Starting in the late 1980’s I began producing cartridges for the Commodore 64, at first these were is small quantities and for custom projects but as time went on I improved the design and started manufacturing very high-quality boards for the retro Commodore community. These cartridges have been sold in over 60 countries, and many fantastic products have been made using them.
Below you’ll find detailed information on each of the cartridge boards that Alphaworks produced along with manuals and other technical documents including the Protel CAD files which you can use to manufacture your very own cartridge boards.
16 Development Cartridge
The 16K Development Cartridge was designed to fill a need where hackers wanted a quick and easy way to test both 8K and 16K cartridges. By using the four dip switches, you could instantly configure the cartridge to be one or the other.
Alphaworks 8K – Rev 3 Cartridge Board
By far the most popular cartridge board we manufactured, the 8K Rev -3. Produced in high qualities over an extended period (entirely Australian designed and Manufactured). This cartridge has been used to create hundreds of different products for the Commodore 64 and is still available under license in the UK, USA, and Austrailia.
If you are interested in building cartridges for the Commodore 64 or 128, then the following information should help you achieve your goals.
Alphaworks 8K – Rev 3 Manual
A two-page instruction guide on how to use the 8K cartridge PCB along with source code on making your program auto-boot
Alphaworks 8/16K Rev 2 Manual
A three-page instruction guide on how to use the 8/16K development cartridge PCB along with source code for auto-booting both an 8K and 16K cartridge.
16K Rev 1 Cartridge Diagram
Our initial 16K Commodore 64 cartridge design which was capable of using a single 27128 EPROM. Using this diagram you can modify an 8K – Rev 3 cartridge.
8K Rev 1 Cartridge Diagram
Our initial 8K Commodore 64 cartridge design which is capable of supporting a 2764 EPROM. This cartridge can be modified to work with a C128 by disconnecting the EXROM line which normally forces the C128 into C64 mode.
8K Rev 1 Cartridge Diagram (Commodore 128)
We only made a small number of C128 cartridges; the first was a simple 8K design which looks like the C64 design but has the EXROM line missing thus allow the C128 to boot into 128 mode.
16K Rev 1 Cartridge Diagram (Commodore 128)
We designed a full 16K C128 Cartridge and thoroughly tested on both a C128 and C128D unfortunately only a couple of prototypes were produced due to low demand.