#sinclairql — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #sinclairql, aggregated by home.social.
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As someone who has owned both, it’s obvious the #AtariST is the cooler looking machine than the #Amiga! Those sexy diagonal function keys, oh yeah. But in terms of 16 bit computing, the #SinclairQL has the #Atari beat, by quite some margin! #Sinclair’s designer, Rick Dickinson, is the king.
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As someone who has owned both, it’s obvious the #AtariST is the cooler looking machine than the #Amiga! Those sexy diagonal function keys, oh yeah. But in terms of 16 bit computing, the #SinclairQL has the #Atari beat, by quite some margin! #Sinclair’s designer, Rick Dickinson, is the king.
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As someone who has owned both, it’s obvious the #AtariST is the cooler looking machine than the #Amiga! Those sexy diagonal function keys, oh yeah. But in terms of 16 bit computing, the #SinclairQL has the #Atari beat, by quite some margin! #Sinclair’s designer, Rick Dickinson, is the king.
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As someone who has owned both, it’s obvious the #AtariST is the cooler looking machine than the #Amiga! Those sexy diagonal function keys, oh yeah. But in terms of 16 bit computing, the #SinclairQL has the #Atari beat, by quite some margin! #Sinclair’s designer, Rick Dickinson, is the king.
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As someone who has owned both, it’s obvious the #AtariST is the cooler looking machine than the #Amiga! Those sexy diagonal function keys, oh yeah. But in terms of 16 bit computing, the #SinclairQL has the #Atari beat, by quite some margin! #Sinclair’s designer, Rick Dickinson, is the king.
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Oh hey, instead of sleeping I spent all night working on a program to convert a #SinclairQL Quill document into simple HTML
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Oh hey, instead of sleeping I spent all night working on a program to convert a #SinclairQL Quill document into simple HTML
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Oh hey, instead of sleeping I spent all night working on a program to convert a #SinclairQL Quill document into simple HTML
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Oh hey, instead of sleeping I spent all night working on a program to convert a #SinclairQL Quill document into simple HTML
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Oh hey, instead of sleeping I spent all night working on a program to convert a #SinclairQL Quill document into simple HTML
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@ngate That thing has got mighty C64 or Sinclair QL vibes, but flatter.
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@ngate That thing has got mighty C64 or Sinclair QL vibes, but flatter.
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@ngate That thing has got mighty C64 or Sinclair QL vibes, but flatter.
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@ngate That thing has got mighty C64 or Sinclair QL vibes, but flatter.
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Get Ready, 64 bytes raycaster for #AtariST (and #Amiga, #SinclairQL, #SharpX68000) computers released at Inercia 2025 https://youtu.be/k7lbOmzwTNY #atari #demoscene
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Get Ready, 64 bytes raycaster for #AtariST (and #Amiga, #SinclairQL, #SharpX68000) computers released at Inercia 2025 https://youtu.be/k7lbOmzwTNY #atari #demoscene
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Get Ready, 64 bytes raycaster for #AtariST (and #Amiga, #SinclairQL, #SharpX68000) computers released at Inercia 2025 https://youtu.be/k7lbOmzwTNY #atari #demoscene
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Get Ready, 64 bytes raycaster for #AtariST (and #Amiga, #SinclairQL, #SharpX68000) computers released at Inercia 2025 https://youtu.be/k7lbOmzwTNY #atari #demoscene
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Get Ready, 64 bytes raycaster for #AtariST (and #Amiga, #SinclairQL, #SharpX68000) computers released at Inercia 2025 https://youtu.be/k7lbOmzwTNY #atari #demoscene
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¡Nuevo juego para #SinclairQL! Nada menos que una conversión del Android 2, de Costa Panavi: theqlforum.com/viewtopic.ph...
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The #SinclairQL sound system is really pretty bonkers. Documentation is vague and even the explainers I've found are missing stuff while some others are trying to guess. At least in an emulator one can create quite odd results by giving values which don't follow the guidelines.
What was fun was that one command created sound akin to a tune by #Ø, while adding another parameter resulted in a #noise tune by #PanSonic. Awesome!
