323 replies to this topic

[sloopy]

AtariGeezer, on Thu May 5, 2011 12:07 PM, said:

St(r)yker, on Thu May 5, 2011 11:47 AM, said:

The PCB will be sent according to the list. The higher you are, the faster you will get it!
If anything above is somehow unclear, feel free to ask

I'm like 30th down on the list, but was the 12th who replied in this thread, so what is my real standing?
I can send you $$ now by paypal, but where?

Thanks,
Jay

wanna trade? i was 7th interest reply, and i am way farther down then you ;')

sloopy.

[AtariGeezer]

sloopy, on Thu May 5, 2011 4:35 PM, said:

wanna trade? i was 7th interest reply, and i am way farther down then you ;')

sloopy.

Think I mis-read, thought he was taking payments now and peeps higher on the list had priority over the requests.
My mistake, I hope

[rdemming]

I want order two 4Mbit carts. Thanks.

Robert

[St(r)yker]

I've just sent payment details to all the interested people.

[mimo]

paid

[Stephen]

PM sent

[AtariGeezer]

$78.20 Sent by PalPal for 2x 4Mbit SIC!Carts

[Van]

Thank you, and paid
Van

[Stephen]

Paid.

[cfernan]

Paid. Thanks.

[IndusGT]

I was wondering, other then the ability to burn Eproms, how does this differ from one of Steve Tucker's Flash Carts? is it actually easier to Flash than thru the USB port as Atarimax's? Thanks.

[St(r)yker]

For making everything clear: SIC! cartridge supports at most 4Mbit flash-memory chips and you can't use both 4Mbit and 2Mbit chips at the same time (it doesn't make "6Mbit chip" then).
The actual list of people, who paid already you can see at this link: http://unimor.info/sic/lista.pdf

[Marius1976]

@indusGT
It can not burn Eproms! It can program a certain range of flash memory chips.

[IndusGT]

Marius1976, on Mon May 9, 2011 4:25 AM, said:

@indusGT
It can not burn Eproms! It can program a certain range of flash memory chips.

Sorry, I should have known that, I was at work, and typing faster than my brain worked.

So, the question is : How is this superior to Steve Tucker's carts or not? Is there any difference that would make this a compelling buy?

[Van]

As I understand, the main difference is price. Atarimax has the usb programmer but their carts are still in-system programmable, both would need a SIO2PC connection. So on a cart to cart basis, SIC! is a better buy on price alone, (but then there's shipping). Compatibility, as to banking, may be an issue also. Some raw dumps won't work on either flash cart, and would need editing. On the Atarimax forum there are quite a few modded cart images ready to run on their banking system, so the that's a plus.
But hey, I don't have either flash cart in hand so...
Van

[rdemming]

IndusGT, on Mon May 9, 2011 7:59 AM, said:

So, the question is : How is this superior to Steve Tucker's carts or not? Is there any difference that would make this a compelling buy?

Van, on Mon May 9, 2011 9:13 AM, said:

So on a cart to cart basis, SIC! is a better buy on price alone, (but then there's shipping).

SIC (Super Inexpensive Cart) is in my opinion a bit relative.

The SIC 2MBit (256 KByte) is 70 PLN (about $25) which is just as expensive as the AtariMax 1MBit (128 KByte) card. So here the SIC provides twice the memory as the AtariMax for the same price.

The SIC 4MBit (512 KByte) is 80 PLN (about $29). This is $11 cheaper than the AtariMax 8MBit (1024 KByte) card, but AtariMax has twice the capacity. So if you express the price per MBit, you get the following list:

• AM 1MBit = $25 / MBit
• SIC 2MBit = $12.50 / MBit
• SIC 4MBit = $7.25 / MBit
• AM 8MBit = $5.00 / MBit

So the SIC in only "super inexpensive" relative to AM if you only need lower capacities.

Another difference is the bank-switching method. AM maps all its 8 KByte banks in the $A000-$BFFF area by writing to the $D5xx range where xx stands for the bank number.
So besides special cart software, it can "emulate" regular cart images (dumps from original carts) of 8KB carts only which is supported by the Maxflash Studio software.

The SIC cart maps its 16 KByte banks in the area $8000-$9FFF and $A000-$BFFF which can be turned on/off separately. Selecting the bank number is done by writing the number (+ enable bits) to $D500 ($D501-$D51F are mirrors). So besides the special cart software it is possible to emulate 8KB and 16KB cart images but that seems not (yet) supported by the software.

Both carts are not compatible with the bank-switching scheme of XEGS carts.

Both carts can be programmed by the Atari computer in system. But using the AtariMax programmer, the AtariMax carts can also be programmed on a PC which is faster and does not require to transfer the cart image to an Atari (disk) first. But maybe Steve is willing to support the SIC cart in the programmer software too in the future.

A plus of the SIC carts seems the fancy cart menu software which may display a picture and plays music while the AtariMax cart menu is just a plain list.
But the cart creation software of AtariMax support .xex, .atr (with limitations) and 8KB cart images. While the SIC cart creation software seems to only support .xex files.
Also the AtariMax software will export an .atr image which can directly be used to flash the AtariMax cart from an Atari system. The SIC software only seems to output a .rom image that needs to be put in an .atr file first using other software. (Or when using AspeQt or APE you can mount the PC directory with the .rom files as drive2 while drive 1contains an .atr with the flashing software).

