Waterloo BASIC and HYPRA SYSTEM cartridge images

[Mike]

Hi, y'all.

I've added Waterloo BASIC and HYPRA SYSTEM to my cartridges folder on my webspace. These are exactly the same binaries as have been included on Mega-Cart.

• HYPRA SYSTEM is a *.prg file with load address and requires RAM in BLK5. It accelerates both LOAD (x6) and SAVE (x3) on a 1541 or 1571, but runs on a PAL VIC-20 only. Load with ',8,1' and reset or type 'SYS 64802' to start.
• Waterloo BASIC includes the DOS wedge. As another small bonus, you can restore BASIC programs after NEW or reset with 'SYS 44444'. It comes as *.bin file without load address. Within VICE, attach as cartridge at $A000 (BLK5) and start with Alt-R.

Greetings,

Michael

[Mike]

Here are three other cartridge images I tinkered around with quite some time ago:

• Programmer's Aid, relocated to $B000. (thread) - *.prg file with load address,
• TRON lightcycles, at $A000 with autostart. (thread) - *.bin file without load address,
• RTC V-Link, at $A000 with autostart, VIC-1112-like IEEE cart. (thread) - *.zip file with *.prg and source.

Greetings,

Michael

[chysn]

I'm totally going to play Tron Lightcycles tonight!

Also, why would a disk utility require a PAL VIC-20? I thought that PAL/NTSC determined display capabilities.

[Mike]

[W]hy would a disk utility require a PAL VIC-20? I thought that PAL/NTSC determined display capabilities.

HYPRA SYSTEM employs own transfer routines in the computer and drive which only synchronize on each byte rather than each bit (as do the original KERNAL routines), to speed them up. Now, PAL and NTSC VIC-20s run at slightly different clock frequencies (~1.10 MHz for PAL, ~1.03 MHz for NTSC) - small but significant, and it is necessary to 'time out' the transfer loop so the receiving end is guaranteed to sense the bus in the middle of a bit time as set up on bus by the transmitting end. When that transfer loop is used with the 'wrong' clock frequency, the synchronisation is lost already by the end of a single byte transfer.

I'm totally going to play Tron Lightcycles tonight!

The cartridge image surely suggests an alternate use of your VICMON PCB with a 2732 EPROM.

In 2006, I was left with just the VIC-20 base unit and no peripherals, and putting the game on cartridge then was the easiest method for me to play the game on real hardware.

But there's also the original (non-cartridge) version of the game available in my games collection, just so you know.

[chysn]

I have a 32K cart, so it was no trouble at all.

It’s a fun game. The placement of the controls drove me nuts, but I figured that was part of the “cycle” experience. I found that I could get higher scores by crossing my hands so that my left hand was using the function keys.