|  Hardware - Super Cartridge | | Name: | Super Cartridge |
| AKA: | SuperCartridge |
| Category: | Cartridge |
| Introduced: | Unknown |
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| | Dave Haynie's eBay Auction | Dave Haynie's original Super Cartridge prototype has been sold from himself on eBay in date 17 April 2011, with several other rarities from the Commodore era [to be completed]
The following text is what he has written in the auction page itself.
"This is the very first thing I worked on at Commodore. I was hired as part of the TED project. TED was the technology that lead to the Commodore 16, the PLUS/4, and maybe some other abominations out there. But seriously... Commodore Japan had made like five different versions of the computer: one looked a little like a Sinclair, one had 32K and no user port, etc.
Anyway, about the Super Cartridge. The PLUS/4 was one of the first implementations of the ROM banking technology we used on the C128. The idea of this cartridge was similar: the computer could select one of several ROM banks, and run whatever thing was on that particular ROM. This would allow very large games, or collections. This is of course the very first wire-wrapped prototype. I know of only one other instance of the TED Super Cartridge -- we did have a PCB for this after the prototype. And I took a couple of normal TED Cartridges, melted them together, filled in the cracks with epoxy, and voila -- finished (ish) Super Cartridge. Knowing this, now, all you PLUS/4 enthusiasts will now be looking for that one instead :-)
So anyway, that's the story of this item. Yeah, pretty much junk, unless you're the collector looking for this kind of thing. And with all of those PLUS/4 enthusiasts out there, I recommend bidding early and often. Thanks you for yer time!" |
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| | Infos | The SuperCartridge was, according to Dave Haynie, a carrier for running several cartridge ROMs in a single unit.
Although Dave doesn't remember when, it was probably demonstrated with the 264 series at CES 1984, the intended target units. The one and only unit in existence was made out of several smaller cartridge cases and epoxied together; Dave manufactured it himself.
Because the 264 originally was to have multiple option ROMs, the SuperCartridge would have made perfect sense for running a 264 with your choice of the ROM sets all ready to go, but the idea seemed to go out the window when the option ROM idea did. Never released, and the prototype has since disappeared.
There is a possibly related mention of a similar device in an E-mail interview with Michael Tomczyk, one of Commodore's lead executives during the period.
Text and link taken from Secret Weapons of Commodore. |
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