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need someone to make me a super cart :)


Iwantgames:)

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I'm nearly done with initial testing and assembly of some 4-bank (switched) supercart boards. To build one you also need an Editor Assembler cart as a donor for the GROM chip you need (unless you happen to have a loose E/A GROM already). I don't have any spare E/A GROMs for these, unfortunately.

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Oh, I'll have to get one of those :) thx

 

Enjoy the quest! The E/A cartridge is not impossible to get, but it's getting tougher. I'm sure there are 1000's out there in the wild, more than enough for our meager handful of remaining TI user's, but finding one can be an adventure. A lot of times you'll see an auction for everything BUT the cartridge itself... like << THIS AUCTION HERE >>. It's the same way I came into my documentation, it was totally pristine and untouched... except someone pilfered the E/A cart out of it. I bet you can guess what it was used for too! :grin:

 

It's my most used cartridge, followed by Extended Basic (soon to be XB 2.7s :) ) and of course the DM2K cart.

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I have, sporadically, tried looking for an E/A cart on ebay (by itself), but haven't ever found one. The only E/A carts I've seen were complete packages.

 

I'm nearly done with initial testing and assembly of some 4-bank (switched) supercart boards. To build one you also need an Editor Assembler cart as a donor for the GROM chip you need (unless you happen to have a loose E/A GROM already). I don't have any spare E/A GROMs for these, unfortunately.

Would it not be easier to produce some E/A GROMs? That way we wouldn't have to cannibalize E/A carts.

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I have, sporadically, tried looking for an E/A cart on ebay (by itself), but haven't ever found one. The only E/A carts I've seen were complete packages.

 

Would it not be easier to produce some E/A GROMs? That way we wouldn't have to cannibalize E/A carts.

 

Not that I know of. We'd have to create one using the ubergrom grom emulation with an atmel probably.

 

Greg

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Not that I know of. We'd have to create one using the ubergrom grom emulation with an atmel probably.

 

Greg

 

With all the Super Duper, Ultra Uber Mega-Carts I've seen coming out lately, I can only imagine what it would be like. Probably something like 16 auto-switching 8K banks with another 24 16K banks for new modern & future developments. ;)

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The newest 512K boards will allow you to put up to 512K of battery-backed RAM on the board instead of an EPROM, Rasmus. That should cover the development side. The supercarts are just great for running the software designed for them, and there was quite a lot of it back in the day. . .

 

A cartridge with everything including the kitchen sink is fine, and I eventually plan to get one of them, but sometimes the user wants and needs the flexibility to add or remove programs as interests change or new things become available. Maybe someday someone will write or develop some nice utilities for the new cartridges. I personally would like to see an F18A compatible 80 column menu loader with more than a few selections per page. A port of the PC program called DIRECT ACCESS 5.0 would be the absolute ultimate in a menu system for the TI.

 

Currently I use KWIKLOAD for my most loaded programs via the HDX and I use 4A/DOS with the floppy and HxC.

 

Not too many people use Telco in this day and age, but one was able to have a couple of extra 'modules' available in memory at one time which sped things up a little. Could you imagine all of TELCO being on one of these new cartridges, except for the TOS files of course.

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I use one I built to load older 8k cart software and newly developed 8k software that loads from that >6000 space on the actual hardware.

With a menu driven loader I can change the software in the cartridge in seconds on the TI, versus writing a new eprom.

 

 

I have built multibank supercarts (hard switched) in the past, but with multicart menu software you can take the developed 8k program and add it to others and create a multicart. You can use one of Ksarul's boards, or if you want a challenge make a multicart eprom cart out of a duplicate game cartridge for fun ;-)

 

Steve

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Well I have the Super Cart and would only load into the current bank enabled but then the Super Cart from DataBiotics only used CRU to switch banks.

 

I use the SAMS with RXB so never really saw the advantage of a Super Cart as you can only use 8K at a time you can access, so not any better than using the SAMS. (1024 K)

 

Well other then if you wanted to run XB then you have to switch carts with a Super Cart. Why I opted to create RXB with EA built in to it.

