Hardware

Hardware addons and modifications have a long history on C64 and C128. Shortly after the release of the C64 to the public the greatest public demand seemed to be faster loading systems. Companies therefore published several speed loaders and Epyx even had/has a trademark on 'Fast Load' in the USA. So called memory dumpers or freezers became popular a little later. Naturally when the industry protected newer game generations with better protections and loading systems to avoid piracy also the demand for better freezing systems raised. Kernel modifications are quite limited on space and the desire for a little more comfort made RAM and ROM based cartridges with multiple functions popular very quickly.

The following chart shows what current researches on these multi function carts (also referred to as 'SuperCarts' or simply 'Freezers') have yielded in regards of time and versioning. The listed carts are also the ones mainly exposed on this wiki.

Freezers

Click the bar names to get to the related article

Cartridge FAQ

A few other interesting topics we will be looking into will be:

• Cartridge and expansion port maintenance hints
• Cartridge conversion and usage
• Cartridge creation
• Cartridge dumping

Kernal ROM replacements, mods and floppy speeders

• Cockroach Turbo ROM
• Turbo ROM II - NTSC version known as Mercury 3
• Dolphin DOS
• ExOS (also available as cartridge)
• Jiffy DOS
  • PiffyDOS
  • SJiffyDOS
• Prologic DOS
• Professional DOS and RapiDOS
• Speed DOS
• TurboAccess/TurboProcess/TurboTrans

Common cartridge based speeders

There are literally tons of these speeders so we picked a few popular ones:

• Epyx Fast Load
• MACH5
• StarDOS
• Super Explode 5 (by Datel)
• WarpSpeed

Additional information

• Ethernet Interfaces
• REU RAM Expansion Units
• RS-232 Interfaces
• Port Expanders
• Kernal switching boards
• Parallel cables