uIEC - loading VIC-20 cart prg?

[6502dude]

It should be easy to open it with a thin blade (or something similar), forcing a bit on all four sides.

Don't do the above, unless you wish to damage the case.
There are two recessed slots on back of cart.
Insert a small flat screwdriver into each of these and apply a slight prying force. This will release two small clips at top of case which will then allow you to gently pry it open by hand.

Some of the 16K ram carts have solder pads to install dip switches, which will allow address space changes for ram pack. I have modified a few of these for people wishing more flexiable ram expander.

[orion70]

Sorry, forgot about these. Kerosene, did you manage to see the inside of your cart?

[Kerosene]

Sorry, forgot about these. Kerosene, did you manage to see the inside of your cart?

Nope. I don't want to solder it, so I stopped trying to open it.
I think I'm going to have to get a switchable 8K RAM cart.
The logical solution would be to just get a Mega-Cart.

[maguman]

Sorry, forgot about these. Kerosene, did you manage to see the inside of your cart?

Nope. I don't want to solder it, so I stopped trying to open it.
I think I'm going to have to get a switchable 8K RAM cart.
The logical solution would be to just get a Mega-Cart.

Another cheap/quick option is to get one of the 32k RAM carts being offered by eslapion (look in Buy, Sel, andl Trade). I picked one of these up - they are small, relatively cheap and work great.

[booyaa]

just picked up a SD2IEC and having the same issues

i have 2 types of memory expansion :

- the vixen 16k switchable (unexpanded, 3K, 8K and 16K)
- stack vickit 1 (this gives 24K)

i'm hoping.. to be lazy.. and just leave one ram expansion in all the time (?)

the stack allows the scott adams yoho.d64 which is a thing of beauty !
but i'm guessing the 24K doesnt put 8K in to a000 ?

what do i do ? just buy a 32K and be done with it ? thanks.

[Vic20-Ian]

Final Expansion 3 or Megacart allow you to configure and lock the ram if needed in software.

The old school way is to open up your ram cart and rewire it or flick the switch if it is present. You have to switch it back for normal 16k games or remove it for unexpanded.

Generally this means you can't be lazy as your ram pack will be in and out all the time unless your switches are external or you poke ram pointers like crazy.

This is because you are trying to bypass the security of cartridge software to make it run in ram.

If you play 8k and 16k non cartridge games only then you can leave a ram pack in all the time.

Unplug or poke pointer for unexpanded games.

For +3k games you need a cartridge with different ram configuration. (I don't think it is possible to reconfigure a standard 16k or 8k to do this in software)

Easiest of all is Megacart or FE3 with easy loader.

[Boray]

If you have the vic-20 fully ram expanded, for example using a VIC-1005 port expander and a couple of ram cartridges, then you can use my Vic-menu for SD2IEC to run programs for any memory configuration, without unplugging things or setting block switches. It does that with software:
http://www.boray.se/commodore/vicmenu.html