Final Expansion :: 512KB SRAM + 512KB EEPROM + SD Card (2GB)

Pedro Lambrini · Post by **Pedro Lambrini** » Sat Jun 13, 2009 6:32 am

Diddl wrote:hmm, the URL for the picture is ...

http://vc20final.t-winkler.net/index-Da ... _Label.jpg

... and it works fine for me?? I'm using Firefox 3.0.8.

I just tried it in FF and it worked. It doesn't work in Opera for me though. Maybe Mikam73 is using Opera as well?

Diddl · Post by **Diddl** » Sat Jun 13, 2009 6:52 am

Strange, Opera maybe has a problem with some characters in the filename?

Mikam73 · Post by **Mikam73** » Sat Jun 13, 2009 7:18 am

Pedro Lambrini wrote:
Diddl wrote:hmm, the URL for the picture is ...

http://vc20final.t-winkler.net/index-Da ... _Label.jpg

... and it works fine for me?? I'm using Firefox 3.0.8.
I just tried it in FF and it worked. It doesn't work in Opera for me though. Maybe Mikam73 is using Opera as well?

Yes. I use Opera. Other pics open, but picture of label/cartridge doesnt open. I tryed also before, no luck.

I get only black box that says image at left top corner, but image doesnt load.

Mikam73 · Post by **Mikam73** » Sat Jun 13, 2009 7:27 am

Oh no.. It is very difficult. I have never solder anything. But couldnt some company build product like this ready? I am sure people would love to but it like Megacart. No box needed, but cartridge ready and maybe little manual with it.

Pedro Lambrini · Post by **Pedro Lambrini** » Sun Jun 14, 2009 3:08 pm

I was just playing around with my MC and it got me thinking about these 2 potential new carts. Would it be possible to save states of games onto the SD card (maybe in VSF format?) so that I can keep my high scores in the games I play rather than on a note pad...?

Vic20-Ian spoke about the possibilities of something similar in another thread a while back but now's maybe the time to bring it back up again.

brain · Post by **brain** » Sun Jun 14, 2009 9:48 pm

It's technically possible with aaramsey's cart, as the Sd controller has access to all of the RAM.

Jim

Pedro Lambrini · Post by **Pedro Lambrini** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 2:19 am

brain wrote:It's technically possible with aaramsey's cart, as the Sd controller has access to all of the RAM.

Jim

Hmmm... *scratches chin in a thoughtful manner...*

Mike · Post by **Mike** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 2:37 am

brain wrote:It's technically possible with aaramsey's cart, as the Sd controller has access to all of the RAM.

I'd be *very* interested how you got past the CA/VA barrier built by UC4, and UD3. If there's another way than copying RAM0, and RAM4..7 into a free area in BLK5 with software DMA, that is.

Greetings,

Michael

Diddl · Post by **Diddl** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 4:11 am

Pedro Lambrini wrote:Would it be possible to save states of games onto the SD card (maybe in VSF format?) so that I can keep my high scores in the games I play rather than on a note pad...?

You mean a kind of freezer?

Would be possible with HOT-Key while Reset running.

Unseen · Post by **Unseen** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 5:07 am

Diddl wrote:You mean a kind of freezer?

Would be possible with HOT-Key while Reset running.

Reset destroys the CPU state (registers, flags, program counter) which is why the C64 freezers usually use NMI. I don't think there is a way to change the NMI vector of the VC20 from the expansion port though (the C64 freezers use Ultimax mode for that) which complicates things a bit.

brain · Post by **brain** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 11:28 am

Mike wrote:
brain wrote:It's technically possible with aaramsey's cart, as the Sd controller has access to all of the RAM.
I'd be *very* interested how you got past the CA/VA barrier built by UC4, and UD3. If there's another way than copying RAM0, and RAM4..7 into a free area in BLK5 with software DMA, that is.

Greetings,

Michael

This is why I should not post too quickly.

I meant the SRAM that is on the cartridge, not the internal RAM. I was thinking that, when the user pressed "RESET", the cart would disconnect the RAM from the bus, read it with the AVR, and save what is needed.

To make it save high scores, one would need to patch the games to save high score info in the RAM areas that the cart can "see". I assume that's how MegaCart does it.

One interesting possibility of this "load" and "save" image function is the ability to do automated real time patches to games. Instead of storing a static image of a patched game, the system could load the base image into RAM, then load one or more "patches" and apply them to the RAM image immediately before allowing the system to start. Users could create and distribute their own "patch sets" without breaking any copyright rules.

Just a thought.

Jim

nbla000 · Post by **nbla000** » Tue Jun 16, 2009 3:53 am

Mikam73 wrote:This would be very cool if it let run Vic20 demos from SD card and also games that are missing from Megacart.

But you can already do this by using the Brian's uIEC/SD along with your Mega-Cart, you don't need nothing else, you may play VIC-toria from SD+Mega-Cart for example

Unseen wrote:I don't think there is a way to change the NMI vector of the VC20 from the expansion port though (the C64 freezers use Ultimax mode for that) which complicates things a bit.

AFAIK is not possible, i thought on this feature for Mega-Cart about one year ago but you have not control from user port for this.
If i'm not wrong Eslapion started a just for fun project to slow/freeze the CPU but you need to hack a bit your Vic.

Mike · Post by **Mike** » Thu Jun 18, 2009 1:42 pm

brain wrote:
Mike wrote:
brain wrote:It's technically possible with aaramsey's cart, as the Sd controller has access to all of the RAM.
I'd be *very* interested how you got past the CA/VA barrier built by UC4, and UD3. If there's another way than copying RAM0, and RAM4..7 into a free area in BLK5 with software DMA, that is.
This is why I should not post too quickly.

No problem.

In any case, for an emulator it is an easy task to freeze as it has full access to the complete state of the machine, read, and write.

Re-programming the state on a real computer is more difficult, to say the least. I always wondered how these C64 freezers re-construct the write-only SID registers or CIA RTC alarm registers, for example. Do they spy these accesses on the expansion bus? And syncing all timers, including the raster register must be a nightmare.

Michael

Diddl · Post by **Diddl** » Sat Jun 20, 2009 1:59 am

Prototype testing of the Final Expansion v2 is finished, cartridge is working fine and stable.

Betatest of the Final Expansion v3 is starting with some beta tester.

The difference between v2 and v3 is only the SD2IEC part on v3. So v3 hardware and CPLD design is already tested. This Betatest is a PCB and firmware stability test and also to improve firmware usability.

Post by **Jeff-20** » Sun Jun 21, 2009 5:15 pm

It's like a VIC 20 space race! I fully expect someone to put a working VIC console on the moon before the end of the decade.