Which cart type?

[Mr Robot]

I'm cleaning up my cart images for use on my AVGCART and I find I have multiple versions of the same title but in various cart types like Williams, Maxflash, SIC, Switchable XEGS, Megacart.

 

I only want one copy but if I have a choice which one should I keep and why?

[Wrathchild]

Having worked with / targeted three of those, for me it would make no odds really.

Out of the whole set see which model is most frequent and keep those, repeat for what's left until you're done.

[candle]

i would keep the one, that given software was released at, others might not be as legit, or function diffrently

 

 

[Mr Robot]

Maxflash is the most common type of these I have, followed by Williams then Megacart, Switchable XEGS, and finally SIC!

 

These will all be protos, repros or home made carts of titles that never got an official cart release so the value of some of them given the availability of an exe version is marginal, some are special, a lot of work has gone into some of the conversions.

I haven't started on compilations yet, they seem pretty pointless to a multicart user but some of them obviously have a lot of love poured into the menus so they are worth keeping I guess.

[Tillek]

I've always been an AtariMax fan.

 

[Atari8guy]

2nd Tillek's comment.  Always been a fan of Atarimax, the tool and the elegance and versatility of the accompanying software.

[Roydea6]

AtariMax is obviously the first choice.

[BigBen]

Another perspective would be, how do you get the software onto the cartridge?
Atarimax, SIC!, Switchable XEGS and Megacart offer software for this. As far as I know, Atarimax, SIC! and Switchable XEGS

http://raster.infos.cz/atari/hw/ramcart/ramcart.htm

only under Windows, Megacart runs under Windows, Linux and Apple (JAVA required).
The software is available here ...
http://www.abbuc.de/~bernd/4mb-flash-megacart/index.html
I invite everyone to a test ...

[bfollowell]

10 hours ago, candle said:

i would keep the one, that given software was released at, others might not be as legit, or function diffrently

 

 

I'm with candle on this one. When known, I use the cartridge type that accurately reflects however the cartridge was originally released from the publisher/manufacturer.

 

If it is something homemade, a prototype or homebrew that was never officially released, or something along those lines, I guess I'd probably choose Atarimax Maxflash, but not for any particular reason other than I like Steve and the stuff he's put out over the years.

 

[+MrFish]

I think the last few people posting here are not understanding the question being asked.

 

This is what he's saying:

1. He owns a physical AVG multicart.

2. He has a collection of ROM Files, many of which are duplicates of the same game but that use a different cartridge banking scheme (Atarimax Maxflash, Switchable XEGS, Williams, SIC!, Megacart)

3. He would like to get rid of the duplicate game ROM's (files).

4. He would like to know if there is a banking scheme, among those presented, that is more preferable than the others and why that might be so.

5. Having obtained useful information in regards to the above, he is planning to delete the duplicate ROM files on his AVG cart, so that he doesn't have a bunch redundant games on it.

 

The first 2 replies [edit: and bfollowell -- who replied while I was typing] answered the question being asked with a meaningful reply. The next 4 replies seem to be answering as if he wants to know what kind of physical cartridge he should get, which is a completely different subject.

 

Edited November 21, 2020 by MrFish

[+MrFish]

I also typically favor the original cart type that was used for the commercial releases.

 

In cases where a title was never released on a cartridge commercially, there are sometimes differences in the content. Typically what I've seen in some of these cartridges is that they do not include title/splash screens, whereas others may have it. So, I always favor the ones that retain the extra content.

 

[_The Doctor__]

Whichever one the game originally came on is the image you should keep, with one exception... those that were altered of hacked to use a feature of a newer cart format such as disk save or high score save etc for Atarimax cart and the like. Those should be on the actual carts themselves as they need to take advantage flashdisks etc...

Most arcade edition games and fixes were put on maxflash carts as they offered more space than their origin design cart format

 

the poll is flawed because all the types should be kept with certain exceptions like those above

Edited January 20, 2021 by _The Doctor__