First post, by Retroplayer
Well, rather, bringing it back. The IBM PC Jr. was the only system I am aware of which had cartridge slots and it is probably very obvious why it never took off. I mean why would you go with expensive cartridge software when you had floppy and hard drives? Disks were cheaper than ROM, but nowadays memory (especially in the sizes we would be talking about) is cheap.
But there is just something special about cartridges that feels more significant. Console gamers understand this. There is something more tangible about holding the software in your hand. It is the artwork on the label and the boxes as well. Something feels more substantial about it.
Apparently the PC Jr. system cartridges worked much like ISA cards and placed the ROM in the extension ROM area typically occupied by Cassette basic. This allowed it to hook and auto-execute then take over the system. I haven't researched any further, but I imagine that the address decoding hardware was probably already present on the motherboard so it didn't need to be in the cartridge or require the entire ISA bus.
There really is no practical reason for doing this, of course. Maybe just the coolness factor of it. Maybe just to see what the homebrew community would do with this with polished packages.
To implement something like this today, I would envision an ISA and/or PCI card extended to a 3.5" bay slot and developing a standard for 3D printed cartridge cases and slot and pinout.
Ridiculous idea?
