/vr/ - Retro Games

/vr/ related (pls no bully, based mods), some of the TRS carts. I have not had a chance to play them yet, both the TRS's have dud caps preventing operation which I need to address. I also have a bunch of tapes as well, still in their packaging.

..and clearly this old HAM was a gamer as well, because holy shit. Some of these games I had back in the day, some I have never played and have been smashing on the Amstrad.

1/2

> all dat Sierra XXXXXXX quest

Bricks were shat when I found Space Quest III, I had the first two but never got to play the third. Goodbye weekend.

>>2410594
Off the top of my head I would say it's a hard drive interface card of sorts. I'll do a little research and see if I can confirm at all.

>>2410594
It probably wouldn't be that hard to map out what the 74x's do. That EEPROM probably has at most 12 address pins, so the program is pretty tiny. Can you dump the ROM and post it somewhere? Maybe then it will become clear what this things for...

>>2410656
I thought the same initially but there is not enough I/O on the header. 12 lines is nowhere near enough for IDE, or even ST-506. It may be a centronics interface, but I would not imagine the outputs would need to be buffered from TTL to MOS for this purpose (via the two SN7407's the EPROM shoots data through). I may be wrong, the 80's was a weird time for standards and interconnectivity.

/diy/ suggested that it may be a wordstar font card, but I have since decided that i'm gunna dump the contents of the EPROM and see what secrets it holds. Will update the thread if it still exists when I'm done.

>>2410716
Yeah, it's a 16k EPROM (27C16) so what ever it's doing, its not doing much of it. I may even be approaching it arse backwards, that header may be the input into the circuit as opposed to the output, but either way, a ROM so close to the "perimeter" of the circuit seems odd. I'm keen to see whats on it. Have never really played with EPROM's before, time for some learnings!

I'll be following http://www.nycresistor.com/2012/07/07/stick-a-straw-in-its-brain-and-suck-how-to-read-a-rom to do my dump, does this seem legit?

>>2410725
That article looks just fine. If you have a Arduino Mega and a breadboard on hand, you'll be able to dump the ROM no problem. You should post the results if you go ahead and do this.

>>2410594
Looks like an EPROM programmer. I had something that looked very similar, complete w/o zif socket. As has been suggested a clearer picture would make it easy to work it out.

>>2410594
This is just an inventory of the 74x series chips on the board. The picture is blurry, so if I got something wrong feel free to correct me.

7407 : hex buffer/driver with 30 V open collector outputs
7408 : single non-inverting buffer/driver with open drain output
7410 : triple 3-input NAND gate
7414 : hex Schmitt trigger inverter
7438 : quad 2-input NAND buffer with open collector outputs
7485 : 4-bit magnitude comparator
74121 : monostable multivibrator

Hmm, a clock. Wasn't expecting that.

>>2410598
>(pls no bully, based mods)

Wtf. Are you twelve?

>>2410721
I was thinking the old floppy disk interface, but you are probably right.

Subscribing to this thread because I'm dying to know what it is as well.

I'm just gunna give this a quick necrobump because I have a Mega 2560 on the way, and I should be dumping in the next few days. Read up on the latest over at >>>/diy/813837 if you're keen. Odd's are it's a Centronics interface, but it may yet be a HAM or other interface.

>>2412040
You nailed it 100%. Solid eyes anon.

> Hmm, a clock. Wasn't expecting that.
Indeed, this is why I hold hope that it may be something non-print related. You'd assume clock (or strobe, if centronics has the equivalent) would be sourced or multiplied from the host machine, not the card.

>>2413268
Sometimes. Growing up is for suckers.

>>2412040
>>2415764
>clock
clock?

>>2410594
Have you gotten a chance to take that dump OP?

>>2415764
>Sometimes. Growing up is for suckers.

As far as hobbys you should do what every you enjoy. It was just a odd thing to type at >>2410598 Maybe you're old and thought it was the cool thing to type?

>>2410594
If I read that label correctly, it says "Pet Code 1"

Could that be a reference to the Commodore PET?

I note that your expansion card has 12/24 pins on that connector, separated 2pins/7pins/3pins.

That looks a lot like the rightmost slot at the ass end of this Commodore PET 2001 (pic related) From left to right, Aux audio tape/datasette, user-port, and the port that matches your board's keying is an IEEE-488 connector for floppy drives or other test/measurement equipment.

>>2417658
Samefag here, just saw the /diy/ thread hope I shed a bit more light on it, but yeah, IEEE-488 port on a Commodore PET. They're/were on the right track. Wish I could help moar but you may not find out much until you dump that ROM.

>>2417664
That at least tells us what kind of hardware this thing connects to, which will make it possible to interpret the ROM, so actually this is a quite useful observation.

>>2417696
OP told us what it connects to in his first post
>Commodore CBM 4016

>>2417606
If he's a cross-boarder then it's likely that he was asking us to not be mean to him. 'no bully' is a thing like that on other boards.

>>2418464
>'no bully' is a thing like that on other boards.

What boards? I haven't seen it on any I go to. Either way you can't expect memes to automatically carry over to other boards.

>>2418097
Partially a bump too.

>>2410603
>>2410609
oh wow, extremely cool haul

>>2418719
it's common as hell on /g/ and /v/, seen it on /m/ too
it's rare here, but still a thing
https://archive.moe/vr/search/text/no%20bully/

>>2419101
A few times isn't a thing.

>more discussion of maymays than hardware

>>2417696
Thanks. I think your best bet between now and getting a ROM dump, to flip through back issues of 1982-era computing mags and see what's in the IEEE-488 section of the ads/classifieds.

The three LEDs look like they go to the 7407s that plug into the 40-pin connector. And the second 24-pin female edge connector looks to be an extension of the IEEE488 bus so that one could daisy-chain other peripherals off of it.

It's a custom card made by some tiny Australian company which most likely uses custom software to integrate with either custom or incredibly rare enterprise hardware.
Apparently that company made a whole bunch of different interfaces for connecting all sorts of crap to early Commodore computers, or so their advertising claims.

>>2420998
>custom card
I don't even know what that's supposed to mean but it's obviously a mass produced PCB. Sauce?

>>2421575
http://messui.the-chronicles.org/comp/micropro_microcon.pdf
>Micro Pro Design has also announced that it has become an authorised dealer for the Commodore CBM and Pet microcomputers, and the company's engineers and programmers are able to offer support in custom interfacing and applications software. Micro Pro Design has already developed a number of locally manufactured interfaces of the IEEE488 Bus.
Not custom as in some dude made one in his garage, more custom in the sense that a company designed and manufactured a few for some large corporation for a very specific need.

>>2422084
Very nice find but it doesn't answer the question of what OPs card is.