Is 32k expansion common among VIC-20 enthusiasts?

[Mozartkügel]

Hi guys, do you think it's common amongst VIC-20 enthusiasts to have a VIC-20 equipped with 32k RAM? I know that the unexpanded mode is loved and I really like restrictions too, but I will try that later, my first wip game has already swollen past 8k, and I don't think it will even end up fitting into 16k.

Im wondering because if everything ends up well and I'm able to finish my game I would have liked to put it on cassette. If it's rare to have 32k expansion I guess I could put it on diskette instead so that new levels are loaded from floppy but keeps the game smaller in memory. Still, I really love those C-cassette games!

[tokra]

I think nowadays 32K should be no problem. In fact this should be the most common expansion today, as anybody who sells NEW expansions rarely offers less than 32K or 35K.

All technical limitations regarding tape/disk or available RAM are just for fun, really. You won't limit your target-audience by asking for disk or RAM.

[Mozartkügel]

Yeah, that was what I was thinking. Thanks for the info man! \o/

[taborj]

I can't speak for everyone, but I'll agree that 32k is probably fairly common. I did it to mine years ago.

[Stormcrow]

I don't do a lot on my physical VIC-20, but when I do I run unexpanded. I've never owned any memory expansion. But I did buy a disk drive a few years ago, and I tend to break up programs into multiple parts and store the unused parts on disk. Then again, I don't really write any games that need to do a lot all at once.

[beamrider]

This is a 15 year old thread, so I suspect the results are now even more in favour of 32K due to the increased availability and affordability. As you can see 32/35 when aggregated are the most popular, so writing for 32k should be fine now.

[Mozartkügel]

Nice, thanks for the link!

I recently got my own first VIC-20, yay! It came with a 16k RAM cart, but I'm probably going to upgrade to 32 or 35 soon if my game grows beyond 16k. Still, it's probably a lot of fun creating games for the unexpanded VIC-20 because of the strict restrictions. Maybe coding an unexpanded game will be my gate into assembly at a later point.

[Dynamic_Computing]

Big fan of the Penultimate Cartridge from The Future Was 8Bit as I can set the RAM to whatever I want without changing out the cartridge. I think 32K is easy enough to get that everyone who want it should be able to get it.

[Mike]

+32K has been established as viable (i.e. widespread enough) RAM expansion for VIC-20 at least from the time when Mega-Cart was released in 2009. It can be done with just two chips already available at that time, and it is much easier to build than a dedicated +24K RAM expansion (which would require at least three 8Kx8 SRAM chips or a possibly inferior/bugged block decode logic which under-utilizes the 32Kx8 SRAM).

That being said, as a soft limit I try to consider whether +16K RAM is sufficient for the program, tool or game. This is the biggest RAM expansion originally provided by Commodore (VIC-1111) and going beyond this with original manufacturer equipment would require a cartridge extender (VIC-1010 or VIC-1020), opening up one or two +8K RAM expansions (VIC-1110) to put them into BLK3 or BLK5, etc.

Going for unexpanded has a certain charme, but only if I don't need to wrap my brain around it.

[eslapion]

+32K has been established as viable (i.e. widespread enough) RAM expansion for VIC-20 at least from the time when Mega-Cart was released in 2009....

I was selling the Ultimate Expander in 2006. It was 32k RAM + 32k ROM. The RAM only version weighed 19 grams as it used SMT ICs.

[Ghislain]

It’s fairly common now, of course. But back in the day, there was a certain mystique about fully expanding the VIc-20 by using every available memory space for RAM.

While Commodore only supplied 16K cartridges, I remember seeing ads in COMPUTE!’s Gazette for 32K cartridges.

And when I first got onto the internet, I saw there was a 32K game that even required the Super Expander cartridge on the zimmers site, and I found that fascinating.

35K is also fairly common as well and there is even 37K that is becoming an option.

As many of you know, I’m making a 32K game that will encompass 4 floppy disk sides (or run on an SD card). While there could be some debate as to whether the game is “authentic” as far as following the conventions of how the VIc-20 was used back in the day, I really want to showcase the machine’s graphics and sound in a really spectacular way.

[majikeyric]

...

[Gorf]

35K is also fairly common as well and there is even 37K that is becoming an option.

I thought that the VIC's memory map for expansionn memory was capped at 35K (but then again my knowledge of said memory map is a little iffy)

[Witzo]

I have a 32KB expansion (Ultimate Expander), and I thought that would fill all the memory blocks. Where in the memory map does the extra 3KB in a 35KB expansion go?

I looked at the memory map thread http://sleepingelephant.com/ipw-web/bul ... f=2&t=8921 and thought the whole 64KB address range was accounted for.

[Mike]

I have a 32KB expansion (Ultimate Expander), and I thought that would fill all the memory blocks.

Well, it doesn't.

Where in the memory map does the extra 3KB in a 35KB expansion go?

To the same place it'd go on its own.

I looked at the memory map thread http://sleepingelephant.com/ipw-web/bul ... f=2&t=8921 and thought the whole 64KB address range was accounted for.

Indeed it is. Look closer.