Hi, I have a cartridge I'd like to send to 6502dude for the Megacart. It's VTE-40 a 40 column terminal. It's different from the one on Zimmers.
I'm not sure how to dump it, as it is autobooting.
I have a expander board that lets me shut cartridges off and one with dip switches.
I vaguely recall that I can start the VIC with the cartridge switched off on the multi-expander, then turn that cartridge "ON" and then I can access it's code to dump to disk. Have I got this right.
Can anyone step me through it?
can someone help me dump a cart for the Megacart?
-
eslapion
- ultimate expander
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Hi Brent,
Before you do that, of course, try to physically inspect the cart to see if BLK 1, 2 or 3 are being used.
What you want is to power up the VIC with your terminal cartridge turned off then turn the cart back on.
At this point you should still have the 3583bytes free message but the cart is visible to the CPU. To confirm that print the peek of addresses 40964 to 40968. The values should respectively be : 65, 48, 195, 194, 205
These correspond to the A0CBM startup code for cartridges on the VIC.
Having confirmed that there is a ROM visible in BLK5, you can now save it to a floppy drive on device 8 using the following:
SYS57809"filename",8,1:POKE193,0:POKE194,160(RETURN)
POKE780,193:POKE781,0:POKE782,192:SYS65496(RETURN)
At this point, you should be able to load back this file on a VIC with RAM expansion in BLK5. Preferably you should have an expansion that can be set to read only in case the code is copy protected.
If the cart works at this point, this means it was a 4k or 8k cart all located in BLK5. Your job is done. If not then there is code in at least one of the other BLK areas.
If your expander board allows you to control which BLK areas is on and off in slots then what you want is to have VICMON in $B000-$BFFF, then SYS45056 to start it.
Scan the content of memory areas $2000-$7FFF for intelligible code using the I command.
You should find code in one of these areas:
BLK1 is $2000-$3FFF
BLK2 is $4000-$5FFF
BLK3 is $6000-$7FFF
These areas can be saved directly from VICMON using:
S"filename",8,start address, end address+1
And most importantly, don't forget the +1. For example saving the BLK1 area requires you to give 2000 as the start address (no $ sign) and 4000 as the end address.
Before you do that, of course, try to physically inspect the cart to see if BLK 1, 2 or 3 are being used.
What you want is to power up the VIC with your terminal cartridge turned off then turn the cart back on.
At this point you should still have the 3583bytes free message but the cart is visible to the CPU. To confirm that print the peek of addresses 40964 to 40968. The values should respectively be : 65, 48, 195, 194, 205
These correspond to the A0CBM startup code for cartridges on the VIC.
Having confirmed that there is a ROM visible in BLK5, you can now save it to a floppy drive on device 8 using the following:
SYS57809"filename",8,1:POKE193,0:POKE194,160(RETURN)
POKE780,193:POKE781,0:POKE782,192:SYS65496(RETURN)
At this point, you should be able to load back this file on a VIC with RAM expansion in BLK5. Preferably you should have an expansion that can be set to read only in case the code is copy protected.
If the cart works at this point, this means it was a 4k or 8k cart all located in BLK5. Your job is done. If not then there is code in at least one of the other BLK areas.
If your expander board allows you to control which BLK areas is on and off in slots then what you want is to have VICMON in $B000-$BFFF, then SYS45056 to start it.
Scan the content of memory areas $2000-$7FFF for intelligible code using the I command.
You should find code in one of these areas:
BLK1 is $2000-$3FFF
BLK2 is $4000-$5FFF
BLK3 is $6000-$7FFF
These areas can be saved directly from VICMON using:
S"filename",8,start address, end address+1
And most importantly, don't forget the +1. For example saving the BLK1 area requires you to give 2000 as the start address (no $ sign) and 4000 as the end address.
I dumped the cartridge.
The label calls it VTE-40 by MSD, Inc. 1982.
The program title screen, however, says it's called VT-40.
There is a program on Zimmers which is similar (VICTERM 40) but I'm not sure if it's by the same company.
The one of Zimmers has different features (i.e. lowercase), while this one does not.
However, the version in this dump allows the screen to be re-centered, which might be good for PAL users.
Here is the link:
http://www3.sympatico.ca/clarke-santin/vic/VTE-40.PRG
It's a software emulated 40 column terminal program.
The label calls it VTE-40 by MSD, Inc. 1982.
The program title screen, however, says it's called VT-40.
There is a program on Zimmers which is similar (VICTERM 40) but I'm not sure if it's by the same company.
The one of Zimmers has different features (i.e. lowercase), while this one does not.
However, the version in this dump allows the screen to be re-centered, which might be good for PAL users.
Here is the link:
http://www3.sympatico.ca/clarke-santin/vic/VTE-40.PRG
It's a software emulated 40 column terminal program.
At present we use on Mega-cart this zimmer version that is NTSC ONLY, 6502dude must do some test with your VTE-40 using a BBS and if all it's ok we add it instead of the zimmer version.ral-clan wrote: There is a program on Zimmers which is similar (VICTERM 40) but I'm not sure if it's by the same company.
The one of Zimmers has different features (i.e. lowercase), while this one does not.
However, the version in this dump allows the screen to be re-centered, which might be good for PAL users.
It has 2 advantages, is a PAL/NTSC cart and is 4K only too, the upper 4k block it's exactly the same of lower 4K block (so we can use the upper 4k block to fit other user requests).
I've sent you the 4K file via e-mail if you want upload it.