flip

Hi, See the first post - Cart is $US40, which includes shipping from Belgium to anywhere in the world... FliP

Hi again I can confirm it runs perfect now on the real thing as well. Greatly appreciated Paul, thanks! The long branches that are left in the others don't seem to do any harm. As long as they are not in the main loop, where a lot of screen updating happens, it doesn't seem to matter - or it's at least not noticeable/disturbing. Thanks for the hints on how to tackle Flappy Bird - I'll try and get this cart out the door before having a go at that ;o) FliP

That should actually say 4k of addressable space - $000-$FFF = 4096 bytes... FliP

I've forked the patches in for Hockey and Combat... Hope that's OK. FliP

Hi again, The plan was to start shipping late next week. But since I've not asked anyone for money yet, the timescale is still 'when they are ready'. I still need to build at least half a dozen and I'm waiting for some more parts to build the composite mod. If you could come up with a fix, that would obviously be worth the wait/delay! Cheers, FliP

Hi Paul, Yes - I am only decoding the lower 4 address lines so the cart only 'knows' A0-A11, which gives it 1K addressable space... $800 to $BFF is used by the different consoles, so that leaves the addresses you quote. I guess that adding a second latch is possible, which would give 64K to play with, but there's no way to add RAM to the cart, as the MWR signal isn't there... Not sure you saw my message some time ago: on real hardware, using long branches causes timing issues for the 1861, because it loses sync due to the three CPU cycles these instructions use. I've managed to patch Pong/Hockey and Combat, so they play fine. Invaders is giving me more problems, as it has a lot of long branches and 2 really long routines as far as I can see that go beyond the 256-byte pages. At the end of every cycle, the screen flickers as a result... Since Emma doesn't show the problem, testing can only be done by burning new versions to EEPROMs, which is rahter cumbersome. As for ideas for new games: I was going to try and see whether I could adapt your Scramble code into a Flappy Bird clone - haven't gotten around to it yet, so I hope you can beat me to it! There's a complementary cart reserved for you - if you PM me your details, I'll send it out with the rest of them... regards, FliP

Hi, It's on the multicart in the clone collection (MPT-02, etc). It plays on the Studio II, as do all the other clone games, though not in color obviously.... Sound is also limited to the one-tone beep. Here's the full list of what is currently planned: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/125ahew2f4_KOlsxCCyaZjRYw7kr0ISLbvOgCLkTXUj8/edit?usp=sharing The games for the Toshiba Visicom don't work: that system seems to have been organised completely differently (it had more RAM and the video page is somewhere else). Only one game is dumped at the moment, but there's no point in having it on the cart, as the pinout is different for the cartridge slot as well.... FliP

The composite board is complementary, so no extra cost - it's a small PCB that needs to connect to the console in three points: GND, 5V and the video signal. You'll need to supply the cable to video out yourself, but an audio cable with an RCA plug will normally do... I'll put up some pictures when I have the final board, but there's a (hopefully) elegant way to attach it to the PCB... You'll need some basic soldering skill, but the board will come assembled... FliP

Can't guarantee that the video mod works on an M1200... I've not seen a mod as such, but the CDP1864 should put out a composite signal somewhere, so I imagine it could well work... You can't edit the list, but I've added your name to it... FliP

Quick update: thirteen carts built, waiting for their EEPROMs. Still waiting for the composite boards... Only one cartridge shell left, so if you want one, better be quick... flip

It's an Adafruit NTSC/PAL TFT panel - a bit small (1,5") but they have bigger ones: https://www.adafruit.com/category/110 The idea was to make a 'portable' Studio II , but in the meantime, I've found this on e-bay... That would only require a little stereo socket on the console that could double as video out...

Hi again, You can track orders here (should open a Google Sheet) FliP

Darn - it seems I can't edit the 2nd post to update the orders... I'll try to come up with another system to track what going on (probably Google Sheets) and post that here... FliP

Didn't think anyone would be that crazy If it helps, I've build an Arduino ROM dumper that I would be happy to donate to the new owner (possibly with a $6 shipping fee ), so we can finally cross this off the list. TBH, I completely expect it to be the same as the known dump for the Victory. I've seen the theories here, but another possibility is that it was made in anticipation of the Studio III - hence the absence of the Studio II branding on the box. It could be made to be 'backwards' compatible. Meantime, pretty excited to announce this!

Order list - © = complementary toymailman 1 (C) eKeefe 1 (C) paulrobson 1 (C) Mpt02 1 (C)

Hi everyone, It has taken longer than expected, but I am happy to announce I have a final version of an RCA Studio II Multicart. The newer system board versions were crippling a signal on the cartridge port, which meant that larger games (using $c00 and higher) would not work. Thanks to Ed Keefe (also active here), the cart now fixes this signal, meaning that no modification is needed to the console itself! Using 2 hex encoders, 128 slots are available on an EEPROM - this is plenty for the existing games, both official ones and homebrew. The cartridge is compatible with clones, such as the Victory MPT-02 (though not with the Toshiba Visicom, as the slot/pinout is different). Should new games come out, or found, they can be added by flashing the EEPROM. Some photos are attached showing the cart playing Pong and Asteroids (both games by Paul Robson). It's been designed to fit the original cartridge shells. Two holes are needed in the front for the rotary selection switches (and some internal tabs need to go as well). I have some spare shells of broken carts, courtesy of toymailman. I probably won't have time to modify them for the carts, but I'll add the shells on a first-come basis (i.e. until they run out). The design is open source - see the schematics and the board file attached. You're welcome to build your own of course, but these are not intended to be used in a commercial product. If you'd rather have a ready-made one, I am happy to ship one anywhere in the world for US$40. Leave your username, whether you need a shell (on first come basis only - you'll have to modify it yourself to fit the cart). For those interested, I can add a small PCB that gives you composite out at no extra cost (but you need some soldering skills to add it to the console of course). Put that in your post as well... I'll keep a list below this post with orders, to keep track of things. When your cart is ready to ship, I'll send you a PM with further details. Any questions, feel free to ask! FliP rca_studio_II_mutli_v3.3.pdf RCA_Studio_II_multicart_eagle.zip

Posted above somewhere: the test cart part number is 5009339, and the power supply it needs is 5008333. Source of that info is the service manual...

Sorry to move slightly away from the Bingo find, but does anyone know what the Tester/Diagnostic cart did exactly? I have written a test program for inclusion in the multicart that has three tests: calculate the checksum of the ROMs ($0000-$03FF), check the RAM from $0800-$08AF and $0900-$09FF and a keypad test that shows which keys are pressed. Works pretty well, but if other tests were included in the official one, it'd be cool to try and implement those as well... Checksum: Memory test: keypad test:

If that's the case, then it would be interesting to see the internals of the Studio II machine itself. It might be an earlier iteration than the two versions we know exist to date! If this is ever re-listed, I am guessing it'll be with a heftier price tag - and we'll all be bidding against each other

Hadn't thought of it that way - makes perfect sense. The boards up to at least ±65,000 had handwritten SNs, but at some point, they switched to stickers on the PCB as well, which would have made it easier to align. Sadly, these came off easily - so did the stickers on the shells. There's also a color change in the PCBs along the way: early models are olive green. At some point, they became something between blue and green. And the auction shows a 'proper' green one.