Rolo Posted November 21, 2016 Share Posted November 21, 2016 Looking for a multi-cartridge for INTERTON's VC4000? Please have a look at: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/242786-multi-cartridge-for-dragoncoco-2-available/page-2?do=findComment&comment=3635662 It's a little bit hidden, but since this is part of a cartridge family, starting with a Dragon Computer Multi-cartridge, I put the thread into the Tandy-section. All information about the Multi-cartridge and the Extension cartridges can be found in this thread. It's a small, manually built, hobby project, so please accept some time for delivery. I'm making these things one by one in leisure time. -Rolo 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rolo Posted February 28, 2017 Author Share Posted February 28, 2017 (edited) Edited February 28, 2017 by Rolo 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted February 28, 2017 Share Posted February 28, 2017 Not looking anymore, already bought from Rolo. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rolo Posted June 1, 2017 Author Share Posted June 1, 2017 project update: I have a last and final item of the "Dragon Multicart to Interton Extension Cartridge" to sell. Current demand probably will not justify another production run. -Rolo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rolo Posted June 1, 2017 Author Share Posted June 1, 2017 I've been asked about Adapters for other Signetics-based consoles like Acetronic, Radofin, ... Well, I could make those, of course. But I need two prerequisites to be fulfilled: Somebody borrows the console to me. I only have an Interton VC-4000. I need at least 7 or 8 people, who order those adapters. I can't use them myself, not owning the console. Interested? PM me or use this thread.... -Rolo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rolo Posted June 2, 2017 Author Share Posted June 2, 2017 Last item of the "Dragon Multicart to Interton Extension Cartridge" is sold. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rolo Posted June 25, 2017 Author Share Posted June 25, 2017 Project update: I started a new waiting list for INTERTON Extension cartridges for the Dragon Multi-Cart, since I was asked to do so. I do not promise anything, except, that if there should be enough orders, I'll make another batch. I need at least, let's say, 8 items sold. Rolo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rolo Posted July 8, 2017 Author Share Posted July 8, 2017 INTERTON VC4000 Extension for Dragon/Coco Multi-Cart Update: People on waiting list: -1- Rolo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rolo Posted August 7, 2017 Author Share Posted August 7, 2017 Update:People on waiting list: still -1- Rolo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rolo Posted August 18, 2017 Author Share Posted August 18, 2017 (edited) Update:People on Interton-VC4000-Extension-Cartridge waiting list: -2- Rolo Edited August 18, 2017 by Rolo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rolo Posted August 21, 2017 Author Share Posted August 21, 2017 I think, I'm going to order components for making a 2nd batch of INTERTON-VC4000-Extension-Cartridges for the "Dragon Multi-Cart" soon! Dragon-Multi-Cart-owners: If you want to come onboard, this is a good time for that. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rolo Posted August 25, 2017 Author Share Posted August 25, 2017 Your HELP is needed! Well, I'm thinking about making an Extension-Cartridge for the 1292-systems, like Radofin, Acetronic, Princetronic, like I have one for the Interton VC4000. But I do not have one of those! And I can't find a cheap one to buy. Question 1: Are those cartridge systems really compatible? Same cartridge port pinout? Same geometry? Same cartridges? Question 2: Does anybody have some schematics, service manual, technical details? Question 3: Does anybody have some real interest in such an Extension Cartridge for the Dragon Multi-Cartridge? Question 4: Would anybody lend such a console and one game cartridge to me for testing purposes? Or does anybody know of a cheap console for me to buy? Rolo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rolo Posted August 27, 2017 Author Share Posted August 27, 2017 1292 consoles ??? It looks like, there are not many Radofin, Hanimex, Prinztronic, Acetronic ... 