amiga-news.de - Hardware: Kickstart-ROM switcher Romulator

Hardware: Kickstart-ROM switcher Romulator
In the EAB forum, kipper2k has announced the latest product of his team, the "Romulator", which in an Amiga 500, 600 or 2000 allows you to switch between several Kickstart-ROM images (video). Amiga On The Lake will sell the Romulator.

Below you can read the English-language original announcement:

"I have something new to show off today, something that I don't think has been done for the masses, I believe Commodore used something similar in the development stages of the Amiga.

We call it the 'Romulator'...

It emulates the Amiga ROM and is for the 16-bit computers. If demand is high enough we will finish up the 32-bit version. First here are its features.

Accepts up to 1 MB ROM images
ROMs can be byteswapped or normal
Supports Amiga 500s of revision 3, 5, 6a and 8
Supports Amiga 600s
For those hackers, it is possible to support 2 MB ROMs (you're on your own, LOL)
USB and SD support
ROMs are stored using onboard SD card
ROMs can be copied from PC to Amiga Romulator SD card

The Romulator sits in the Amiga ROM socket taking the place of the Amiga ROM. When you turn on the Amiga the Amiga is held in the Pause state and the Romulator will display its own bootup menu.

The menu will show all available ROMs you have on your SD card and you can select by keyboard arrows and mouse. Pressing no keys/mouse will cause the Amiga to continue its bootup after a selectable time-out period. Pressing an arrow key/mouse will stop the countdown and you can then move up and down and then press enter to select your ROM to load. The Amiga remembers the previosly used ROM and will load that.

The Romulator has 1 wire that needs to be connected to the Reset line of the Amiga. If using the A500MX keyboard there is a header onboard you just plug it in to. Using the A500MX contoller on a regular keyboard also has a header (oops, I haven't told anyone about that yet... - next week for that!). For the A600 the reset wire needs to be connected to a transistor leg (easy solder) and I am also making a little easy install board similar to the Gotek ones I have just done.

The Menu is a throwback to the classic type intros and has music available. Many, many thanks to Mikestir for the coding on this, it is just bloomin AWESOME (excuse my language). If Mike has time he will release updates that can allow the enduser to use their own music (no promises, he is very busy).

So what does this mean. For starters people can work on their own custom ROMs and try them on the Romulator to see if they are working. A 1 MB ROM image has lots of possibilities as regards custom libraries, onbord HRTMON (and if someone can do a onboard Action Replay ROM I will be forever in their debt (elbow elbow, nudge nudge). Hopefully this will now mean the end of the annoying burning of ROMs which is time consuming and not always successful.

So when is this available... I have a supply in front of me ready to be shipped to AOTL. It is finished, it was sooo hard to keep this quiet and I am glad that is is now free. I do not know what demand would be like for this and the price for parts is not too cheap, so based on demand I will have more made according to demand. The board is a 4-layer board and uses an ARM processor.

For those who want one, supplies are limited and providing there is demand we will produce more.

Cost of A500/A600 versions are the same (expected to be ~$79 USD), the only difference between the two of them is the board layout is reversed. I actually haven't tried in an A1000/A2000, I will add this check to the list of things to do.

If you want a 32-bit version for your A1200 (with 2 MB ROM capability) then flood this thread with requests and we can see about completing our design."

Zum Amiga 2000 trug er noch nach:

"I have just tested my A2000 with the Romulator and the results are good. I tied into the reset line for the romulator and was pleasantly surprised I never even had to solder the reset line, it fits snugly underneath R201.

This is not meant to be used in competition/combination with the Vampire, I consider this an affordable option for the masses who want to just play games swapping ROMs on the fly for maximum compatibility.

So you can see [the original post also includes pictures, editor's note] the new Gotek and the Romulator will sit under the A2000 PSU with lots of clearance. I will create a faceplate for the Gotek so that the OLED can sit in the front of the A2000 with a small button plate, so we are set. :-)

Should be easy enough to tap into the sync and Green line for the OSD display. We can use the big or small OLED. If someone beats me to make a 3D print model for one I will be very grateful. I am done for the night, too much beer. :-)

Just taking another look, the A600 version would probably fit better as it would not interfere with Agnus and you can do the 2MB add-on with... (What's its name, LOL, can't remember.)" (snx) (Translation: dr)

[News message: 04. Aug. 2019, 08:49] [Comments: 0]
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