QLView (Amiga)

QLView is an utility for showing Sinclair QL image files saved in the Mode 4 and Mode 8 screen formats. The Sinclair QL (Quantum Leap) is a computer based on the 68008 CPU, released in 1984 as a successor of the legendary Sinclair ZX series. Unfortunately it was not backwards compatible with the Sinclair ZX and did not gain much attention of the public, despite being intended for business usage. Released one year before the Amiga, it is the first computer available in the stores with built-in preemptive multitasking operating system (QDOS). Thanks to having Motorola 68000 family processor, the Sinclair QL and it's operating system are very easy for emulation on Amiga. The provided emulation is fast and easy to use, offering all the pluses of the Amiga hardware like faster speed, bigger memory and more peripheral devices, without the need of extra investment in Sinclar QL compatible hardware. I used to emulate the Sinclair QL a lot, but there was no possibility to show the QL screens on AmigaOS. In order to be able to view and process the QL images on AmigaOS, I had to write my own utility, which was later improved and developed in the current state of QLView. Originally developed for AmigaOS 3, later it was easily ported to other operating systems. The utility can be used from AmigaShell with CLI arguments and from Workbench with menus and keyboard shortcuts.

After staring the utility, there is possibility to select the image file and show it on the window. If an image was already provided with CLI argument, it will be shown instead of the help text. With the W key, the user can switch between different color palettes, while the C key switches between Mode 4 and Mode 8 for the display. The changes are visible immediately on the application window. The shown images can be previewed how they would look with the different modes and also on different color sets, for example on black and white, green, red, blue, yellow, purple and cyan displays. When the user is satisfied with the preview, the image can be saved as Amiga IFF file for later processing by other software. Full source code is provided in the archive, along with compiles for AmigaOS 3, AmigaOS 4, MorphOS and AROS. Also included in the archive are several images for test. Their recommended Mode is written as a comment to each file. For the people, who have Sinclair QL image files, staying in their original format and not viewable on other platforms, except the QL itself, QLView comes very handy for converting the images, making them avaiable for preview and processing on today platforms.

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