I found the original receipt of my first QL ;o) Its dated 12th March
1985, serial no. D12-059637. It sported JM ROM. Viking, Norway were
the distributors, although this was a UK version, not a Norwegian
model. The price was a whopping 6900 NOK, or about £600.
A month or two later I bought a Cub colour monitor and a Brother EP44
typewriter/printer. The Cub blew up after a few weeks, but the QL has
worked flawlessly for years and, AFAIK, still does. The only repair I
can remember having made was replacing the keyboard membrane.
Prior to all that I had waited months for the QL to arrive in Norway.
In the end I bought some other home micro instead. A lot of people
deride the QL microdrives, but they never gave me much trouble, apart
from being rather slow. The alternative for most home micros of the
day was a tape deck which, to my mind was a lot worse. That was the
case with the one I bought. I hated it and sold it again when the QL
finally arrived; technically the best machine of its time!
In the summer of '85 I went on holiday to the UK. There I ordered a
Medic 512k interface with dual 3.5" floppies. When it didnt arrive on
the date promised, I went to Basingstoke to pick it up in person. The
address I was given turned out to be an empty house! I spent the
better part of the day sleuthing, which included a phone call to QL
World (or User), who warned me, off the record, that there was
something fishy going on at Medic.
However I finally located the Medic workshop. Mr Whatshisname was
there (as was Mr Beatty, of Sector Software) and explained the trouble
they were having with suppliers, etc, which was the reason for the
delay. Being forewarned, I opted to take away the stuff without
finished software or the cover on the interface. Luckily! as a few
months after the whiff came the bang!
Ah, happy days!
Per
_______________________________________________
QL-Users Mailing List
http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
