VIDEOPAC uSD CART

[Amigahouse]

Hello everybody.
I got the VIDEOPAC uSD CART, and it's a super piece of hardware! Amazing.
But i tried the VIDEOPAC+ 59 Helicopter Rescue, and VIDEOPAC+ 60 trans american rally, without succes on a VIDEOPAC+ PAL (well, there is no NTSC version i think).
This games are working on the VIDEOPAC uSD CART ?
Maybe i've got incompatible roms with the hardware ?

[Pickaxe Brad!]

Hello everybody.
I got the VIDEOPAC uSD CART, and it's a super piece of hardware! Amazing.
But i tried the VIDEOPAC+ 59 Helicopter Rescue, and VIDEOPAC+ 60 trans american rally, without succes on a VIDEOPAC+ PAL (well, there is no NTSC version i think).
This games are working on the VIDEOPAC uSD CART ?
Maybe i've got incompatible roms with the hardware ?

I don't have a PAL system to use the cart on, but did you check your ROM's CRC against the gamelist.ini file?

Code Select Expand

[C4134DF8]
NAME=59+ Helicopter Rescue + (VP+ only - does not work on O2EM)
NOME=Helicopter Rescue + (VP+ somente - n�o funciona no O2EM)
YEAR=1983
MANUF=Philips Ltd.
VARIANT=Euro+
PAGGING=VP+
The CRC is in the brackets ("[]") and paging (misspelled: pagging) should already be VP+, but double check in your gamelist.ini file.  If you need to get the CRC of the ROM, you can run it in O2em and see it.

Hope this helps.

[Amigahouse]

      
Thanks a lot for the help. I think you're right.
Have a good day.

[Amigahouse]

Well, i've got a G7400 (french version with output for RGB Scart).
But after some tries, its seems that 12k and 16k games dont work on my machine.
(2k to 8k are working fine).
I suspect a hardware problem ? The VIDEOPAC uSD CART seems ok.
So ? If it was a computer like the Zx Spectrum, i would suspect a ram problem.
But on a Videopac i don't know. There is the 6810 ram chip, and 3 2128 chips (not exactly ram..).
Best regards.

[TedFoolery]

3k, 6k 12k games use a seldom used pin on the cartridge connecter to get that extra 1k. I forget off-hand which pin that is. This pin may be dirty.
FYI - This pin is not connected to the cart in the voice module, so it must be removed when using those games.

[Alainh31]

Hello. Are you making new batchs for this fantastic cart ?

[Retro Haudegen]

Hi! I am very interested in the cartridge. Is there still a way to purchase one of these? I would be very happy, thank you in advance! Marco

[AOtta]

Since Wilco2009 shared his project on github, i decided to port it to a different hw, and i'm working at the "PicoPAC", a flashcart based on "purple" Pico like other flashcart i did for Intellivision, Colecovision, Sega SC-3000 and SABA Videoplay.
Here's an early video if you're courious https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ZIDf6QZfOF8
Emulation of carts works fine (excluding 3k bank switching that it's not ready), but i'm stuck in selectgame.bin logic...
I'm not a Videopac programmer, so i wanted to recycle the Wilco selectgame program, i found that the filename of current page are stored in extram (00 to 0x7f), but don't understand how the program pass the index of file to the cart (in asm listing is noted "decode filenumber and send it to databus" but it's not clear to me where it's sent!).
Any help would be appreciated!

[AOtta]

Well, solved myself and build my PicoPAC:
https://github.com/aotta/PicoPAC

[DennisNL]

Well, solved myself and build my PicoPAC:
https://github.com/aotta/PicoPAC

I am trying to figure out what it is and how it will work. Can you explain some more?

[AOtta]

Well, solved myself and build my PicoPAC:
https://github.com/aotta/PicoPAC

I am trying to figure out what it is and how it will work. Can you explain some more?

PicoPAC is a smaller, simpler and cheaper flashcart based on microSD Cart concept.
I published pictures and sources for both kicad and firmware, so i don't know what you want to know, but feel free to ask

[Ahnl]

Well, solved myself and build my PicoPAC:
https://github.com/aotta/PicoPAC

I am trying to figure out what it is and how it will work. Can you explain some more?

I recently built this too - works great. Got the board printed at PCBWay (using the design on AOtta's Github, was about €10 for 5 boards incl shipping) and got the Pico (clone) from AliExpress for €2,99. The Github contains 2 pieces of software. First is the firmware for the Pico - essentially what is does is emulate the cartridge, so when it loads the game image in specific memory location, this can be read by the console through the pins. Once firmware is loaded, pico acts as usb drive and you can put games on. Other piece of software is SELECTGAME, a gameimage that allows you to select which game to play. Basically simple app that displays list of games (hardcoded in the app) and allows to scroll through with the joystick and select one. Once selected the pico firmware detects this, loads the selected game into the right memory location. AOtta recently enhanced the firmware by dynamically loading the gamelist - could not fully understand, but I think it updates the SELECTGAME binary directly from firmware with the gamelist. There are still some more improvements I can think of, but overall great, at extremely low cost. Oh, and made a 3d case to complete the cartridge - there is one on the Github, but I created my own before that one was posted on Github

[AOtta]

Just to add that with new version 1.0a, that read bin filelist from flash instead of the "default list" one, you need to add both selectgame.bin and selectgame.$$$ to root dir of the pico.
About the shell, i published one i found on the net, and pillars don't fit perfectly in the pcb's holes of picopac.
Maybe your STL is better than mine!