Does anyone know what this might be?

sydbolton · Post by **sydbolton** » Thu Mar 15, 2012 11:28 am

We got a donation at the Personal Computer Museum recently of this cart ... I haven't taken it apart yet but does anyone have any ideas on what it might be?

Thanks - any thoughts appreciated.

Witzo · Post by **Witzo** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 7:37 am

Not sure what it is, but I did find a trace by googling 'vic20 household finance' and found some things with the same labels stuck on it:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vic-20-software ... 8824103215

http://farm1.staticflickr.com/49/150171 ... 57d7_m.jpg

Schema · Post by **Schema** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 7:39 am

It's almost certainly *not* a VIC-20 Household Finance cart any more

Syd, can you post a photo of the inside?

Have you tried hooking it up to a VIC? How much RAM is reported on startup?

Kweepa · Post by **Kweepa** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 8:04 am

Looks like a cart for remapping the vic memory banks, at a guess. Why, I don't know. To make game cartridge piracy easier?

orion70 · Post by **orion70** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 8:18 am

mmmm.... looks like it has some kind of female connector on the opposite side - could this be to freeze/copy carts?

Mayhem · Post by **Mayhem** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 12:11 pm

That was my thought, given the switch on the right... it would turn on/off whether the cartridge autobooted?

rhurst · Post by **rhurst** » Sat Mar 17, 2012 4:00 am

Judging by the switches and notes (memory bank permutations?), looks like someone made something more versatile than VIC Household Finance out of that cart.

Vic20-Ian · Post by **Vic20-Ian** » Sun Mar 18, 2012 2:19 am

Open her up for reverse engineering !

Post by **Jeff-20** » Wed Mar 21, 2012 7:37 pm

I bet it's just a Household Finance cart. The anomalies are just modifications for the global financial crisis (it needs extra power to process the new levels of debt a household might incur).

matsondawson · Post by **matsondawson** » Wed Mar 21, 2012 9:24 pm

Top of cart looks weird, more like an IEEE plug?

Post by **joshuadenmark** » Thu Mar 22, 2012 5:52 am

Jeff-20 wrote:I bet it's just a Household Finance cart. The anomalies are just modifications for the global financial crisis (it needs extra power to process the new levels of debt a household might incur).

Ha ha ha

Kweepa · Post by **Kweepa** » Thu Mar 22, 2012 7:36 am

matsondawson wrote:Top of cart looks weird, more like an IEEE plug?

Yeah, it looks too narrow to be a pass through... or is it?

orion70 · Post by **orion70** » Thu Mar 22, 2012 8:42 am

Waiting for more pictures...