut them width-wise to fit the microdrive cartridges.

[@paulklasmann1218]

@@8BitRetroJournal Thanks for the tip. Do you use superglue to stick them?

[@8BitRetroJournal]

@@paulklasmann1218 no, i use E6000 which holds pretty firm and is more workable (longer cure time) and if you make a mistake it is completely reversible.