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COLECOVISION SD WAFER CARTRIDGE FOR SUPERGAME DEVELOPMENT MIGHT BE RELEASED


HDTV1080P

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The Colecovision SD wafer flash cartridge sounds like an excellent product that offers improvements over the existing Colecovision 128 - in - 1 USB Flash Cartridge.

 

Some advantages of the Colecovision SD wafer flash cartridge design

1. One could backup and save every single Colecovision cartridge rom image every made onto one SD wafer flash cartridge including the new 128KB Mega-Cart rom images.

 

2. The Colecovision SD wafer flash cartridge device would allow game developers to have much more storage space when compared to both the Adam computer supergame system and the unreleased Coleco Supergame module. Game developers would be able to create supergames for the Colecovsion with true write access to store names and high scores. For the very first time games could be created for the Colecovision that allowed games to be paused and then saved and stored to the cartridge.

 

3. A very skillful programmer could convert many of the Coleco Adam Supergames including games that are up to 256K in length to a 256K rom image that uses the Colecovision SD wafer cartridge. Most of the ADAM games require write access. This would allow Colecovision owners for the very first time to play Adam supergames.

 

5. Since the Colecovision SD wafer Flash cartridge is a huge read/write storage device it could be used with the new third party Supergame module to create advanced supergames.

 

6. Plus the new cartridge works on any operating system and any computer that has a SD slot. MAC, Linux, PC, etc. That will be a popular feature for some people.

 

7. Adam programmers could write software to use the SD flash cartridge as a big Adam computer RAM disk drive to store programs on.

Edited by HDTV1080P
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Awesome. One additional thing that would be great is a "save state" feature so that games could be saved and continued later where you left off. Fortune Builder would be one game that would really benefit from a save feature.

 

Edit: Perhaps a save is already planned. Perhaps Classics can verify.

 

Thanks for the posting!

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That would be awesome. Hopefully it won't be out for a while, since I just got my Coleco 128-in-1 cart from them less than a month ago ;)

 

The 128-1 is a great product, this is just taking it to the next level.

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I've got a 128 in 1, but I think the SD wafer would cool to have also. I'm hoping more and more of the multi cart developers start using memory cards instead of built in memory.

 

You still need memory on the cart with a memory card based system. Basically the ROM image on the memory card is copied to the cart's on board RAM, subsequent writes are prevented and the console restarted in software. The RAM then behaves like ROM to the console.

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I created a minor typo

 

In the title for this thread I should have said

 

" BACKUP ROM IMAGES AND CREATE YOUR OWN SUPERGAMES"

 

Instead by mistake I said

 

"BACKUP ROM IMAGES AND CURRENT YOUR OWN SUPERGAMES"

 

If a moderator is able to correct this mistake I would appreciate it. icon_twisted.gif

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Bump

 

This is a "must have" to me.

 

I am surprised to see the low hit count on a thread about this awesome product. Perhaps bumping it will help more people to see it.

I think many people skip the CV forum, which is a grave error! Anyway, don't know the pricing or quantity available as of yet. Also, while this is a great technical achievement from Atarimax, it's really not significantly different from his current USB cart. Granted you can now fit the entire CV library, but there aren't a large amount of prototypes/unreleased/homebrew ROMS out there. Which is no fault on classics. For instance, check the long list of unreleased (canceled) CV games, and to my knowledge, almost none have been released to rom. Which is surprising, for a system that was canceled early.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Bump

 

This is a "must have" to me.

 

I am surprised to see the low hit count on a thread about this awesome product. Perhaps bumping it will help more people to see it.

I think many people skip the CV forum, which is a grave error! Anyway, don't know the pricing or quantity available as of yet. Also, while this is a great technical achievement from Atarimax, it's really not significantly different from his current USB cart. Granted you can now fit the entire CV library, but there aren't a large amount of prototypes/unreleased/homebrew ROMS out there. Which is no fault on classics. For instance, check the long list of unreleased (canceled) CV games, and to my knowledge, almost none have been released to rom. Which is surprising, for a system that was canceled early.

Part of the reason for this, I think, is that it's just buried here in Classic Gaming General! This forum really needs to be more visible.
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I'll post here if that'll help these get finished and ready for sale sooner!

 

5-11under

This thread is interesting! I would just love to see AtariMax resurrect the original Expansion Module No. 3! If this ever is a success, I'd still be interested in a CV version of Pole Position and Pole Position II. Of course, I am always interested in a CV translation of PP.

 

~Ben

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The Ultimate SD Colecovision cartridge from Atarimax will read/write both FAT16 SD and FAT32 SDHC cards. What that means is that up to a 2GB SD memory card can be used and up to a 32GB SDHC memory card can be used in the Ultimate SD Colecovision cartridge. So officially both SD and SDHC cards are supported with the current software.

 

I was communicating with Steven at Atarimax in an email regarding adding support for the new SDXC cards. Currently there are 48GB and 64GB SDXC cards on the market and in the future companies plan on releasing 2TB SDXC cards. Atarimax has never tried a SDXC card in the Colecovision Ultimate SD cartridge but in theory they thought it might work at full capacity with a software update. SDXC cards use the new exFAT file system which allows for up to 2TB size SDXC cards. Steven at Atarimax mentioned that they might in the future offer a firmware update for the Colecovision Ultimate SD cartridge that would allow exFAT file support which in theory would support existing size SDXC cards and future 2TB SDXC cards.

 

Even if the exFAT file system with SDXC support is never added to the Ultimate Colecovision SD cartridge that would be a very small issue. Is any company or individual going to spend several years to make a game or program that takes up to 2TB's of space for the Colecovision or ADAM? I doubt anyone will even need to purchase a 64GB SDXC card for the Colecovision/ADAM. The existing FAT32 file system with 32GB SDHC support in theory will be enough space for all the games and programs that will every be made for the ADAM/Colecovsion system. I would be surprised if anyone comes close to using up all the space on a 32GB size SDHC card.

 

The good thing is that Atarimax might in the future add exFAT file system support and SDXC support just in case anyone wants to use up to 2TB's worth of storage.

 

More information on SDXC card technology can be found at the following link if anyone is interested. Windows 7 and Vista service pack 1 or later supports exFAT file system with SDXC cards. Also Windows XP service pack 2 or later supports the new exFAT file format. There are third party companies working on Linux and DOS support for exFAT also.

 

http://www.sdcard.or...sdxc/using_sdxc

 

Edited by HDTV1080P
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