KCS PowerPC Board

[psxphill]

Just flashes a red light when I power up the C64. Has a small button on the top. Hadn't realised just what it did.... says NIC VALLEY PRODUCT.

It doesn't look like the official ESM add on for the expert, but it could be a clone or something. It's use shouldn't just be limited to expert cartridges either.

Freezer cartridges that rely on the restore button can be blocked by getting the CIA to generate an NMI but never acknowledge it. http://codebase64.org/doku.php?id=base:nmi_lock (it's also used to stop demo timing being affected by people randomly hitting restore). What the ESM cartridge does is forcibly drag the NMI line high again so that the CPU will detect the interrupt (IIRC it supplies more current than the CIA can sink to ground). Trilogic produced an addon and included it in later expert cartridges.

The light will flash every time there is an NMI. So if you load up something from the 80's with samples then it will flash every time a sample is played (savage/stormload/turbo outrun intro etc).

[scuzzb494]

It doesn't look like the official ESM add on for the expert, but it could be a clone or something. It's use shouldn't just be limited to expert cartridges either.

Freezer cartridges that rely on the restore button can be blocked by getting the CIA to generate an NMI but never acknowledge it. http://codebase64.org/doku.php?id=base:nmi_lock (it's also used to stop demo timing being affected by people randomly hitting restore). What the ESM cartridge does is forcibly drag the NMI line high again so that the CPU will detect the interrupt (IIRC it supplies more current than the CIA can sink to ground). Trilogic produced an addon and included it in later expert cartridges.

The light will flash every time there is an NMI. So if you load up something from the 80's with samples then it will flash every time a sample is played (savage/stormload/turbo outrun intro etc).

Seriously how do you know all these things. I'm not kidding. It totally floors me just how much you guys know. All I see is a flashing red light and then have to spend weeks working out what it is I am looking at.

Many thanks. Makes my investigations that much easier. I found very little on the Net so any bread crumbs are truly valuable.

[psxphill]

Seriously how do you know all these things. I'm not kidding. It totally floors me just how much you guys know. All I see is a flashing red light and then have to spend weeks working out what it is I am looking at.

Many thanks. Makes my investigations that much easier. I found very little on the Net so any bread crumbs are truly valuable.

I may have been wrong, it doesn't look how I remembered the ESM but it looks similar to the artwork from the advert.

http://rr.c64.org/rrwiki/images/e/ec/Your_Commodore_Issue_27_1986_Dec_EC.jpg

[scuzzb494]

I may have been wrong, it doesn't look how I remembered the ESM but it looks similar to the artwork from the advert.

http://rr.c64.org/rrwiki/images/e/ec/Your_Commodore_Issue_27_1986_Dec_EC.jpg

Getting there slowly .... What I just read


Trilogic have upgraded their Expert cartridge with ESM.

The compact ESM module is fitted with LED, push button
and connector. It fits between the cartridge post and the
Expert cartridge and, as with most Trilogic systems, it has
no effect on games action and can be left connected but
otherwise ignored.

When a protected program is loaded which needs the
ESM, the LED will glow. To stop the game, simply press
the push-button briefly. The program will be paused and
the Experts machine-code monitor be activated. From
then on, the Expert can be used in the normal way — to
alter, restart or save to disk/ tape as you choose.

[ Not my words ]