Is the Ultimate-II cartridge still considered the most feature rich "flash cart" for the C64?

[RockLobster]

If so, does anyone know when Gideon (if ever) plan to sell more?

 

..and if the Ultimate-II isn't the best, what is?

 

Finally, if the Ultimate-II is the best, what's number 2?

[eightbit]

The Ultimate II+ L is the latest model and Gideon has been consistently in stock up until maybe last week:

 

https://ultimate64.com/

 

More coming in a few weeks.

 

This is the latest and greatest version. (UII+L)

[eightbit]

And, it is the most feature rich cart to date. Nothing in my opinion comes close to it and its features.

Edited May 8 by eightbit

[carlsson]

I suppose it depends what you want to use it for.

 

Floppy disk emulator

ROM cartridge emulator

RAM expansion

Secondary SID chip

Networking (I think it does?)

etc

 

No other product is likely to do all of those. Some do one or two of those, often at a rather lower price.

[RockLobster]

10 hours ago, eightbit said:

The Ultimate II+ L is the latest model and Gideon has been consistently in stock up until maybe last week:

Of course it happens when I look.   Dang it.   

[RockLobster]

3 hours ago, carlsson said:

I suppose it depends what you want to use it for.

Well I started with just basic needs with the Backbit Pro for loading cartridge rom and floppy images which it does super well.  All except it doesn't handle multiple disk images mounted at once or in order.

 

So then looked into KungFu cart and the popular Pi1541.  But with the Ultimate II (and variants) doing soooo much, it seemed liked the perfect companion to the C64 to actually play around.

[eightbit]

Like I said, there is no comparison to the Ultimate II+. I have had them all. I currently also have a BackBit Pro (actually three of them) and while it does a great job for the most part it has nowhere near the compatibility of the UII+. The compatibility of the UII+ is basically what you would get with real floppies and real disk drives. And cartridge images too. And so much more.

 

And, it has the REU built in. You might think "I'll never use that"...but, once you do you will realize how you can never do without it

 

If I were you I'd keep an eye on Gideon's page and buy it when it becomes available. Since he moved to the Lattice FPGA (the "L" in the name now) there has been no issue acquiring parts and he has restocked multiple times over the past weeks/months. 

 

And, when you do order I would suggest to add the tape cassette adapter to the order as well. Its cheap enough and might as well when you order the UII+ right then and there. Then you will have the .tap compatibility as well. With that setup you pretty much don't need anything else. At least I don't!

 

EDIT: You can actually just order it now on "backorder" and it will ship when stock arrives...which according to his page should be any time now. I would just do that. I have ordered from him many times...never an issue.

Edited May 9 by eightbit

[RockLobster]

On 5/8/2024 at 10:55 PM, eightbit said:

when you do order I would suggest to add the tape cassette adapter to the order as well.

I definitely want that capability.

 

I never had a tape drive growing up and only recently saw them in action a year or two ago.  I had no idea some games played music while the tape loaded!

[phoenixdownita]

2 hours ago, RockLobster said:

I never had a tape drive growing up and only recently saw them in action a year or two ago.  I had no idea some games played music while the tape loaded!

I mean I grew up with a c64 and tapes (I grew up in Europe and disk drives were way way too expensive, I got one 4y in and barely used it as even the disks ended up being too expensive for me so traded it back in for an MSX1 + dedicated datasette [a Philips]) and I do not miss them one bit … I mean if it’s cheap enough as an add on may as well but tapes are what they are.

Edited May 11 by phoenixdownita

[carlsson]

Sounds a bit like me. I bought my older brother's C64 in 1986. It came with a handful of floppy disks he had collected, but no drive. It took me until 1990 before I could afford a 1541-II, so for four years I could only look at the floppy disks and imagine what they may contain. Two years later I upgraded to an Amiga 500+, but could afford to keep the 8-bit setup.

[Mazzspeed]

IMHO, the UII+ is a must have for any C64 owner. They're expensive, but they do so much more than any other cart available out there.

 

I don't even use my real 1541 anymore, there's just no point, especially with floppies that actually work being harder to source. I did want a 1581, but now the UII+ has D81 support I no longer need to pay the stupid asking prices for used 30 year old hardware!