The Sinclair QL Forum

I always enjoyed testing and bug-fixing for CGH; as well as representing CGH at several QL computer fairs around the country and dealing with the public etc at those shows. It was always good fun and a busy stall but invariably I would be asked for some piece of software or software on microdrive cartridge which Richard had not included in the hefty box of stuff sent out for me to sell !!

Alan Pemberton always saw me as a challenge to see if he could create an adventure which I couldn't complete within a day.

The long, long discusssions (by letter) over D-Day MKII and War In the East MKII, plus articles I wrote for the various magazines. The testing was always fun too - as Richard would post a program / game out to me to test and often, rather than hand writing a list of bugs, I would send it back with a bit of code to show how to fix the issue(s) !!

Pretty much every letter from Richard was bemoaning the fact his photocopier had broken down once again as he struggled to produce the magazines......

RWAP wrote:0
Pretty much every letter from Richard was bemoaning the fact his photocopier had broken down once again as he struggled to produce the magazines......

He he, back in those days he used to print and photocopy manuals for DJC when for whatever reason I was unable to. Many a time, my photocopier broke down and Richard came to the rescue (although I always checked with him first before sending anything in case both our copiers were down at the same time, in which case it was an expensive trip to town to photocopy!)

I think it's true to say that without Rich Mellor, CGH Services would have sunk long before it did.
So I am very grateful for the work Rich did.

Photocopiers - buying one seemed a good idea at the time.
Until it needed servicing and had to be returned to Birmingham.
(They forgot to mention that when I bought it.)
So that got sold and I bought another giant beast, making sure the seller would come out and service it.
Not cheap, but luckily I got the hang of sorting out simple problems with it.

What I didn't bargain for was the grief I got when I was double-sided copying A3 sheets to do the mags - with all the inevitable paper creases ruining page after page.
And then collating the printed sheets on the living room table.
Best way to knacker your back I ever discovered.

Would it have been cheaper to get the zines printed professionally ?
Not for the print runs I did - about 300 - 400 IIRC.
(And not all in one go either, usually in lots of 100 - 200.)

Photocopier shops - I wonder what happened to them ?

I loved reading your Adventurers Forum magazines! All these years later and still a great read.

QLAF was great fun to write and edit.
I miss the hours spent testing the adventures - even with a cheat sheet I liked to play them through to see if there was any problems.
And then when we'd sold a few I could write some hints for the mag.

I wonder if there any adventures we didn't cover and people never managed to finish ?

RichardCGH wrote:I miss the hours spent testing the adventures - even with a cheat sheet I liked to play them through to see if there was any problems.
And then when we'd sold a few I could write some hints for the mag.

I wonder if there any adventures we didn't cover and people never managed to finish ?

If you still have a taste for QL adventures, I released a new one last year called 198?, and so did Andrei, with his excellent PI Cole game.

RichardCGH wrote: Photocopier shops - I wonder what happened to them ?

Inkjet printer/copiers and paperless offices!

Did someone mention "paperless offices"?
That was a "thing" when I was at college back in the early 1980s along with "soon programmers will be no longer needed, programs will write themselves". Still waiting.
My office has more paper in it these days since starting a business - stuff has to be kept for 7 years (accounts) and 40 years (insurance).

I do actually think that we'll have viable nuclear fusion before a paperless office.

Cheers,
Norm.

vanpeebles wrote: If you still have a taste for QL adventures, I released a new one last year called 198?, and so did Andrei, with his excellent PI Cole game.

Sounds interesting.
Where can we get hold of them ?

I checked the QL Wiki under Text Adventures and Graphic Adventures and didn't see them

RichardCGH wrote:

vanpeebles wrote: If you still have a taste for QL adventures, I released a new one last year called 198?, and so did Andrei, with his excellent PI Cole game.

Sounds interesting.
Where can we get hold of them ?

I checked the QL Wiki under Text Adventures and Graphic Adventures and didn't see them

Pi Cole is here:

viewtopic.php?t=3035

And mine is here:

viewtopic.php?t=3072

Maybe we could see a one off anniversary pdf return of QLAF?

RichardCGH wrote:

vanpeebles wrote: If you still have a taste for QL adventures, I released a new one last year called 198?, and so did Andrei, with his excellent PI Cole game.

Sounds interesting.
Where can we get hold of them ?

I checked the QL Wiki under Text Adventures and Graphic Adventures and didn't see them

They do not appear on the QL Wiki as these are not commercial programs.

There is of course also "Spy - A QL Adventure" - https://qlwiki.theqlforum.com/doku.php?i ... _adventure

Thanks for info.

The adventures look cool

I'm now stuck with too many options as to how to download and play them.

I have a couple of old QLs - the keyboard membranes need replacing IIRC, there's a disk i/f with a couple of 5.25" drives (which belong in a museum), a TKII ROM cart, not sure how much memory they have, and that's about it.
I suspect upgrading to gold card, Hermes etc will be too expensive.

I've downloaded the QPC2 emulator, but anything to do with Pointer Environment is lost on me.

The Q68 sounds interesting and I'll probably be getting a Raspberry Pi400 some time this year (but it'll take a while to get used to it.)
A QL on an SD might be useful. One that boots into a variety of QL set-ups.

Oh and a Spectrum Next has also been bought, but won't be here until summer - possibly this year..
(I still haven't worked what to do with it. Nearly all the new games are just old arcade game formats with slight changes and much improved graphics.
Although I understand that QL cores are being worked on.)

QL Adventurer's Forum ? Probably best idea is a dedicated thread on this board for people to post reviews, hints, ask for help etc.