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BackBit cartridge

    Evie Salomon is developing new plug & play cartridge for C64 called BackBit.


    It can read natively PRG, T64, P00, D64, D71, D81, 8K & 16K CRT, Disk2Easyflash CRT files.
    Reading is almost as fast as reading from cartridge.
    There's no need to come in directory to start game.
    Filenames are not limited to 16 characters.
    Easyflash CRT games will need to be converted to Backbit format, same as games with multiple D64 images.



    Evie's words before 16 days:


    "I am in process of ironing out final details. Here is the progress:

    BACKBIT LEVEL I (work began Feb 2019)
    The cartridge will load any single-file program, such as PRG, P00, T64, 8K & 16K CRT. It will even load 50K+ Action Replay PRG files that usually require a loader. It is recommended to use an unpacker tool (such as unp64) to reduce loading time since loading is instant. THIS LEVEL IS COMPLETE!

    BACKBIT LEVEL II
    The cartridge will emulate disk & sequential tape loading using KERNAL vector override. While this method is not foolproof, it does work on a lot of games, and for those that are not 100% compatible with this method, it does greatly reduce work necessary to get games working, often a patch of just a few bytes. Remaining tasks include full save support, random file access and possibly support for larger disks such as D71/D81. THIS LEVEL IS ESTIMATED COMPLETE IN A FEW WEEKS.

    BACKBIT LEVEL III
    The cartridge will support a banking system with a publicly released API indicating how to use the system. It can support 16K of data access at a time with access of up to 32GB total (the full capacity of the SD Card formatted to FAT32). There is a delay to switch banks, in which time the cartridge will be unavailable, but the CPU will not be held up (instead, polling can be done to detect when the operation is complete). THIS LEVEL WILL BEGIN ALPHA TESTING WITHIN A MONTH.

    If there is enough demand I can make a batch of 10 cartridges for a beta test for a reasonable price. The cartridge firmware can be reprogrammed with a USB cable (no USB usage is planned for normal use, it is meant to be a standalone cartridge, and this may eventually be eliminated in favor of a SD card-based firmware update).

    Evie"


    Meanwhile, support for D71 & D81 format is done.



    YouTube teaser:


    [Externes Medium: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPM-iG0BPB8]



    Web-page:


    http://www.backbit.io

    Yes, the cartridge does do saving. It supports all disk KERNAL routines, i.e. SAVE, BSOUT, etc, and emulates all channel 15 commands such as SCRATCH, RENAME, etc. It always saves to a separate file as to preserve the original disk image.


    I do not support the Disk2Easyflash CRT files, what I meant is that a disk that would work for that process will work natively on BackBit.


    Games like Lode Runner, Jumpman, and Ultimate Wizard work with no modifications. Games like Castle Wolfenstein will require small patches because they directly access the serial port in some cases.

    Having solution to play Easyflash/Disk2Easyflash games from SD card on cartridge on real C64 (that means we're not limited with 7 EF 1 MB slots on EF3 cartridge and no need to flash them) for much cheaper price than 1541 Ultimate is great idea!
    Let's hope compatibility for this that Evie is working on right now will be very good.


    Loading PRG files from BackBit cartridge (already 100% compatibility) is matter of few seconds, few times faster than combination of JiffyDOS and SD2IEC.
    Let's hope D64/D81 compatibility will be good too.


    This cartridge can be solution to change combination of EF3 and SD2IEC on C64.


    Maybe it's good idea to put mini USB port on BackBit cartridge to transfer D64 files to real floppy and vice versa like EF3 cartridge does.

    Evie released new Youtube movie showing how fast is BackBit cartridge loading slideshow:


    [Externes Medium: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSFOJzSZsVw]



    There's also new manual 1.3.1 for Backbit cartridge in PDF format:


    https://www.backbit.io/downloads/Docs/


    Manual also comparing BackBit cartridge with other solutions like EF3, Pi1541, UltimateII+..

    Evie constantly improving firmware for BackBit cartridge.


    Latest news:


    - support for all Disk2Easyflash CRTs

    - support for pretty much all-gaming-related CRT formats, including a few non-gaming CRTs like Prophet 64, Magic Desk, Magic Cart / Black Magic Cart, Simon's Basic

    - some Easyflash CRTs working now like Bugs Bunny, Caren, Defender of the Crown, Duck Tales, Lemmings, Simpsons Arcade etc.

    - SID player


    Plans:


    - support for all Easyflash CRTs

    - support for GEOS

    - browsing thru games and each selected game showing screenshots and playing SID

    You can find BackBit & BackBit Pro Nirvana collections on F64 Wolke!


    BackBit Pro Nirvana v2.3 contains:


    - 795 disc-games (fast loading)

    - 192 disc-games (standard loading)

    - 29 disc-games in Disk2Easyflash format (almost all fast loading)

    - 220 disc-games in Easyflash cartridge format

    - 43 compilations of games in Easyflash cartridge format

    - 193 games in 8K, 16K, Ultimax cartridge format

    - 125 games in other cartridge formats (Ocean, Domark, Magic Cart etc.)

    - 1534 games in CRT 64K/80k format (StatMat's OneLoad64 V3 game collection)

    - 1027 games & 100 demos in CRT 32/64K format (TheJoker's v8 game collection)

    - 382 tape games in PRG format (Best Of)

    - 1947 tape games in PRG format (Rest Of)


    BackBit Nirvana v2.3 collection has same files, but compatibility with EF games are less, so there are 118 disc-games in Easyflash cartridge format and 24 compilations of games in Easyflash cartridge format in collection.


    Enjoy these ultimate collections for your BackBit cartridges! 8)