6BQ5 Posted January 31, 2019 Share Posted January 31, 2019 Think of this as a little survey. I'm curious to know what people have plugged in their cartridge ports. Anything cool? Maybe you have a sound sampler or a Spectre kit all put togther? I would love to use it for storage space but I think nothing like a hard drive adapter or RAM disk exist. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParanoidLittleMan Posted January 31, 2019 Share Posted January 31, 2019 Atari ST cartridge port is made mostly in diagnostic purpose. It is read only, and small capacity. And despite it, plenty of different adapters appeared on market, and hobbysts made interesting add ons. There was even video capture device. I designed/made myself EPROM/FlashEPROM programmer: http://atari.8bitchip.info/eprprg.htm There was IDE hard disk adapter named Paskud, but it is not available in last decade, or more. Was not much fast, but usage is simple. Probably main reason is that SD cards are now much cheaper than CF cards and/or hard disks, so people using rather diverse Satans I don't see much sense of RAMdisk on cartridge port - it will be always slower than normal RAM in machine. Possible near future projects: very fast IDE adapter, what I called CATA. I talked with Lotharek about integrating it with NetUsBee (LAN + USB adapter for cart. port), but that needs some free time to make proper HW design, hopefully SW will need only minimal changes) . That could be interesting even in SD care era, because should work well with now cheap and enough fast IDE-SD afapters. I tested mine, and it can some 10 MB/sec with faster SD cards. And some special usage: games on cartridge. I already adapted some for it. Of course, only shorter games fit on 128 KB space. Packing is needed in most cases. Even more special is something I just tried: TOS 2.06 in ST machines, without soldering. OK, not entirely 'in', since cartridge is outside Normally you can not upgrade some ST, Mega ST to TOS 2.06 because it needs more space than ST memory map gives to TOS (256 KB needed, 192 KB available). So, some HW logic add on is needed - that's often combined with IDE adapter. http://atari.8bitchip.info/aidesch.htm But if we use cartridge port with it's 128 KB we have total 320 KB space - and then 2.06 fits. Need only to relocate it to new address space and doing couple changes in TOS header. If someone wants it, I will post here image files of cart ROM and TOS ROM content. And I think that now really need to order some quantity of cartridge PCBs and put there programmed EPROMs with games and whatever people want. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dma Posted January 31, 2019 Share Posted January 31, 2019 (edited) There were some carts for replaying enhanced sound in some games : Also, for quite an opposite use, several sampling carts existed. I mostly used sampling carts ("ST Replay" cart, don't remember which version exactly) : http://atariage.com/forums/topic/9107-cart-port/?p=1714090 I also listened to the demo tunes coming with the sequencer used with "FM Melody Maker" cart (sweet PC like OPL FM synth) : Edited January 31, 2019 by dma 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zogging Hell Posted January 31, 2019 Share Posted January 31, 2019 Back in the day I mainly used if for attaching a hand scanner, with occasional switches to the MV16 above, Spectre and sound samplers. My main problem with it is its position on the computer and how easy it was to knock the cartridge (particularly the bigger ones) out by accident if you moved the machine. Not so good with an unbuffered port. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greenious Posted January 31, 2019 Share Posted January 31, 2019 Well... here's a small list, which I don't think covers everything made for the ST cartridge port... Apart from all dongles used for copyprotection of programs like Notator, Cubase etc there was atleast 2 midi expanders that provided extra midi ports. There was an RC simulator with a cartridge that hooked up an RC remote and a "robokit", that used the cartridge port to interface with a robot Happy Computers discovery cartridge that allowed you to copy more or less any disk A couple of different realtime clocks There were also a few utilities cartridges, such as Atari's VT100 terminal, and another one with calendar (deskcart), Fastbasic and a few other a homebrew development system for the jaguar, called jagserv, also used the cartridge port to communicate with the jaguar. atleast 3 different "hacker" cartridges were written to aid in cracking games, ripping music and graphics.Ultimate ripper, multiface st Supermon debugger a few eprom programmers, atleast one gal/pal programmer Spectre GCR used the cartridge port to house the necessary Mac roms for emulating mac, as did magic sac several sound samplers atleast one cartridge (mentioned in previous post above) with an extra soundchip several scanner/digitizers, Vidi-ST, handyscanner A 3D solution with shutter goggles connected to the cartridge port Diagnostic cartridges IDE interface (Paskud) Various network adapters, ethernec adapers etc Emutos got a variant that works in cartridge, there supposedly also were atleast one other alternative OS on cartridge. A ramdisk cartridge existed, 512k&1mb variants a serial port expander, most notably used by michtron bbs Saint, maker of the sd-cart for lynx and developer of sd-cart for jaguar, is toying with some remote development tool for ST using the cartridge port. and so on.... there is stil things being developed. as you see... there are many, MANY uses for the cartridge port... