Author Topic: Q*bert. A man and his grail... FINISHED !!!  (Read 271172 times)

Capt. Kirk

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Re: Q*bert. A man and his grail... FINISHED !!!
« Reply #525 on: July 29, 2015, 11:26:33 PM »
Great work André,

can't wait to play it at EC15 (and put a descent highscore on the screen :))

Belike

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Re: Q*bert. A man and his grail... FINISHED !!!
« Reply #526 on: July 30, 2015, 10:42:00 AM »
Amazing, cant wait to put on my fingers on it at EC15. ;)

Laszo

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Re: Q*bert. A man and his grail... FINISHED !!!
« Reply #527 on: July 30, 2015, 12:45:05 PM »
Loved following this project. Well done André

Q*ris

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Re: Q*bert. A man and his grail... FINISHED !!!
« Reply #528 on: July 30, 2015, 04:12:30 PM »
Thanks for documenting all this, man, what a ride!
I've already seen the restored cab and all I can say is that it was totally worth it, G_R_E_A_T job !!!

level42

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Re: Q*bert. A man and his grail... FINISHED !!!
« Reply #529 on: July 30, 2015, 04:59:35 PM »
Thanks for all the nice comments guys !!

ricky2001

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Re: Q*bert. A man and his grail... FINISHED !!!
« Reply #530 on: July 31, 2015, 04:37:05 PM »
Hi, Congratulations for such a great job and also many thanks to sharing it with us, in fact your pictures and comments will help me a lot because since some time ago I was collecting Q*bert parts, because I pretend to make me a cabinet from scratch, (I think I can't afford bring one from usa to Spain) and your pictures shows some areas that I didn't see before pictured, so thanks again.

Ricky

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Re: Q*bert. A man and his grail... FINISHED !!!
« Reply #531 on: July 31, 2015, 05:20:16 PM »
Thanks Ricky, glad those pics help, I really needed pics especially for the monitor position too because I had to figure out my own way of mounting it, so it was awesome that people help in that way too, however small it may seem it really means the difference between guessing and knowing :)

Good luck on your project !!!

Franzy21

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Re: Q*bert. A man and his grail... FINISHED !!!
« Reply #532 on: July 31, 2015, 10:43:26 PM »
A true masterpiece of arcade restoration.  :)
Dreaming of a Namco Galaxian waiting in a barn for me... somewhere! A Nintendo Sheriff would also make me happy. And a SNK Sasuke Vs Commanders or a SEGA Samurai... Argh too many; in fact!

level42

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Re: Q*bert. A man and his grail...
« Reply #533 on: August 01, 2015, 12:00:18 PM »
http://www.ukvac.com/forum/arcade-sync-cleaner-pcb-kits-sold-out_topic342785.html?KW=sync+pcb

Original idea here:
http://www.ukvac.com/forum/topic340877.html

It seems that the boards are out of stock, but on the other hand it shouldn't be too difficult (and good practice) to make it myself. Could you post good pictures of your bare board, front and back, so I have an idea about difficulty rate?


ckong

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Re: Q*bert. A man and his grail... FINISHED !!!
« Reply #534 on: August 01, 2015, 02:06:28 PM »
thanks.

level42

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Re: Q*bert. A man and his grail... FINISHED !!!
« Reply #535 on: August 07, 2015, 12:05:59 AM »
Erik, (and everybody else) forget about this board.

This turns out to be a huge WTF moment.


So, I buy this board (guy says he sells non-profit, I believe that, price was low enough). The board was based on a design shown on this website:

http://martin-jones.com/2014/09/16/that-syncing-feeling-classic-arcade-games-that-wont-stay-still/

Am I crazy or does this show the thing to work with Q*bert or not ? It shows before and after pics and scope signals.

And now I've build it up the first problem was already that the board was designed for composite sync.
Weird because Q*bert puts out separate H- and V-Sync. OK...so I either have to cut up a track (on a brand new board) or lift out 1 pin of 1 IC. Since the board is already fully populated, I can't cut the track anymore, so I decide to lift the pin and solder the wire directly to it. This looks amateurish and I hate that in my Q*bert which looks pretty damn perfect...but OK, as long as it works...

Now I connected everything, power the machine up, and the screen is total garbage. I post scope screen dumps and NOW they are saying that the circuit "relies on negative sync while Q*bert puts out positive......" and this requires extra inverter ICs and more modding of the board....

OK.....yes.....at those moments I go: WHAT THE FUCK !?!?!?


In the end I would have been better of building something on veroboard.

I know this is all non-profit and done for the hobby but.....something went seriously wrong here. I don't mind the invested money so much, but I put quite a bit of time in it and all turns out wasted......




http://www.ukvac.com/forum/topic340877_post911232.html#911232
« Last Edit: August 07, 2015, 12:13:15 AM by Level42 »

ckong

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Re: Q*bert. A man and his grail... FINISHED !!!
« Reply #536 on: August 07, 2015, 11:38:45 AM »
Thanks for your findings (I already spotted something being wrong with the board on UKVAC), I will leave the board for now. Besides, I have Phoenix, Pleiads ánd Q*Bert all running with a solid screen. Guess I don't need the board that much.

Arch

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Re: Q*bert. A man and his grail... FINISHED !!!
« Reply #537 on: August 07, 2015, 01:06:49 PM »
Wow! Very nice job, L42! Really looking forward to screaming @!#?@! at it at Eurocade!
All I wanted was a Pepsi!
Currently looking for an original Wonderboy PCB.

level42

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Re: Q*bert. A man and his grail... FINISHED !!!
« Reply #538 on: August 07, 2015, 01:24:42 PM »
Thanks Arch !

Yeah I was pretty frustrated yesterday, put in a lot of time and installing (and having to mod) the PCB inside the cab was very tedious...wasn't too happy that it didn't work but finding out that it would not work as is was what my mind couldn't grasp....

There's a solution though but needs more hacking.....or an entirely new PCB.

Q*ris

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Re: Q*bert. A man and his grail... FINISHED !!!
« Reply #539 on: October 12, 2015, 06:09:50 PM »
Played Q*bert with my 5 years old yesterday and of course, he made his Q*bert fall out of the grid.
When the knockers knocked, my kid naturally said: "Q*bert fell at the bottom of your cab" and he started looking down.

BUT OF COURSE!

That sound is clearly supposed to emulate the sound of the little characters falling from the grid all the way down and hitting the bottom of your cabinet.
I bet if you open the backdoor right after a game, you can see a few Coilys and Q*bert knocked down lying next to the power supply.
After all these years I finally got it :)