Too bad it's only 1 channel...
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The #SinclairQL sound system is really pretty bonkers. Documentation is vague and even the explainers I've found are missing stuff while some others are trying to guess. At least in an emulator one can create quite odd results by giving values which don't follow the guidelines.
What was fun was that one command created sound akin to a tune by #Ø, while adding another parameter resulted in a #noise tune by #PanSonic. Awesome!
Too bad it's only 1 channel...
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The #SinclairQL sound system is really pretty bonkers. Documentation is vague and even the explainers I've found are missing stuff while some others are trying to guess. At least in an emulator one can create quite odd results by giving values which don't follow the guidelines.
What was fun was that one command created sound akin to a tune by #Ø, while adding another parameter resulted in a #noise tune by #PanSonic. Awesome!
Too bad it's only 1 channel...
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The #SinclairQL sound system is really pretty bonkers. Documentation is vague and even the explainers I've found are missing stuff while some others are trying to guess. At least in an emulator one can create quite odd results by giving values which don't follow the guidelines.
What was fun was that one command created sound akin to a tune by #Ø, while adding another parameter resulted in a #noise tune by #PanSonic. Awesome!
Too bad it's only 1 channel...
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The #SinclairQL sound system is really pretty bonkers. Documentation is vague and even the explainers I've found are missing stuff while some others are trying to guess. At least in an emulator one can create quite odd results by giving values which don't follow the guidelines.
What was fun was that one command created sound akin to a tune by #Ø, while adding another parameter resulted in a #noise tune by #PanSonic. Awesome!
Too bad it's only 1 channel...
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These are parts of code in Brataccas that may have been written originally targeting the 68008 processor of the Sinclair QL before they were ported to the Atari ST
After some cursory scanning of the Brataccas code, some patterns emerged:
Case 1: Bit-reversal lookup table
This seems unusual and suggests graphics conversion between platforms with different pixel bit-ordering. The QL stored pixels in a different bit order than the ST - this table appears to be useful to convert graphics assets that were originally in Sinclair QL format.
; Bit-Reversal Table (L00A0-L00A4)
L00A0:DS.W 128,0
L00A2:LEA L00A0(PC),A0
MOVE.W #$FF,D7
L00A3:MOVE.B D0,D1
MOVEQ #6,D2
ROXR.B #1,D1
ROXL.B #1,D4
L00A4:ROXR.B #1,D1
ROXL.BCase 2 Excessive byte operations
Throughout the code, there's an unusual preference for byte operations:
MOVE.B (A0)+,D0
MOVE.B (A0)+,D1On the 68000 (ST/Amiga/Mac), word operations are typically preferred for performance. But the QL's 68008 CPU had an 8-bit external bus - byte vs word operations had similar performance. This coding style hints at optimisation for the 68008, not the 68000.
The disassembly available at the Brataccas website seems to have been produced from a QL to Atari ST port, not the Amiga as I originally thought.
https://www.brataccas.com/Page28.phpThe first part of the code (first 1000-1500 lines or so) is a music tracker, and it's clearly a separate module from the rest, clearly designed to be reusable. There are hints that the I/O ports are Atari-specific and that the engine allows for developers to perform hot-editing of music notes via the MIDI port, which was something incredibly sophisticated for 1985. Some other parts of the code deal with vibrato, legato, and effects during realtime play.
After that block there's what seems to be a sprite blitting engine, but that's as far as I got.
To be continued...
#brataccas #retrocomputing #retrogaming #m68k #SinclairQL #QL #asm #assembler #m68008
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These are parts of code in Brataccas that may have been written originally targeting the 68008 processor of the Sinclair QL before they were ported to the Atari ST
After some cursory scanning of the Brataccas code, some patterns emerged:
Case 1: Bit-reversal lookup table
This seems unusual and suggests graphics conversion between platforms with different pixel bit-ordering. The QL stored pixels in a different bit order than the ST - this table appears to be useful to convert graphics assets that were originally in Sinclair QL format.
