I had a quick look at a datasheet for a 62256 type RAM and sure enough there it is - the schematic shows a gate which overrides OE if WE is asserted. I never noticed that before. You learn something new every day. It just never occurred to me to have OE and WE asserted at the same time.

It's not about giving up. Think about what you want to build... in many cases, start with someone else's proven design and go and build it... even this route may have it's challenges, but at least you'll have a solid chance of getting it working. Once you have a working machine, you can start modifying it, adding to it, etc.

You already have a handful of parts... use them. Take your time, don't be so anxious to make a PCB and load it up with parts. Look at the projects page on the forum, look at what other folks have built, and look to understand how the circuit works and why. Some good learning and you'll gain a much better grasp of how to get something working.

And there's a ton of support here as well.

_________________
Regards, KM
https://github.com/floobydust

Indeed, it is helpful. I really didn’t think the jump from breadboard to PCB would be so messy. I’ve breadboarded all of this, but translating bb to silicon is not as smooth as I thought it would be.

First issue I need to solve, one step at a time, is learning how to do my 0.1uF capacitors. Then I can get to the rest. That seems to be the root of my whole “what happened to my VCC?” problem. That is, when I go from schematic to pcb, all my VCCs become GNDs.

Jon