Combined VIC and PET cartridge

From: Marko Mäkelä (msmakela_at_cc.hut.fi)
Date: 2001-05-21 10:52:45

On Friday, I acquired a 8032 and a 8023P printer.  When I looked at the
expansion connector (it is hidden behind the case of my 8032-SK), I got an
idea: Would it be possible to build a cartridge that can be fitted both to
a 8032 and (with a little sawing) to a VIC-20?  The circuit board would
look like this (use fixed-width font to view it)
------------------------
|                     |
| cartridge           |
| (ICs)               |
|                     |
|                     |
-----------------------
 | | | | | | | | | | | 
 | | | | | | | | | | |   <-- VIC-20 cartridge port connector
   ::::::::::::::::      <-- PET memory expansion port connector

When the mounting holes for the PET memory expansion connector (2x25
holes) are sawed off, the circuit board can be connected to a VIC-20. When
a connector is soldered there, the board can be installed in a PET. The
logic array would probably also have to be programmed in a different way.

The main idea is simply that with this kind of a design, it would be
possible to have the "all games in one cartridge" concept also for the
PET.  The cartridge could also be used as some sort of mass storage, just 
like the VIC-20 version.

My question for PET experts is: Are there free I/O block selection signals
on the expansion port?  And regarding the 6545 CRTC: are the registers R18
through R31 unassigned?

	Marko

-
This message was sent through the cbm-hackers mailing list.
To unsubscribe: echo unsubscribe | mail cbm-hackers-request@dot.tml.hut.fi.

Archive generated by hypermail 2.1.1.