; Bit-Reversal Table (L00A0-L00A4)
L00A0:DS.W 128,0
L00A2:LEA L00A0(PC),A0
MOVE.W #$FF,D7
L00A3:MOVE.B D0,D1
MOVEQ #6,D2
ROXR.B #1,D1
ROXL.B #1,D4
L00A4:ROXR.B #1,D1
ROXL.BCase 2 Excessive byte operations
Throughout the code, there's an unusual preference for byte operations:
MOVE.B (A0)+,D0
MOVE.B (A0)+,D1On the 68000 (ST/Amiga/Mac), word operations are typically preferred for performance. But the QL's 68008 CPU had an 8-bit external bus - byte vs word operations had similar performance. This coding style hints at optimisation for the 68008, not the 68000.
The disassembly available at the Brataccas website seems to have been produced from a QL to Atari ST port, not the Amiga as I originally thought.
https://www.brataccas.com/Page28.phpThe first part of the code (first 1000-1500 lines or so) is a music tracker, and it's clearly a separate module from the rest, clearly designed to be reusable. There are hints that the I/O ports are Atari-specific and that the engine allows for developers to perform hot-editing of music notes via the MIDI port, which was something incredibly sophisticated for 1985. Some other parts of the code deal with vibrato, legato, and effects during realtime play.
After that block there's what seems to be a sprite blitting engine, but that's as far as I got.
To be continued...
#brataccas #retrocomputing #retrogaming #m68k #SinclairQL #QL #asm #assembler #m68008
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These are parts of code in Brataccas that may have been written originally targeting the 68008 processor of the Sinclair QL before they were ported to the Atari ST
After some cursory scanning of the Brataccas code, some patterns emerged:
Case 1: Bit-reversal lookup table
This seems unusual and suggests graphics conversion between platforms with different pixel bit-ordering. The QL stored pixels in a different bit order than the ST - this table appears to be useful to convert graphics assets that were originally in Sinclair QL format.
; Bit-Reversal Table (L00A0-L00A4)
L00A0:DS.W 128,0
L00A2:LEA L00A0(PC),A0
MOVE.W #$FF,D7
L00A3:MOVE.B D0,D1
MOVEQ #6,D2
ROXR.B #1,D1
ROXL.B #1,D4
L00A4:ROXR.B #1,D1
ROXL.BCase 2 Excessive byte operations
Throughout the code, there's an unusual preference for byte operations:
MOVE.B (A0)+,D0
MOVE.B (A0)+,D1On the 68000 (ST/Amiga/Mac), word operations are typically preferred for performance. But the QL's 68008 CPU had an 8-bit external bus - byte vs word operations had similar performance. This coding style hints at optimisation for the 68008, not the 68000.
The disassembly available at the Brataccas website seems to have been produced from a QL to Atari ST port, not the Amiga as I originally thought.
https://www.brataccas.com/Page28.phpThe first part of the code (first 1000-1500 lines or so) is a music tracker, and it's clearly a separate module from the rest, clearly designed to be reusable. There are hints that the I/O ports are Atari-specific and that the engine allows for developers to perform hot-editing of music notes via the MIDI port, which was something incredibly sophisticated for 1985. Some other parts of the code deal with vibrato, legato, and effects during realtime play.
After that block there's what seems to be a sprite blitting engine, but that's as far as I got.
To be continued...
#brataccas #retrocomputing #retrogaming #m68k #SinclairQL #QL #asm #assembler #m68008
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These are parts of code in Brataccas that may have been written originally targeting the 68008 processor of the Sinclair QL before they were ported to the Atari ST
After some cursory scanning of the Brataccas code, some patterns emerged:
Case 1: Bit-reversal lookup table
This seems unusual and suggests graphics conversion between platforms with different pixel bit-ordering. The QL stored pixels in a different bit order than the ST - this table appears to be useful to convert graphics assets that were originally in Sinclair QL format.
