Questions about JROCK Multi-Williams

Cmndr Brain

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What versions (color lables) of the games are on the JROCK multi-Williams board and are they changable? Especially curious about Joust and Robotron. I was playing one game of Joust that had the pteradactyl bug, but I died before I could get it going. Also, Robotron with the Mikey bug during the Brain wave. Both have only happened once. Glitch, Imagination, Brain Fart, Hallucination or no?
 
Can't answer your Q's, sorry, but I have one of my own. Are these amazing boards available at all anymore?
 
What versions (color lables) of the games are on the JROCK multi-Williams board and are they changable? Especially curious about Joust and Robotron. I was playing one game of Joust that had the pteradactyl bug, but I died before I could get it going. Also, Robotron with the Mikey bug during the Brain wave. Both have only happened once. Glitch, Imagination, Brain Fart, Hallucination or no?

What is the "mikey bug" in Robotron?
 
I've been messing with a sound issue on my Robotron thus I've played both the red and blue ROMS quite a bit.

The Mikey bug is defiantly in both of them

Mikey bug = on the first brain board if you leave Mikey the brains won't grab the moms until they get the one Mikey. Thus just make sure you don't grab Mikey either and you can rack up some serious points!
 
I've been messing with a sound issue on my Robotron thus I've played both the red and blue ROMS quite a bit.

The Mikey bug is defiantly in both of them

Mikey bug = on the first brain board if you leave Mikey the brains won't grab the moms until they get the one Mikey. Thus just make sure you don't grab Mikey either and you can rack up some serious points!

I don't consider this a bug.
 
The mikey bug is not a bug. The brains all target the first human that is drawn on the screen until it is either collected or destroyed (or the player dies in that wave). On wave 5 it is Mikey. On other waves you can't tell aside from looking who the brains are aiming for because all the humans are the same character.
 
Ok, that answers the Robotron question. But, what about Joust. With the pterodactyl, sometimes I would just like to stand and kill them. Sometimes. Sure would be great if you could turn that feature on/off in the menu. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. Know what I mean. Say no More.
 
Ok, that answers the Robotron question. But, what about Joust. With the pterodactyl, sometimes I would just like to stand and kill them. Sometimes. Sure would be great if you could turn that feature on/off in the menu. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. Know what I mean. Say no More.

The games should all be the latest revision for each game.
 
Ok, that answers the Robotron question. But, what about Joust. With the pterodactyl, sometimes I would just like to stand and kill them. Sometimes. Sure would be great if you could turn that feature on/off in the menu. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. Know what I mean. Say no More.

I forget what color labels of the roms was the original with they pterodactyl "bug" but in lieu of having different rom sets available, if you turn the difficulty up to 7 the trick won't work as the hunters can escape the lava troll and not get caught. (factory default difficulty is 5).
 
Ok, that answers the Robotron question. But, what about Joust. With the pterodactyl, sometimes I would just like to stand and kill them. Sometimes. Sure would be great if you could turn that feature on/off in the menu. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. Know what I mean. Say no More.

There are several places in Joust that you can stand and kill Pterys when they come out. The "bug" in the old rev was that the enemy caught by the lava troll would never break free or die, so you could sit and kill Pterys all day. The bug fix was that the enemy would not stay in his grip too long. If you were never attacked by the enemy, you could kill pterys all day in the new revs. You'll just never be able to stand long enough because he does attack you.
 
There are several places in Joust that you can stand and kill Pterys when they come out. The "bug" in the old rev was that the enemy caught by the lava troll would never break free or die, so you could sit and kill Pterys all day. The bug fix was that the enemy would not stay in his grip too long. If you were never attacked by the enemy, you could kill pterys all day in the new revs. You'll just never be able to stand long enough because he does attack you.

This is not true. The fix was they changed the flight path of the pterodactyl. It used to be that if the lower center platform was in place, if you got the last hunter (gray enemy) stuck in the lava troll you could stand on this platform and the gray guy would be trapped nearly forever. If you stayed on this platform pterodactyl will come out from the bottom left or right of the screen and head up toward the center platform before reaching it, thus being in perfect alignment for your lance. There exists a couple other spots you can kill them in but not reliably and any other spots would somehow enable the hunter to escape the lava troll's grasp. This is especially true if you are at the bottom of the screen.

What the "fixed" rom revisions did was make the path of the pterodactyl different. He will fly UNDER the bottom center platform before heading up toward the player and will not be in alignment of your lance and you can't kill him standing there as he flies into your legs. You can actually still trap the hunter in the lava on most difficulty settings, but it will do you no good.

Thankfully they didn't change the flight path for the pterodactyl that spawns on the pterodactyl waves so you can still kill it as it comes out at the start of those waves like in the old one, however if you stay in the level long enough and the one comes that's spawned based on time, that will follow the new flight pattern.
 
This seems like a good time to bring up a Joust problem that we encountered on the JROK Multi-WMS board during a game party I hosted last year. I say "we", but it was actually Don Hayes that found it (I stink at Joust). I took a couple vids of what happened. WARNING: these were taken during the early morning hours and there are a bunch of drunk fools (myself included) saying profane and inappropriate things. If you are at work, make sure you're using headphones.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2r8F9JeLn9I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpLWgzaRll8
 
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This seems like a good time to bring up a Joust problem that we encountered on the JROK Multi-WMS board during a game party I hosted last year. I say "we", but it was actually Don Hayes that found it (I stink at Joust). I took a couple vids of what happened.

Funky ! Did you ever have this happen again or manage to find a way to reproduce it ?

- James
 
Funky ! Did you ever have this happen again or manage to find a way to reproduce it ?

- James

No, I never saw it again, but I probably played Joust maybe twice since then, and my scores are nowhere near where Don was at. He can play forever... just amazing to watch.

I saw a picture of someone else's board, and I noticed it had a later software version. Is it possible to update mine, or are some software versions tied to certain FPGA versions (assuming that has been rev'd as well)? Have there been any significant changes/fixes? Thanks.
 
I saw a picture of someone else's board, and I noticed it had a later software version. Is it possible to update mine, or are some software versions tied to certain FPGA versions (assuming that has been rev'd as well)? Have there been any significant changes/fixes? Thanks.

There are only two public versions of the FPGA and boot ROM, the boot ROM was v1.07 and v1.08 with the FPGA being v1.1 and v1.3 IIRC.

The only difference between v1.1 and 1.3 was adding the center coin option, v1.2 only had center coin for Defender and v1.3 added the option for all games.
The 1.08 boot ROM added menu support for center coin and fixed the screen saver bug where it would shut off if the auto-up/down switch was on.

- James
 
There are only two public versions of the FPGA and boot ROM, the boot ROM was v1.07 and v1.08 with the FPGA being v1.1 and v1.3 IIRC.

The only difference between v1.1 and 1.3 was adding the center coin option, v1.2 only had center coin for Defender and v1.3 added the option for all games.
The 1.08 boot ROM added menu support for center coin and fixed the screen saver bug where it would shut off if the auto-up/down switch was on.

- James

Good to know. Sounds like I'm not missing much then.
Are there any proposed changes going into the next run of boards?
 
WARNING: these were taken during the early morning hours and there are a bunch of drunk fools (myself included) saying profane and inappropriate things.

If by inappropriate you mean 'fucking hilarious', you are correct.
 
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