PlusCart (an inexpensive DIY WiFi multicart)

[Al_Nafuur]

This is a thread to discuss the development and ask questions about the PlusCart(+) open source project.

The Atari 2600 PlusCart is based on Robin Edwards Unocart-2600 , and the extensions of DirtyHairy's fork. The PlusCart has no SD-Card, but an ESP8266 to connect to a local WiFi Network and the Internet. The PlusCart downloads the ROM-files from a server in the Internet called the "PlusStore". The way this is done is similar to the way the Unocart-2600 loads ROMs from the FAT filesystem on the SD-card, while the VCS is performing a wait routine in RAM.

Additionally the PlusCart has one more interesting feature. It offers internet access to the ROM Developers, these functions are called "PlusROM". In the first bytes of a PlusROM the path and the backend hostname or IP address has to be encoded (as strings both terminated by '\0'). Sending and receiving bytes to the host does not need a waitroutine in the VCS RAM! At the moment the PlusROM functions can be used at 2K, 4K, 3F, 3E and 3E+ cartridges and any standard bankswitching cartridge with or without 128 bytes of RAM (@ 1000 to 10FF) and a 'Standard' F4 Bankswitching (@ 1FF4 to 1FFB).

more info at: https://pluscart.firmaplus.de
Source: https://gitlab.com/firmaplus/atari-2600-pluscart
Shop: https://pluscart.onlineweb.shop
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@pluscart7741