Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!pawl!kudla
From: kudla@pawl.rpi.edu (Robert J. Kudla)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.cbm
Subject: Re: Super Snap Shot Cart Detection??
Message-ID: <-VJ%B=+@rpi.edu>
Date: 22 Sep 90 18:33:07 GMT
References: <418@news.nd.edu> <1990Sep15.171530.12692@xenitec.on.ca>
	<436@news.nd.edu> <438@news.nd.edu>
Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY
Lines: 26
In-Reply-To: treesh@bach.helios.nd.edu's message of 18 Sep 90 18:09:37 GMT

>>>>> On 18 Sep 90 18:09:37 GMT, treesh@bach.helios.nd.edu said:

t> Can anyone tell me how via software to activate a deactivated
t> cartridge in the port?  Is there ANYWAY AT ALL to write to the
t> PLA???  Switch the ROML or ROMH hardware lines?  Switch the GAME or
t> EXROM lines via software???

As far as I can tell, it was *meant* to be hard to detect.  (I haven't
played with a SS5.0, but I want to.... I want to be able to fastload
Ghosts'n'Goblins, dammit, and Final Cartridge won't touch it!)
Basically, when you push the "activate" button, my guess is it *then*
takes over the bus.  There's no reason for any of it to be detectable
at any other time, since the user activates the cartridge with
external hardware, not software.

As a result, so far as I know, there's also no way to activate a
disabled cartridge without using the hardware.  Such is life.... if
you're writing code to take advantage of the cartridge, presumably the
user would leave it enabled.  I've had programs that wouldn't work
when my FC was plugged in and "totally invisible", as in even its
freeze button wouldn't work, though, so maybe it's trashing a few
bytes of the cartridge area or something....

Oh yeah, could you possibly use word wrap or hit return after each
line?  I like some of what you have to say, but it's a bitch to read
with all the backslashes (I use Emacs) and whatnot.