Aquarius QD Disk Drive video

[Spirantho]

Hi everybody,

 

Just wanted to let people know that I've put up a video:

- I figured these old disk drives won't last forever so it's a good idea to archive them as much as possible now.

 

Any comments gratefully received- hope people find it interesting. Incidentally, if the multi-cart gets the QD ROM on it (and I think it should ) then it's probably actually the ROM from this very machine!

[GroovyBee]

I didn't know such a beast existed for the Aquarius. Mind you, I never followed the Aquarius after it lost out to the Speccy for the fight to be my first home computer.

[Spirantho]

I didn't know such a beast existed for the Aquarius. Mind you, I never followed the Aquarius after it lost out to the Speccy for the fight to be my first home computer.

 

Yeah, I don't think there are very many of them about these days, probably countable on one hand. My particular one is serial number 15, but I know of a later one with a newer ROM (1.02) which is serial #107.

 

I think it's probably for the best that the Speccy won that fight though.

[Tempest]

Awesome! I knew they existed but I've never seen one in action. I'd LOVE one of these, but they're so impossible to find. I'd guess there were less than 1,000 made in total and lord knows how many were unsold or scrapped. Neat!

 

Tempest

[the-topdog]

Loved seeing a QD in action! Martin has one but it isn't operational. Thanks for sharing this with us.

 

On a side note, when will you be selling it to me? :D

[Spirantho]

Loved seeing a QD in action! Martin has one but it isn't operational. Thanks for sharing this with us.

 

On a side note, when will you be selling it to me? :D

 

As soon as you send me £1000. Not really wanting to sell it because it adds to my Aquarius collection so well. Kind of fits next to the MIB 4-colour plotter quite nicely, I feel.

 

In what way is Martin's QD drive not working? Maybe I can help to get it working... he does know that you need a S2 Aquarius to run it, doesn't he? And he's changed the drive belt?

 

@Tempest:

I'd say a lot less than 1,000 were made. Given most of them seem to have V1.01 of the ROM, and at most 106 V1.01 ones were made, I'd say probably 150 were made. Put it this way, it wouldn't look out of place in your (rather awesome) prototype collection!

[schuwalker]

That is sooooo awesome!!! Never knew that existed and never knew that the Aquarius was that popular across the pond!!!! I suppose you're also hoarding all the copies of Melody Chase and Chess!

[Tempest]

@Tempest:

I'd say a lot less than 1,000 were made. Given most of them seem to have V1.01 of the ROM, and at most 106 V1.01 ones were made, I'd say probably 150 were made. Put it this way, it wouldn't look out of place in your (rather awesome) prototype collection!

Maybe 500 then, I can't believe they'd do a run as small as 150. Then again, you never know.

 

Tempest

[Spirantho]

@Tempest:

I'd say a lot less than 1,000 were made. Given most of them seem to have V1.01 of the ROM, and at most 106 V1.01 ones were made, I'd say probably 150 were made. Put it this way, it wouldn't look out of place in your (rather awesome) prototype collection!

Maybe 500 then, I can't believe they'd do a run as small as 150. Then again, you never know.

 

I don't think they did a proper run. Otherwise why would the first 100ish units have a different ROM revision? The first run must have been a prototype or sample run, not a production run. I'd guess they did one more run with V1.02, and then canned the project.

 

That's entirely conjecture though.

[the-topdog]

As soon as you send me £1000. Not really wanting to sell it because it adds to my Aquarius collection so well. Kind of fits next to the MIB 4-colour plotter quite nicely, I feel.

 

Don't tease me. I might just send you £1000 for it

 

I recently scored a CIB 4-Color plotter myself... they are soooooooo cool.

 

In what way is Martin's QD drive not working? Maybe I can help to get it working... he does know that you need a S2 Aquarius to run it, doesn't he? And he's changed the drive belt?

 

You can contact him here, he is a great guy with an awesome Aquarius collection...

 

Once again, awesome demo!

[the-topdog]

Will you be adding your Quick Drive serial number to the Aquarius Serial Number Database?

 

This drive is still something I drool over. I wonder if the Quick Drive for the Commodore 64 can be modified to be used on the Aquarius, it has to be almost identical.