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Can the E/A module load programs with AORG >6000 into the super cart RAM or does each program need a special loader?

If it is a single 8K bank then it loads just fine as Willsy says. I've done that many times plus if you have a battery on the cartridge ram chip the data stays there. My supercart has an EA grom, a MiniMemory Grom and a disk manager grom that you can select with a switch, but the reality is that I only use it with the EA grom. If you are asking about a bank switched supercart that's a different matter and you'd probably need a special loader of some sort.

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I use the SAMS with RXB so never really saw the advantage of a Super Cart as you can only use 8K at a time you can access, so not any better than using the SAMS. (1024 K)

 

Well other then if you wanted to run XB then you have to switch carts with a Super Cart. Why I opted to create RXB with EA built in to it.

 

I can see your point, but for me, never having had a SAMS, or RXB I guess I don't know what I'm missing. I can tell you this though, I've been more than happy with my Super Cart. To me the 'specification game' or it's 8K size has been a NON-ISSUE. To me it''s always been about the functionality and utility of the program or device, and the Super Cart pretty much has it covered. That's probably why it's been such a popular item over the decades, along with it's price and the fact that it's more readily obtainable. Granted the four bank version would be nice to switch back and forth between QUIKLOAD and 4A/DOS!

 

As for switching carts, that's just a flick of a switch with the Widget, so that's a non-issue for me as well. Besides, most everything I do is with the EA/Super Cart anyway.

 

I'm curious Rich, will 4A/DOS work on a SAMS? Is there any special software out there written for it? It sounds like a sweet little device. If anyone ever makes a NEW run of these cards, I just might want in on the action.

 

If it is a single 8K bank then it loads just fine as Willsy says. I've done that many times plus if you have a battery on the cartridge ram chip the data stays there. My supercart has an EA grom, a MiniMemory Grom and a disk manager grom that you can select with a switch, but the reality is that I only use it with the EA grom. If you are asking about a bank switched supercart that's a different matter and you'd probably need a special loader of some sort.

 

Yeah the battery backed version is the bomb. It's great, just turn on the computer and program is already there ready to go. Instant gratification! It truly saves a 'butt load' of time. I don't think I could ever go back to a standard E/A cart.

 

Now when loading the cart, 4A/DOS loads itself as option 3, QUIKLOAD is an option 5, but there is also another program called RAMIT that one could use well to load other stuff.

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I'm curious Rich, will 4A/DOS work on a SAMS? Is there any special software out there written for it? It sounds like a sweet little device. If anyone ever makes a NEW run of these cards, I just might want in on the action.



Well well you can get access to control the SAMS from DEBUGGER or EXPLORER by changing the pages manually.


Do not know about 4A/DOS ?


I do think someone mentioned they might start a run of them, but they wanted bigger ones.


I remember the talk in a coffee shop about putting a page utility in CRU to have 16 pages of 1Meg SAMS for a 16Meg SAMS. Cool idea huh?

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Here is a disk to help get anyone started using a supercart.

I have added patched loaders for disks 1-5.

 

This was written long ago. I think the author may no longer be with us. (Robert Jones)

If anyone out there has the source, it could be changed to page results. For now you

are limited to one screen.

 

 

The utility on this disk will read any programs on a disk, those that can be loaded into the

supercart can be selected from a menu.

You select what you want to load and press a single key...and it's done

 

 

 

supercart1.zip

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I'm nearly done with initial testing and assembly of some 4-bank (switched) supercart boards. To build one you also need an Editor Assembler cart as a donor for the GROM chip you need (unless you happen to have a loose E/A GROM already). I don't have any spare E/A GROMs for these, unfortunately.

 

Hi.

Do you have any of these boards available for sale by any chance? I can supply an EA GROM chip. The need for a supercart recently arose for me as I continue my experimentation with TI interfacing where I have to use a debugger on actual hardware in order to test the control programs. I use Superbug II which is great, but unless I have a supercart, it needs to be loaded alongside the program being debugged, which limits the size of the latter...

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