Curious about Classic Computer Game Carts....

[ventrra]

A few random comments, salt and pepper them accordingly.

 

@PC Jr Carts

I remember when we bought our Jr, and it came with two carts. One was a game and the other was BASIC. That's why there were two slots (or at least why, as a kid, it always made sense to me) -- we ALWAYS had BASIC plugged into one of the slots, and then we stuck games into the other slot.  

 

I'm pretty sure that the game that came with the Jr. was "Donkey" or something like that. Anyway, it was a game that had you driving a car down a two lane road and avoiding a donkey that would appear in the road.

[Brad2600]

 

@C64 Disk Drives

Kepone, what you need is an Epyx Fastload Cartridge. In later years, THIS is what the C64 cart slot was *really* used for -- speeding up that ungodly slow disk drive. Not only does the Fastload cart speed up your loading times 700%, but it also introduces DOS shortcuts.

 

Instead of: load "$" ,1 [enter] list [enter]

You can type: $[enter]

 

Also, instead of: load"filename",8,1 [enter] run [enter]

You can type: %filename [enter] run [enter]

 

The most commonly typed command used to be: load"*",8,1[enter] run[enter]

That woud load the first thing on the disk, and run it.  

This was replaced with: C= (Commodore Key) + Run/Stop

 

This functionality was later added in carts like the Final Cartridge, the Super Snapshot, and others, which not only sped up the disk drive functions, but also allowed you to dump everything in RAM into an executable file -- in other words, effectively cracking any completely memory resident game.

 

I could talk about the Commodore all day every day so if you ever want to, let me know.

 

By golly, I happen to have an Epyx Fast Load cartridge!

 

I just don't know how it works..LOL.

 

I'm not quite interested in messing with the C64 now but when it comes time to document it as part of my website, I might give it another shot.

[carlsson]

I'm pretty sure that the game that came with the Jr. was "Donkey" or something like that. Anyway, it was a game that had you driving a car down a two lane road and avoiding a donkey that would appear in the road.

See also Andy Hertzfeld's notes on how Apple discovered the truth behind Donkey:

 

http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?proje...tory=Donkey.txt

 

I wish I had bought a C64GS when my local computer store put them on sale in the early 1990s.. they were around $130-140 or even lower.

 

On the subject of cartridge size, I think most old-style C64 cartridges are 8K (33 blocks) or 16K (65 blocks)? For more technical stuff on how those are dumped, see:

 

http://markus.brenner.de/cartridge/index.html

[Han]

Sinclair Spectrum had 10 ROM carts released for it. You need a special interface to be able to use them, which is why it isn't obvious it did have them. At best, they are not very easy to find and command very good money...

 

Yeah, I remember them... Most of the carts were made by Psion right? And the interface was called Interface 2 or something. I would love to put my greedy hands on a working Interface 2 and some carts. But I have never seen them in the wild here in Sweden.

[Flack]

On the subject of cartridge size, I think most old-style C64 cartridges are 8K (33 blocks) or 16K (65 blocks)?

 

You are right -- I meant 32 blocks, not 32k.

 

All seems amazing when I see my Star Wars: Battlefront directory is 2.65 gigs ...

[joeybastard]

See also Andy Hertzfeld's notes on how Apple discovered the truth behind Donkey:

 

http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?proje...tory=Donkey.txt

 

I don't think it was any secret about who authored it. I have a biography of Gates and it mentions him writing it in basic.

 

Wasn't there another game on MS-Dos disks that was similar to Artillary Duel but used Apes throwing banannas instead of tanks?

[Mayhem]

C64 carts range in size... from 4k for a few, almost all the early ones between 82-85 were 8k or 16k in size. Then as tech developed and bank switching became possible, there were a few 32k jobs in the mid 80s (Comal80 springs to mind). Most of HES Australia's output during the late 80s were on 32k or 64k size. Then come the release of the C64GS in 1990, a new breed appeared ranging from 128k all the way up to 512k in size.

 

@DavidCalgary - I was one of the lucky ones to get one of these multicarts from Nick (64HDD). I also specified a custom fileset for him to make mine with, so that probably makes my copy unique. There is an entry for it in the DP Guide too.

 

@Carlson - I have a spare C64GS if you're interested, sling me a PM

[Rockin' Kat]

@commodore fast loader cart: Why use a fastloader cart, when JiffyDOS is so much easier? (and still available new)

 

@c64 carts: I have one C64 cart... it doesn't work though, I've tried it in both my C64 and my SX-64 and it doesn't show any sign of life. I'd like to get some working C64 carts.

[Malc74]

Sinclair Spectrum had 10 ROM carts released for it. You need a special interface to be able to use them, which is why it isn't obvious it did have them. At best, they are not very easy to find and command very good money...

 

Yeah, I remember them... Most of the carts were made by Psion right? And the interface was called Interface 2 or something. I would love to put my greedy hands on a working Interface 2 and some carts. But I have never seen them in the wild here in Sweden.

 

There were a few carts from Ultimate as well which, for obvious reasons, go for a decent sum on ebay if they're boxed and complete (£30 - £50 usually). IIRC the main problem with the IF2 (apart from poor sales) was the fact it could only handle 16kb carts. Parker Brothers were supposed to release a few games on cart for the Speccy but cancelled the projects, apparently due to the poor sales of the IF2.

[SimonTemplar]

I remember playing carts on my very first computer, the commodore VIC -20 . I also played games on cassette tape. There were no games on floppy disks at that time.

[carlsson]

@Basic games: Yes, the ape game is called GORILLA.BAS, but I think it was more recent and came with QuickBASIC.

 

@C64GS: I'm not particulary interested today in collecting one, I was thinking more of the potential resell value today. :wink:

 

@JiffyDOS: Unfortunately the only legal distributor again is reported to delay orders for months or years but money are drawn which leads to many upset customers making protest lists and God knows what. Other speeder and alternative solutions you can build or order from someone else may be delivered much faster.

 

@VIC-20 games: Yes, the floppy probably was too expensive compared to the computer, so you would only see business software (if at all) on disk. Also there were other items like memory expansion you needed more.