; Bit-Reversal Table (L00A0-L00A4)
L00A0:DS.W 128,0
L00A2:LEA L00A0(PC),A0
MOVE.W #$FF,D7
L00A3:MOVE.B D0,D1
MOVEQ #6,D2
ROXR.B #1,D1
ROXL.B #1,D4
L00A4:ROXR.B #1,D1
ROXL.BCase 2 Excessive byte operations
Throughout the code, there's an unusual preference for byte operations:
MOVE.B (A0)+,D0
MOVE.B (A0)+,D1On the 68000 (ST/Amiga/Mac), word operations are typically preferred for performance. But the QL's 68008 CPU had an 8-bit external bus - byte vs word operations had similar performance. This coding style hints at optimisation for the 68008, not the 68000.
The disassembly available at the Brataccas website seems to have been produced from a QL to Atari ST port, not the Amiga as I originally thought.
https://www.brataccas.com/Page28.phpThe first part of the code (first 1000-1500 lines or so) is a music tracker, and it's clearly a separate module from the rest, clearly designed to be reusable. There are hints that the I/O ports are Atari-specific and that the engine allows for developers to perform hot-editing of music notes via the MIDI port, which was something incredibly sophisticated for 1985. Some other parts of the code deal with vibrato, legato, and effects during realtime play.
After that block there's what seems to be a sprite blitting engine, but that's as far as I got.
To be continued...
#brataccas #retrocomputing #retrogaming #m68k #SinclairQL #QL #asm #assembler #m68008
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These are parts of code in Brataccas that may have been written originally targeting the 68008 processor of the Sinclair QL before they were ported to the Atari ST
After some cursory scanning of the Brataccas code, some patterns emerged:
Case 1: Bit-reversal lookup table
This seems unusual and suggests graphics conversion between platforms with different pixel bit-ordering. The QL stored pixels in a different bit order than the ST - this table appears to be useful to convert graphics assets that were originally in Sinclair QL format.
; Bit-Reversal Table (L00A0-L00A4)
L00A0:DS.W 128,0
L00A2:LEA L00A0(PC),A0
MOVE.W #$FF,D7
L00A3:MOVE.B D0,D1
MOVEQ #6,D2
ROXR.B #1,D1
ROXL.B #1,D4
L00A4:ROXR.B #1,D1
ROXL.BCase 2 Excessive byte operations
Throughout the code, there's an unusual preference for byte operations:
MOVE.B (A0)+,D0
MOVE.B (A0)+,D1On the 68000 (ST/Amiga/Mac), word operations are typically preferred for performance. But the QL's 68008 CPU had an 8-bit external bus - byte vs word operations had similar performance. This coding style hints at optimisation for the 68008, not the 68000.
The disassembly available at the Brataccas website seems to have been produced from a QL to Atari ST port, not the Amiga as I originally thought.
https://www.brataccas.com/Page28.phpThe first part of the code (first 1000-1500 lines or so) is a music tracker, and it's clearly a separate module from the rest, clearly designed to be reusable. There are hints that the I/O ports are Atari-specific and that the engine allows for developers to perform hot-editing of music notes via the MIDI port, which was something incredibly sophisticated for 1985. Some other parts of the code deal with vibrato, legato, and effects during realtime play.
After that block there's what seems to be a sprite blitting engine, but that's as far as I got.
To be continued...
#brataccas #retrocomputing #retrogaming #m68k #SinclairQL #QL #asm #assembler #m68008
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Another #specnext blog post, this time about using the Sinclair QL core that was released last year.
https://www.elite.uk.com/mike/posts/2025-08_QL_Next_Xchange/ #sinclairql #retrocomputing
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Another #specnext blog post, this time about using the Sinclair QL core that was released last year.
https://www.elite.uk.com/mike/posts/2025-08_QL_Next_Xchange/ #sinclairql #retrocomputing
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Another #specnext blog post, this time about using the Sinclair QL core that was released last year.
https://www.elite.uk.com/mike/posts/2025-08_QL_Next_Xchange/ #sinclairql #retrocomputing
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Another #specnext blog post, this time about using the Sinclair QL core that was released last year.
https://www.elite.uk.com/mike/posts/2025-08_QL_Next_Xchange/ #sinclairql #retrocomputing
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Another #specnext blog post, this time about using the Sinclair QL core that was released last year.
https://www.elite.uk.com/mike/posts/2025-08_QL_Next_Xchange/ #sinclairql #retrocomputing
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The irony is that the constraint that you're talking about went away in the early 1980s when processors with more than just a single accumulator register became popular.
