Rom images from floppy to cart

[retromania]

Hi
Can anyone help i was wondering if its possible to load a cart image(.prg) from floppy and use on a real vic 20
i have read that i need to load into the correct memory block ie 5 but not sure how i go about this.

i have a switchable off,3k,16k ram expandsion cart

i have tried load"file",8,1 and sys64802 but just resets my trusty vic

many thanks

[carlsson]

load a cart image (.prg) from floppy [..] memory block 5

i have a switchable off,3k,16k ram expandsion cart

I am afraid your memory expansion will only address memory blocks 0-2:

+3K mode: block 0 ($0400-$07FF)
+8K mode: block 1 ($2000-$3FFF)
+16K mode: blocks 1+2 ($2000-$5FFF)

Those cartridge images load to block 5 = $A000-$BFFF. Some memory expansions will let you choose this memory block as well, a little depending exactly which cartridge you have.

[retromania]

i also have vic-1110 8k ram cartridge which 4 switches inside can i use this?

[Mike]

Yes. The four switches are labeled 1,2,3, and 5. Switch off #1, and switch on #5.

If you now insert the card, VIC will only report 3583 bytes free, but now there's RAM in BLK5. You can check this with:

POKE40960,55:PRINTPEEK(40960) + Return
POKE40960,170:PRINTPEEK(40960) + Return

will print 55, and 170 respectively.

Greetings,

Michael

[retromania]

sucess i got demon attack working

does this work with 16k games ie donkey kong etc

[Mike]

Depends. Some of these games use the configuration BLK1+BLK5, others BLK3+BLK5.

With a module box, you could use your modded 8K expansion together with your other RAM expansion cart. Which would result in RAM in BLK1, BLK2, and BLK5. Which covers the first configuration above, but not the second.

If you're so inclined, make a photo of your other RAM expansion, and post it, so I can see whether it is switchable as your 8K expansion.

Michael

[carlsson]

Alternatively, the VIC-1110 actually has room for 16K internally and I think two sets of DIP switches. In that case you would need to find a set of identical RAM chips, solder those in and mount more switches.

It would make a switchable VIC-1111 memory expansion. Perhaps not worth the trouble, depending on how easily or cheap you could find the RAMs.

[retromania]

So carts that only need 1 blk(5) i can use on the now modded 8k ram pack but games that are 16k need 2 blocks ill need some thing esle as my 8k ram pack only as 1 block for ram

Just open my other 16k switched ram pack and it as no swithches inside like the 8k just a switch on top which seems to be hard wired onto the pcb

[Mike]

You also could try to get the 16K VIC-1111. Even though it is hardwired to BLK1+BLK2, you can open the relevant jumper-pads, and install two DIP-switches inside, to make it fully configurable.

On the other hand, you might consider ordering a Mega-Cart. First of all, it allows you to fill BLK1..3, and BLK 5 with RAM, thus all conceivable memory allocations are usable. Plus, most known cartridges (plus other programs, and utilities) are immediately available - and I suppose, game cartridges were the main reason you started this thread.

There are also the Behr-Bonz cart, and Ultimate Expander, both made by eslapion. They are complementing each other, as the first features 120+ cartridge ROMs, and the second would supply 32K RAM + a selection of utility ROMs. But IIRC the Ultimate Expander has been discontinued.

Greetings,

Michael

[retromania]

Thanks for your help anyway

The megacart does look good but way to expensive for me
i managed to get a lot of cart games working on the 8k ram pack
just not those few 16k ones

once thanks for your help guys