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In development - SD card based Multicart


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Another issue is cart shells, getting some manufactured again adds to difficulty, making your own is probably even more difficult. Being a cart that needs an SD slot, it'd be difficult to adapt anything.

 

Simple cart shells are easily available here: http://sklep.nikomp.com.pl/pl/p/OBK070PC-Obudowa-Z-7-906819mm-cartridge-czarna/3116

There are nicer shells available as well, but I have no addresses handy now.

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Simple cart shells are easily available here: http://sklep.nikomp.com.pl/pl/p/OBK070PC-Obudowa-Z-7-906819mm-cartridge-czarna/3116

There are nicer shells available as well, but I have no addresses handy now.

that would need a slot cut for SD though, which would be a time consuming modification, and difficult to make it accurate/precise and look nice. maybe if you had a mill and made a jig....

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My aim is that this will fit in a standard (grey) cartridge shell. That means it will fit in all 400/800/XL/XE's.

 

I was planning to file a slot in the top to provide access to the micro SD card. I did something like this when I made a case for my SIO2SD, and it turned out ok.

 

However it would be nice not to have to destroy old cartridges to get the cases, so if anyone has any better ideas....?

 

Robin

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  • 2 weeks later...

As long as they aren't too expensive, I'll take 2 if it fits the 800, and 1200XL. If you make it to fit the older brown atari cartridge cases in stead of the XE you can reuse BASIC cartridges which are easily obtainable.

Edited by Defender II
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Dear all,

 

A quick update on my SD Multicart project.

 

I managed to design a PCB for the FPGA and to my suprise it actually more or less worked first time I plugged it into my Atari. This a prototype, rather than the finished article, so I can finish developing the software/VHDL. I will soon attempt a redesign to fit inside a cartridge shell.

 

The new PCB has allowed me to make a start at cartridges that use the lower bank (I'd run out of IO pins on the development board), so I've now got the following types of cartridges working:

- standard 8k and 16k ROMS (e.g. star raiders, pole position)

- XEGS 32,64 and 128k ROMS (e.g.star raiders II, rescue on fractalas, airball)

- Atarimax 8mbit (e.g. space harrier)

- Bounty Bob

 

Bounty Bob put up a bit of a fight - took me ages last night to get it working, but now seems to be running reliably using the ROM dump on the atarimania site.

 

Does anybody have any SIC! cartridge images? That would be useful since I was planning to add support for them soon.

 

Robin

 

 

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post-41252-0-90975100-1436360531_thumb.jpg

Edited by electrotrains
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The parts cost of these is likely to be around £40 (or $50). Maybe a bit less.

 

The FPGAs are a newish product from Altera, and the only ones available at the moment are engineering samples at around £20 each. However it looks like the final versions will be available shortly for about £12 each.

 

I may do a small run when I've got the final PCB designed, but beyond that I'm planning to post the schematics, PCB files and code so people can build themselves (and hopefully improve and extend the software long term).

 

Robin

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