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fletch Posted January 31, 2019 Share Posted January 31, 2019 Mainly Netusbee and Spectre GCR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goochman Posted February 1, 2019 Share Posted February 1, 2019 Discovery Cart, Magic Sac, Spectre, Spectre GCR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SumnerS Posted February 2, 2019 Share Posted February 2, 2019 Cubase uses the cartridge port but that's the only program I have that actually uses it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TGB1718 Posted February 6, 2019 Share Posted February 6, 2019 When I bought my original ST, I used the cartridge port for a Real Time Clock, I built a small circuit board ( etched) which had the clock chip on it, a few switching logic chips to enable writing to the clock for initial setup and a battery+charging circuit. I wrote a small machine code program to set the clock up and another which ran at boot time to read the clock and set the ST's time, it worked fine for many years. If I remember correctly the trick to write to the cartridge was to use the upper 1/2 cartridge address to enable the logic circuit to write to the timer chip, the data was in the lower 4 bits of the address. e.g. move.byte $FB0004,#0 would set the timer chip at its first location to '4', the instruction itself is quite arbitrary, you only need the address on the bus. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walter_J64bit Posted February 7, 2019 Share Posted February 7, 2019 For my Happy Computers Discovery cartridge. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariGeezer Posted February 7, 2019 Share Posted February 7, 2019 (edited) Let's see: Computer Eyes Vidi ST ST Replay Happy Discovery DeskCart Magic Sac Spectre GCR Edited February 7, 2019 by AtariGeezer 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jefffulton Posted February 9, 2019 Share Posted February 9, 2019 (edited) Well... here's a small list, which I don't think covers everything made for the ST cartridge port... Apart from all dongles used for copyprotection of programs like Notator, Cubase etc there was atleast 2 midi expanders that provided extra midi ports. There was an RC simulator with a cartridge that hooked up an RC remote and a "robokit", that used the cartridge port to interface with a robot Happy Computers discovery cartridge that allowed you to copy more or less any disk A couple of different realtime clocks There were also a few utilities cartridges, such as Atari's VT100 terminal, and another one with calendar (deskcart), Fastbasic and a few other a homebrew development system for the jaguar, called jagserv, also used the cartridge port to communicate with the jaguar. atleast 3 different "hacker" cartridges were written to aid in cracking games, ripping music and graphics.Ultimate ripper, multiface st Supermon debugger a few eprom programmers, atleast one gal/pal programmer Spectre GCR used the cartridge port to house the necessary Mac roms for emulating mac, as did magic sac several sound samplers atleast one cartridge (mentioned in previous post above) with an extra soundchip several scanner/digitizers, Vidi-ST, handyscanner A 3D solution with shutter goggles connected to the cartridge port Diagnostic cartridges IDE interface (Paskud) Various network adapters, ethernec adapers etc Emutos got a variant that works in cartridge, there supposedly also were atleast one other alternative OS on cartridge. A ramdisk cartridge existed, 512k&1mb variants a serial port expander, most notably used by michtron bbs Saint, maker of the sd-cart for lynx and developer of sd-cart for jaguar, is toying with some remote development tool for ST using the cartridge port. and so on.... there is stil things being developed. as you see... there are many, MANY uses for the cartridge port... I have that RC simulator controller and cart interface to plug into the port (but not the software). I have no idea if it works, as it came in a lot with a Magic also. The Mega 4 they were set up to be used with has a loose chip so I just get a white screen and haven't had time to go in and re-seat it. Edited February 9, 2019 by jefffulton Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nezgar Posted February 11, 2019 Share Posted February 11, 2019 My Roland CM-32L sound module came with Roland "Ten Tracks" software on floppy, but it would only work if the hardware 'key' (little cartridge) was inserted as a copy protection. Like Cubase, and I'm sure others. Was annoying I had to unplug the spectre GCR when I wanted to use it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pixelmischief Posted February 11, 2019 Share Posted February 11, 2019 NetUSBee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inky Posted February 25, 2019 Share Posted February 25, 2019 I had a Digisound sound sampling device plugged into that waaayyyy back when. