Cart Key?

[+toddtmw]

Back in the mid 80's, I made a device that canibalized a standard atari 800 cartridge and there was a circuit you could build in there (seems like Radio Shack sold a board with the correct cartrige pins on it that you could solder components to) and you had to file out part of the cart case to put a switch in it. Then you could stick a pencil in the door switch on the Atari 800 and then load a piece of software and then select a cartridge dump to load from disk and then you would flip a switch on the cart (which is why you had to jam the pencil in so you could boot the computer with the door open) and the cartridge would play,

 

I thought it was called Cart Key or something liket that. I made a few of them and sold them to my friends, but do not have them anymore and I cannot find anything on the Internet about it.

 

Anyone have more information on this. (My memory isn't what it used to be...)

 

Thanks.

[Kyle22]

Back in the mid 80's, I made a device that canibalized a standard atari 800 cartridge and there was a circuit you could build in there (seems like Radio Shack sold a board with the correct cartrige pins on it that you could solder components to) and you had to file out part of the cart case to put a switch in it. Then you could stick a pencil in the door switch on the Atari 800 and then load a piece of software and then select a cartridge dump to load from disk and then you would flip a switch on the cart (which is why you had to jam the pencil in so you could boot the computer with the door open) and the cartridge would play,

 

I thought it was called Cart Key or something liket that. I made a few of them and sold them to my friends, but do not have them anymore and I cannot find anything on the Internet about it.

 

Anyone have more information on this. (My memory isn't what it used to be...)

 

Thanks.

 

Are you thinking about "The Pill"?

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/170648-the-pill-or-super-pill-what-does-it-do/

[+toddtmw]

Well, it seems similar but mine were home made.

 

I don't think the software we used was called the pill.

 

Thanks.

[Atari8bitCarts]

What about this. I took it part and one of the wires broke, I just haven't gotten around to fixing it. But I found it interesting. It seems there many solutions to cartridge copying, so home grown.

[+toddtmw]

THAT'S IT!!!

 

Where did you get it?

[Rybags]

They're pretty simple. When active they need to take the R/W input and return it inverted on RD4 and RD5. That gives write protect to internal Ram from $8000-$BFFF and allows reads to hit the computer's Ram (if RD4/RD5 were always active, reads there wouldn't get anything).

The switch is needed to allow the initial program to load into that area, then there would be a prompt to switch it on once the image has loaded.

 

Alternatively there's a method to do the same without need for a mechanical switch. Not sure if that was a commercial product in the day. The mechanical swich could be replaced by a more complex circuit using a latch which can be altered by writing to the $D5xx area.

Edited May 15, 2017 by Rybags

[_The Doctor__]

The Pill, The Impersonator, Cart Key, software vaguely AUTOMENU and Scanalyzer...

[_The Doctor__]

The website locking up, causing post do double is getting worse and worse... even without tapa talk or other such third party stuff... using a straight web browser is now happening... is this due to hardware/software failure... or is it due to bots crawling the site or sites on the same server domain? AL?

Edited May 15, 2017 by _The Doctor__

[Mclaneinc]

Its Randsomware Doc

[Mclaneinc]

Here's the software for it...Look who the Author is, if its the same one but I bet it is...

 

Rename the file minus the the .txt, used so I could post it on here...

Cart Copy (1981)(Young, David)(US)BASIC.bas.txt

[+Larry]

@Atari8bitcarts-

 

Could you post a closeup pic of the pcb only to show the connections and IC? I've got a Pill and Super Pill, but curious about this solution.

 

Thanks,

Larry

[Fres]

Cart Clone

[Atari8bitCarts]

THAT'S IT!!!

 

Where did you get it?

I don't remember. It might have been in a collection of stuff. If I remember I'll let you know.

What software did you use with it.

[+toddtmw]

I don't remember. It might have been in a collection of stuff. If I remember I'll let you know.

What software did you use with it.

 

It was software we got with the plans that showed us how to make it. I do not remember what it was called.

 

Todd

[Atari8bitCarts]

some pics of cart copiers, I have all the disks somewhere in addition.

And a larger pic of the PCB.

[+Roydea6]

Here's the software for it...Look who the Author is, if its the same one but I bet it is...

 

Rename the file minus the the .txt, used so I could post it on here...

Cart Copy (1981)(Young, David)(US)BASIC.bas

 

Why not just post the BAS file??

[Mclaneinc]

Cart Copy (1981)(Young, David)(US)BASIC.bas

 

Why not just post the BAS file??

 

Didn't realise .bas files were recognised on here, its the same file as you posted just with txt at the end..Did you think it was just a basic txt listing I posted?

 

That would be damn lazy of me to do that

Edited May 17, 2017 by Mclaneinc