Nateo Posted March 2, 2002 Share Posted March 2, 2002 I have my 800 with me now, I'm looking at it, and, dang, what is that right cart slot for? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jetboot Jack Posted March 2, 2002 Share Posted March 2, 2002 A few programs (Monkey Wrench springs to mind) used the right slot, but only a handful - hence Atari dropped it from later machines.... sTeVE Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted March 2, 2002 Share Posted March 2, 2002 Yup, the right cartridge was intended to supplement left cartridges. But a few things prompted Atari to drop the port: It can only provide 8k of space. A 16k left cartridge occupies the same memory as a 8k left + 8k right cartridge. Each port=added production cost & testing. ...and the number one reason: Atari never made any right cartridges...they were all third party companies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted March 2, 2002 Share Posted March 2, 2002 Andrew Krieg has a nice list of Atari 8-bit carts, which includes details on which carts use the right cartridge slot. Looking over his list, I see: - Austin 80 Console Software - KISS (No, not the band..) - Monkey Wrench, The - Magic Dump - Magic Dump II The right cartridge port was certainly an interesting idea at the time, but I'm not surprised that Atari killed it off in later generations of 8-bit hardware. As Nukey Shay said, Atari never produced any carts that used it, and as you can see above there were very few third-party carts. I also like how the carts were neatly tucked away under the "hood", and that also got canned in the much "cheaper" (certainly to build) XL models. That would have presented a problem for my SpartaDOS X and R-Time 8 carts, both of which allow another cartridge to be plugged in on top. ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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