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THE!CART... New 128MB FLASH Cartridge


mega-hz

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I have narrowed down my choices for a flashcart to THE!CART and the Ultimate Cart. I want to make sure I make the correct choice for my needs, which consist primarily of running games. Which cart has the best compatibility with roms? Also, are their any other selling points that would sway me one way or another?

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Hi,

The Ultimate is easier for the novice to setup, but in my humble opinion,

The!Cart is my favorite, once you have it programmed.

It is faster loading the Roms and with the "Google Like" search engine, finding Roms are a pleasure.

Jac's software let's you type in any combination of letters like "pac" and all the Roms that have those letters in the title appear.

Example... Pacman, Jr Pacman, Super Pacman, Ms. Pacman and more come up on the menu.

You can load directly .ATR's, even TurboBasic Atr's that load under the Operating System.

Both carts are worth having.

Edited by FULS
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Hi,

The Ultimate is easier for the novice to setup, but in my humble opinion,

The!Cart is my favorite, once you have it programmed.

It is faster loading the Roms and with the "Google Like" search engine, finding Roms are a pleasure.

Jac's software let's you type in any combination of letters like "pac" and all the Roms that have those letters in the title appear.

Example... Pacman, Jr Pacman, Super Pacman, Ms. Pacman and more come up on the menu.

You can load directly .ATR's, even TurboBasic Atr's that load under the Operating System.

Both carts are worth having.

 

THE!CART sounds like the winner, although it would be nice if it had double the amount of storage and could fit in the metal back cartridge shells. I'm primarily interested in playing games, so faster loading sounds great. The slightly more difficult setup process is not all that big a deal for me. Thank you for your insight!

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Quick question. Will The!Cart work on an 800 with an Incognito installed? There was some conversation a while back about this, but I'm not sure what the final answer was.

Some carts have an issue, you have to add a jumper that Candle mentions on his site that'll fix the issue. However I used an ultimateSD on my 800+Incog without issue. I think they are similar enough that it'll probably work for you.

 

Put me down for one JAC, if I'm not on the list yet.

Edited by Android8675
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Some carts have an issue, you have to add a jumper that Candle mentions on his site that'll fix the issue. However I used an ultimateSD on my 800+Incog without issue. I think they are similar enough that it'll probably work for you.

 

Put me down for one JAC, if I'm not on the list yet.

 

I have no answer regarding the Ingonito, but there is a general problem with the Atari 800 as opposed to the Atari 400, Atari XL/XE when it comes to the module port.

In the left module port of the 800, one pin (S) carries a different signal (RAS) instead of the clock (PHI2).

As a consequence modern cartridges that contain lots of logic - and rely on being 100% in sync with the CPU - do not work properly. It's not specific for The!Cart and also applies to MyIDE etc.

I'll write it all down in detail when I find the time. Correction is quite simple, but requires physically changing the line to pin "S" on the motherboard.

 

And a general note: Thanks everybody for expressing your interest already, that's very encouraging. Yet I'm only the coder of the software. mega_hz will spawn the official pre-ordering for the V2 run once he's ready for that.

 

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I have no answer regarding the Ingonito, but there is a general problem with the Atari 800 as opposed to the Atari 400, Atari XL/XE when it comes to the module port.

In the left module port of the 800, one pin (S) carries a different signal (RAS) instead of the clock (PHI2).

As a consequence modern cartridges that contain lots of logic - and rely on being 100% in sync with the CPU - do not work properly. It's not specific for The!Cart and also applies to MyIDE etc.

I'll write it all down in detail when I find the time. Correction is quite simple, but requires physically changing the line to pin "S" on the motherboard.

 

Interesting. Does changing that line break compatibility with regular cartridges?

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Hi JAC!

 

I'm sure many would prefer not to have to modify their machines to make a cartridge work.

 

As far as I know (since I don't have a 400 or 800 myself) the Ultimate Cart works fine on an unmodified machine - I'm not sure if it will help, but please feel free to look at the VHDL source files on github.

 

Robin

Edited by electrotrains
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Hi JAC!

 

I'm sure many would prefer not to have to modify their machines to make a cartridge work.

 

As far as I know (since I don't have a 400 or 800 myself) the Ultimate Cart works fine on an unmodified machine - I'm not sure if it will help, but please feel free to look at the VHDL source files on github.

 

Robin

 

 

 

Same here. I still try to _not_ modify my Atari 800 for the!cart V2. "Read only" would be enough for my purposes, writing new stuff to the!cart will be done with an 800XL. As far as I know, it is still not sure if V2 works in the unmodified 800 or not. But i will try if i get a prototype for testing.

 

Bern

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Site Update:

 

- Based on Robin's feedback and the question here I have added the Ultimate SD to the comparison/overview of the different storage solutions, what they have in common and what is different.

- A new section "Questions and Answers" has been added too, which should contain the most frequent/recurring questions.

 

http://www.wudsn.com/index.php/productions-atari800/tools/thecart

 

- The mod for the Atari 800 now has a separate page, based on the original AA thread

 

http://www.wudsn.com/index.php/productions-atari800/tools/thecart/atari-800-fix

 

 

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