Re: [stella] RAM cart

Subject: Re: [stella] RAM cart
From: Mark De Smet <desmet@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 17 Sep 1998 21:59:23 -0500 (CDT)
> DRAM or something, where it'd need a continuous power source (not that it'd
> be a problem, just a little funny - a cartridge plugged into a wall wart),
> or flash RAM?

Using low power SRAM, only needs 3V, and almost no current to hold the
data.  I'm just going to use a lithium cell to hold data when it is not
plugged in. Heck, if I was using SRAM, I would just go out an by a surplus
8M for a couple bucks and simply store everything.  But that wouldn't be
any fun :-)

> this list. (my favorite one was an ISA board that would plug into the cart
> port as well, and supply the 2600 cpu with ROM in real-time from PC
> memory... advantage is that you can do any bankswitching you want with zero
> hardware.)  Haven't actually built any, though :)

That's very funny, b/c I was brainstorming with a programmer(he kinda
scares me, in just 1 day after deciding he wanted a networkable version of
guantlet to run on unix, he already had a running copy, graphics and
all...) and we had toyed around with basically that idea.  We stopped when
we realised that the obvious continuation was to have the PC run the
program and just send info to the 2600, which then degenerated into using
the 2600 as essentially a monitor... 


> >Has anyone worked with parallel ports before?  I swear I'm reading it
> >correctly, but have a small(1%) loss of data.(ah, a robust program can
> >have 40 instructions missing and still work.  :-)

> Heh.  Parallel ports are pretty sensitive to cable length, so shorten that
> if at all possible.

Ya, I think that'll be the next thing I try, and as someone else
suggested, messing around with the transimision speeds.

> Alternatively, you could have an ISA interface instead of parallel... a
> decent amount easier to write the software for, though probably more
> expensive to build and difficult to install.

Well, the point is that it can simply be plugged into _any_ parallel port,
then use a simple dos "copy program.bin lpt1" to program the cart.  That
and, as you say, going ISA would take quite abit more hardware.

Mark De Smet


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