Following the release of the SIDE3 cartridge in September 2020, development of the SIDE3 Loader has been ongoing, and in July 2021 I embarked on a considerable re-write which resulted in the loader having full read/write access to FAT partitions on the SD card. Not only this, but the UI was enhanced with context menus and drop-down lists, and the loader gained a full complement of file management tools, including a recursive copier and the ability to create new disk images ‘on the fly’. Moreover, the read-only ‘mini FAT DOS’ present in older versions of the loader was replaced by a complete CIO DOS with read/write capability and a command processor.
SIDE3 Beta Loader
The FATFMS disk operating system
Below is a (not exhaustive) overview the features now on offer:
- Read/write support for up to eight FAT partitions with long filenames
- 64KB FAT directory buffer allowing the browsing 1,024 files per folder
- Fast recursive search facility
- Intuitive context menu system
- CAR/ROM file loading, ATR mounting, XEX loading
- Powerful file management tools (recursive file copier, delete, rename, etc)
- Windows-style cut/copy/paste facilities and keyboard shortcuts
- PDM audio playback
- BASIC file loading
- Built-in FATFMS (an Atari/SpartaDOS FAT workalike with CLI)
- Autorun facility
- Bookmarks/favourites
- Launcher shortcuts and aliases (with hotkey launching)
- Disk image creation
- History (remembers your most recently used XEX, ATR and CAR files)
- Support for SD cards/FAT partitions of up to 128GB
- Time/date stamping of new and modified files (via real-time clock)
- Simultaneous HDD/ATR/CAR emulation
- Bootable, OS-level disk image and HDD support with U1MB when present
- Limited ATR support without U1MB
- Remember the last accessed partition, folder, or file
Below is a table which compares the features offered by several popular multi-cart solutions:
Lotharek’s Discontinuation of SIDE3
In July 2024, following my discovery of stability issues with ‘JED 2.3’ on GoWin CPLD-equipped retail SIDE 3.2 cartridges and my attempts to resolve the problem privately apparently having fallen on deaf ears, Lotharek decided discontinue not only SIDE3 but all ‘FJC firmware’ products, with only residual stock of SIDE 3.2 and ‘Incognito Gold’ being sold at the time of writing. Fortunately, Candle O’Sin is now selling SIDE 3.3 at PCBWay, and you can browse this and more of Candle’s products here.
You can read more about the circumstances of SIDE3’s withdrawal here.
SIDE3 Loader Download
Latest build:
Includes:
- SIMCovox support
- Fix for cartridge mounting bug
- UI fixes
- JED 1.3 update (run with ‘X’ under SpartaDOS X)
See changelog for full details. Note that the latest loader works equally well with JED 1.1 and 1.3.
JED Updates
Following the rediscovery of the early ‘JED version 1.0’ for SIDE 3.0, please find below XEX JED updates 1.0, 1.1 and 1.3 for Lattice SIDE 3.0/3.1 cartridges (blue or black PCB), and ‘fs’ GoWin FPGA updates for SIDE 3.2 (purple PCB).
Note: it’s not advisable to flash JED 1.0 or 1.1 to a SIDE 3.1 (black PCB) owing to the fact you may lose features/functionality (8MB of SRAM, etc).
Note the GoWin updates require the GoWin platform dongle, while Lattice ‘JED’ updates should be launched directly from the loader, or from the SDX command prompt (preceded by ‘X’ on the command line).
IMPORTANT – READ FIRST!
You do not need to update the JED if your SIDE3 already works satisfactorily. Only update from JED 1.1 to 1.3 if you’re experiencing stability issues. Moreover, the JED update only works on SIDE 3.0 and 3.1 cartridges with LATTICE CPLDs. These are generally the blue or black PCBs. Purple PCBs are equipped with GoWin CPLDs which all have JED 1.3 already applied and cannot receive JED updates via software. HOWEVER, recent GoWin CPLD SIDE 3.2s ship with JED 2.3, which is specific to the GoWin-equipped boards. JED 2.3 has been observed to create stability issues not present with JED 1.3 on some machines, so if your SIDE3 (of any generation) already has JED 1.3, I strongly advise you to leave it alone if it is already working reliably.
Older versions
SIDE3 Loader Beta 0.67c 010822