40/80 column cartridge

gklinger · Post by **gklinger** » Fri May 01, 2009 8:15 am

Jokes aside, do you think there would be interest/a market for a 1541 Ultimate type device? Something that plugs into the cartridge port and connects to the IEC port and allows you to load from d64s or a virtual CMD HD (like the uIEC) or load cartridges images and has a flexible RAM expander built-in etc. I worry that the market for VIC-20 goodies might be saturated.

amramsey: It's s small world after all. I just realized that the guy you got the VIC-20 from is the same guy I gave a car load of Amiga stuff to a few weeks ago. Seems Mayhem bought a few odds and ends from him too as did others I know and he bought some stuff from other friends of mine. Too funny. We should all have a beer at WoC 2009.

amramsey · Post by **amramsey** » Fri May 01, 2009 8:01 pm

gklinger wrote:amramsey: It's s small world after all. I just realized that the guy you got the VIC-20 from is the same guy I gave a car load of Amiga stuff to a few weeks ago. Seems Mayhem bought a few odds and ends from him too as did others I know and he bought some stuff from other friends of mine. Too funny. We should all have a beer at WoC 2009.

I suppose that there are only so many of us... at some point in the future we'll have all sold or bought something from each other.

Sounds like a plan for WoC... I'm partial to beer.

gklinger · Post by **gklinger** » Fri May 01, 2009 9:01 pm

Beers it is. We'll have a good laugh about it.

I was just struck by the thought that it will be the the sort of conversation that grandpas have that makes kids roll their eyes. I love it.

dano · Post by **dano** » Sat May 02, 2009 9:10 pm

carlsson wrote:Has anyone reverse engineered those 40/80 column cartridges? Maybe someone even considers developing a brand new one, ideally one that does colour and custom graphics and/or sprites. Or would that be cheating on the VIC chip?

I'd love to see a clone the DATA-20 if I could, the hardware seems simple enough. I suspect making an RGB version with the same ROM and CRT controller wouldn't be that tough either. I'd even buy blank PCBs if someone were to make a clone of the origional.

Stinky · Post by **Stinky** » Tue May 05, 2009 7:47 am

dano wrote:I'd love to see a clone the DATA-20 if I could, the hardware seems simple enough. I suspect making an RGB version with the same ROM and CRT controller wouldn't be that tough either. I'd even buy blank PCBs if someone were to make a clone of the origional.

Yes interfacing the 6545 CRTC is very simple, the pain lies with writing the driver. I was looking into it a long time ago for porting ACE OS and using the c128 VDC driver and 6551 serial driver. I didn't really have the time or patience then and still don't.

ral-clan · Post by **ral-clan** » Tue May 05, 2009 8:01 am

Here are some higher resolution pictures:

nbla000 · Post by **nbla000** » Wed May 06, 2009 5:38 am

Schema wrote:
gklinger wrote:I'm trying to get away from having two (or three or four or...) of everything.
We'll have to start plans for a MegaCart 2.0 with 10x the games, 40/80 column output, Ethernet, VGA, and coffee maker.

We need to think to add something for Centallica too