Re: [stella] smart multicart

Subject: Re: [stella] smart multicart
From: Piero Cavina <p.cavina@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 25 Aug 1997 17:28:57 +0100
At 23:23 -0400 23-08-1997, Erik K Mooney wrote:

>>I don't believe the 2600 is, for the most part, equipped to handle
>>menu driven multi-carts.  There are a few cludgey ways to make multi-carts
>>though.  Using dip switches is the most common.

>I think that was correct... It'd be difficult to make a multicart of
>any appreciable size with bankswitching.. the largest "standard"
>design is 32k: eight 4k games or sixteen 2k games...

Ok, now I have this thing in mind... please forgive me if it's a crap idea,
I know just a little of electronics.

Could a joystick port be used to switch banks of Rom memory? (remember that
the joystick ports can be set for output.)

Imagine a cart with a 64K Eprom, address lines 0-11 go to the VCS, and
12-15 to a DB9 connector plugged into the Player 2 joystick port (some
pull-down resistors could be needed).

Each 4K bank would begin with the code to switch to the first bank (for
bankswitched games), or to the bank with the game select menu (for a multi
cart use). The VCS would switch banks writing to the register that controls
the pins of the player 2 joystick port.

Pros: minimum extra hardware needed
Cons: you lose one joystick port :)

Is this a totally inpracticable idea?

Ciao,
 P.






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