I am interested in the japanese VIC 20. Has anyone used one before? Anyone have ROM files for the OS?
Stupid question: I just found BIN files for the japanese system. How do I change those into ROM files?
Does anyone have a VIC-1001
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I assume you have one or more of the Basic, Kernal, and Chargen ROMs ?
I think you can just rename the .bin files and use them as-is.
To use these on a real VIC, you'd have to program EPROMs and replace the chips.
(or is there a way to swap the associated memory between ROM/RAM like on the C64)
In VICE, have a look at in the vic20\ directory. Those are the files representing the contents of those ROMs. You should be able to simply rename the old file, and replace it with the appropriate .bin file, just give it the same name i.e. 'chargen'.
I think you can just rename the .bin files and use them as-is.
To use these on a real VIC, you'd have to program EPROMs and replace the chips.
(or is there a way to swap the associated memory between ROM/RAM like on the C64)In VICE, have a look at in the vic20\ directory. Those are the files representing the contents of those ROMs. You should be able to simply rename the old file, and replace it with the appropriate .bin file, just give it the same name i.e. 'chargen'.
The device that comes to my mind is Nicolas Welte's universal 6502 RAM/ROM expansion which can take up to four alternative versions of "system ROM", i.e. both Basic and Kernel. Dunno about character ROM though.
http://people.freenet.de/x1541/hardware/petram.html
When it comes to bin/ROM files, the only thing I would watch out for is whether they come with a two byte load address or not (and whether the target platform expects or can ignore this load address).
http://people.freenet.de/x1541/hardware/petram.html
When it comes to bin/ROM files, the only thing I would watch out for is whether they come with a two byte load address or not (and whether the target platform expects or can ignore this load address).
Anders Carlsson
A fantastic little gadget! I've had it in one of my VICs for a couple of years, and I love it. As you said, it holds four versions of KERNAL and BASIC as well as four versions of cartridge ROM at $A000-$BFFF; it also expands RAM to 32K. Unfortunately it doesn't replace the character ROM for some reason.I asked Nicolas about this once (since I wanted to be able to switch in a Swedish character ROM) and he gave me an explanation I can't remember right now.carlsson wrote:The device that comes to my mind is Nicolas Welte's universal 6502 RAM/ROM expansion which can take up to four alternative versions of "system ROM", i.e. both Basic and Kernel. Dunno about character ROM though.
Bacon
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Das rubbernecken Sichtseeren keepen das cotton-pickenen Hands in die Pockets muss; relaxen und watschen die Blinkenlichten.
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Das rubbernecken Sichtseeren keepen das cotton-pickenen Hands in die Pockets muss; relaxen und watschen die Blinkenlichten.
I think it was a matter of the way the expansion maps into the VIC-20s memory; the 32K RAM chip maps into $0000-$7FFF, the flash ROM maps into $A000-$FFFF and the GAL chip that decodes the addresses can't be programmed to fill the hole in between (where the char ROM is located).carlsson wrote:Maybe something about the bus timing and the VIC-I chip not being able to read memory from the cartridge expansion?
Last edited by Bacon on Sat Mar 19, 2005 6:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Bacon
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Das rubbernecken Sichtseeren keepen das cotton-pickenen Hands in die Pockets muss; relaxen und watschen die Blinkenlichten.
-------------------------------------------------------
Das rubbernecken Sichtseeren keepen das cotton-pickenen Hands in die Pockets muss; relaxen und watschen die Blinkenlichten.
Uhkay, the PET version fills from $9000, so either it is magic $8000 or the GAL chip that can't decode addresses within the whole 64K range. As the expansion sits next to the 6502 rather than on an external cartridge as I first thought, the bus/chip issue should not be a problem AFAIU.
OTOH, wouldn't it be possible to make an own char (EP)ROM board that goes into that socket, and adding some kind of switch on the outside if there is a big demand in switching between international and Swedish, Japanese or other special character ROM?
OTOH, wouldn't it be possible to make an own char (EP)ROM board that goes into that socket, and adding some kind of switch on the outside if there is a big demand in switching between international and Swedish, Japanese or other special character ROM?
Anders Carlsson
I think this is spot on.carlsson wrote:Maybe something about the bus timing and the VIC-I chip not being able to read memory from the cartridge expansion?
AFAIK, Nicolas expansion plugs in to the 6502/6510 slot. Video fetches do not necessarily pass by the CPU, so you can't replace the CHARGEN-ROM this way.
I think that Nicolas board looks great BTW, but it seems that it won't fit into the original VIC-20. You can't close the lid. VIC-20CR should be fine.
Anyone solved this?
/Daniel
Use an external keyboard, as I suppose the expansion board hits the underside of the keyboard? 
Is a C64C or other keyboard more thin by design, so it would leave more space?
It isn't possible to make a board that overlays the Kernel or Basic ROM instead of the CPU? It seems to be more space above the motherboard on a first generation VIC-20 above those chips.
Is a C64C or other keyboard more thin by design, so it would leave more space? It isn't possible to make a board that overlays the Kernel or Basic ROM instead of the CPU? It seems to be more space above the motherboard on a first generation VIC-20 above those chips.
Anders Carlsson