Why is the Machine Language Monitor cartridge so expensive?

[Mike]

Who has nostalgia for a RAM pack!?

Me perhaps. A few years ago I actively sought for a VIC-1111 +16K RAM expander, mainly because it was the biggest single RAM expansion cart sold by Commodore. Any more RAM than that would have required either a cartridge expander (and jumpering the RAM carts) or using a 3rd party RAM expansion cart. The cart serves me as reference to enforce that RAM limit in hardware for tests.

As it happened, I could source a VIC-1111 for 5 EUR on a retro fair.

The firmware of modern multi cartridges might just soft-limit available RAM for BASIC from a full RAM expansion, but the RAM is still "there". This can easily hide programming errors, especially from stray accesses: CPU reads still can retrieve the data that would under normal circumstances be lost in the void.

[rhurst]

Outrageous to pay any real money today for that stuff. OT, but to emphasize my post's point on purchasing 35+ year aged gear:

I recently dumped all of my retro gear, all boxed, with their respective floppy drives: Atari 400, 800, TI-99/4A, TRS Color Computer -- donated to my brother's local collectibles shop to post on ebay for bargain basement pricing to mainly cover S&H cost.

Commodore: I also parted all boxed with their respective tape & floppy drives, boxed cassettes + floppies, original joysticks for the C16, Plus/4, (3) VIC, (2) Mega-Cart, including all of the Commodore VIC 20 carts and RAM expansions. I put a couple of C64s with software, floppy and monitors out on the corner (no takers), so sadly, those made the landfill. Then, a working PET 4032, but someone picked that heavy sucker up -- yay!!

Images: C64C + 1541-II | Plus/4 + 1581 | TI-99/4A

I am only keeping (2) C128 with a boxed 1571 drive and 1702 monitor, and my modded C128D with a 1581 drive and Ultimate 1541-II cart off a 1902 monitor. Every software I had (or made) got ported into a Raspberry Pi 3B+ -- a painfully slow process over the years using Zoom floppy to nibble and 1541 U2 copy:

Images: 1541 U2 | My C64 MENU 1987 | Running on VICE

In 6+ months, the ARM64 OS supporting this SBC will become extraordinarily useful and will replace my mancave Pi 400 setup.