New VIC-20 Multicart/Development Cart

nbla000 · Post by **nbla000** » Fri Dec 18, 2009 11:02 am

Just to be clear, I respect any work of course and I'm happy that there is interest on Vic-20 hardware market.

PS: Ferrari is also better then a Skoda of course

PaulQ · Post by **PaulQ** » Fri Dec 18, 2009 1:46 pm

nbla000 wrote:We may consider this cart like a small Behr Bonz cartridge without menu, and is not so cheap considering 32 games included against 127 games.

Btw it's a my opinion but FE3 or Mega-Cart are better even if not so cheap of course.

Behr Bonz was more of an end product, while this seems to be more of something for a hobbyist to tinker and experiment with.

carlsson · Post by **carlsson** » Mon Dec 21, 2009 1:27 am

Actually I have evidences about a fifth multicart to be released shortly, all open source from the start.

orion70 · Post by **orion70** » Mon Dec 21, 2009 6:41 am

Too bad all this hardware activity is keeping high the attention on the VIC - and the prices in Ebay.

Mike · Post by **Mike** » Mon Dec 21, 2009 7:23 am

As long as the big players don't "rediscover" the VIC-20 as potential market, I'm fine with that. Otherwise, some people might take this as incentive to source money by other than cooperative ways.

rhurst · Post by **rhurst** » Thu Mar 11, 2010 1:44 pm

Got TWO of them in last night's mail, woot! Someday, I will burn a replacement chip filled with my silly programs ... and then try prying THAT out of my dead, cold hands!!

fsporsche · Post by **fsporsche** » Wed Mar 24, 2010 4:04 pm

I ordered the cart, Kent sent me a .pdf of schematics.
Very nice product had lots of fun with it....

Awesome buy..for $28.00

Fred

16KVIC20 · Post by **16KVIC20** » Tue Apr 06, 2010 5:21 pm

It seems to me that the VIC 20 scene is busier than the C64 scene. The VIC was my first computer. For retro purposes I now have a 48K ZX Spectrum, for which I have a DivIDE+ interface, this seems to be the Spectrum version of FE3? I need to know because if I see a VIC at a suitable price at a boot sale this year, I may be tempted!

Vic20-Ian · Post by **Vic20-Ian** » Wed Apr 07, 2010 12:55 am

Think of the Spectrum 16k as analogous to the Vic20 3.5k (unexpanded)

Adding FE3 gives you 512kB ram and 512kB Flash Rom configurable in just about any way you can dream up and an SD card reader that emulates floppy drive and accesses up to 2GB.

It takes the machine way beyond what it could ever do before. 512k ram mode is accessible in 32kB pages. 3k, 8k, 16k, 24k, 32k expansion mode for normal access, Load and write protect ram to emulate rom to run otherwise self destructive code.

Your humble 16k Speccy is now a +3 and beyond.

There is no IDE interface but you don't need it, the whole Vi collection fits on a postage stamp SD.

Get a Vic and get one soon.

P.S. I got a Vic for £1 on ebay yesterday with one missing key, there are still bargains out there.

16KVIC20 · Post by **16KVIC20** » Wed Apr 07, 2010 6:35 am

Vic20-Ian wrote:Think of the Spectrum 16k as analogous to the Vic20 3.5k (unexpanded)

Adding FE3 gives you 512kB ram and 512kB Flash Rom configurable in just about any way you can dream up and an SD card reader that emulates floppy drive and accesses up to 2GB.

It takes the machine way beyond what it could ever do before. 512k ram mode is accessible in 32kB pages. 3k, 8k, 16k, 24k, 32k expansion mode for normal access, Load and write protect ram to emulate rom to run otherwise self destructive code.

Your humble 16k Speccy is now a +3 and beyond.

There is no IDE interface but you don't need it, the whole Vi collection fits on a postage stamp SD.

Get a Vic and get one soon.

P.S. I got a Vic for £1 on ebay yesterday with one missing key, there are still bargains out there.

Thanks Vic20 Ian. I will be on the look out for one now, and probably get FE3. Presumably there is a database of old titles that can be downloaded as .tap files etc. For the Spectrum I use .tap, .z80, .tzx etc

The DivIDE+ unit is amazing. I used to have a +3 (next computer after the VIC 20) and the 48K plus AY sound module, plus DivIDE is way superior. The FE3 looks comparable. I only got a Spectrum because I had junked all my VIC software and hardware, and a Speccy takes up less room.

Another 3 questions:
1) How quickly does data from the SD card end up loaded on the VIC? My experience of DivIDE on the Speccy is that it is instantaneous as hitting ENTER.

2) Is it possible to take a Snapshot of a program that is loaded? So you have a favourite tape loaded program, can you then save it to FE3 SD card by pressing a button and entering a task manager or similar?

3) What about Cartridge based programs, eg Sargon II Chess? How would I get that onto my SD card? Is it on a legitimite archive of abandonware somewhere?

Unseen · Post by **Unseen** » Wed Apr 07, 2010 3:58 pm

Vic20-Ian wrote:an SD card reader that emulates floppy drive and accesses up to 2GB.

16GB cards are confirmed to work, in theory 32GB should work too (way too expensive to just buy one for testing)

16KVIC20 · Post by **16KVIC20** » Wed Apr 07, 2010 5:56 pm

Unseen wrote:
Vic20-Ian wrote:an SD card reader that emulates floppy drive and accesses up to 2GB.
16GB cards are confirmed to work, in theory 32GB should work too (way too expensive to just buy one for testing)

Would all the VIC software in the world add up to 16Gb?

amramsey · Post by **amramsey** » Wed Apr 07, 2010 7:01 pm

16KVIC20 wrote:Would all the VIC software in the world add up to 16Gb?

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.

robinsonmason · Post by **robinsonmason** » Wed Apr 07, 2010 7:36 pm

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.

16KVIC20 · Post by **16KVIC20** » Thu Apr 08, 2010 1:13 am

amramsey wrote:
16KVIC20 wrote:Would all the VIC software in the world add up to 16Gb?
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.

Much as I thought. Thanks amramsey.