New VIC-20 Multicart/Development Cart

[nbla000]

Cool idea, I just wish the carts were less generic early 80's arcade games and more unique Commodore type stuff - Cosmic Cruncher, The Count, Road Race, etc.

I know a cartridge for you

[Kananga]

A better question would be : "Would all the VIC software in the world add up to 2Gbytes?". And the answer would be... not a chance.

Time to roll up our sleeves and do something about it!

[Barney]

Any mnore of these cartridges left? I'm interrested in one.

[RobertBe]

To find out, just send developer Kent Rittenhouse an e-mail to

gameofyou(at)sbcglobal.net

Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug
July 24-25 Commodore Vegas Expo 2010 -
http://www.commodore.ca/forum
and click on ComVEX

[CBR125R]

I ordered one of these about 10 days ago, and it arrived yesterday.
http://www.gamingenterprisesinc.com/vic20/

The board works exactly as advertised. The 5 DIP switches allow the selection of 32 different ROMs, all games.


I had an extra copy of Omega Race, so I sacrificed that cart to give this board a protective shell. I have to use a pair of pliers to snip out a couple of the shell's internal posts, and then cut out a rectangular piece of the shell so the DIP switches are exposed. This works great.


My only caveat is the selection of games. I think about two-thirds are excellent choices (Dig Dug, Ms. Pacman, Choplifter, GORF, Star Trek, etc.) but I think there are a few poor choices, like Atarisoft Pacman (why not include a better maze game like Jelly Monsters?) or Frogger (ugh, terrible, especially when there are other much better Frogger knock-offs). And yet a couple of games I would have expected to be included, like Bandits or Gridrunner, are not. Also, some of the games are very common (Omega Race); I would think it might have been a good idea to concentrate on ROMs that are very rare and hard to obtain.

The price was very good, only $28 plus shipping. I think for someone who wants a multicart, but doesn't have the money or the patience to get a Megacart, this might be a good choice.

[gameofyou]

The schematics are a bit different than what is actually on the board. To be exact, the board came with one ST M27C4001, 10B1L, AA082 V5, TWN 88 622 EPROM at the U1 position.
Only one NXP 74HCT08N, L8D7R2 01, UnG0844E chip at the U2 position.

I know this will set a record of lateness of reply, but:
You are correct about the eprom. There is a typo on the schematic (the first "C" should not be there). It is a M27C4001 eprom, which is a 512K x 8 part. The 74HCT08N is shown on the schematic as the four individual gates that are inside that chip (this is commonly done with logic gates). So if you will notice, each gate is designated as U2. U2 is the chip itself, with four AND gates residing within that chip.

I'm glad that it is working for you, and I hope the protptype area will be useful to some, for experimenting.

[gameofyou]

Cool idea, I just wish the carts were less generic early 80's arcade games and more unique Commodore type stuff - Cosmic Cruncher, The Count, Road Race, etc.

This is a valid point. At the time I originally made the cart, my interest was in how well the VIC-20 arcade ports were done. I am thinking about making another option, though, which would be made up of 32 different games, which are more uniquely Commodore. This is what I am considering so far. If anyone has opinion of a game that should be added/removed let me know.

Aggressor, Artillery Duel, Astroblitz, Attack of the Mutant Camels, Bandits, Black Hole, Cannonball Blitz
Cloudburst, Cosmic Jailbreak, Creepy Corridors, Crossfire, Deadly Skies, Fast Eddie, Gold Fever, Grid runner
Jupiter Lander, Lunar Leeper, Maze, Miner 2049er, Mosquito infestation, Mountain King, Out world, Pharaohs Curse
Polaris, Predator, Rat Hotel, Robot Panic, Satellites and Meteorites!, Scorpion, Sea Wolf, Super Amok, Tutankham

[gameofyou]

I ordered one of these about 10 days ago, and it arrived yesterday.
http://www.gamingenterprisesinc.com/vic20/
I had an extra copy of Omega Race, so I sacrificed that cart to give this board a protective shell. I have to use a pair of pliers to snip out a couple of the shell's internal posts, and then cut out a rectangular piece of the shell so the DIP switches are exposed. This works great.

Cool! I dimensioned the board so that it could mount in a cartridge case, but I have to confess that I never tried it. I'm glad that everything fits with minimal modification.

Regarding the game list, see my previous post. I am open to suggestion on the next batch of games.

[gameofyou]

Also, for those of you wanting to make your own game sets: I checked on EPROM availability today, and it seems that the part I originally used (from ST Microelectronics) is no longer being manufactured.  However, there is a part from Atmel that should be an acceptable substitute.  It is p/n# AT27C040-90PU.
 
It looks like most electronic distributors (Digikey, Mouser, ...ect) carry the Atmel part.  I don't see any of the UV erasable parts available any longer, unfortunately.  The Atmel part is One Time Programmable.

[RobertBe]

I am thinking about making another option, though, which would be made up of 32 different games, which are more uniquely Commodore.

Oh, that would be very nice. And if it's available by the time of the July 26-27 Commodore Vegas Expo, I could show it off at that event.

Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug

[GreyGhost]

The multi game carts are very cool, but it would be nice to see a "programmer's aid" cart produced that had all of the various programs one would use to actually develop on the Vic... VicTracker, Character Editor, Minigrafik, Minipaint, maybe an assembler or two, a disassembler, a music composer, Vic-SSS, WimBASIC, and any of a hundred or so other development type programs. Everything right there at your finger tips. That to me would be an awesome cart.

[Jeff-20]

Yes!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[rhurst]

Yeah, but I would then wear out my VIC faster, really. I buy Cherry keyboards for my PC workstation, because I'm pretty good at wearing ordinary ones down... at least these last 5-years for me, not 18-months.

Use an emulator for your development folks, and maybe beta-test, but certainly PLAY on the real hardware. With a uIEC/SD drive and a Mega-Cart, of course!

[gameofyou]

I now have the new eprom image finished. So now you can choose either one, when you buy a development cart:
http://www.gamingenterprisesinc.com/vic20/

[RobertBe]

Oh, excellent! I will buy another one today.

With EPROM 2,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug