4A50 cart--progress

current projects

Entry posted by Guest January 4, 2006

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It's been awhile since I've posted about the 4A50 cart, so many people may be thinking it's been abandoned. It actually still is a work in progress, despite some "shiny object syndrome" that resulted in things like Strat-O-Gems.I worked awhile ago with Chad Schell to produce some VHDL for 4A50 and unfortunately did not have time then to diagnose it other than to determine that something didn't work. Hopefully within the next few days I'll be able to diagnose exactly what it IS doing and take things from there. Too bad I can't use Z26's handy trace log to figure out where the code is going when it gets lost in the weeds--that can sure be handy sometimes!Once the VHDL is working, it should be possible for CC2 owners to do development for the cartridge. I do have a real one, and it works great in a Heavy Sixer, 2600jr, and 7800. Unfortunately, it seems like it will be a bit pricey; the board is all surface-mount; while the components are cheap, assembly is not (at least not in the volumes we'd be dealing with). I'd expect 4A50-based carts would have a minimum SRP of $45-$50 at the AA store as compared with $20 for 4K carts and $25 for bankswitch carts.For more detailed technical info, see the other blog entry "4A50 cart--hardware".

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