Chakkari Copy Epson

By Maggoo

Paragon (1217)

30-09-2013, 04:05

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MSX-CHAKKARI-COPY-EPSON-Import-Japan...

Never saw that cartridge before. Does anyone know what this is and what those switches are for ?

By Manuel

Ascended (19303)

30-09-2013, 09:51

ちゃっかい COPY? Chuckly Copy? It seems to be a screen dumping cartridge.

If someone here purchases it... I'd be very interested to contact him about dumping its ROM

But they seem to have the spelling wrong (last character of Chakkari).

By anonymous

incognito ergo sum (116)

30-09-2013, 10:46

I think it's a good moment saving the pictures from eBay and adding them to Generation MSX. Who knows perhaps this is the last opportunity to see this cartridge.

By Randam

Paragon (1431)

30-09-2013, 21:47

@Manuel: who do you think has the spelling wrong? Both the lable and the various screenshots you point to have the correct title: ちゃっかりCopy. Tagoo has a typo in the hiragana title (ち instead of り). Chakkari can mean shrewd for instance (most likely option judging from what it does). I did a quick search and it is stated on the box it is a colour screen copy program: i.e. a screenshot program. In a small description I found further on is that you put a game cart in one slot and this program in the other. You can then store screenshot(s) in the program's internal memory (maybe you can save it to disk too?) and print it out on an epson printer. Hope that helps.

By Manuel

Ascended (19303)

30-09-2013, 22:19

Randam: because that last character before COPY looks like "い" to me, and not like "り"... you think differently?

By Randam

Paragon (1431)

30-09-2013, 22:02

Yeah it's most definitely a り and not an い. The left stroke is shorter than the right one... Also the fact that japanese sources call it Chakkari is a dead giveaway.
Besides it has a very proper and understandable meaning as Chakkari Copy...

By Manuel

Ascended (19303)

30-09-2013, 22:19

Wait a sec... it looks like り in the font I'm using now is rendered quite differently than I see on the internet in hiragana tables... The one I see has the left and right part connected via a connecting stroke. Looks like that's the origin of my confusion! So, never mind

By Randam

Paragon (1431)

01-10-2013, 20:31

Depending on font (design) or resolution a number of characters can look a bit different from your font like ki, sa, chi or they can look like a katakana character (for instance ra similar to u). And there are even simplified kanji which don't look like the complex kanji they represent. Just to keep in mind.

By enribar

Paragon (1206)

16-07-2015, 13:08

Ok so... today or tomorrow a Chakkari Copy cartridge plus the Epson Printiris PI-40 (dedicated MSX printer) should arrive to me!
Takamichi investigated the funcionalities, this is how this amazing piece of hardware works:
- put Chakkari in slot 1 and any other cart into slot 2;
- boot the MSX and the Chakkari starts showing its logo (as you can see in the Generation-msx page);
- press return on the MSX, and the cart in slot 2 starts working (and the Epson PI-40 printer driver is choosen);
- Chakkari has 2 buttons on top and 1 switch;
- (Takamichi : "about the RAM, this cartridge has a toggle switch and the sticker suggests that when the toggle switch is set to RAM, the cartridge works not as "screenshot printer" but as extension RAM. But I could not confirm it");
- press right button to pause cart execution, and (maybe) Chakkari takes a screenshots of what you see and saves it into MSX RAM (this is a supposition);
- press left button to print the screenshot with the Epson PI-40.

Some points:
- it is unclear if this cart works with the MSX1 generation, since it does a sort of hardware pause of the MSX (this would be an advanced feature, I think! It works like the one of the Game Master);
- it is unclear if the screenshot is saved into the MSX RAM or into the cart RAM;
- it is unclear if the cart works with other printers than the Epson PI-40 (Takamichi : "about other printer, there are other printer names, JP-80 and SP-80 in the Chakkari Copy menu.");
- Chakkari ROM has already been preserved but with a wrong mapper/size (64KB), so I have to re-dump by my own (16KB only).
More informations will come when I'll do experiments.

Some links:
http://blog.naver.com/PostThumbnailView.nhn?blogId=frogboy73...
http://web1.twitpic.com/9hebtx
Takamichi : "I found interesting page about the D4016C-2 chip in Chakkari Copy board. In MSX1 times having a RAM in a game cartridge was quite common http://www.retro-kit.co.uk/user/custom/Acorn/3rdParty/VELA/d... "
Epson SP-80 printer advertising: http://f.hatena.ne.jp/frontline/20120630113022 (Takamichi: "Epson still sells ink for JP-80 and SP-80")

By Manuel

Ascended (19303)

16-07-2015, 22:44

Oh, great! Keep us posted!

By enribar

Paragon (1206)

09-08-2015, 16:47

Big improvements in investigating and improving emulation of Chakkari!
Very advanced cartridge for that time!
Stay tuned...