Action Replay

Action Replay Screenshots
Technical Info
ROM	MK1 - MK3: 16 kbyte MK4, v4.x - v6: 32 kbyte
RAM	MK1 - MK4: None v4.x - v6: 8 kbyte
Hardware features	MK1/MK2: 1 Button Freeze 1 optional switch Diskmate ROM MK3 - v6: 1 Button Freeze 1 Button Reset
Manual	PDF: 21 pages english PDF: 30 pages english PDF: 18 pages german PDF: 19 pages italian Action Replay MK6 Manual Project64.txt Action Cartridge v6 german Manual iDOC.txt
CRT ID	MK1/MK2: XX MK3: XX MK4: XX v4.x - v6: XX
Programming	See Tech Section and todo - Extension Programming

The Action Replay cartridge series developed by Datel was released in the middle of 1986 and got several updates during the years. MK1 and MK2 likely (we cannot confirm this yet) share the same hardware base. The ROM dumps are not carrying version numbers so this is a guess and explains our labeling of the binaries in the archive with MK2 v1 and MK2 v2. Those may well be MK1 and MK2.

MK3 introduced a hardware change and the ROM was largely rewritten. It appears the continous usage of even tiny menus on the earlier available Final Cartridge I and II encouraged the developers to add such things as well.

MK4 extended the hardware even further so it now allowed banking. The ROM size also increased from 16 kbyte to 32 kbyte with this update. For the astonishing aspect of this hardware please see below.

v4, as we labeled it, (or v4.x to suggest anything after this ROM release) also carries 32 kbyte of ROM but finally got 8 kbyte of RAM added. There are several different versions of this hardware, but they all work and act the same (see also: Action Replay v5/v6 Tech).

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Action Replay and various code-based clones such as Nordic Power and Action Cartridge later became a de facto standard for most c64 sceners and users.

While each cart has it's pros and cons, the Action Replay series soon has prooven to be the most reliable and usable one for everyday work.

... and it has it's bugs as well ofcourse ...

Let's try to sort out the different versions of the Action Replay ROM Software. Over the past years I always used a simple own mod of a PAL English V5.0 and when surfing the net and through the years I stumbled over more and more versions of the cart, but when finally comparing all these versions, I found that there wasn't really anything major done. Only Datel managed to do more or less major changes to the cartridge software.

English PAL Versions starting with 4.1 up to 5.0 and 6.0 share the same hardware base, meaning the ROMs can be modified and cross-used. The Pro or even Professional doesn't really mean anything here.

There are several sub-versions of the english 5.2 aswell, but they strangely enough appear to be changes from the 4.2 versions without the major code update which happened towards the official 5.0 version. This seems to be partly caused by incorrect or confusing numbering from Toolkit and fastload version numbers.

From 4.2 to 5.0 the screen text editor on the freezer was added along with some basic f-key changes. Several bugs were removed and some added aswell. The 4.2 versions don't contain Freeze- and Break-Points and the possibility to restart the loaded parameter files, but these versions come with the nova-copier.

Version 5 ROMs contain several bugs which were introduced with the Freeze- and Break- Points. ZAP was removed from the Basic Extension aswell as the Novaload Copier from the Toolkit menu. Finally the Pokefinder was added along with the Screen Editor.

Version 6 ROMs which were sold and spread the most as it seems, contain the same bugs as the version 5 ROMs, but are reduced message-wise on the nova load copier and extended only with the new copyright message. Most hardcore sceners prefer the blue v5 screen over the white v6 screen, afaik. There was no major code change towards this revision, so sticking to v5 on older hardware is probably the best idea.

The german versions found on the net and from people, differ from the version numbering quite a lot and I found 4.2 versions named v5 in german. German v6 and v6 Professional versions seem to be a straight translation of the english v6.

There are bad german v6 hacks though, so beware ... :)

The Triad, Fairlight, Triumwyrat and alike mods found on the net are basically just text changes, FKey changes and sometimes 'Are You Sure?' removed. The binary archive is sorting these under ROM Clones.

Tech

Action Replay MK1

unknown

Action Replay MK2

The following is shamelessly ripped from actionreplay2.c from the VICE emulator. Most of the text was written by Groepaz:

    Short Instructions:

    after reset, there dont seem to be any basic extensions, just a fastloader

    press freeze, then:
    - F1 / F2     Reset to Fastload
    - F7 / F8     Restart
    - left Arrow  normal Reset (Cartridge disabled)
    - F           Novaload Tape Transfer
    - D           Backup to Disk
    - M           Backup to Disk
    - S           Backup to Disk
    - C           Code Inspector
    - T           Backup to Tape
    - X           Backup to Tape
    - B           Hires Saver
    - H           Koala Saver 

    Technical:

    - Freeze Button, Reset Button. rumours are that there exist ARs with a switch too
    - 16k ROM, 2*8kb banks

    io1:

    - is accessed in a loop, probably to re-enable the rom. however how exactly it does
      that remains unclear.

    io2:

    - last page of selected rom bank is visible here
    - accesses disable the ROM

Action Replay MK3

• 2*8kb (16k) ROM

The following is shamelessly ripped from actionreplay3.c from the VICE emulator. Most of the text was written by Groepaz:

    io1 (writes)

    bit 3 - exrom
    bit 2 - disable
    bit 1 - unused
    bit 0 - bank

Action Replay MK4

• 4*8K ROM (32K)

$de00 control register
  bit 0: Eprom banking bit 0 (bank address 13)
  bit 1: controls the GAME line (0 sets GAME low, 1 sets GAME high)
  bit 2: Freeze-end bit (disables the register and hides any rom bank)
  bit 3: controls the Exrom line (1 sets EXROM low, 0 sets EXROM high)
  bit 4: Eprom banking bit 1 (bank address 14)
  bit 5 to 7: unused.

Action Replay v4.x

• 4*8K ROM (32K)
• 8K RAM

The following is shamelessly ripped from actionreplay.c from the VICE emulator. Most of the text was written by Groepaz:

    io1 (writes)

    7    extra ROM bank selector (A15) (unused)
    6    1 = resets FREEZE-mode (turns back to normal mode)
    5    1 = enable RAM at ROML ($8000-$9FFF) &
            I/O2 ($DF00-$DFFF = $9F00-$9FFF)
    4    ROM bank selector high (A14)
    3    ROM bank selector low  (A13)
    2    1 = disable cartridge (turn off $DE00)
    1    1 = /EXROM high
    0    1 = /GAME low

    io2 (r/w)
        cart RAM (if enabled) or cart ROM

Note: Any I/O1 read access (thats $DE00 - $DEFF) will crash a C64 with Action Replay hardware enabled! Emulators tend to not emulate this feature.

Action Replay v5/v6

• 4*8K ROM (32K)
• 8K RAM

The last board revision has a custom chip instead of the TTL logic and often but not always a mask ROM instead of the eprom. There have several Action Replay v5 firmwares been spotted on old and new hardware. Basically you are better off with the eprom version which allows modding whenever you are interested in such things.

All of the technical description of the Action Replay 4.x series remains unchanged.

Missing

• ANY ROM dump not on the archive - especially verified MK1 and MK2 dumps
• ANY scanned manual - the ones online are (except for maybe the italian) in exceptionally bad quality
• ANY missing Extensions
• ANY missing software using the cartridge RAM

Binaries

• tbd

Weblinks

• RECOLLECTION #1 C64 Legends
• RECOLLECTION #2 Protection Analysis