Got my Vic-20 Penultimate cart today!

[eightbit]

IT took some time as shipping seems to be delayed from the UK, but I received the Penultimate cart today and I must say it is a thing of beauty! Its also got some serious weight to it. The cart includes 40 pre-installed cart games....not as many as the 127 in the Behr-Bonz cart but the real joy in this cart is the selectable RAM all the way up to 35K. You can simply push F7 and if you have an SD2IEC device connected with the Vic loader it will load it with 35K available. And yes, the first thing I did was try Vic Doom Really cool device.For those interested:

 

https://www.thefuturewas8bit.com/index.php/penultimatecart

 

 

I didn't test all 40 games but they seem to run fine for the most part with one exception. It appears the version of Demon Attack on the cart is the PAL version so it doesn;t run right on NTSC machines I asked the developer about this and am waiting a reply, but not a big deal breaker since I have other ways to play it anyway. I did like that launching the Scott Adams text adventures automatically patches the SYS32592 so you don't have to do anything and it goes right into the game

[eebuckeye]

I just received mine the other day and need to give it a shot..

[carlsson]

Soon now the VIC-20 has as many multi/flash/expansion cartridges as the Vectrex seems to have. That is good, since not two are identical and at different price points and availability there should be one solution for each type of user.

 

The Imagic games by the way are some of the few to exist in separate NTSC and PAL versions. While most games from Commodore are hard wired to start at NTSC screen positioning (instead of reading system ROM or just leave it at default for 22x23 setups), they run as well in PAL once the screen is repositioned. Some of the Commodore games though rely on raster timings making them unplayable on PAL before someone has patched them. Oddly it doesn't appear that Commodore, just like Imagic, published games like Bandits & c:o for PAL, or perhaps they were unable to reprogram those.

[eightbit]

Soon now the VIC-20 has as many multi/flash/expansion cartridges as the Vectrex seems to have. That is good, since not two are identical and at different price points and availability there should be one solution for each type of user.

 

The Imagic games by the way are some of the few to exist in separate NTSC and PAL versions. While most games from Commodore are hard wired to start at NTSC screen positioning (instead of reading system ROM or just leave it at default for 22x23 setups), they run as well in PAL once the screen is repositioned. Some of the Commodore games though rely on raster timings making them unplayable on PAL before someone has patched them. Oddly it doesn't appear that Commodore, just like Imagic, published games like Bandits & c:o for PAL, or perhaps they were unable to reprogram those.

 

Yes, the maker of the Behr Bonz cart is apparently aware of the NTSC and PAL versions and provided me with all NTSC titles on the cart for my region which is great. The people responsible for the Penultimate I guess did not think ahead in this regard, and I get no answer to my email inquiry regarding the subject unfortunately. In any case, it is still a great product and I can live with the fact that I have to play Demon Attack via other methods

[ZylonBane]

So uh... what's the cartridge that's even more ultimate than this one?

[eightbit]

So uh... what's the cartridge that's even more ultimate than this one?

 

There are three carts that I am aware of that exist:

 

1. Megacart (which is not available anymore)

2. Penultimate (has 40 carts built in along with RAM and easy SD2IEC launcher)

3. Behr-Bonz cart (comes as board only and you need to supply a case, includes 127 cart games)

 

 

I have #2 and #3 which pretty much covers everything...especially if you have an SD2IEC reader with #2.

[eebuckeye]

There is also this one..

 

http://store.go4retro.com/ultimem-vic-20-memory-expansion-cartridge/

 

You can have every game on it and has memory expansion, etc..

[carlsson]

And the Final Expansion 3, an open design of which Skydivingirl and e5frog now are selling batches of, after Retro Donald went absent for a while. That one is more of a BYO solution than the others. I think yet another memory expansion/Flash solution was mentioned somewhere, but five different contemporary solutions are plenty as it is, besides using a pure SD2IEC compatible device for storage.

[eightbit]

Wow, lots of options for the Vic. GOOD! This was my first home computer and what got me started on a life of Commodore computers. Its great to see that the Vic-20 (the one that really started it all in terms of affordable home computing) getting this much love. I just love this machine. I especially like the combination of SD2IEC and the Penultimate the most I will say, but all other options are certainly welcome!

[carlsson]

I believe some of the recent VIC love came from e.g. C64 users who felt bored about it being so mainstream and looked sideways to which other computers were out there and found its predecessor.

[+OLD CS1]

Resurrecting this thread... I ran across these this evening. Marvelous devices!

 

Final Expansion 3 Rev 11 for the VIC-20

eBay Auction -- Item Number: 192400198730

 

Penultimate Cartridge Commodore VIC20 3-35k RAM Pack + ROMs 16k 32k tfw8b v1.0

eBay Auction -- Item Number: 332452376714

[Cdstahlman]

I have the final expansion 3, excellent device!

[polyex]

I have the final expansion 3, excellent device!

 

Just got mine. How do you edit your loader files? What format are they supposed to be in?

[zylon]

I believe some of the recent VIC love came from e.g. C64 users who felt bored about it being so mainstream and looked sideways to which other computers were out there and found its predecessor.

 

In my case, VIC was my 1st computer. I upgraded to C64 during the "C" model's time. That simple little computer never stopped amazing me with what it could do with so little. About 5yrs ago, I gave it to a younger friend who was studying electronics for a future in maintaining PLC's and automated systems.

[discgolfer72]

 

Just got mine. How do you edit your loader files? What format are they supposed to be in?

search for mkloader

 

then place the files of mkloader

in each directory of your sd card then run the mkloader.exe in each folder

that's it it makes the loader file based on the files in the directories

 

mkloader

https://mega.nz/#!dSwyhDhS!4mlWWSo1mysm_tu33RxLf74PDVkB2SHWtxa7xRmFBVI

Edited February 21, 2018 by discgolfer72

[SkydivinGirl]

 

Just got mine. How do you edit your loader files? What format are they supposed to be in?

 

The LOADER file is actually a BASIC program that you can edit directly on the VIC-20. It's always best to use MKLoader to create your initial file then you can edit it on the VIC-20 for any programs that aren't working properly. You could also create it in Notepad then copy and paste it to the VICE VIC-20 emulator and save it from there.

 

I'm always available to answer any usage questions you may have on the FE3.

 

Heather

Edited March 21, 2018 by SkydivinGirl

[Serrameade6]

Mine just arrived and it is awesome. The 35K cassette game Pentagorat is highly recommended.