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+SoulBuster Posted February 25, 2019 Share Posted February 25, 2019 NetUSBee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tillek Posted February 26, 2019 Share Posted February 26, 2019 Let's see: Computer Eyes Vidi ST ST Replay Happy Discovery DeskCart Magic Sac Spectre GCR I loved that ST Replay cartridge... especially when I found I could use it to record actual sound for games I was writing in GFA Basic. Actually recently found it... Might consider finishing that game. Then again, more likely that life will interfere. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hunter44102 Posted February 27, 2019 Share Posted February 27, 2019 NetUSBee sounds like a good use for the port - ethernet and usb ports for ST http://hardware.atari.org/netusbee/netus.htm https://lotharek.pl/productdetail.php?id=46 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariGeezer Posted March 7, 2019 Share Posted March 7, 2019 I loved that ST Replay cartridge... especially when I found I could use it to record actual sound for games I was writing in GFA Basic. Actually recently found it... Might consider finishing that game. Then again, more likely that life will interfere. Yep, made a few recordings during the shuttle missions in the early 90's... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vattari Posted March 28, 2019 Share Posted March 28, 2019 For anyone who’s interested, there’s sound, sampler, clock and diagnostic cartridge options available here: http://www.gossuin.be/index.php/shop Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oky2000 Posted October 25, 2022 Share Posted October 25, 2022 I finally found out what this sound cart for the ST was called and got here from a google search! The MV16, produced by the ST adoring French, is the single most important cartridge for the ST ever released. Coming in at approximately £10-15 to improve the YM2149 horrible sound chip for a Macintosh killing 1986 520STM 16bit home computer it shows how clueless Atari were to not do exactly the same thing before 1 million Amigas had been sold (1989?) to stay in the fight. It's a simple case of a publisher improving of the substandard audio hardware that ultimately killed sales of the STFM. Most Amiga games were direct ports up to, and even during 1989 if you look at Batman, except for those disgusting square wave bleeps from the Spectrum super cheap 128k lowest of the low gaming options in 1986. Sound was always the difference. MV16 bundled with BAT for £34.99 is proof Atari could have fixed their mistake and saved the fate of the STFM. Maybe even rode out the DRAM shortage of 1988(?) which forced the price of the 520STFM back up to £399.99 from £299.99 just about when Commodore dropped the A500 down by £100 to £399.99 too. Fascinating bit of kit, it's a bit like what Imagine software tried to do with their extra 128k RAM upgrade for Spectrum/C64 in 1984 for Bandersnatch and Psyclapse. Bargian. If this had happened I might not have bought an Amiga 1000 in 1987 to go with my 1984 C64 and 1986 520STM. You can't expect the poor old CPU to shift 320x200 pixels 15 out of 16 times AND do software sample playback and not suffer many dropped frames. Many early games did indeed completely bypass that horrible sound chip, a sound so bad it is the equivalent of the diet consumed by Oliver Twist as a child ;). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DarkLord Posted October 25, 2022 Share Posted October 25, 2022 I have the following for my cartridge port(s): EtherNEC NETUSBee Robokit ST-Replay Discovery Atari's VT terminal Spectre GCR Diagnostic carts (plural - for various machines) Those are the ones that come easily to mind. I might have something else packed away in my "STorage" closet - who knows? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zzip Posted October 25, 2022 Share Posted October 25, 2022 I had a sound sampler cart, that's the only thing I used it for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peri Noid Posted October 26, 2022 Share Posted October 26, 2022 To get power for UltraSatan mini. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clint Thompson Posted October 28, 2022 Share Posted October 28, 2022 Notator is forever attached. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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