So my Q-Bert failed the object priority test...

farquh

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I just bought a Q*Bert cocktail table, and suddenly during play, Q*Bert appeared on the bottom of the screen, yet his 'movements' were tracked at the top of the screen...

So, I turned the table off, and on, and I got the same thing...I flipped the self test switch and watched the monitor adjustment test perform fine. In fact, the whole self test menu displayed on the monitor correctly.

But when I did the object priority test (where the disc icon is displayed 62 times over four rows) they appeared at the bottom of the screen, just liek Q*Bert did when the game play malfunctioned.

Right now I unplugged the table. Does the system do some kind of re-boot when unplugged (I'm hoping).

Can anyone explain to me what might be happening? Is there a simple way to fix it that I might not know about?

I just bought this table, so I pray that the board isn't going out!!
 
I just bought a Q*Bert cocktail table, and suddenly during play, Q*Bert appeared on the bottom of the screen, yet his 'movements' were tracked at the top of the screen...

So, I turned the table off, and on, and I got the same thing...I flipped the self test switch and watched the monitor adjustment test perform fine. In fact, the whole self test menu displayed on the monitor correctly.

But when I did the object priority test (where the disc icon is displayed 62 times over four rows) they appeared at the bottom of the screen, just liek Q*Bert did when the game play malfunctioned.

Right now I unplugged the table. Does the system do some kind of re-boot when unplugged (I'm hoping).

Can anyone explain to me what might be happening? Is there a simple way to fix it that I might not know about?

I just bought this table, so I pray that the board isn't going out!!

You have a board problem.

You should put your location in your profile, on the chance that someone local to you can help you.
 
A board problem? Do you think that my board might be fried, and I'll need a complete new one? Or based on what I am able to describe to you, do you think that there's a chance that something like a connector or a cord might need replacement?

What is your best guess?
 
A board problem? Do you think that my board might be fried, and I'll need a complete new one? Or based on what I am able to describe to you, do you think that there's a chance that something like a connector or a cord might need replacement?

What is your best guess?

Fried? No, just has an issue. There are plenty of people on here who fix them. I don't know if anyone specializes in Q*Bert, but most here should be able to work on it.
 
So you would imagine that if I contacted a person that maintains coin op games as a profession would have no problem fixing this issue? You don't imagine that he'd tell me to start shopping for a new Q*Bert PCB?
 
So you would imagine that if I contacted a person that maintains coin op games as a profession would have no problem fixing this issue? You don't imagine that he'd tell me to start shopping for a new Q*Bert PCB?

I would suggest asking on here first. If anything maybe someone can point you to someone trustworthy.
 
Stay with this thread and ask. Your board is repairable.

Bill
 
I just picked up a 'working' board that does the same thing, but not always.

You can move Qbert down the pyramid, but he's like half a screen up in the air mimicking your movements. As he goes from cube to cube, sometimes he pops back down onto the pyramid and at others he appears up in the air again. I think all the other moving objects show up at the proper location on the pyramid.

This makes for a difficult game....

Sometimes power cycling will straighten it out and sometimes it will just go away on it's own.

Chip swapping doesn't seem to help and the +5V is right on. It sounds like the same problem. Maybe someone has seen it before and can post specific advice.

Kerry
 
This troubleshooting document may help. It has some good information about graphics issues and corresponding chip locations.
 

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I just picked up a 'working' board that does the same thing, but not always.

You can move Qbert down the pyramid, but he's like half a screen up in the air mimicking your movements. As he goes from cube to cube, sometimes he pops back down onto the pyramid and at others he appears up in the air again. I think all the other moving objects show up at the proper location on the pyramid.

Kerry

Does it do it on every other jump? I had one doing this, he would land in the right spot then next jump would land in the middle of a couple blocks then next one was right again. Its been a while ago now and cant remember what I found wrong with it.
 
Thanks for that troubleshooting document, it seems as if they are talking about exactly what is going on with my board - the problem is, I still won't know how to fix it since I've never done it before!

This has given me hope that it can be fixed, so thank-you very much for that!
 
I just picked up a 'working' board that does the same thing, but not always.

You can move Qbert down the pyramid, but he's like half a screen up in the air mimicking your movements. As he goes from cube to cube, sometimes he pops back down onto the pyramid and at others he appears up in the air again. I think all the other moving objects show up at the proper location on the pyramid.

This makes for a difficult game....

Sometimes power cycling will straighten it out and sometimes it will just go away on it's own.

Chip swapping doesn't seem to help and the +5V is right on. It sounds like the same problem. Maybe someone has seen it before and can post specific advice.

Kerry

Sorry, what do you mean by 'power cycling' will straighten it out?
 
I think it depends on how he moves. I think if he goes down a straight (diagonally) set of cubes, he appears above all of them. Maybe if he comes across the screen, every other 'row' is correct.

I think when it is messing up- at the beginning of the level, you see the LEVEL graphic correctly, but the level NUMBER is up above, outside of the circle.
 
Power Cycling is basically turning the machine off and on. It almost sounds like one of the RAM chips is going, but that's just a guess.

One thing you can do if your really carefull is use a small screwdriver to pry the IC chips that are in sockets out and reseat them back in their sockets. Sometimes that helps. If your not comfortable doing it, then you may need one of us on here to repair it.

Luke
 
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Sorry, what do you mean by 'power cycling' will straighten it out?

Turning the power to the game off and then back on.
Like I said- 'sometimes' it works. I've only had the board a few days, so I haven't decided what makes it work correctly or glitch.
 
That troubleshooting document is pretty good-

symptom: Incorrect vertical position of characters
possible causes: E4, F5

I know that blindly following flowcharts and documents like this can get you in trouble- well, at most NOT solving the problem, but this is a good start.

This writeup details functionally how the sprite system works and which chips make up different components of it. Most of us don't have the equipment necessary to dig into the boards at a level like this.

Narrowed down like this, it could be easy to find a stuck bit on a chip or a bad joint or logic levels too low to make it to the next component in line, etc.

Thanks for the links-
 
Okay, I see that my probable causes are E1-2, E2-3 etc - how do I find out what these mean and where they are located? Basically, what does J12 mean as being a 'possible cause?'
 
Okay, I see that my probable causes are E1-2, E2-3 etc - how do I find out what these mean and where they are located? Basically, what does J12 mean as being a 'possible cause?'

These are chip locations on the main logic PCB (the large one). Think of it as reading a map where along the top/side are letters/numbers. The PCB has the letters screened along the top for the column of components. Each component will/should have the correspoding location screened next to it. So to find E1-2 or E2-3, look for the "E" row of components and find the sockets labeled E1-2 and E2-3 -- same for J12.
 
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