This mini forum is intended to provide a simple means of discussion about the Epson  QX 10 computer. If you want to share your own experience or memories, or add relevant information about this system: post a message! For other purposes like sales messages, hardware & software questions or information requests, please use our main forum.

I seem to remember purchasing my first QX10 around 1983. As a newly minted freelance writer, I was beyond finished with typewriters of all kinds, and the thought of simple correction and printing only the final product seemed like heaven to me. Eventually, as I needed a part-time assistant, I acquired a second one, and eventually my now-husband also bought a used one in order to be able to work on projects at either his home or mine. All used ValDocs, and they certainly got the job done. I kept them for many years after they no longer were in use, but eventually did end up taking two of them to recycling, since even the offer to donate to an organization like this one was rebuffed and the basement only is so big. $) I still do have one, as well as the ValDocs disks AND the giant binder of support info. I would love to find someone in the market for all of it before it, too, ends up meeting a sad end. Good memories of the beginnings of my ongoing love/hate relationship with PCs!

When this machine came out, I worked at a large, mostly Apple dealer in LA. We thought this would be our star attraction, and set it up in the middle of the showroom! Imagine, integrated applications!''

This thing was the biggest bomb and the worst experience in my computer career. I sold only five of them. All people did all day long is call me and complain. Our poor Epson rep knew me well, and the Valdocs support line people all new me. It was all software issues, the hardware seemed ok. But it just wouldn''t work! Everything from not printing correctly, to not justifying, to not saving, and a million other things I forced myself to forget. There was a writer from the LA Herald who bought one, what a horses a$$. I don''t blame him for being mad, but he kept threatening to write a column and mention my name! What a d!ck. I even offered to give him his money back, but no, he wanted the machine to work HIS way! I finally, honestly told him to F-off. It was proably the only computer store in the world I could get away with that. (The owner was awesome.) Another woman I sold one to was a nut and didn''t mind that it didn''t work, she wanted to start a users group and wanted me to stay after work and run it with her. No thanks.

I simply stopped selling it. The next place I worked was all IBM and HP, and I never looked back.

We got our QX-10 around 1982. I remember being soooo excited about it. Like the UK model ours had the multi font card installed as standard and came with MF-Basic.

We never had valdocs. We had some locally written business software as well as visicalc (pre lotus 123) and my favourite....QXTEXT.

QXTEXT was a wordprocessor that provided the early concept of a WYSIWYG page. The software would load and prompt you to turn the monitor on its side (yes physically pick up the mono green screen - which fortunately was quite light - and sit it on its side).

From there the sfotware ran completely in graphics mode, and you had your page laid out in front of you and there were function key asignments to change margins etc. you could $ fonts with the special font keys and well..it really worked so neatly.

When we retired our QX-10, I had it carefully packed and stored, but sadly it got stolen from there a few years back, and without software I''ll bet it ended up being trashed - noone would have known what to do with it. Have to keep my eye out for another one.

Interesting that the main selling point of these machines in the US was the hardware integration with the Valdocs software. In the UK, the QX-10 was not supplied with Valdocs. Instead, we had the MultiFont card installed as standard (I believe this was an optional extra in the US), and we got MF-BASIC (Multifont Basic) programming language on disk, and a CP/M disk for running CP/M software.

When I think of my old QX10, I think of the 1000s of hours spent on the graphics app, Qplotter, which allowed for some great BASIC centric graphics for the time. I also think about the QX10s ultra distinctive sounding slimline floppy drives (I would love a sound clip of a QX10 booting up when those drives were seeking to track 0. Btw , those damn drives were impossible to re-align due to the way they were constructed. Oh yeah, and the ZMP terminal program using the ultra new Zmodem protocol for enjoying the BBS days at 1200 baud. Ahhh.. good times.

I worked with Epson technical support during the years when these machines were sold. As the summary page states, it was amazing what the software was able to do with a 4 MHz Z80! The "Valdocs" software suite was totally custom-written, and had a bug or two (what doesn't), but really was a marvel for that day and age. The software had WYSIWYG formatting, long filename support (via an 8.3 to extended filename indexing system), and performed at a reasonable speed. What's more, the machine could run standard CP/M software. I frequently used WordStar, Turbo Pascal, and dBase II (all CP/M versions) on the QX-10.

The hardware was interesting as well. The crisp hi-res green screen, low-profile CPU unit with 1/3 height (!) drives, and custom keyboard made for a very intriguing system. The keyboard was unique - it was made to work in concert with the software, with special keys for font manipulation and other special features. No more Shift-Control-Alt-F7! All-in-all, the QX-10 was quite a system.

Be sure to check out the HX-20 and PX-8 pages as well!