ROM-inator Resurrections

Kay K.M.Mods

Active Tinkerer
Sep 23, 2021
296
653
93
Tokyo
www.kerosmm.com
It's well known to macintosh enthusiasts that on Vintage Macs, ROM upgrades are needed to be easier to use than CPU upgrades and memory expansions.
rominator-re.jpg

BMOW sold the first ROM-inator as a kit for Plus, 512k, 128k, but now it is open source and you can only make it yourself. To produce it, you need to purchase a ROM programmer and request a PCB production from a Gerber file to a PCB company, which is too costly for users who only need a ROM-inator. But I wanted to challenge them, so I decided to make an open source PCB, program the ROM and enjoy it.

* BMOW still sells a highly compatible ROM card called ROM-inator II, which can be used for SE/30 and IIci or more. These enable ROM Disk Boot, checksum cancellation (quick boot), HD20 (old style HD connected to the FD connector), and Mode32 (32Bit clean). We recommend trying this on a Mac with a ROM-SIMM slot.

My friend @JDW looked at my ROM-inator and said he wanted to install it on his 512K. I had a stock of parts, so I programmed the ROM and send him the kit. And he completed a great YouTube video and taught people how to make it.


I thought it would be a waste to bury this, so I decided to sell this kit. With the help of BMOW's Steve Chamberlin, the kit will complete very soon.
IMG_7110.jpeg

Price:
Basic Kits start at 29 USD...
The original price was 29 USD. I wanted to get this as close as possible, but I think it would be as high as 4 USD for custom pins and other expenses for low profile. This is largely due to my absence in the United States and the fact that I have to pay PayPal a 2 USD fee every time I convert to JPY.
However this is the case for the full kit, if you want to prepare the pins yourself, we have prepared an economy kit, so we will sell it for 29 USD. You need to prepare the IC socket, the machine pin to be installed on the logic board, and the wiring material by yourself.

Sales:
As for the selling method, I'm new to this point, so I'll probably choose Tindie or the direct selling method. You can use PayPal for payment.

Improvement:
As @JDW noted in the video (he was having a hard time), we improved the point that it is difficult to install because the position of the ROM-inator becomes high.
Especially at 128K / 512K, it collides with the head of ROM due to the protrusion of the chassis. To avoid this, we have prepared a low profile custom pin. * The cost is a bit higher because of this, but better than the buyer struggles.
The first batch will use Steve's PCB, but eventually we'll switch to the PCB that @Stephen is working on. It's still in the prototype stage and works, but wasn't adopted in the first batch because physical conflicts are unavoidable.

IMG_7108.jpeg


 

Kay K.M.Mods

Active Tinkerer
Sep 23, 2021
296
653
93
Tokyo
www.kerosmm.com
Very cool! As far as compatibility, can we assume it'll work with the same systems as the original BMOW system requirements state? ❔
Hi Mac84,
Exactly. The ROM has been improved based on 128K ROM3, but it seems that it was known from the beginning that it can be used up to 512K and Plus.
And there is only one improvement in Resurrections. Originally, the ROM disk system pre-installed with BMOW was 6.0.8. But we only make this 3.2 for 128K. This is because ROM cannot be flashed at 128K. This allows the user to choose at the time of purchase. The standard ROM is set to 6.0.8.
 

JDW

Administrator
Staff member
Founder
Sep 2, 2021
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I just posted a new video that takes a deep look at how to make longer boot chimes for ROM-inator Resurrections. I hope this increases interest and enthusiasm about the little device, which I personally think is nothing short of fantastic!

 

nottomhanks

Tinkerer
Oct 31, 2021
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A friend of mine told me about this video. I am COMPLETELY STOKED for this. One thing I didn't like about previous ROMs because the memory space was too short to accommodate the cooler longer startup sounds. Recently purchased several 8Mb Rims and a programmer, so I will be looking forward to getting some way cool sounds happening on my older souped up SE/30s!! Thanks @JDW !!!
 

JDW

Administrator
Staff member
Founder
Sep 2, 2021
1,584
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youtube.com
Also, shoutout to David Mounder for the incredible boot chime music. VERY WELL DONE!!
I was really hoping someone would comment on that, so thank you! You are the first to have noticed and commented about it, so far. I really do think he did fantastic work, and it was just by happenstance I even came across his music in the first place. It certainly added a lot to the video, I think. Picking background music is always hard and time consuming, but David Mounder sure made the job easier this time!

For the rest of reading this, I should point out that the video is not only for people who want to make Long Boot Chimes. It's a full tutorial on importing things into Mini vMac. And to do that, I created extremely useful disk images for you, and provided the absolute best way to protect the files during import (via Mini vMac's ImportFL app inside Mini vMac). So it's also a tutorial on how to make" legacy SIT files" with a modern Mac which can be decompressed using Stuffit Expander v5.5.

Since Stuffit Deluxe 16 is now abandonware (and has been since 2019), I uploaded my copy to the Garden for all to use. What's really great is that the software still works now in 2024, even under macOS Sonoma on an Apple Silicone Mac! I also hand-crafted a hi-DPI menubar icon so it doesn't look absolute silly on the displays of modern Macs. I wanted to share the icon love way back in the day when Smith Micro still sold the software, telling them they could use my hi-DPI icon in the software without the need to even mention me, but they never replied back or used it, which I always found odd. Anyway, I included that menubar icon in the Stuffit Deluxe 16 page on Macintosh Garden and provided instructions on how to install it.

Lastly, I would like to emphasize that Kay Koba is a true asset to the community by having Resurrected the ROM-inanator and improving it over time. And his Fat Mac Switcher is the perfect complement to it. It's really a must-have duo of products for every Macintosh 128K, 512K and Plus! Keep up the great work, Kay!
 
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