ST console

[Andre81]

Would it be possible to modify the ST cartridge port / TOS so that it supports cartridges larger than 128kb? Would it be possible to convert disk games to a cartridge? Could a 27C010 or 27C020 made compatible with the port? Or maybe a custom 128kb cartridge that loads the content of a 27C010 into the main memory and executes it?

 

[atarian63]

Don't know but my simple solution (not installed yet) was to order the sd card reader device from europe and load disk images. fits where the floppy drive would be and connects to the floppy cable

[Andre81]

I'd like to turn a Mega ST into a console. I think back in 1987/1988 the obvious solution would have been to use the cartridge port. Not sure if the ST had enough address lines to support over 128kb.

 

Or maybe a cartridge adapter for the disk drive connector?

 

How did Atari it with the Panther prototype?

 

[Rybags]

In theory they could have presented the entire address bus giving 16 Meg possible addresses to the cart port.

I think the reality is they only wanted things like languages and system enhancements and didn't expect it to get much use otherwise.

 

They didn't even bother to give it a write line which is an even bigger mistake.

 

128K isn't such a limitation if bank-switching is used, in such cases the size is only limited by how much memory can physically fit on the cart.

 

Modding it - what's the point as you'd end up with something that's not compatible with anyone else's gear?

 

Better option if you wanted to develop for it is to use bank-switching. Various workarounds are possible as well for being able to write, generally you'd have a range of addresses that sense being read to determine the byte to write, then you perform another read access to the location you want written to.

[Kyle22]

Would it be possible to modify the ST cartridge port / TOS so that it supports cartridges larger than 128kb? Would it be possible to convert disk games to a cartridge? Could a 27C010 or 27C020 made compatible with the port? Or maybe a custom 128kb cartridge that loads the content of a 27C010 into the main memory and executes it?

We have 39SF040s in our 8-bits

[ParanoidLittleMan]

There are already some solutions which override 128KB by using bank switching. Basically, it is simple - just need some extra logic which will address highest address lines on some higher capacity EPROMs, or better Flash EPROMs. But such solutions are little obsolete now, in era of Flash cards.

And of course, it is possible to use 27C0x0 , but cheaper will be some Flash EPROM.

Converting disk games to cartridge ? This is actually more interesting problem, and I did some simple 'conversion' : http://atari.8bitchip.info/cartST.html

Main problem with cartridge port is that it supports only running of 1 executable file, and not reading additional files from cartridge, as regular TOS files. So, multi-file SW can not be simple copied to cartridge and runned, at least not without some tricks. For instance you can create RAMdisk for that purpose.

Since 99.9% of Atari ST SW is made for running from floppies, conversion to cartridges would need lot of work. What is just bad idea now, when we have a lot of quality games fixed for running from some hard drive or Flash card. And not to forget prices of Flash cards - 4GB costs as couple of EPROMs.