welcome to Denial!
That question really should go into the FAQ.nama wrote:I wanted to ask what is the best [RAM] expansion options.
To take on Boray's reply, I'd like to elaborate further:
Unlike many other home computers at the time, the VIC-20 thoroughly reorganises its memory map depending on how much memory is available. There are some hardware reasons contributing to that, but anyhow - in principle, you have three kinds of memory setup:
- VIC-20 unexpanded,
- VIC-20 with 3K RAM expansion, and
- VIC-20 with at least 8K RAM expansion.
These configurations are mutually incompatible for running programs. Effectively, you need to know exactly how much RAM is required for the game/program. Two exceptions to this rule:
- In most cases, BASIC programs written for the unexpanded VIC-20 will also run on a 3K expanded VIC-20 (not that this would buy you much), and
- Generally, a program requiring +8K will also work if +16K or +24K have been added, likewise a program requiring +16K will work with +24K.
To return to your question: you see there is no "best" standard expansion. It should merely be able to cover the 3 cases above. Mega-Cart, as indicated by Boray, is able to do that. Regards 32K expansions: these add yet another 8K to an address range normally covered by cartridges (the so-called BLK5). However, that address range is not contiguous with the rest of the RAM used by BASIC, so they won't add another 8K available for BASIC programs. You'll get the same number of bytes free as with a +24K expander. But if you own such an expander, you can soft-load cartridge images and run them from RAM.
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You should also put some thought in obtaining a good mass storage solution. Today, there are media available slightly more comfortable than tape or floppy disks. A SD2IEC or uIEC, for example, allow you to store programs for the VIC-20 on a SD card, enabling you to transfer data between PC and VIC-20 quite the easy way.
Greetings,
Michael
P.S.: Jeff, you do acknowledge though that some of us actually also write programs for the expanded VIC-20, don't you? Thanks.
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