Compatible EPROMs for Dragon Game Cartridges?

[zephyr]

Does anyone know which EPROM chips would be suitable direct replacements for the 4K (TMS2532-55 JL) and 8K (Unknown?) Dragon Game Cartridge ROMs?

[KenH]

On which cartridge did you find this EPROM? Is it socketed?

Found some interesting info about the TMS2532
Apparantly this is a TI eprom which is not interchangeable with the intel compatible eproms.
Fortunately you can still find TMS2532 in ebay.


http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/80532 ... prom-eprom

The 25xx series is almost exclusively Texas Instrument TMS Eproms.

As the story goes, TI developed the TMS-2716 (2K Eprom),
but like the 2708 before it, it needed three voltages sources
to program/use them . This was more complicated and therefore more
expensive.

At roughly the same time, Intel also launched "their" 2716 chip
which was different than the TMS-2716 in that it only needed
a single voltage to program (25v) and a 5V to operate.
The Intel pinout was also a bit different than the TMS pinout.

Akin to the Beta Vs. VHS battle, only one could survive
and Intel proved to be the more popular, and thus, most
other manufacturers produced Intel-like 2716.

Bowing to pressure, TI also produced an Intel-like chip
but could not call it 2716 since they already had a 2716.
So they identified it as the TMS-2516.
And thus was born the 25xx series.

Unfortunately, the story doesn't end there...

After the 2K chips came the 4K chips (xx32)

Intel simply used the same pinout as it's 2716
and added an extra addressing pin, thus the 2732.

TI again decided to use a different pinout
and to differentiate itself from the Intel 2732,
it named it the TMS-2532.

So 2532 != 2732

Virtually all 2532 you'll find are TI chips.
Only very few manufacturers other than TI made 2532

[zephyr]

On which cartridge did you find this EPROM?

I found two of the 4K EPROM chips in an original Dragon Data game (Starship Chameleon) cartridge.

Does anyone know which ROM/EPROM chips were used for the twin 8K ROM game cartridges?

Is it socketed?

Yes, both are socketed. I have seen inside around half a dozen Dragon game cartridges over the years, and all of them had socketed EPROM chips.

[rolfmichelsen]

I did a quick check, and it looks like all my old Dragon Data game cartridges use one or two TMS2532 EPROMS. The DragonDos disk controller uses a single 2764 EPROM. The Compusense DASM/DEMON cartridge uses a single 2764 EPROM, but the PCB actually seems to have space for two of these. As pointed out earlier, the TMS2532 is almost but not quite pin compatible with the more common 2732 family of EPROMs.

www.alldatasheet.com is a good source for datasheets if you want to look into the specifics.

-- Rolf

[zephyr]

Thanks for checking, Rolf. That's very useful information.

I always thought there were 8K and 16K game cartridges. Your findings make it look like 16K Dragon game cartridges may never have existed.