Mega-Cart

nbla000 · Post by **nbla000** » Fri Sep 19, 2008 5:15 am

ral-clan wrote: I don't like the idea of sending printing work off to China to be done, but perhaps that's the only viable option for this kind of work if we want it to look "real" and be affordable for ca. 200 units.

Do you have an idea of cost for 100/200 units ? if the difference from a local supplier and a chinese firm is only few dollars we may use a local supplier considering that you have ship costs from China too.

ral-clan · Post by **ral-clan** » Fri Sep 19, 2008 6:25 pm

nbla000 wrote:
ral-clan wrote: I don't like the idea of sending printing work off to China to be done, but perhaps that's the only viable option for this kind of work if we want it to look "real" and be affordable for ca. 200 units.
Do you have an idea of cost for 100/200 units ? if the difference from a local supplier and a chinese firm is only few dollars we may use a local supplier considering that you have ship costs from China too.

I just talked to my local printing shop about five months ago to get an estimate on making the label. It was about $500CAD for 200 labels (these are real glossy labels, plastic coated). The only problem is that the VIC label is not a standard size they are equipped to print, so I would have to get the VIC cartridge label printed on a large "blank" label stock, and cut each on out by hand! They said that if I actually wanted the label to be printed to actual size and cut out during manufacture then a custom die would have to be made which would increase the cost to over $1000CAD.

I might have better luck looking online for a company that does custom label printing as a specialty.

nbla000 · Post by **nbla000** » Sat Sep 20, 2008 8:20 am

ral-clan wrote:It was about $500CAD for 200 labels
....
a custom die would have to be made which would increase the cost to over $1000CAD.

about $5 dollars for each label and $10 for a perfect work... and without the box, is not so cheap IMHO

I might have better luck looking online for a company that does custom label printing as a specialty.

Yes i think we need to investigate further...

6502dude · Post by **6502dude** » Sun Sep 21, 2008 1:29 pm

This is image of MegaCart #4 with homemade PLCC32 to DIP32 adpater sockets - used to verify PLCC OTP eproms are working ok in MegaCart.

Adpaters are not pretty, but they are fully functional and it was quicker for me to build than to wait for delivery via e-bay.

carlsson · Post by **carlsson** » Sun Sep 28, 2008 8:06 am

Mega-Cart Prototype #1 gets unintentional media coverage:
http://www.fz.se/bilder/?id=80329

nbla000 · Post by **nbla000** » Wed Oct 01, 2008 5:01 am

carlsson wrote:Mega-Cart Prototype #1 gets unintentional media coverage

Hey Anders, how was your Retrogathering 2008 ? i hope funny.

carlsson · Post by **carlsson** » Wed Oct 01, 2008 9:16 am

A bit stressful, but fun. The power supply to one of my VIC-20's got overheated after over six hours of constant use. I don't know if it was due to I used it with a NTSC VIC-20 but I don't think so, even if the frequency on 9V AC may be different. After letting it cool down for a while, it was back and kicking again.

ral-clan · Post by **ral-clan** » Mon Oct 06, 2008 5:44 pm

I was having some fun today learning to render objects in Aladdin 4d and decided to make a 3d model of the MegaCart box:

You could almost reach out and touch it!

orion70 · Post by **orion70** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 1:12 am

I WANT ONE NOW !!!

Mikam73 · Post by **Mikam73** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 8:48 am

Very cool

Any news about Mega cart?

PaulQ · Post by **PaulQ** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 11:43 am

That is...awesome.

6502dude · Post by **6502dude** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 6:52 pm

Mikam73 wrote:Very cool

Yes, this is pretty neat graphics.

Mikam73 wrote:Any news about Mega cart?

On hardware side, I have been sick for about a week so I have not been able make progress.

However, NBLA000 has been bery busy with software optimizations and adding a couple of new features.

Post by **Jeff-20** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 7:24 pm

Is it 100% full? Just curious.

nbla000 · Post by **nbla000** » Wed Oct 08, 2008 11:20 am

ral-clan wrote:I was having some fun today learning to render objects in Aladdin 4d and decided to make a 3d model of the MegaCart box

Wonderful, very nice work Brent, my compliments.

6502dude wrote:However, NBLA000 has been bery busy with software optimizations and adding a couple of new features.

Yes, i've implemented and enhanced a nice Carlsson idea for the menu.

Now by holding "1"-"6" keys just one time on boot, you may automatically start the MegaCart from the relative Early Menu items # every time you switch on the vic or reset the MegaCart.

For example, by Holding "1" the MegaCart always starts from the Games Cartridge Menu instead of the Early Menu, useful for a kiosk mode.
By holding "3" the MegaCart always starts from the Utilities Menu.
By holding "4" you always starts from the Normal reset menu where you just select which memory configuration you want to use to start the Vic, very useful to use the MegaCart like a memory Expansion but without switches, "0" restore normal functions.
At the moment i'm working for some optimizations for the "PAL" world, i'm fixing carts that requires Cursor keys / joy to center screen on start from PAL machine, my work is to start them centered for both PAL/NTSC machines.
I cannot simply change X/Y screen pointers because the MegaCart is for both PAL/NTSC machines and this requires a lot of work.

Jeff-20 wrote:Is it 100% full? Just curious.

Just 4k free at the moment

Mike · Post by **Mike** » Thu Oct 09, 2008 12:54 am

nbla000 wrote:... my work is to start them centered for both PAL/NTSC machines.

You can use $EDE4, and $EDE5 as reference for the default X/Y-position, for both PAL/NTSC.

Greetings,

Michael