Sinclair QDOS is another, roughly contemporary but a few years earlier, example. The 68008 had far more general-purpose registers than the Z80, so the system call TRAPs in QDOS uniformly return an error code in D0 and up to three results in D1, D2, and D3.
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The irony is that the constraint that you're talking about went away in the early 1980s when processors with more than just a single accumulator register became popular.
Sinclair QDOS is another, roughly contemporary but a few years earlier, example. The 68008 had far more general-purpose registers than the Z80, so the system call TRAPs in QDOS uniformly return an error code in D0 and up to three results in D1, D2, and D3.
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The irony is that the constraint that you're talking about went away in the early 1980s when processors with more than just a single accumulator register became popular.
Sinclair QDOS is another, roughly contemporary but a few years earlier, example. The 68008 had far more general-purpose registers than the Z80, so the system call TRAPs in QDOS uniformly return an error code in D0 and up to three results in D1, D2, and D3.
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I'm talking about Europe here.
In the 80s there was a sucessful wave of 8bit computers: ZX Spectrum, Commodore C64, MSX, Amstrad CPC 664, some of them more succesfull than others, but the next 8bit wave IMHO was far from successful.: Spectrum 128/+2, Sinclair QL, Commodore C128, MSX2,... Any thoughts about this?#retrocomputing #8bit #c64 #c128 #msx #msx2 #zxspectrum #SinclairQL #commodore
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I'm talking about Europe here.
In the 80s there was a sucessful wave of 8bit computers: ZX Spectrum, Commodore C64, MSX, Amstrad CPC 664, some of them more succesfull than others, but the next 8bit wave IMHO was far from successful.: Spectrum 128/+2, Sinclair QL, Commodore C128, MSX2,... Any thoughts about this?#retrocomputing #8bit #c64 #c128 #msx #msx2 #zxspectrum #SinclairQL #commodore
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I'm talking about Europe here.
In the 80s there was a sucessful wave of 8bit computers: ZX Spectrum, Commodore C64, MSX, Amstrad CPC 664, some of them more succesfull than others, but the next 8bit wave IMHO was far from successful.: Spectrum 128/+2, Sinclair QL, Commodore C128, MSX2,... Any thoughts about this?#retrocomputing #8bit #c64 #c128 #msx #msx2 #zxspectrum #SinclairQL #commodore
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I'm talking about Europe here.
In the 80s there was a sucessful wave of 8bit computers: ZX Spectrum, Commodore C64, MSX, Amstrad CPC 664, some of them more succesfull than others, but the next 8bit wave IMHO was far from successful.: Spectrum 128/+2, Sinclair QL, Commodore C128, MSX2,... Any thoughts about this?#retrocomputing #8bit #c64 #c128 #msx #msx2 #zxspectrum #SinclairQL #commodore
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I'm talking about Europe here.
In the 80s there was a sucessful wave of 8bit computers: ZX Spectrum, Commodore C64, MSX, Amstrad CPC 664, some of them more succesfull than others, but the next 8bit wave IMHO was far from successful.: Spectrum 128/+2, Sinclair QL, Commodore C128, MSX2,... Any thoughts about this?#retrocomputing #8bit #c64 #c128 #msx #msx2 #zxspectrum #SinclairQL #commodore
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I'm proud to have been a supporter of the first Kickstarter campaign to make this wonderful machine a reality.
Now the guys are back at it, with the third campaign and lots of goodies, including #SinclairQL and #Commodore 64 cores.
Best of all, they keep supporting their users (from KS1 and KS2) by making sure we get the updates.
If you missed out on getting a #ZXSpectrum Next, this may be your final chance.
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I'm proud to have been a supporter of the first Kickstarter campaign to make this wonderful machine a reality.
Now the guys are back at it, with the third campaign and lots of goodies, including #SinclairQL and #Commodore 64 cores.
Best of all, they keep supporting their users (from KS1 and KS2) by making sure we get the updates.
