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RCA Studio 2 Binary Dump Cartridge Format
Last updated 16th September 2000
The Cartridge Dumps for the RCA Studio 2 are stored as
follows. There
are a sequence of 256 byte blocks, each of which can be loaded to any
allowable
page in the 64k ROM space. In practice this is 400-7FF, A00-BFF and
E00-FFF
in each 4k page block. This is not used for the BIOS ROM which is
stored
as a binary dump. I wanted something slightly more informative :)
The majority of these fields are for information only. They
can be displayed
by emulators if you so wish.
The first 256 byte block contains the header details, the next
one is
the first code block. All unused bytes in the header should be set to
$00.
| Offset |
Contents |
Reqd |
Notes |
| 0-3 |
Header |
Y |
RCA2 in ASCII code |
| 4 |
Blocks |
Y |
Total number of 256 byte blocks in file (including this
one) |
| 5 |
Format |
Y |
Format Code (this is format number 1) |
| 6 |
Video |
Y |
If non-zero uses a special video driver, and programs
cannot assume
that it uses the standard Studio 2 one (top of screen at $0900+RB.0). A
value of '1' here indicates the RAM is used normally, but scrolling is
not (e.g. the top of the page is always at $900). |
| 7 |
- |
|
|
| 8,9 |
Author |
N |
2 byte ASCII code indicating the identity of the
program coder. |
| 10,11 |
Dumper |
N |
2 byte ASCII code indicating the identity of the ROM
Source. |
| 12-15 |
- |
|
|
| 16-25 |
Catalogue |
N |
RCA Catalogue Code as ASCIIZ string. If a homebrew ROM,
may contain
any identifying code you wish. |
| 26-31 |
- |
|
|
| 32-63 |
Title |
N |
Cartridge Program Title as ASCIIZ string. |
| 64-127 |
Block Pages |
Y |
Contain the page addresses for each 256 byte block. The
first byte
at 64, contains the target address of the data at offset 256, the
second
byte contains the target address of the data at offset 512, and so on.
Unused block bytes should be filled with $00 (an invalid page address).
So, if byte 64 contains $1C, the ROM is paged into memory from
$1C00-$1CFF |
| 128-255 |
- |
|
|
| 256 |
Block 1 |
|
(Page address at 64) |
| 512 |
Block 2 |
|
(Page address at 65) |
|
|
|
and so on |
List of authors and dumpers
| Initials |
Name |
Notes |
| PR |
Paul Robson |
Author of the original emulator |
| JD |
John Dondzila |
aka PCJohn ; of multicart fame |
| JW |
Joseph Weisbacker |
The author of the original Studio 2 ROM, and designer
of the Elf |
| AM |
Andrew Modla |
The author of some of the games |
| ?? |
Unknown |
Anyone else. |
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