JROK- Qbert FPGA

[Vongoosewink]

SOLVED

I picked up one of these last month from Arcadeshop, and one of their adapters. I've been able to get this to boot and play in one of my jamma cabinets, but when connected to Qbert the controls do not work (joystick and buttons). Can't select or start a game.

Is there something simple I'm missing? Is it set to the modern joystick connector or something? It is in a Qbert cabinet that has a 100% running game.

Thanks in advance for any insight.

 

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Possibly dumb question (on my part), Vongoosewink - it ran ok in your JAMMA cabinet and it is a JAMMA board... do you need a Q*bert to JAMMA adapter for it? I have this running on my own Q*bert so I can check what I did there.

EDIT: You might need this - https://www.arcadeshop.com/i/1088/q-bert-cabinet-to-jamma-pcb-adapter.htm - if you do not have it already.

 

[Vongoosewink]

Never mind guys, I figured this out. I was having a ground/connector issue that just happened to crop up at the same time I tried to install the PCB - none of the control panel controls were grounding. I figured it out by reconnecting the original Qbert board, and it had the same problem! So it had to be the cab - re-seated all the board connectors and now everything is working.

 

[JDGJr]

Anyone have a copy of the manual or documentation for this board? I have an unused board, but no paperwork. TIA

 

[KI4SWY]

https://files.arcadeshop.com/pdf/msf_manual_rev_01.pdf

 

[DrewZ]

OK, it's a bug in Q*Bert, the actual original unmodified Q*Bert code.

When it's asking for a high-score entry, and you've not jumped to "end" and it's said "bye bye", the game has update the high-score table to insert the new score, but not corrected the checksum on the high-score table.

So if you quit the game ( though 1P + 2P start ), reset or power off the machine and next time the game starts the score-table is corrupt and it resets to default.

This is functionality of the original game code, you can do it on an original boardset or in MAME. I guess they never intended the machine to be powered off ( or reset ) during high-score entry.

- James

I'm glad this information is out there, bumping it up.

My wife and I have this joke about me taking out here high score, and the other day I tried and failed. Turned the machine on last night and..ruh-row. The high scores were reset. I must have given up and switched it off without entering any initials.