If you missed out on getting a #ZXSpectrum Next, this may be your final chance.
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I just found my Sinclair QL lurking at the back of the garage. It's going to take a bit of work to get it going again.
I built it into a metal toolbox to sit beside my desk and used a separate keyboard, which was borrowed from a VT100 and rewired to work with the QL.
My QL had not the usual 128 K of RAM, nor was it expanded to only 640 K, but I had 656 K, with an extra 16 K battery backed on a board which I could also use as an EPROM emulator when doing things with other micros. That board also contains a Dallas clock chip, so I didn't have to set the time everytime that I booted the machine up.
The extra 16 K of RAM was actually in the slot usually reserved for a ROM cartridge so it usually contained the dongle from Metacomco's port of the Lattice C compiler alongside a bit of extra code of my own.
#RetroComputing #SinclairQL #SinclairResearch #mc68008 #MC68000 -
I just found my Sinclair QL lurking at the back of the garage. It's going to take a bit of work to get it going again.
I built it into a metal toolbox to sit beside my desk and used a separate keyboard, which was borrowed from a VT100 and rewired to work with the QL.
My QL had not the usual 128 K of RAM, nor was it expanded to only 640 K, but I had 656 K, with an extra 16 K battery backed on a board which I could also use as an EPROM emulator when doing things with other micros. That board also contains a Dallas clock chip, so I didn't have to set the time everytime that I booted the machine up.
The extra 16 K of RAM was actually in the slot usually reserved for a ROM cartridge so it usually contained the dongle from Metacomco's port of the Lattice C compiler alongside a bit of extra code of my own.
#RetroComputing #SinclairQL #SinclairResearch #mc68008 #MC68000 -
I just found my Sinclair QL lurking at the back of the garage. It's going to take a bit of work to get it going again.
I built it into a metal toolbox to sit beside my desk and used a separate keyboard, which was borrowed from a VT100 and rewired to work with the QL.
My QL had not the usual 128 K of RAM, nor was it expanded to only 640 K, but I had 656 K, with an extra 16 K battery backed on a board which I could also use as an EPROM emulator when doing things with other micros. That board also contains a Dallas clock chip, so I didn't have to set the time everytime that I booted the machine up.
The extra 16 K of RAM was actually in the slot usually reserved for a ROM cartridge so it usually contained the dongle from Metacomco's port of the Lattice C compiler alongside a bit of extra code of my own.
#RetroComputing #SinclairQL #SinclairResearch #mc68008 #MC68000 -
I just found my Sinclair QL lurking at the back of the garage. It's going to take a bit of work to get it going again.
I built it into a metal toolbox to sit beside my desk and used a separate keyboard, which was borrowed from a VT100 and rewired to work with the QL.
My QL had not the usual 128 K of RAM, nor was it expanded to only 640 K, but I had 656 K, with an extra 16 K battery backed on a board which I could also use as an EPROM emulator when doing things with other micros. That board also contains a Dallas clock chip, so I didn't have to set the time everytime that I booted the machine up.
The extra 16 K of RAM was actually in the slot usually reserved for a ROM cartridge so it usually contained the dongle from Metacomco's port of the Lattice C compiler alongside a bit of extra code of my own.
#RetroComputing #SinclairQL #SinclairResearch #mc68008 #MC68000 -
I just found my Sinclair QL lurking at the back of the garage. It's going to take a bit of work to get it going again.
I built it into a metal toolbox to sit beside my desk and used a separate keyboard, which was borrowed from a VT100 and rewired to work with the QL.
My QL had not the usual 128 K of RAM, nor was it expanded to only 640 K, but I had 656 K, with an extra 16 K battery backed on a board which I could also use as an EPROM emulator when doing things with other micros. That board also contains a Dallas clock chip, so I didn't have to set the time everytime that I booted the machine up.
The extra 16 K of RAM was actually in the slot usually reserved for a ROM cartridge so it usually contained the dongle from Metacomco's port of the Lattice C compiler alongside a bit of extra code of my own.
#RetroComputing #SinclairQL #SinclairResearch #mc68008 #MC68000