Have you heard the latest? A rumor has been circulating in Great Britain for a couple of months now, that Amstrad is rethinking their position on the QL. Amstrad executives have been keeping an eye on how the QL aftermarket support has been developing. Also, it has been common knowledge that Amstrad would like to market a 32-bit machine. Using existing QL technology which they obtained in a major buy-out of Sinclair last year, would save the company thousands of dollars. Having an established support base of software and add-ons is another big plus. Some improvements including the replacement of the microdrives with a single built in disk drive, have been discussed.
Digital Precision has just released their DESKTOP PUBLISHER software package. It is reported to be a professional program, with text editing features that rival many similar programs available for the Apple MacIntosh and IBM PCs. DESKTOP PUBLISHER is written in machine code and requires a minimum of 256K RAM. Several U.S. dealers have the program available for about $100.
Another Desktop program, FRONT PAGE, has been upgraded for use with additional RAM expansion cards. The new version which incorporates extra fonts and other features, is called FRONT PAGE EXTRA.
The TRUMP CARD by Miracle Systems packs a lot of punch in one circuit card that fits into the QL expansion slot. When installed, it provides a full 896K RAM, a disk interface (up to two drives), RAMdisk software, a print spooler, and Tony Tebby‘s TOOLKIT II software on an EPROM. Most U.S. QL dealers have the TRUMP CARD in stock for around $300. Miracle Systems is also working on a MIDI Interface which will be ready sometime this fall.
