Expansion Pak

[Trooper Galactus]

I assume everybody remembers the Expansion Pak for the N64 which enabled it to play more advanced titles like Donkey Kong 64 and Majora's Mask as well as unlock gameplay elements in other games such as Perfect Dark and Starcraft 64. Out of curiosity, does such a thing exist for the Jaguar, and if not, is it something feasible or worthwhile to develop? I ask this underestanding that there is already a CD attachment which expands the capabilities of the Jaguar, but even that seems to have its own limitations, and I'm one of those weirdos that just loves having a plastic cartridge to pull off the shelf every now and then. I've just wondered if any of the homebrews have been held back by the system's memory limitations and if such a thing could alleviate that. Forgive my lack of technical expertise if this is a stupid question!

[Atlantis]

The add-on is the expansion pak, adding some hardware strength next to being able to run cds through the cart port, as has been mentioned elsewhere on this forum.

And as you might have noticed you can plug your carts into the cd add-on =)

Maybe not adding any extra power to your old games, but if you remember the exepansion pak for N64 it only added extra horsepower to some (quake 2, donkey kong and so on) of the later games designed for the pak released with and after the pak. Nothing happened to the earlier carts, that wasn't designed for the pak.

So, if new carts could squeeze something out to the cd add-on, let me know in the future, or maybe Songbird did with the Protextor SE cart + Resurgence cd?

If there is some crazy person creating new hardware for Jaguar I don't know, but it has happened before, as with the Catbox I reckon, so a slim chance, on 0,2 % it will ever reach the marked imho. And on experience round that to 0%.

But one can always dream, until someone wakes you up. (Not me)

[Trooper Galactus]

Are you referring to the Memory Card for the CD expansion? I didn't think that really expanded on the system capabilities, and it doesn't help cartridge cartridge games any to my knowledge. Was just kind of an idea that popped into my head is all...was thinking more like a Game Genie or Game Shark kind of plug-in that could be useful for future developments.

[Atlantis]

No I meant the actual cd add-on.

[Trooper Galactus]

Ah, so if somebody developed a higher-powered cartridge, it could run through the CD unit with expanded capabilities?

[Atlantis]

So, if new carts could squeeze something out to the cd add-on, let me know in the future, or maybe Songbird did with the Protextor SE cart + Resurgence cd?

I have no idea. Might, might not? I'm not the one here pushing hardware capabilities.

[Zerosquare]

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/226680-extra-ram/

[Xgames]

I think it would have to be like what the saturn did and have a 2 mb 4 mb expansion cartridge for titles that needed the extra sprites graphics etc.I had to buy it for a few of my saturn games but im certainly sure thats how the Jag would have to do it.

[Lynxpro]

Would using SRAM help to mitigate the slowness of cartridge-based RAM?

[+CyranoJ]

Would using SRAM help to mitigate the slowness of cartridge-based RAM?

 

Nope, the bus is the bottleneck.

[Lynxpro]

 

Nope, the bus is the bottleneck.

 

RAM upgrade to the mobo?

[Zerosquare]

Sure. In addition to the cartridge, the next released game will include some RAM chips, some solder and a soldering iron, so that you can upgrade your Jaguar yourself.

Oh by the way, there's no room on the motherboard to solder the new chips. You'll have to piggyback them on the existing ones. Have fun!

[+madman]

Is there a pre-order list for the RAM upgrade?

[Lynxpro]

Sure. In addition to the cartridge, the next released game will include some RAM chips, some solder and a soldering iron, so that you can upgrade your Jaguar yourself.

Oh by the way, there's no room on the motherboard to solder the new chips. You'll have to piggyback them on the existing ones. Have fun!

 

I was just inquiring if it were a possibility since there's always the question whether extra RAM would even be recognized by the rest of the system's architecture. I realize the Jaguar's case is incredibly compacted, even more so than say a 7800 and trying to install an XBoard to piggyback into the MARIA's socket while also contending with the RF shield. In both situations, going external via the cartridge port is the easiest way to go but obviously dealing with the Jaguar's cartridge port has performance trade-offs that the 8-bit 7800 cartridge port does not really have to deal with in comparison.

[Zerosquare]

The Jaguar chipset has support for 4 MB of RAM (twice the amount that's installed in a standard console). I think SCPCD tried to extend the RAM a few years ago and that it actually worked.

[Lynxpro]

The Jaguar chipset has support for 4 MB of RAM (twice the amount that's installed in a standard console). I think SCPCD tried to extend the RAM a few years ago and that it actually worked.

 

Now that's definitely interesting…

[guSTaw]

A better solution would be turbo Cart Tomek 8 with Atari 8bit

[Lynxpro]

A better solution would be turbo Cart Tomek 8 with Atari 8bit

 

C'mon, man. You joking too? Judging from your signature, you are no stranger to unnatural hardware upgrades, at least to your Falcon030!