Was there ever a single game released on cartridge for the ST?

[macgoo]

I presume in 1985 when it was built that the cartridge port was there for more than just sound samplers or memory resident improved BASIC interpreters but I have no knowledge of a single prototype game on cartridge for the ST.

 

Could it be they never intended to put games on cartridge for the machine and it was literally a fancy expansion port they just labelled as a cartridge port?

[BillyHW]

Reminds me of the Saturn cartridge port, which was only ever used for RAM expansion I think.

[Rybags]

Games, I don't think so but could be wrong.

The whole concept of cart port was kinda dubious, probably a hangover from the initial intention to have 128 and 256K models.

It was crippled by fact of no write line and only having something like 128 or 256K address range but of course bank switching could help there.

 

But in the end, some totally non-purposed devices made use of it, so I suppose it ended up being an OK idea. Of course an expansion bus like the Amiga 500 has would have been infinitely better.

[Lynxpro]

Let's see... there was a Practical Peripherals cartridge that had a battery backed up real-time clock and also a pass-thru cartridge port, there were some scanners that used the cartridge port, there was an EPROM burner cartridge, there were video devices that used the cartridge port and some audio sampling cartridge of sorts, and then there was the MagicSac. Although I as an owner never used the cartridge port, obviously others did.

[+CyranoJ]

Wasn't there some radio controlled helicopter sim that used the cart port?

[+Stephen]

Not a game, but I have a VT-100 term emu cart.

[jblenkle]

I remember having the clock card...can't remember who put it out though...seemed like it had another function too, but I don't remember what.

 

Let's see... there was a Practical Peripherals cartridge that had a battery backed up real-time clock and also a pass-thru cartridge port, there were some scanners that used the cartridge port, there was an EPROM burner cartridge, there were video devices that used the cartridge port and some audio sampling cartridge of sorts, and then there was the MagicSac. Although I as an owner never used the cartridge port, obviously others did.

[Christos]

And let's not forget the ethernet/usb peripherals, video grabbers etc.

[ParanoidLittleMan]

I think that Atari made it mostly for diagnostic purposes. Or at least they made diagnostic cartridges with testing SW for all models: 520 to TT, Falcon.

Using it for games is possible, but at higher price than on floppies, what is main reason why is not used (at all ?) .

Here is concrete example how to put some shorter game (not intended for cartridge) on cartridge: http://8bitchip.info/atari/cartST.html

[+rdemming]

As already said, the cart range is only 128KB. Of course it can be extended using bank switching but compared to having 720KB on floppy, publishing on floppy was much cheaper.

Also there is no write signal on the cart port so for bank-switching you need tricks like reading from specific locations to write data. Similar to Atari 2600 work arounds to bank-switch.

The same tricks were needed to control sampler carts etc.

 

Not much software was available on cart. One famous one is the Ultimate Ripper which was used to disassemble memory and rip graphics/music after a reaset. unfortunately it was not possible to continue.

 

Another one was the Multiface cart. This was a dual mode cart. First it contained freezer that could be activated by generating a monitor interupt. But most games etc disabled the monitor interupt so it was of little use. But if it worked, you could continue your game. Furhter it was also an application cart. In this mode, the cart behaves like a rom disk (the lower-case 'c' device) which can be opened/listed on the desktop. It contained a file copy utility which I used a lot since you could see how much space the selected files would use on the destination disk.

 

Also as far as I know, some (midi) software used a dongle in the cart port for copy protecten.

 

Robert

[high voltage]

here's one midi cart:

 

in its little pocket on the left

Edited June 25, 2012 by high voltage

[Lynxpro]

I think that Atari made it mostly for diagnostic purposes. Or at least they made diagnostic cartridges with testing SW for all models: 520 to TT, Falcon.

Using it for games is possible, but at higher price than on floppies, what is main reason why is not used (at all ?) .

Here is concrete example how to put some shorter game (not intended for cartridge) on cartridge: http://8bitchip.info/atari/cartST.html

 

 

Well, they did plan an ST-based game system at one point.

[labrat]

Wasn't there some radio controlled helicopter sim that used the cart port?

 

R.C. Aerochopper was a cart with a connection for a modified Futaba controller.

 

IIRC, the game loads off of just the cart.

[ParanoidLittleMan]

Well, they did plan an ST-based game system at one point.

Maybe. But then did it not right. Should assign more than 128KB, for sure - and there was plenty of space in range $E00000-$FF0000 (talking for year 1885) .

 

Btw, only pure SW for cartridge (so without some extra HW beside EPROMs) what I know were some languages as Omicron Basic, Fast Basic ...

[walter_J64bit]

I've got the Happy Computers Discovery Cartridge it's use for making back ups of write-protected disks I don't need to do that any more these days but it helps to have some the of Auto menu's can be a pain to copy.

Edited June 26, 2012 by walter_J64bit

[+rdemming]

There was also a video digitizer in a cart form.

