Re: Commodore 64 Ultimate Cartridge project

From: Niklas Ramsberg <niklas.ramsberg_at_swipnet.se>
Date: Wed, 9 May 2012 11:29:05 +0200
Message-ID: <CAB7bzfeMsJDwg04gzwh3o4adj-SrFhmt=HGu4WAoHskrJeUFFw@mail.gmail.com>
On Wed, May 9, 2012 at 10:30 AM, Michał Pleban <lists@michau.name> wrote:
> But as I reviewed all the "final", "universal" and "ultimate" cartridges
> already available, I noticed that they are based on similar approaches:
>
> * Stash as much FLASH as possible to store cartridge images.
> * Provide the method of flashing the images from PC, and a menu to choose an
> image from the computer.
> * Attach some useful circuitry such as SD-card interface for added value.
>
> This is a nice approach, but severely limited to just emulating cartridge
> images plus whatever extra circuitry is glued in. What I want to do now is
> another step further:
>
> * Instead of Flash, use a reprogrammable FPGA chip.
> * Provide a solution to connect a SD-card.
> * The boot ROM will load selected FPGA image from SD-card and put it into
> the FPGA.
>
This is actually more or less the way the 1541 Ultimate works. If you
have the inclination and the know-how, you can turn it into more or
less whatever you want. What it does in its standard configuration is
(off the top of my head):
- Emulate two 1541 drives (including the drive sounds)
- Emulate an REU with up to 16 MB RAM
- Emulate most cartridges produced for the C64 (game cartidges as well
as cartridges such as the Final Cartridge III, Epyx Fast Loader, etc.)
- Work as a USB host

IIRC the software (including FPGA?) are also open source.

/Niklas Ramsberg
aka
< .
    (:)  Bacon
< .

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Received on 2012-05-09 10:00:34

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