Tomy Tutor Diagnostics

[robert_sissco]

I got a Tomy Tutor not to long ago, and I was wondering if there is a diagnostic ROM that would work with it, either for the Tomy Tutor directly or a TI-99 ROM that will work for it.

In addition, is there a known place that you can buy/print blank PCB's for the Tomy Tutor Cartridges? I have seen the Ultimate Cartridge someone made a few years ago, but mine is an American Tomy Tutor and the developer says it will only with the first model Japanese Putya's.

 

[ClassicHasClass]

There are PCBs available, but I'll let their developer speak up if so inclined (they are a member here).

I have not seen a diagnostic ROM for the Tutor personally, though since the machine will not let you start a cartridge unless the menu can come up, a plain cartridge is likely of little utility. You'd probably want to have something that attaches to the I/O port and banks the ROMs out for its own, or replace the internal ROMs with a test ROM. The test ROM itself wouldn't have to be very complicated as the Tutor doesn't have a whole lot of hardware.

 

[robert_sissco]

You'd probably want to have something that attaches to the I/O port and banks the ROMs out for its own.

That is actually what I meant when I said cartridge, because I was researching this and found what t hey call the universal/ultimate cartridge, but like you said it is something that attached to the I/O port, meaning that it is not a cartridge in the truest sense.

 

[Istarian]

The TI-99 or at least the /4, /4A variants, uses GROM cartridges which generally contain GPL code rather than straight assembly language for the TMS 9900.

My impression has been that, generally speaking, you cannot run any other kind of code through the "cartridge" slot.

 

[ClassicHasClass]

@Istarian The Tutor is different in this regard: while it has GPL, it is solely for implementing BASIC and does not use GROMs, and Tomy cartridges are written in 100% 9995 assembly language.

@robert_sissco What device are you referring to? Something like a BackBit? There is reportedly an adaptor for the Tutor and I am told it does connect to the I/O port.

 

[robert_sissco]

@robert_sissco What device are you referring to? Something like a BackBit? There is reportedly an adaptor for the Tutor and I am told it does connect to the I/O port.

This is what I was referring to.

Tomy Tutor/Pyuuta - ULTIMATE MULTICART

I finally found some time the last couple of months and created the ULTIMATE MULTICART for the Tomy Tutor/Pyuuta console. It's basically a...

team-europe.blogspot.com

 

[ClassicHasClass]

Ah, OK. That unit is a combo of their two first multicarts, one that went in the cartridge slot and another that required their Game Adaptor clone to connect to the I/O port (larger ROMs). This one combines the Game Adaptor with the other two cartridges. Note that the Game Adaptor and this Team Europe clone are purely passive (they simply connect the additional addressing line to the bus) and cannot bank out the system ROMs. You'd need a circuit similar to the Pyuuta BASIC-1 unit to do that.

 

[Ksarul]

I have new, single cartridge boards for the Pyuuta/Tomy Tutor, in three variants: 8K boards, 16K boards, and 32K boards. All three function the same way as the original Tomy boards did to ensure full compatibility with existing software and all but two homebrew cartridges (DoorDoor and TI Scramble, as they both require both RAM and ROM in the cartridge space). The 32K boards do require an adapter to connect to the bus, as they use one more address line than is available on the cartridge port. The original Tomy adaptor (yes, they spell it that way) works fine on a Tutor, as I did my 32K testing on one. These boards are in the proper size/form factor to use in a TI-99/4A cartridge case, as it is an ideal replacement for the original Tomy cases. The portion of the cartridge case that inserts into the cartridge port is identical to the TI, as is the up/down orientation of the board inside the case and the needed number of pins to connect to the bus. The pictures show one of the cartridges in the Game Adaptor, a screen shot of it working, and a box with a near-complete collection of the Pyuuta homebrew cartridges I made for my own use with the games inufuto has done for the system. The boards pictured are the 16K (Red) and 32k (Blue) varieties.

 

[ClassicHasClass]

They are very nice, too! Thanks, Jim!