Denial

I've got my hands on another unknown VIc20 cartridge by our favourite publisher Tymac.

Except the cartridge does not boot. I've dumped all memory locations and at $A0 there appears to be code present. Would someone be able to take a look and see if there's a working game in the hex? If so, PM your email and I'll get the dump sent over.

PM sent.

Cheers... someone else sent me a PM anyhow, but it's not going to hurt having two people look at it, the more the merrier to get it working if possible!

It looks like there must be more to it.
Both the warm and cold start vectors are pointing to $6000.

Most of the $A000 ROM appears to be in patterns of data probably graphics or characters.

Ugh, that's what I feared, $60 appeared to have nothing in it, which is probably why it's not booting. I'll send the other memory location dumps along later for you to look, and probably tell me I'm right.

Can you open the cart and see which /BLK lines are wired up?

Not without probably breaking tabs on the inside of the case. And if the cart doesn't work, the seller has agreed to refund me, so I'd prefer it to remain in one piece. I'll ask him and see what he says though.

The shell could be opened without an issue. Two chips. Evidently one not booting. Upon investigation, looks like one of the BLK lines was not working correctly. Cos... it's alive!

SCORE!!

Nice job saving this one.

Awesome! Glad you finally got it working.
Does it have speech, like the ad claims?

Yeah, there is speech, crude speech, but speech nonetheless

It really looks like a gem, as stated in the introductory screen . Can't wait to play it!

If you've played Broderbund's Mastertype, then it's a bit like that. You have about 15-16 typing lessons you can choose from, and can alter the WPM and difficulty of the round. On screen, a helicopter passes across, dropping letters and numbers out of it with little parachutes. Cute. You have to obviously type the correct keys to match the characters, and when you do, a sniper from one the buildings takes a pot shot and blows up the letter, together with some crude speech announcing the letter you hit. And yeah, if you're a good typist, this can slow the game down a tad! As said, this is why I think it hadn't been fully finished, it could definitely do with a bit of polish and sparkle around the edges, and some playtesting.

Once I scan the cartridge, I'll add it in for the next version of Gamebase20, but I may make the dumps available here for people to play beforehand

Here we go, enjoy

https://app.box.com/s/ks8k8jnpgzlgf9rhiedo

Thank you!