Posts tagged cartridge

The Commodore 64 EasyFlash Cartridge

0
1 year ago
by Andy in

With some money I had left in my PayPal account, I decided to buy one of the EasyFlash programmable cartridges for the Commodore 64 from Sinchai.de

EasyFlash is a cartridge for the C64 expansion port. In contrast to traditional cartridges, this one can be programmed directly from the C64

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You can easily create various classic computer game cartridges, program collections or even a diagnostic cartridge to track down issues with your hardware with it. All what you need to do this is a C64, an EasyFlash, the software available here and an image of the cartridge (*.crt). As these CRT files may be quite large, a large disk drive like the FD-2000 or an sd2iec may be useful. For smaller drives EasySplit can be used to compress and split large cartridge images.

EasyFlash is not a freezer cartridge like the Final Cartridge III or the Retro Replay. And it’s no replacement for a 1541 disk drive like the sd2iec.

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Custom Amstrad 464 and 6128 plus & GX4000 cartridge

1
1 year ago
by Andy in ,

Amstrad 464+/6128+/GX4000 custom cartridgeMaking a custom Amstrad 464 and 6128 plus & GX4000 cartridge is quite simple – but it does mean sacrificing an existing cartridge. The main reason for this is you need the ACID protection chip. You can read more about the ACID chip on the CPC Wiki.

I sacrificed my SwitchBlade cartridge – but I successfully removed the EPROM so I can still use it in my ‘Multicart’.

So, all I had to do was removed the old EPROM and fit a IC socket.

Once the cartridge was ready, I needed to burn some software onto a blank 27C1001 EPROM. The CPR files you find on emulation websites etc will not work. You need to convert them to .BIN binary files. There is a great tool here that does that very job. So, once you have the .BIN file, write it to the EPROM using your EPROM programmer and you are good to go.

Action Replay Mk 4.1 to 6.0 upgrade (C64)

0
2 years ago
by Andy in

Action Replay for the Commodore 64This is a very easy upgrade for your Action Replay 4.1 device. With version 6 of the software you get a few updates to the original software, and a few bugs are also fixed.

You will need :

  • 8 x 32k SRAM Chip (I used a UMC UM62256A I removed from a BBC Model B SRAM mod)
  • 28 pin DIL socket (You dont need this, but its a good idea)
  • 27C256 EPROM or equivalent EEPROM
  • Action Replay 6.0 ROM image (Available here.)
  • Soldering iron, solder etc
  • EPROM programmer

Action Replay - Front What you need to do.

  1. Program your EPROM/EEPROM with version 6 of the Action Replay software.
  2. Dismantle the Action Replay. Mine was held together with 1 screw.
  3. Take the PCB out of the case.
  4. Carefully remove the large PROM at the bottom of the PCB near the edge connector.
  5. Solder in the 28 pin DIL socket.
  6. On the underside of the PCB, under where you just installed the DIL socket, you will see 3 solder pads. Join the 2 pads that are closed to the 2 buttons at the top. Photo here.
  7. Insert the SRAM chip in the new socket.
  8. Insert the EPROM you just programmed into the ROM socket.

Once you have finished, your board should look like this.

Action Replay - Upgraded

More spectrum stuff

1
4 years ago
by Andy in

I collected a lot of Spectrum games and some hardware today. There were two items of interest in there…

Frel Ltd ComCon Joystick/Keyboard adapter

Basically, this adapter maps the movement from a joystick to keyboard keys. Therefore, it allows you to control keyboard only games with a joystick. More info can be read on this Crash page.

Hungry Horace cartridge

I’ve never seen a ROM cartridge for the 48k spectrum before, so a bit of a novelty for me. I’m unable to test it as I dont have a Interface 2.


There were many more games in this haul, but too many to mention here…

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