1292 systems left?! Most of them probably were simply thrown away back in the eighties, before such a thing like "RETRO" existed. There is not much information out there and it seems not much is going on (even on ebay). Obviously a dead console-family, except the INTERTON VC 4000 maybe. If you have one of those consoles, please PM or send reply. If I get some feedback, I'll count the consoles and publish the numbers right here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boulinha Posted August 29, 2017 Share Posted August 29, 2017 Your HELP is needed! Well, I'm thinking about making an Extension-Cartridge for the 1292-systems, like Radofin, Acetronic, Princetronic, like I have one for the Interton VC4000. But I do not have one of those! And I can't find a cheap one to buy. Question 1: Are those cartridge systems really compatible? Same cartridge port pinout? Same geometry? Same cartridges? Question 2: Does anybody have some schematics, service manual, technical details? Question 3: Does anybody have some real interest in such an Extension Cartridge for the Dragon Multi-Cartridge? Question 4: Would anybody lend such a console and one game cartridge to me for testing purposes? Or does anybody know of a cheap console for me to buy? Rolo 1- No. Games are 100% compatible (ROMs) but cartridge geometry and port pinouts are different in 1292 & 1392 families. In fact, Interton PCB card connector card has 1 only side and Radofin family carts have two sides. 2- There is a lot of information on Amigan Emerson Arcadia 2001 Central webpage (http://amigan.yatho.com/). Maybe you can find some schematics. There is a Service Manual for the Fountain console here. http://amigan.yatho.com/fountain.zip 3- I could be also interested 4- I already sold one unit some months ago. Pity. But I can review my stock and see if I could lend or sell another one. eBay should have units from time to time. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CatPix Posted August 29, 2017 Share Posted August 29, 2017 1292 consoles ??? It looks like, there are not many Radofin, Hanimex, Prinztronic, Acetronic ... 1292 systems left?! Most of them probably were simply thrown away back in the eighties, before such a thing like "RETRO" existed. There is not much information out there and it seems not much is going on (even on ebay). Obviously a dead console-family, except the INTERTON VC 4000 maybe. If you have one of those consoles, please PM or send reply. If I get some feedback, I'll count the consoles and publish the numbers right here. Seach on ebay UK. The 1292 consoles are plentiful on there. well, Maybe not as common as the Interton VC 4000 is on ebay.de, but you can still spot at least two a month. I think, the thing is that UK players seems to be less into that system than Germans are ino the VC 4000. Those last 4 years, I saw Interton VC 400 prices rising like crazy, making my bids I did back in the day impossible (a boxed Interton VC 4000 for 60€ and a Grundig Super Play computer for 50€). http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Acetronic-MPU-1000-with-invaders-Game-/182724871410?hash=item2a8b4044f2:g:Ry8AAOSwrdBZmVRE http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Acetronic-MPU-1000-TV-Game-System-With-Invaders-Game-Cartridge-Boxed-/172727435763?hash=item28375b81f3:g:cHMAAOSwjKFZProy You'll have more luck looking for Acetronic. Is seems that Radofin never fared well. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rolo Posted September 4, 2017 Author Share Posted September 4, 2017 Project update: Yesterday I ordered new pcbs for INTERTON Extension cartridges for the Dragon Multi-Cartridge! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted September 4, 2017 Share Posted September 4, 2017 So is the Wikipedia page not entirely correct (as usual when it comes to obscure technical details, since they focus more on which information can be sourced than which information is correct)? From what I gather, there would be six known types within this family: 1292 = Radofin, Hanimex, Fountain, Grandstand, Lansay, Audiosonic, Prinztronic and Acetronic. Database = Videomaster/Voltmace Television Computer System = Rowtron Video TV Game = Karvan, Societe Occitane Electronique MPT-05 = ITMC VC-4000 = Interton, Grundig (for which the adapter already exists) Are the various systems within the main 1292 group, i.e. Radofin and the others not cartridge compatible even, just ROM compatible? I suppose Rolo wanted to cover these systems, not so much the Voltmace, Rowtron, ITMC etc which would be individually different. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alex_79 Posted September 4, 2017 Share Posted September 4, 2017 (edited) The tech specs are all wrong too in the Wikipedia article: CPU: 8-bit Signetics 2650AI at 4.43 MHz The 2650 cpu in these consoles runs at 0.885 MHz. (the clock is provided by the 2621 USG chip) Audiovisual co-processor (video chipset, I/O Processor): Signetics 2636N at 3.58 MHz, addressing 32Kb of memory in 8Kb banks. This chipset was less powerful than the later model Signetics 2637N used in the Arcadia 2001. The 2636 PVI runs at 3.54 MHz (again, from the 2621 chip).Plus, the 2636 doesn't address any external memory. The 32 Kb of memory in 8kb pages is what the 2650 cpu can address, but this doesn't apply to the 1292 APVS or the Interton, anyway (I don't know about the other families of software compatible consoles), because pins 18 and 19 (the two high address pins used for paging functionality) aren't connected