 

And in The Netherlands they also sold a cart that could decode the Teletext data in a TV signal and display and store the teletext pages on the ST.

 

 

Coincidentally I got a box of old Atari magazines and was looking through it. I noticed an advert for two programs on cart, a database application called "Databox" and a typing course program.

 

 

 

In another advert there was an advert for "Freezer Frame" which seems like a freezer cart that could save programs to a disk after pressing a button. Has anyone heard of this product?

 

 

 

Robert

[Rybags]

I didn't realise there was any freezer device for the ST.

 

It'd probably have been a relatively simple job, much less complex hardware than Amiga so somewhat easier to create/resume from a state file.

[+rdemming]

I didn't realise there was any freezer device for the ST.

 

It'd probably have been a relatively simple job, much less complex hardware than Amiga so somewhat easier to create/resume from a state file.

 

The Multiface ST was a Freezer. The ST hardware is indeed much simpler than the Amiga's one (most (all?) registers are read/write so you don't need to shadow registers to create a safe-state) but the cart port was also (too) simple and that is why it didn't work well

It depended on the monitor interrupt which can be disabled with one instruction thus generally games and demos couldn't be freezed. For a good working freezer you need full access to the processor bus (like the Amiga had), be invisible when not activated and hook yourself into some NMI interrupt vector only when you press the button which is not possible with only the cart port.

 

The STE/TT had the VME bus which maybe could be used for a good working freezer but most people had an ST/STE without VME bus.

 

For those interested, you can download the Multiface ST manual.

 

Robert

[lp060]

There was also a company called Alpha Systems that sold battery backed up ram disks that connected to the cartdridge port. I think there was two models, a 1meg and 2meg version. Wanted one, but never could affort it back in the day.

[macgoo]

I think that Atari made it mostly for diagnostic purposes. Or at least they made diagnostic cartridges with testing SW for all models: 520 to TT, Falcon.

Using it for games is possible, but at higher price than on floppies, what is main reason why is not used (at all ?) .

Here is concrete example how to put some shorter game (not intended for cartridge) on cartridge: http://8bitchip.info/atari/cartST.html

 

 

Well, they did plan an ST-based game system at one point.

 

I think this probably answers why it was on the ST, forgot about that. Clearly though the ST would not cut it as a console beyond around 1988 as even forgetting the NEC Turbo Grafx which had far superior games to even the Amiga for a very small price the Sega Genesis was imminent (1989 for Japan wasn't it?).

 

To sane people like US cartridges were a crazy idea but don't forget those nobheads at Nintendo nearly went bankrupt trying to use carts on the N64 in the mid 90s (only their shitty Gayboy and millions of Pokeyourmom games saved them from the ass whooping the Playstation one was dealing them haha). So whilst the ST came out in 85 and soldiered on to around 89/90 carts carried on at least half a century later as a viable method of selling games (with zero piracy most of the time)

Edited June 27, 2012 by macgoo

[macgoo]

There was also a video digitizer in a cart form.

 

And in The Netherlands they also sold a cart that could decode the Teletext data in a TV signal and display and store the teletext pages on the ST.

 

 

Coincidentally I got a box of old Atari magazines and was looking through it. I noticed an advert for two programs on cart, a database application called "Databox" and a typing course program.

 

 

 

In another advert there was an advert for "Freezer Frame" which seems like a freezer cart that could save programs to a disk after pressing a button. Has anyone heard of this product?

 

 

 

Robert

 

There's Fast Basic on cartridge, very rare to find on ebay now though. I also have something called Multiface for the ST, it was with a whole bunch of stuff I got half a century ago as a job lot. I think it's a freezer cartridge from the UK but can't remember now exactly what it does do.

[+DarkLord]

 

The STE/TT had the VME bus which maybe could be used for a good working freezer but most people had an ST/STE without VME bus.

 

Robert

 

I think you mean the Mega STe and TT had the VME bus. Also, some STacy's had a VME looking port

on their motherboards, although it didn't actually have the header.

[+rdemming]

I think you mean the Mega STe and TT had the VME bus. Also, some STacy's had a VME looking port

on their motherboards, although it didn't actually have the header.

 

Duh, of course I meant MegaSTE, regular STE don't have a VME bus. Sometimes I write faster than I think

I didn't know STacy's had a place on the motherboard for VME looking port.

 

Robert

[+DarkLord]

No problem, I do it all the time.

 

The STacy really is an odd bird. Some models have an extra covered slot on

one side. Directly inside from that slot, is a place on the motherboard that

looks a lot like the VME port, just no header. VME was the best guess over

at AtariForum anyway.

 

Here are a couple of pictures. In the picture with the cases, you can see

one STacy bottom case with no extra opening and one with.

 

 

 

EDIT: Sorry they weren't on there first time - at 5:05am local time, Atari

Age wouldn't let me upload the pics for some strange reason.

[high voltage]

Print Technic Video Digitizer

I used to own the 6-bit version