RobertB Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 (edited) In 2009 Kent Rittenhouse produced a VIC-20 Multicart/Development Cart with 32 games (game set 1), games like Pac Man, Donkey Kong, Frogger, Dig Dug, etc.. The price was $28 US (not including shipping). This is what Kent said about it -- "I have recently dug my VIC-20 out of storage and have been reliving old memories playing through my games. I also decided to build a low cost MultiCart/Development Cart for the VIC-20. You can load the eprom with multiple games. There is also a prototyping area, and access to each of the 44 edge pins (by testpoints), for those who want to do their own experimenting.""I have made a batch of these for myself & some friends, but I have plenty left over. I don't know if this would be interesting/useful for anyone here, but I have some further information on this page:http://www.gamingenterprisesinc.com/vic20/ " Kent Rittenhouse has now released game set 2 of the VIC-20 Multicart/Development Cart. The 32 games include such games as Artillery Duel, Cannonball Blitz, Lunar Leeper, Mountain King, Pharaoh's Curse, Satellites and Meteorites, and more. The cart price and the website are still the same. For more information and to see the complete list of games, see the link above.Game set 1 is still available, too. Truly, Robert Bernardo Fresno Commodore User Group http://videocam.net.au/fcug The Other Group of Amigoids http://home.comcast.net/~togausergroup/index.html Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network http://www.sccaners.org Edited March 2, 2014 by RobertB 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eightbit Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 Neat. This might be something that can tide me over while I wait a year or beyond for my Megacart! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobertB Posted March 7, 2014 Author Share Posted March 7, 2014 I received the VIC-20 Multicart/Development cart with game set 2 yesterday, just a few days after ordering it. Time for fun! Robert Bernardo Fresno Commodore User Group http://videocam.net.au/fcug Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desiv Posted March 7, 2014 Share Posted March 7, 2014 Tempting.. I love the first one i have.. Although, if I buy this one, I'm half way to the cost of the MegaCart.. I was toying with the idea of installing a ZIF socket and just swapping the EPROMs (not sure if I'd have to change the jumpers also)... I suppose I could ask about just an EPROM, although this might be a good reason to get a programmer and try burning a few myself. desiv Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Gemintronic Posted March 7, 2014 Share Posted March 7, 2014 What's a good EPROM programmer to use with something like this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desiv Posted March 9, 2014 Share Posted March 9, 2014 Good question. I'd also like to get one that can burn Kickstart ROMs (Amiga) if I'm going to get a burner... I haven't done much digging tho.. It's on the radar, but timewise a bit lower on the projects list.. desiv Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nognir Posted March 20, 2014 Share Posted March 20, 2014 Can anyone tell me if this also works on a PAL machine? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desiv Posted March 20, 2014 Share Posted March 20, 2014 Well, the multicart itself should have no problem in either PAL or NTSC.. However, I'm guessing the games included are currently NTSC versions.. However, he could probably swap out for PAL versions as he's burning the eeprom himself...???? I'd send him an e-mail asking... desiv Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nognir Posted March 20, 2014 Share Posted March 20, 2014 That's a good point and probably the best decision. Thanks for the suggestion! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted March 21, 2014 Share Posted March 21, 2014 For the majority of VIC-20 games, there is no such thing as PAL or NTSC versions. A little technical explanation might be in order to understand how it works: The VIC-I chip has the ability to position the screen matrix anywhere on the visible area, i.e. the cyan border area. The chip also has the ability to change the number of columns and rows on screen, within limits of what can be displayed and how much RAM you have allocated to the screen matrix. The default is 512 bytes but the chip can address 1K if required. Here lies a difference between the 6560 NTSC and 6561 PAL chips. The 6560 uses a value range of about 1-20 for horizontal positioning, and something similar for vertical positioning. It can move the screen matrix one full character to the left or right on the border area. The 6561 rather uses a range of 10-30 for horizontal and similar for vertical. It can move the screen 4 pixels at a time. Note that this is NOT scrolling the content on screen, just moving the entire screen. The 6561 PAL chip also tends to draw a little smaller graphics so you can fit more columns and rows on the display. Exactly why Commodore introduced this change is unknown to me, but the 6561 was developed after the 6560 was finished and supposedly they had a couple of bugs to sort out during development. What it means for games is that most of them are hard coded to center the screen as it would run on a NTSC VIC. It means on a PAL VIC the screen ends up in the upper left corner. Thus very many games, in particular the ones released by Commodore themselves have a function on the startup screen to use the cursor keys to move the screen horizontally and vertically, allowing PAL users to recenter the screen. In BASIC, different Kernal ROMs are used for NTSC and PAL, with different sets of default values for the VIC-I chip. Some games lacking the repositioning function have been patched, and by reading default values from ROM the game could determine likely video mode unless the user on purpose had installed the wrong Kernal ROM. A few games synchronize against the raster beam, which is different for NTSC and PAL. Those games need to be patched, and some of them exist in separate versions. They're not awfully many though, and you could always try your favorite games in emulation and force change of video mode to see if they behave well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nognir Posted March 21, 2014 Share Posted March 21, 2014 Thanks for the explanation! I already own a C64 and have some US Games which I already played and haven't had any problems with them. I will be getting a VIC20 soon, but I'm not that familiar with the computer. So please excuse me for my maybe stupid question. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted March 21, 2014 Share Posted March 21, 2014 No worries. It is rather common to assume there is a significant difference between PAL and NTSC. For some consoles it is cruicial, others have lockout chips that partly function to prevent mixing games anyway. For many home computers, the differences are smaller. Actually I think more C64 games (and even more so demos) are synchronized to the raster beam to perform various video tricks, so often those games may depend more on choosing the right version. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nognir Posted March 21, 2014 Share Posted March 21, 2014 I don't know but I think the NTSC - PAL problems were bigger with the older TV sets here in Europe which only can handle a 50Hz signal. They would probably don't work with the NTSC games on the C64 or VIC20. But nowadays it shouldn't be a big issue anymore Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desiv Posted March 21, 2014 Share Posted March 21, 2014 Thus very many games, in particular the ones released by Commodore themselves have a function on the startup screen to use the cursor keys to move the screen horizontally and vertically, allowing PAL users to recenter the screen.Is that why some games allow you to move them around??? I always wondered about that! Thought it was such a weird feature.. Thanx, desiv Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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