Re: "Commodore 64 Prototype Project"

From: Uffe Jakobsen <uffe_at_uffe.org>
Date: Sun, 06 May 2012 15:57:34 +0200
Message-ID: <4FA682D2.5020405@uffe.org>
On 2012-05-06 08:42, Anders Carlsson wrote:
> Robin Harbron asked:
>
>> Anyone know what this strange item is?
>> http://www.ebay.ca/itm/270963998077
>
> There is a thread on Lemon64 about it. If you follow the history of
> closed auctions, apparently the seller has sold at least three identical
> units since November/December 2011.
>
> http://www.lemon64.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=40458
>
> It is thought to either have been used for game development (Activision
> etc) or was a dual serial prototype board meant to outperform Texas
> Instruments' dual serial card for their TI-99/4A.
>

Based upon my own expierience I would guess that it is a cartridge 
development system.

I've built something similar for a (c64) game development company about 
twenty-something years ago.

On a normal day we would do numerous cartridge prototypes for testing 
etc - and going through UV-erase and EPROM-programming every time was 
just a waste of valuable time.

Solution was that each developer got a development system that would 
mimic a cartridge - instead of eproms - it would be equipped with a ram 
circuit and a mechanism that could lock the ram for write access after 
performing upload of the cartridge image.

An easy and quick way prototyping cartridges during development.

/Uffe



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Received on 2012-05-06 14:00:32

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