ColecoVision Cartridge PCB and ICs

[ColecoVision Cartridge PCB and ICs]

Well, if usually, these eprom chips are 8 kilo-bytes each. The one at the bottom is the first one (memory map 8000-9FFF), followed generally by at last a second one (memory map A000-BFFF). Some versions of teh original Donkey Kong cartridge have 3 eprom chips, 8K each, making them 24K (24 kilo-bytes).

Thank you for your reply. Is there a list that shows how many eproms are in each cart, and what size they are? Also If each cart has more than one eprom in it, why are the rom images floating around a single file?

There are curiosities like some Donkey Kong cartridges have 3 eproms, and some have only 2 eproms. The reason for that is the cost of production, so they asked the programmers to optimize the game size enough to fit into 2 eproms instead of 3 and they did it. Beside that, most of the games released by Coleco are 16K, some are 24K, and that's pretty much it. A list in text that include the rom size of each game is included in a giant text file called Coleco FAQ or CVFAQ. As for getting only one rom file instead of multiple 8k rom files for each game, well it's more easier to deal with a single file.

 

I know for sure that one guy did replace the 3 eproms from an original ColecoVision pcb to make his own DACMAN cartridge, which is my PacMan-like game ( size 24K ). But as for the other homebrew games, they are all about 32K... and finding a 32K pcb by Coleco is almost impossible.

 

I'm familiar with the ColecoVision FAQs, but I question how correct it is. It states that the cartridge Alcazar is a 32k game. However, the rom image doesn't have any data past the first 16k. I've been able to add empty space onto other coleco roms, and they ran just fine with an emulator. Does this mean the FAQs is incorrect? I haven't been able to get my hands on a cart to check it out. If the FAQs is right and it is a 32k game, does the game pcb have four 8k roms? If the CVFAQ is wrong, how does a non-expert like myself know what is what?

[ColecoVision Cartridge PCB and ICs]

Well, if usually, these eprom chips are 8 kilo-bytes each. The one at the bottom is the first one (memory map 8000-9FFF), followed generally by at last a second one (memory map A000-BFFF). Some versions of teh original Donkey Kong cartridge have 3 eprom chips, 8K each, making them 24K (24 kilo-bytes).

Thank you for your reply. Is there a list that shows how many eproms are in each cart, and what size they are? Also If each cart has more than one eprom in it, why are the rom images floating around a single file?

[ColecoVision Cartridge PCB and ICs]

I've been searching the internet trying to locate technical information about ColecoVision carts, but have come up short. I'm trying to learn as much as I can about the physical ROM chips, and have started opening up my carts.

 

For instance, inside the Smurf Rescue cart the PCB has two chips. I know at least one must be the ROM, but what is the other chip for? Another ROM chip? How do I tell what size in bytes does the chip(s) hold? Do I need to remove the chip from the board and use an EEPROM programmer to dump the ROM?

 

Here's what the chips look like. Cans somebody tell me what it all means?

 

------------------------
|	(c) COLECO IND	|
|	R73092   8248A	|
|	2205012		   |
|	M555885		   |
------------------------

------------------------
|	(c) COLECO IND	|
|	R73089   F8242	|
|	2205013		   |
|	F805154		   |
------------------------

[Gyromite NES...Canadian Release?]

Check out here and here.

[ColecoVision Alcazar 16kb or 32kb?]

Does anyone know the correct ROM size of the Alcazar cart? There seems to be two images floating around; 16kb and 32kb. The ColecoVision faqs states that it's supposed to be 32, but when you look at it in a hex editor there isn't any data beyond the first 16kb.

[Alternate ColecoVision BIOSes?]

Hi there, this is my first post here. I know this thread is old, but the question was never really answered. Is colecoa.rom a legitimate bios dump or just a hack?