This flash Videocart, powered by a Raspberry Pi Pico, allows games to be loaded from an SD card and played on a real Fairchild Channel F. It supports both official games, and homebrew. This project is currently in development.
*Two Prototypes beside Videocart 12
Updating the firmware
- The first thing you should do is update to the latest firmware. Instructions on how to do so can be found here
Loading Games to the Flashcart
- This flashcart uses an SD card for storage, which makes it convenient to add and removes games. It's important to note that the SD card must be formatted as either FAT16 or FAT32 (recommended). Once formatted, simply place your game files (should end in
.binor.chf) onto the SD card and insert it into the flashcart.
Using the Multimenu
- The multimenu allows a user to browse and select games from the SD card. Refer to its repository for more information.
The flashcart is essentially an emulator for an enhanced 3853 Static Memory Interface using SD cards instead of ROM ICs. As such, the PCB consists of an edge connector, a Raspberry Pi Pico (which handles most of the work), FRAM, and a few supporting chips for voltage level conversion (3.3V to/from 5V). The Pico was chosen due to its relatively low cost, high speed (428 MHz), large memory (264KB on-chip SRAM, 2MB on-board QSPI Flash), and because it has 2 cores.
Refer to the schematics directory for more information.
These 3D files were provided to me by e5frog over at AtariAge
3D Files (Bottom / Hatch / Top Lower / Top Upper)
The firmware uses the Arduino-Pico core and, as mentioned above essentially emulates a 3853 Static Memory Interface IC, while adding a few extra features. Using data pulled from the SD card, it can emulate various types of memory (FRAM, ROM, SRAM, ...), ports (Timers, 1-bit SRAM, ...), and interrupts.
Refer to the Firmware directory for more information.