[Coco] Cartridge size limit?

[Dave Philipsen]

I watched your game on Steve's YouTube video.  Nice job!  I'll bet with 
some optimization you could get that game down well below 16K although I 
only saw a couple of the levels...

Now here's an interesting idea to think about:  You can buy a 32Mbit 
(4MB x 8) flash chip for a few cents more than a dollar in single 
quantities.  You'll need a little glue logic since it's 3.3v TTL and 
your CoCo bus is 5v but I'll bet the parts cost not including the PCB 
could be less than 5 bucks especially if you don't include the circuitry 
to program the chip (read only).  The programming could either be done 
before the chip is attached to the PCB or you could do it externally 
with header/pads.

Dave



On 5/3/2016 11:34 PM, Lee Patterson wrote:
> I was thinking in terms of my next Coco 3 based game. Need to get an idea of what I should target. Bouncy Ball is just under 20K. 32K isn't much better, so an MMU system would be preferable if it is cost effective.
>
> --- -- -  -
> www.8BitCoder.com
>
>
>> On May 3, 2016, at 3:23 PM, L. Curtis Boyle <curtisboyle at sasktel.net> wrote:
>>
>> Yes, you could (as both John and I mentioned - you need MMU style supporting hardware). I *think* Lee was asking about “normal” cartridges.
>>
>> L. Curtis Boyle
>> curtisboyle at sasktel.net
>>
>> TRS-80 Color Computer Games website
>> http://www.lcurtisboyle.com/nitros9/coco_game_list.html
>>
>>
>>
>>> On May 3, 2016, at 1:19 PM, Hendrikus Rietveld <rietveldh at hotmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> Can't you use a pak like the new flash pak to dump your rom and have it bank switched with the software?    Thought I heard that at the fest in Chicago
>>>
>>> Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.
>>> Original Message
>>> From: L. Curtis Boyle
>>> Sent: Tuesday, May 3, 2016 3:12 PM
>>> To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts
>>> Reply To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts
>>> Subject: Re: [Coco] Cartridge size limit?
>>>
>>>
>>> John is correct - 16K for Coco 1/2 (minus I/O space, of course), and 32K for the Coco 3 (minus I/O as well, and vector page RAM if your app requires it). Paks like Predator and Robocop that went past that added their own MMU-style hardware to support anything >32K, as there is only 32K of address space to use (everything past that must be bank switched).
>>>
>>> L. Curtis Boyle
>>> curtisboyle at sasktel.net
>>>
>>> TRS-80 Color Computer Games website
>>> http://www.lcurtisboyle.com/nitros9/coco_game_list.html
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> On May 3, 2016, at 12:59 PM, John W. Linville <linville at tuxdriver.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Note that Robocop uses a bank-switching technique to achieve that,
>>>> and AFAIK no one is actively producing such hardware (yet).
>>>>
>>>> For "normal" (i.e. not bank-switched) usage, a CoCo ROM Pak is limited
>>>> to a bit less than 16K.  For a CoCo3-only ROM Pak, the normal limit
>>>> would be a bit less than 32K.
>>>>
>>>> John
>>>>
>>>> On Tue, May 03, 2016 at 02:53:39PM -0400, Lee Patterson wrote:
>>>>> Thanks, I Just verified that it is indeed 128k.
>>>>>
>>>>> http://www.lcurtisboyle.com/nitros9/robocop.html
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> --- -- -  -
>>>>> 10 + 1 = 3
>>>>> 8BitCoder.com
>>>>>
>>>>>> On May 3, 2016, at 14:45, Hendrikus Rietveld <rietveldh at hotmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Robocop is 128k?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.
>>>>>> Original Message
>>>>>> From: Lee Patterson
>>>>>> Sent: Tuesday, May 3, 2016 2:36 PM
>>>>>> To: Bill Pierce via Coco
>>>>>> Reply To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts
>>>>>> Subject: [Coco] Cartridge size limit?
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> What is the max size for a cartridge based app?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> --- -- -  -
>>>>>> 10 + 1 = 3
>>>>>> 8BitCoder.com
>>>>>>
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>>>> John W. Linville              Someday the world will need a hero, and you
>>>> linville at tuxdriver.com                        might be all we have.  Be ready.
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