Multi-Cart : build your own?

[Mock]

Since the 5200 Multi cart and the Colecovision Multi Cart and so on are not really availible anymore, how hard would it be for someone to put a kit together to do the hardware or at least a "How To"/FAQ sort of thing?

 

I'm sure the AA store would sell a ton of hardware kits if they were avail and the ROMS are around for all of these machines on the net with little or no searching.

 

What's the deal?

[oesii]

on the surface that sounds like a great idea, but I'm sure there's a DMCA lawyer somewhere looking to squash it before it gets going

[joeybastard]

I think it's probably more complicated then it sounds too.

[+davidcalgary29]

I think a ST multi-cart is definitely overdue.

[Mock]

well, it can obviously be done...and if there are no roms included, i don't think even the DMCA would cover that?

 

I think the menu and the software to load it with would be the hard part, and someone has it already...just a matter of it being released, or duplicated.

 

I think it would be a good project...a "Make your own multi-cart" kit would kick ass.

 

Mock

[joeybastard]

Wouldn't it also require some kind of rom programmer (burner?)? Are they easy to build?

[oesii]

Actually why I referenced the DMCA is that any tool or idea or document that allows for the circumvention of copyright is now illegal. Crappy law but it's being enforced all the time.

[Mock]

Actually, it has to be "for the sole or primary purpose" and that has yet to be upheld and tested in court on a wide scale, and in fact, on a small scale, the few DSS/DTV cases that have gone to court trying to enforce this very aspect of the DMCA have not withstood.

 

You could put the ROMS of the game you already own on one cart...or homebrews or whatever...no way that a "blank" multicart you load with your own ROMS would not be legal.

 

DMCA makes me

[Mock]

Also would like to add, you are not circumventing any copy protection or encryption with a multi-cart, which is one of the base DMCA cornerstones dealing with © material.

 

If you sell them loaded with © ROMS, yes that would be a violation of the DMCA as it is written, however, for example, a USB ior serial interfaced multi-cart that was loaded with your own ROMS would not be...sort of like the Cuttle Cart idea (which is easy to purchase) only on a larger scale.

[jsoper]

If you only want a simple multicart, just buy a basic eprom board for a single game,

but install a larger eprom with many games on it instead of just one, a few pins may need

swapping. Then add pullup resistors and a dipswitch to ground for the higher address lines.

AA sells eprom boards for a few different systems, Radio Shack has dip switches and resistors, there's one place on the net

that sells programmed 1Mb eproms. It's all doable if you have the energy and can solder.

My website has info on this in the bankswitching and links sections

If you need a menued multicart, it gets much harder.

[CPUWIZ]

Then add pullup resistors and a dipswitch to ground for the higher address lines.

 

Interesting, I do it with pulldown resistors and the dipswitch to 5V.

[jsoper]

Then add pullup resistors and a dipswitch to ground for the higher address lines.

 

Interesting, I do it with pulldown resistors and the dipswitch to 5V.

I might of done that too (the memory is the first thing to go when you get old).

However, I'm pretty sure dip switches between 5v and ground are a bad idea