So I hope this makes the differences more clear and makes the decision easier. Or do like me and get both a SIC cart and an AtariMax cart

Robert

[IndusGT]

rdemming, on Mon May 9, 2011 3:23 PM, said:

IndusGT, on Mon May 9, 2011 7:59 AM, said:

So, the question is : How is this superior to Steve Tucker's carts or not? Is there any difference that would make this a compelling buy?

Van, on Mon May 9, 2011 9:13 AM, said:

So on a cart to cart basis, SIC! is a better buy on price alone, (but then there's shipping).

SIC (Super Inexpensive Cart) is in my opinion a bit relative.

The SIC 2MBit (256 KByte) is 70 PLN (about $25) which is just as expensive as the AtariMax 1MBit (128 KByte) card. So here the SIC provides twice the memory as the AtariMax for the same price.

The SIC 4MBit (512 KByte) is 80 PLN (about $29). This is $11 cheaper than the AtariMax 8MBit (1024 KByte) card, but AtariMax has twice the capacity. So if you express the price per MBit, you get the following list:

• AM 1MBit = $25 / MBit
• SIC 2MBit = $12.50 / MBit
• SIC 4MBit = $7.25 / MBit
• AM 8MBit = $5.00 / MBit

So the SIC in only "super inexpensive" relative to AM if you only need lower capacities.

Another difference is the bank-switching method. AM maps all its 8 KByte banks in the $A000-$BFFF area by writing to the $D5xx range where xx stands for the bank number.
So besides special cart software, it can "emulate" regular cart images (dumps from original carts) of 8KB carts only which is supported by the Maxflash Studio software.

The SIC cart maps its 16 KByte banks in the area $8000-$9FFF and $A000-$BFFF which can be turned on/off separately. Selecting the bank number is done by writing the number (+ enable bits) to $D500 ($D501-$D51F are mirrors). So besides the special cart software it is possible to emulate 8KB and 16KB cart images but that seems not (yet) supported by the software.

Both carts are not compatible with the bank-switching scheme of XEGS carts.

Both carts can be programmed by the Atari computer in system. But using the AtariMax programmer, the AtariMax carts can also be programmed on a PC which is faster and does not require to transfer the cart image to an Atari (disk) first. But maybe Steve is willing to support the SIC cart in the programmer software too in the future.

A plus of the SIC carts seems the fancy cart menu software which may display a picture and plays music while the AtariMax cart menu is just a plain list.
But the cart creation software of AtariMax support .xex, .atr (with limitations) and 8KB cart images. While the SIC cart creation software seems to only support .xex files.
Also the AtariMax software will export an .atr image which can directly be used to flash the AtariMax cart from an Atari system. The SIC software only seems to output a .rom image that needs to be put in an .atr file first using other software. (Or when using AspeQt or APE you can mount the PC directory with the .rom files as drive2 while drive 1contains an .atr with the flashing software).

So I hope this makes the differences more clear and makes the decision easier. Or do like me and get both a SIC cart and an AtariMax cart

Robert

It does thanks, is too late to order a 2 MBit cart?

[Van]

Thanks Robert, Very good info!

rdemming, on Mon May 9, 2011 3:23 PM, said:

SIC (Super Inexpensive Cart) is in my opinion a bit relative.

Agree 100%, but having the option to buy just the programmed GAL and a useable software system is a big plus to me. Already have a well stocked parts bin, so DIY for me!

rdemming, on Mon May 9, 2011 3:23 PM, said:

So I hope this makes the differences more clear and makes the decision easier. Or do like me and get both a SIC cart and an AtariMax cart

To be sure, I'll have an AM cart when funds permit.
Van

[candle]

Robert:

Sic cart software can save atr file with flasher of newly created rom image

Sebastian

[rdemming]

candle, on Tue May 10, 2011 3:10 PM, said:

Sic cart software can save atr file with flasher of newly created rom image

Thanks for correcting me!
Because the manual of the SIC flasher only mentions creating an .ATR with the .rom files using Total Commander and the manual of the SIC generator does not mention export to .atr, I was under the impression that generating an .atr file with flasher was not supported. I started the SIC generator app and the .atr export is indeed there. Thanks!, that makes flashing a cart for more straight forward.

Robert


P.S. I saw that the .ATR file generation is in the "update" section of the polish manual but not yet in the English manual.

[Firedawg]

St®yker, on Fri May 6, 2011 2:48 PM, said:

I've just sent payment details to all the interested people.

Thanks St®yker! Payment (PayPal) made for two Sic!Carts (4mb versions) & two GALs.

Firedawg

[St(r)yker]

rdemming, on Wed May 11, 2011 6:33 AM, said:

P.S. I saw that the .ATR file generation is in the "update" section of the polish manual but not yet in the English manual.

fixed

[orpheuswaking]

Still working on getting my Paypal unfrozen... I'll pay as soon as it is.

[sloopy]

paid

sloopy.

[orpheuswaking]

Paypal issue cleared up and PAID!!!