Mr. Do's Castle - Two versions?

MmSadda

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I grew up with a Mr. Do's Castle cabinet, and there were two ways to beat each level: kill all the monsters, or break all the cherry blocks.

I recently picked up a Mr. Do's Castle board without cherry blocks, and the seller tells me this is an earlier version.

However, from the half-dozen times I've seen this game out there, it seems like they all have cherry blocks. The how-to-play card and the instruction manuals all seem to make mention of the cherry blocks and two ways to win as well. Even the description of the game on this site talks the cherry blocks, and makes no mention of an earlier version without them. . .

SO, my question to you KLOVers, is this: Do you know of an earlier version of Mr. Do's Castle without cherry blocks?
 
In MAME there are 4 versions, 2 of which don't have the cherry blocks (at least not on the first level).
 
Thanks, CMAC.

Hmmmm. . . that would serve to indicate different legitimate versions, I suppose. . .

Even so, would've been nice for the seller of this one to explain that this was an older version. It seems that he knew there were multiple versions before the sale, especially as he has been out there looking for a copy of the board with the cherry blocks. :(
 
I wonder if anyone can confirm this from another actual board, instead of an emulator. . .
 
I wonder if anyone can confirm this from another actual board, instead of an emulator. . .
Out of maybe 25-30 boardsets, I've never seen or played a board that was missing the cherry blocks on any screens. That probably doesn't help much. Boardsets missing the cherries could be earlier versions or bootlegs.

The (official) cherry version includes these ways to clear a round:
- knock out all cherry blocks
- destroy all monsters
- spell EXTRA
- collect a diamond
 
Well I'm the one who sold him the board, but honestly I didn't even know there were different versions myself until I got my first (of several) cherry-less pcb's, and I've never seen it mentioned here on klov so I didn't think anyone out there really cared about different versions.

What I'm most concerned about is the fact that MmSadda can't seem to get the sound working properly with this game in his cab; I tested the pcb in a jamma rig right before I shipped and it was working all the way, so I don't know what's causing problems with the audio...
 
What I'm most concerned about is the fact that MmSadda can't seem to get the sound working properly with this game in his cab; I tested the pcb in a jamma rig right before I shipped and it was working all the way, so I don't know what's causing problems with the audio...

Most Universal boards required an off-board sound amp to amplify the low level output to drive a speaker. A Jamma harness with a basic adaptor for universal board won't be able to actually drive the speaker, but more advanced Universal -> Jamma adapators will have an amp chip and volume pot.

That said, some later rev Universal boards and most bootleg boards will have on board sound amps and volume pots and can directly drive a speaker off the edge connector.

Without knowing the type of board and type of jamma adaptor tried and the type of wiring the buyer has it's hard to know where the exact problem lies.

My best assumption is that the seller had a U->J adaptor with sound amp and the board is original and didn't have a built in one, and the buyer doesn't have a sound amp installed and is instead directly sending the line level output to the speaker.
 
My best assumption is that the seller had a U->J adaptor with sound amp and the board is original and didn't have a built in one, and the buyer doesn't have a sound amp installed and is instead directly sending the line level output to the speaker.

This just may be the case, as I used this adapter, which has a built-in sound amp, to test the board before I shipped: http://www.jammaboards.com/store/mr-do-to-jamma-adapter/prod_293.html. But I still don't understand why his cab wouldn't have a sound amp wired in if it was already wired for Mr. Do!'s Castle before my pcb even got to him...
 
Well I'm the one who sold him the board, but honestly I didn't even know there were different versions myself until I got my first (of several) cherry-less pcb's, and I've never seen it mentioned here on klov so I didn't think anyone out there really cared about different versions.

What I'm most concerned about is the fact that MmSadda can't seem to get the sound working properly with this game in his cab; I tested the pcb in a jamma rig right before I shipped and it was working all the way, so I don't know what's causing problems with the audio...

Should i send him the Mr. Do's Castle that i was going to give to you? Would this help out both of you guys? I am not sure of the version i had either, sorry.
 
Most Universal boards required an off-board sound amp to amplify the low level output to drive a speaker. A Jamma harness with a basic adaptor for universal board won't be able to actually drive the speaker, but more advanced Universal -> Jamma adapators will have an amp chip and volume pot.

That said, some later rev Universal boards and most bootleg boards will have on board sound amps and volume pots and can directly drive a speaker off the edge connector.

Without knowing the type of board and type of jamma adaptor tried and the type of wiring the buyer has it's hard to know where the exact problem lies.

My best assumption is that the seller had a U->J adaptor with sound amp and the board is original and didn't have a built in one, and the buyer doesn't have a sound amp installed and is instead directly sending the line level output to the speaker.
Actually, I've got a cabinet wired just for Universal. It's been a Mr. Do's Castle/Universal cabinet for probably over 20 years (I can vouch for 16 years of it being a Universal cab, myself.) It has the original external sound board, and always worked properly with my original Mr. Do's Castle board and has also worked with my Mr. Do board which is a similar unamplified board.

No guarantees the sound amp in his cab is set up properly or works.
It worked just fine when I disconnected the harness from this board and reattached it to my Mr. Do board.
 
Well, the version without the cherry blocks looks to be the first version after "Mr. Do! v.s Unicorns" which also doesn't have them. You can just burn another version if you really want them. JROK also has all three versions with a high score save modification at http://www.jrok.com/sohs/mrdo_castle_shs.html but it requires a small board modification.
 
Thanks for the heads up! Unfortunately EPROM burning and replacing chips with sockets is a bit over my head. Also would like an original board, though I must admit that's very cool that it can be done!
 
Reason for buying the board in the first place was to replaced the original one from the cabinet.

The cabinet has a small block of fuses, one of which was ghetto-fixed by tying it in place with exposed wire. During transportation, thing shifted, etc, and this ghetto-repair that'd held up fine for years started to come apart unbeknownst to me. To make a long story short, I believe a 12 volt circuit ended up getting rerouted momentarily through the original PCB which I believe was on a 5 volt circuit.
My question is - What would this have fried on the PCB? It still fires up and displays title screen and backgrounds, but not any characters or blocks.

I guess I'm wondering if, between that board and one I got from Dr. Morbis, I can take the EPROMS from one board, put them on another, and have a working later-version of Mr. Do's Castle.

-Collin
 
Oh, if anyone has a board with cherries they want to sell, please let me know! This was the first arcade game I ever owned, and it's rather special to me.
 
Yes, pull the EPROMS off your old board and put them in your new board. If you still get missing characters and blocks you will know that the EPROMs are messed up as a result of your cab voltage accident. Either way you won't need a whole new board. If the EPROM swap doesn't work I'm sure somebody on here would burn you the version you want for free or for a very reasonable price.
 
Awesome! Thanks for the help! So is it safe to assume that all the data necessary to make it the right version is stored on the EPROMS?

I'll try swapping EPROMS between the boards over the weekend, and hopefully make something work!

I appreciate all the help, CMAC! :) I love this game, and am trying to restore the cabinet as a whole to its former glory. :)
 
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