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Recently picked up a Qbert conversion running a bootleg PCB. The cabinet began life as a Centuri Eagle. After rebuilding the K4600, installing a genuine Qbert glass bezel, replacing the joystick grommet, and attending to a few other minor cosmetics, I began to wonder if the bootleg PCB was capable of speech and knocker operation.

That's when I found this video. I am not sure if this gentleman is on KLOV, but the probability is high. In any case - I want to give him credit for his work - and for inspiring me to mod my bootleg PCB.

Suffice it to say that the results were well worth it - and the overall process was surprisingly straight forward.

I used this solenoid from Adafruit for the knocker - along with a 1N4004 flywheel diode to protect the Darlington lo-side driver.

Attached is a picture of the representative PCB area - along with a pictorial guide detailing which components need to be added.

The one stumbling block is the Votrax SC-01 speech synthesizer chip. Fortunately, I picked one up during a recent out-of-town buy. There are modern emulated versions available - though I cannot speak for their effectiveness and quality.

Thought this information might be useful for anyone looking to add speech and knocker functionality to their bootleg Qbert board.
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