First to report this month is the goings on with Sinclair in the U.S. and in England. After a seemingly shaky introduction in the U.S., Sinclair is apparently ready to start letting dealers sell the QL instead of only going by mailorder. At the same time, news from England says that the deal between Sinclair and Mr. Maxwell(?) has fallen through and an extension of bank credit and a large purchase of excess inventory by the Dixon store chain has saved the day for Sir Clive and Company! The press is expecting the introduction of the new Spectrum 128 at any time–a machine based upon the Spectrum Plus but with bank switching of an extra 64K of memory as the 2068 was intended to be able to do.
The English Micro Connection has put out a new catalog of 36 8 1/2 x 11 pages, mostly of Spectrum software and hardware (but most of which works with Spectrum ROM 2068s), but also with 2 pages of QL products. EMC, 15 Kilburn Court, Newport, RI 02840; 401/849-3805.
Zebra Systems has also just released a new 48 page catalog featuring their newest products especially for the 2068; these include a disk drive system, 64 column rom cartridge, a graphics tablet, and voice synthesizer. Zebra also carries a lot of the TS-1000 software (though most of it is not new to the market) for those owners. Zebra, 78-06 Jamaica Ave., Woodhaven, NY 11421; 718/296-2385.
Amstrad, a fairly successful English computer and electronics company is introducing their computer system over here. This may be good news for TS users who have the 3″ EMC or Zebra disk drives as the Amstrad also uses the 3″ drive. This should mean that not only will diskettes be available, but if CP/M is ever released on the TS machines, software that runs on the Amstrad under CP/M (which Amstrad is already producing) may well run on TS machines as well.
Damco has introduced a new interface allowing the 2068 to run the Rotronics Wafadrive. The Rainbow Plus interface is both a “twister board” and a Spectrum emulator. With the version we received for review, the 3″ disk drives would not work. But it was a pleasure to be able to use the Wafadrive with its excellent catalog feature and the Spectral Writer word processor on my beloved 2068. We are not aware whether or not Damco intends to modify the interface for disk drive use. Call them for information. Damco, 67 Bradley Ct., Fall River, MA 02720; 617/678-2110.
Also from Damco is the latest version of “Trans-Express”, a program designed to transfer software onto the Rotronics Wafadrive. Not having much Spectrum software on hand I could not try much, but I was impressed with how easy the program is use. I cannot say how well it works, however. Damco is also making available a set of Engineering Bulletins for the Wafadrive for about $4.50 which will prove invaluable for Rotronics users. Included is information on upgrading Spectral writer; loading Tasword II, Masterfile, Vu-Calc, and Vu-File on Wafa; printer drivers; and other goodies to make the Wafadrive system more useful.