VIC20 PENULTIMATE CARTRIDGE USER GUIDE

GETTING STARTED

1. Set up your VIC20 as normal

2. With the power off, insert the PENULTIMATE CARTRIDGE into the cartridge slot, label facing upwards
3. Turn the VIC20 on
4. The VIC20 will show the PENULTIMATE CARTRIDGE menu.
5. If it does not, switch off again and check the cartridge is inserted correctly.

NAVIGATION

BUTTONS

 ‘Menu’ – The illuminated left hand button is ‘Menu’, press this at any time to return to the menu.
 ‘Reset’ – The right hand button is ‘Reset’, press this to reset the VIC20 and restart the current option.

JOYSTICK

 Up/Down – scroll through the list of ROM cartridges

 Left/Right – change page
 Fire – Load the currently selected ROM

KEYBOARD

 < >⇑⇓⇐⇒ - change page

 0-9 – load ROM (e.g. if the menu shows 03:Avenger press ‘3’ to load Avenger)
 f1-f6 – Exit to BASIC with various amounts of expanded memory
 f7 – Exit to BASIC with 35K expanded memory and load ‘FB20-8K’ from selected drive
 f8 – Exit to BASIC with 35K expanded memory and load ‘*’ from selected drive
 A – change to advanced menu
 D – change drive to load from (8-11)
 B – shortcut to start BASIC 4 with 27K expanded memory
 V – shortcut to start VICKIT 4+5 with 27K expanded memory

To disable the PENULTIMATE CARTRIDGE, just press f1 to exit to BASIC with no extended RAM and no ROM loaded.

ADVANCED MENU

In the advanced menu you can select the amount of expanded RAM to add to the VIC20, and whether to exit
directly to BASIC, or to load a file browser from disk

 1-8 – Select the amount of memory in each available bank. Total is shown in the right hand column.
 f1 – Exit to BASIC
 f3 – Load file browser from selected drive (‘FB20’, ‘FB20-3k’ or ‘FB20-8k’ as appropriate)
 f5 – Load the default program (‘*’) from the selected drive
 N – Return to the Normal menu
 D – Change drive to load from (8-11)

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VIC20 MEMORY MAP

The VIC20 has an unusual arrangement of memory internally, which limits the amount of RAM which can be added. There
is one block of 3K (block 0) and four blocks of 8K (1,2,3,5). The maximum RAM that can be allocated is therefore 35K. VIC20
BASIC does not recognise RAM in block 5, so this is still shown as ‘28159 BYTES FREE’. The 8K in block 5 can still be used by
programs, or to load cartridge images in from disk.

Most games will load with the full 35K enabled. Some may specifically require 3K or 8K RAM, which can be selected from
the menu. Cartridges such as VICKIT and BASIC 4 occupy block 5, so the maximum expanded RAM that can be added is 27K.

UTILITY ROMS

VICKIT 4+5

The ROM image for VICKIT 4 high speed cassette tools and VICKIT 5 assembler are included on the cartridge, full
instructions can be found online, here is a brief summary.

 ←S “program name” – save program to cassette, with the standard 4 second leader
 ←T “program name” – save program to cassette, with the extended 10 second leader
 ←V “program name” – verify the program has saved correctly
 ←A “program name” – add the program to the currently loaded program
 ←B – Start assembler

BASIC 4

This is an extension of the VIC20’s built in BASIC 2, and features some additional DISK commands, as used on the
Commodore PET range of computers, including these:

 DIRECTORY (or CATALOG) – show a directory listing (similar to LOAD”$”,8 and LIST)
 DLOAD “filename” – equivalent to LOAD “filename”,8
 HEADER “diskname” – format a disk
 RENAME “oldname” TO “newname” – rename a file
 SCRATCH “filename” – erase a file

BASIC 4 also includes wildcard support, so you can use DLOAD “ave*” to save you typing the full name, or SCRATCH “junk*”
to delete all files whose names start with “junk”.

SUPER EXPANDER

The VIC20 Super expander adds graphic and sound commands to VIC20 BASIC. The full manual can be found here.

COPYRIGHT

The PENULTIMATE CARTRIDGE allows you to more easily play cartridge games you already own without having to swap
them in and out. You can also try out other games, and if you like them we encourage you to try to buy the originals if you
can. Most of the software on these ROMs images is over 30 years old, so it is really only the ebay sellers who would
benefit, not the original copyright holders. All of the ROMs included are publically available on the internet. If any of these
infringe your copyright, we will remove them from future releases.

www.thefuturewas8bit.com | www.tynemouthsoftware.co.uk
V0.3 for Cart V5.0D 2016-10-31