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Count Zero
Registered: Jan 2003
Posts: 1940 |
Trilogic Expert Cartridge
Howdy hackers ... *g*
As stuff piles up here we are looking to update https://rr.pokefinder.org/wiki/Expert_Cartridge and while the category ( https://rr.pokefinder.org/wiki/Category:Expert_Cartridge ) has all kind of content already we found some pictures are definately missing.
https://rr.pokefinder.org/rrwiki/images/e/ec/Your_Commodore_Iss..
shows "The E.S.M." to be plugged between Expert and C64 to provide additional freezing logic.
Does anybody own "The E.S.M." and would mind to open it to produce photos? Or sell it to me? :)
Btw, around 1986 Expert was in the UK priced at:
28.95 - 31.95 Pound (no ESM)
37.50 Pound (including ESM)
7.95 Pound "The E.S.M." Addon
They also had an exchange program at some point, so getting back old carts and likely re-selling them sure was a nice biz model as well? :)
(Pounds * ~3,2 to get the german DM prices for that time :) )
Also looking for anything else not online yet (there) of course! :) |
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AlexC
Registered: Jan 2008
Posts: 299 |
I'll bump the topic by adding that there used to be a Expert user club publishing some disk, and those disks (or maybe it was just a single disk) would be very valuable too. I've been searching for those for quite some time. Probably they were available only in UK and since Expert had very strong competitor: Action Replay I guess this was very niche release and being spread as widely like cracks or demos. Who ever has those disk please stand up and share ;) |
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Count Zero
Registered: Jan 2003
Posts: 1940 |
Luckily Draven (used to be active on Lemon64) gave us all his Expert related stuff before he died.
https://rr.pokefinder.org/wiki/Category:Expert_Cartridge has the Expertize issues up to number 14 that he collected. That issue says on the last page that they offer a "blank Expert O/S" for 3 pounds which would include enough documentation to puzzle your own Expert.
(It also says issue 15 would be large...)
That "blank Expert O/S" and its docs appear to be only thing missing - The pile of binaries we still have here are either text hacks or small changes on versions and "just" need sorting (sigh).
We are also looking for photos of opened "Trilogic" carts without ESM to compare against https://rr.pokefinder.org/wiki/File:Expert_Cartridge_with_and_w..
Suspecting that Trilogic either drilled their boards similar or there was another production run for the earlier Experts when ESM wasnt even planned maybe? |
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Count Zero
Registered: Jan 2003
Posts: 1940 |
Sigh ... while sorting out on the available Expert software we found at least two more major points of interest.
The first decribes a USER port cartridge which supports the Expert Cartridge in the EXPANSION port and makes the 8k freeze cart a 64K freeze cart. We are SOOOO puzzled:
and
WHOEVER owns this (RAM pack, RAMBOX or RAMBO X) thing: SELL it to us, rip it apart to check schematics and firmware - SHOUT UP LOUD NOW!
The other oddity we came across: Only a strangely changed 1.x "firmware" was to be found so far and NO TAPE software dumps apart from a 3.2 dump were found so far. VERY unlikely for a UK based product! Where are the other TAP dumps (with early likely unchanged softwares)?
PLEASE search your archives for early disks/tapes and your roof for strange carts! |
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AlexC
Registered: Jan 2008
Posts: 299 |
@CZ amazing find, never have heard or seen any of Rambo X, but I wonder how >=3.1 Expert cartridge supports it since I don't recall any mention of it either in docs or in software itself. Looking forward to any further info about it. |
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Count Zero
Registered: Jan 2003
Posts: 1940 |
Still in the process of versioning and comparing softwares. Indeed there should be some major change somewhere to support this "thing."
At the very end of the v2.x manual there is another mention of the rampack. No photos or anything alike yet :(
Whoever wants to pass us donations anyhow - THATs nice :) |
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chatGPZ
Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 11394 |
That userport ram thing is seriously WTF indeed >_< |
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Colt45RPM
Registered: Feb 2019
Posts: 47 |
It says 'Patent Applied For'. Maybe a way to find some info? |
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chatGPZ
Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 11394 |
Nothing on google patents at least (searched for "Trilogic") ... does anyone have a name of a person that was involved? :) |
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tlr
Registered: Sep 2003
Posts: 1791 |
John Twiddy? |
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chatGPZ
Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 11394 |
no dice :( |
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