Bomber Word discovered!

History and Preservation Issues

Moderator: Moderators

User avatar
Mayhem
High Bidder
Posts: 3026
Joined: Mon May 24, 2004 7:03 am
Website: http://www.mayhem64.co.uk
Location: London

Bomber Word discovered!

Post by Mayhem »

Yes, another Tymac cartridge has been unearthed! Sadly I didn't find it, but I know the person who has, so I've asked to borrow it for dumping...
Lie with passion and be forever damned...
User avatar
nbla000
Salmon Run
Posts: 2582
Joined: Thu Oct 13, 2005 8:58 am
Location: Italy

Post by nbla000 »

WOW, it's incredible, after about 30 years !
Mega-Cart: the cartridge you plug in once and for all.
User avatar
orion70
VICtalian
Posts: 4337
Joined: Thu Feb 02, 2006 4:45 am
Location: Piacenza, Italy
Occupation: Biologist

Post by orion70 »

Treasure hunt! I like when someone discovers these gems after such a long time :D .
User avatar
Jeff-20
Denial Founder
Posts: 5759
Joined: Wed Dec 31, 1969 6:00 pm

Post by Jeff-20 »

I'm not sure I would have recognized that as a VIC cart!
High Scores, Links, and Jeff's Basic Games page.
User avatar
Mayhem
High Bidder
Posts: 3026
Joined: Mon May 24, 2004 7:03 am
Website: http://www.mayhem64.co.uk
Location: London

Post by Mayhem »

Sadly it appears the cartridge is dead... and I'm not allowed to hack it open to get at the chip. Still, I'll give it another few shots but I'm not holding out hope...
Lie with passion and be forever damned...
Vic20-Ian
Vic 20 Scientist
Posts: 1213
Joined: Sun Aug 24, 2008 1:58 pm

Post by Vic20-Ian »

A cart that is rare and dead is worth less than a cart opened and repaired.

Are you sure it just isn't oxide on the pins?

Scotch brite / green scourer the cart pins and try again otherwise I would use a craft knife on what looks like injection moulded polyethylene case to split it repair and super glue it together.
Vic20-Ian

The best things in life are Vic-20

Upgrade all new gadgets and mobiles to 3583 Bytes Free today! Ready
TNT
Vic 20 Hobbyist
Posts: 121
Joined: Wed Apr 29, 2009 5:46 am

Post by TNT »

It may be possible that the ROM can be salvaged (at least partially) without opening the cartridge. If VIC-20 boots to normal startup screen then you can write a BASIC program to check if the cartrige shows up in memory. If VIC-20 hangs then the cartrifge definitely does that but ROM contents are bad. In that case you need to prevent autostart and then dump the memory.
User avatar
Mayhem
High Bidder
Posts: 3026
Joined: Mon May 24, 2004 7:03 am
Website: http://www.mayhem64.co.uk
Location: London

Post by Mayhem »

Preventing autostart and dumping the memory is what I do currently. If you've got other suggestions, I'm all ears... such as this program
Lie with passion and be forever damned...
TNT
Vic 20 Hobbyist
Posts: 121
Joined: Wed Apr 29, 2009 5:46 am

Post by TNT »

The program below attempts to determine which memory pages have something mapped into them. Reading unconnected memory is not reliable - on my VIC-20 this program reports BLK5 (values 160 - 191) even when there's nothing in there. All other unconnected memory return the high byte of address, and that's what this program tests.

Code: Select all

0 form=828to846:reada:pokem,a:next
1 print:forp=4to15:gosub7:next
2 print:forp=32to127:gosub7:next
3 print:forp=160to191:gosub7:next
6 end
7 poke252,p:sys828:ifpeek(252)<>pthenprintp;
8 return
9 data 160,0,132,251,165,252,209,251,208,4,200,208,249,44,73,255,133,252,96
4-15 = 3K RAM area
32-63 = BLK1
64-95 = BLK2
96-127 = BLK3
160-191 = BLK5
User avatar
Mayhem
High Bidder
Posts: 3026
Joined: Mon May 24, 2004 7:03 am
Website: http://www.mayhem64.co.uk
Location: London

Post by Mayhem »

Cheers, I'll give it a try. However I think it's a BLK5 only cartridge; Key Quest certainly is.
Lie with passion and be forever damned...
User avatar
Mayhem
High Bidder
Posts: 3026
Joined: Mon May 24, 2004 7:03 am
Website: http://www.mayhem64.co.uk
Location: London

Post by Mayhem »

Raising this one from the dead... I finally got around to connecting my Vic20 up, plugging in the Bomber Word cartridge, and typing out TNT's listing.

I'm near the end of the listing, and I make a typo. I reach for DEL but accidentally hit Restore instead. And the game boots up.

WTF?! :shock: :lol: :twisted:

So I've played the game, seems to work fine. As the name suggests, it's a Hangman clone. At least it has the foresight to not only have its own store of words, but allows you to create your own set and save to tape.

First of all, just what in the name of whoever has a game needing to be started by hitting Restore?! Or is this a symptom of a little damage to the cartridge itself (no autoboot), that is rectified when I hit Restore? Either way, the cartridge is not dead!

Secondly, will Mike's dumping program work? If so, I'll give it a whirl and then let someone do the tedious fiddling to make the game autoboot instead.

Either way... game on! 8)
Lie with passion and be forever damned...
User avatar
Mayhem
High Bidder
Posts: 3026
Joined: Mon May 24, 2004 7:03 am
Website: http://www.mayhem64.co.uk
Location: London

Post by Mayhem »

Hello? Anyone?!

Would like some advice and assistance here please ;)
Lie with passion and be forever damned...
Kananga
Vic 20 Afficionado
Posts: 317
Joined: Mon Mar 08, 2010 2:11 pm

Post by Kananga »

Since Mike did not reply I will give it a try.
Mayhem wrote: I'm near the end of the listing, and I make a typo. I reach for DEL but accidentally hit Restore instead. And the game boots up.

WTF?! :shock: :lol: :twisted:
Not unusual for a BLK5 cartridge. In BLK5 with autostart signature you hook into reset & NMI. Quite useful for the firmware of full memory expansions like FE3 or MegaCart. :)
Mayhem wrote: First of all, just what in the name of whoever has a game needing to be started by hitting Restore?! Or is this a symptom of a little damage to the cartridge itself (no autoboot), that is rectified when I hit Restore? Either way, the cartridge is not dead!
Here you got me baffled too. Perhaps the cartridge isn't ready immediatly after reset?
Mayhem wrote: Secondly, will Mike's dumping program work? If so, I'll give it a whirl and then let someone do the tedious fiddling to make the game autoboot instead.
Just use it and publish the dump ;-)

Happy gaming...
Buy the new Bug-Wizard, the first 100 bugs are free!
User avatar
Mayhem
High Bidder
Posts: 3026
Joined: Mon May 24, 2004 7:03 am
Website: http://www.mayhem64.co.uk
Location: London

Post by Mayhem »

Yeah, I'll give Mike's program a whirl and see what comes of it. No harm in not trying it...
Lie with passion and be forever damned...
User avatar
Mayhem
High Bidder
Posts: 3026
Joined: Mon May 24, 2004 7:03 am
Website: http://www.mayhem64.co.uk
Location: London

Post by Mayhem »

BOMBER WORD!!!

Attach in Vice to $A0 and then tap Pg Up (which maps to Restore) to boot the game. Can someone fiddle with the code so that it auto starts and doesn't need Restore to be hit? ;)
Lie with passion and be forever damned...
Post Reply