to anything inside the console, and they're not on the cartridge port either. So these consoles can address up to 8Kb of memory, not 32Kb. Data Memory: 43 bytes That's actually 37 bytes Edited September 4, 2017 by alex_79 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boulinha Posted September 5, 2017 Share Posted September 5, 2017 (edited) Rolo Interton adapter can work in the Voltmace /Videomaster family. Their carts are almost similar to Interton ones but they have an extra (and not used) pin. So, as I explained in this thread :http://atariage.com/forums/topic/229111-voltmacevideomaster-database-leap-frog-dump/page-2you only have to insert Rolo adaptor on the right side of the Voltmace connector, leaving free the first pin on the left side. I also added some consoles to the Wikipedia page Edited September 5, 2017 by boulinha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted September 5, 2017 Share Posted September 5, 2017 (edited) Hm. I see that particular page currently has zero references or external links. It means all the information on the page is own research, which generally is against Wikipedia standards unless you can prove yourself to be a scholar expert in the field. It also means if you spot factual errors like alex_79 did above, you could change the content of the page without the new information being any less proven by references than the old information was. Edit: The page for VC-4000 has both correct info and a couple of references. Since these systems should be ROM compatible, nobody could argue about it would be wrong to specify the 1292 specs to be the same as the VC-4000 specs from what I understand. Edited September 5, 2017 by carlsson Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rolo Posted September 6, 2017 Author Share Posted September 6, 2017 Are the various systems within the main 1292 group, i.e. Radofin and the others not cartridge compatible even, just ROM compatible? I suppose Rolo wanted to cover these systems, not so much the Voltmace, Rowtron, ITMC etc which would be individually different. Exactly! I try to cover the majority of 1292 consoles with the next adaptor, so I'm looking for the biggest family with same connectors and cassette dimensions. Rom-compatibility is one thing, fitting mechanically/electrically into edge connector and slot are different things, equally important for the user. So, my question is: Are Radofin, Hanimex, Fountain, Grandstand, Lansay, Audiosonic, Prinztronic and Acetronic really one family? Is it a good choice to select these consoles? Thanks for the discussion! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boulinha Posted September 8, 2017 Share Posted September 8, 2017 Exactly! I try to cover the majority of 1292 consoles with the next adaptor, so I'm looking for the biggest family with same connectors and cassette dimensions. Rom-compatibility is one thing, fitting mechanically/electrically into edge connector and slot are different things, equally important for the user. So, my question is: Are Radofin, Hanimex, Fountain, Grandstand, Lansay, Audiosonic, Prinztronic and Acetronic really one family? Is it a good choice to select these consoles? Thanks for the discussion! Yes, they are one family with cartridge compatibility between all of them. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boulinha Posted September 12, 2017 Share Posted September 12, 2017 By the way, I don't know if it could be more interesting for the scene to develop an Interton-to-Radofin cart adapter, more than a new adapter for the Rolo card. In the past there were a commercial adaptor from Voltmace to Radofin: http://www.geocities.ws/doubledragon0uk/voltmaceacetronicadapter.jpg This will assure almost full compatibilty into Interton family. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rolo Posted September 12, 2017 Author Share Posted September 12, 2017 That's too much cartridges plugged into each other, a cartridge stack too big and instable for me: Dragon-Cart into Interton-adaptor into Radofin-adaptor into console. Personally I'm aiming at the multi-cart, not at swapping rom-cartridges between systems. Which btw. would mean, you need two adaptors: Radofin-carts -> Interton console and Interton-carts -> Radofin console. Can all be interesstiing, but due to lack of spare time, I have to focus on a few simple projects. I can't handle a big variety of products. Maybe anybody else might do this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted September 12, 2017 Share Posted September 12, 2017 I wonder in case someone would produce physical homebrews, if they'd primarily aim for the Radofin or the Interton variant or perhaps offer both. Alternatively any new homebrews could be released on TRS-80 CoCo cartridge format intended to be used with either of Rolo's adapters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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