Jolt Country

by **Flack** » Thu Aug 29, 2013 8:30 am

I really need to quit reading this thread. Mentally I have already been figuring out where I'm going to put that Polybius cabinet and now I'm dreaming about owning Elevator Action.

From a game play perspective there is no reason to own a dedicated Elevator Action cabinet (four way stick, two buttons). That being said, all my high scores have been achieved on a dedicated cabinet. I've never done quite as good in MAME for some reason.

by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Sun Aug 25, 2013 2:17 pm

I sold Qix just now for $150 and $150 of RoadBlasters parts.

I regret selling it. But the way I look at it, Food Fight is going downstairs and Qix is the one coming up. I will get a Qix again one day.

Exchanging games keeps things FRESH. At some point I would like Defender, RoadBlasters and Paperboy down there. Centipede, the Polybius multigame and probably Elevator Action would leave. But that's a ways off because I remain as broke as shit.

by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Mon Jul 29, 2013 11:22 pm

The battery was said to be good for about a year.

It just died. It was good for about a year?

This is the one I need, so I don't have to look it up again:

3.6V 1200mAh NiMh battery for Cordless Phones

Ordered a new one from Amazon. Rats!

by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Sun Dec 30, 2012 5:27 pm

Tdarcos wrote:Do you remember when they actually had a (recessed red) reset button (actually a degauss button) in the back of a console TV? I suspect that eventually someone will mention the dials for tint, vertical hold and so on, and kids growing up today won't have a reference to it, the way a lot of kids are so used to digital clocks that they can't read an analog clock.

I don't for televisions, but of course, virtually all my CRT monitors have a degauss button.

The expected way to degauss most of the early 80s monitors I have around here is with a fricken magnet.

:(

Can't remember if there was a degauss button on the modern arcade CRTs I bought, but I don't think so. (Thankfully, those have a circuit board on a wire to adjust hold and tint and focus and so forth. So you can take it, walk around to the front of the monitor, and adjust away.)

by **AArdvark** » Sun Dec 30, 2012 5:26 pm

AArdvark wrote:
Anybody that can burn rom chips has to be cool!

Tdarcos wrote:

It's not that hard.

What does the difficulty quotient in burning ROM chips have to do with my estimation of someone's 'coolness'?

and...

Why did you wait five months to respond to that offhand comment?

THE
LATE TO THE PARTY
AARDVARK

by **Tdarcos** » Sun Dec 30, 2012 5:18 pm

pinback wrote:
Tdarcos wrote:
Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:so you get into fun situations where the writing on the monitor's adjustment pots say "vertical hold"
"Vertical Hold? Isn't that when you try to be the guy on top in Joust?"
Now you're quoting things that nobody has ever said, or even thought.

"Here's something no one has ever heard, ever. Ever: As soon as I put this hot poker in my ass, I'm going to chop my dick off. You know why you never heard that? Right! No one ever said that! Which is the more amazing thing, no one ever thought to say that until tonight."
― George Carlin, Things You Never Hear.

by **Tdarcos** » Sun Dec 30, 2012 5:07 pm

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:Apparently my Digital Rebel XT can not shoot video. So I have no way to make videos at this time.

Do you have a webcam and a laptop? Or a webcam connected to a computer you can move near the machine? I can e-mail you the software if you don't have the means to save your webcam's output.

I bought two. I first bought a refurbished webcam for $5, and later I bought one at Radio Shack, new, for $20 because it guaranteed no software install required, and it worked without installing anything (ran Skype and it recognized it immediately, I could see myself), although they give you a disk to install optional software like, well, the program to capture the web cam's output.

by **pinback** » Sun Dec 30, 2012 5:06 pm

Tdarcos wrote:
Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:so you get into fun situations where the writing on the monitor's adjustment pots say "vertical hold"
"Vertical Hold? Isn't that when you try to be the guy on top in Joust?"

Now you're quoting things that nobody has ever said, or even thought. Things are POPPING INTO YOUR HEAD, and you're putting quotation marks around them. That is what is happening now.

by **Tdarcos** » Sun Dec 30, 2012 5:03 pm

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:so you get into fun situations where the writing on the monitor's adjustment pots say "vertical hold"

"Vertical Hold? Isn't that when you try to be the guy on top in Joust?"

That brings back memories. Once TVs started to be made with computers they could get rid of most of the adjustment controls and now you make adjustments to virtual controls in software - like any widget in Windows, e.g. scroll bar or spinner - via the remote control

Do you remember when they actually had a (recessed red) reset button (actually a degauss button) in the back of a console TV? I suspect that eventually someone will mention the dials for tint, vertical hold and so on, and kids growing up today won't have a reference to it, the way a lot of kids are so used to digital clocks that they can't read an analog clock.

by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Sun Dec 30, 2012 4:47 pm

Apparently my Digital Rebel XT can not shoot video. So I have no way to make videos at this time.

by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Sun Dec 30, 2012 4:46 pm

Tdarcos wrote:
Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:Someone did make a Taito multigame board. I have to imagine it being lame because Qix and Arkanoid are vertical games, and so many other great Taito games are horizontal.
When you say some games are "vertical" and some are "horizontal" do you mean the vertical games play with the equivalent of the monitor in landscape orientation and horizontal are the typical portrait orientation like (non-HD) televisions?

Yeppers. The monitors themselves all assume they are being used in horizontal mode, so you get into fun situations where the writing on the monitor's adjustment pots say "vertical hold" but it's really adjusting what you view horizontally when the game is running.

by **Tdarcos** » Sun Dec 30, 2012 4:02 pm

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:Someone did make a Taito multigame board. I have to imagine it being lame because Qix and Arkanoid are vertical games, and so many other great Taito games are horizontal.

When you say some games are "vertical" and some are "horizontal" do you mean the vertical games play with the equivalent of the monitor in landscape orientation and horizontal are the typical portrait orientation like (non-HD) televisions?

by **Tdarcos** » Sun Dec 30, 2012 3:59 pm

AArdvark wrote:Anybody that can burn rom chips has to be cool!

It's not that hard. Almost 30 years ago I was working a place where we were designing an electronic time clock (cute toy; when you swiped your employee card through the reader, the machine said "Hello, " and your first name; when you signed out, it said "Goodbye," and when you signed in on your birthday it sang "Happy Birthday To You." ) and whenever I'd finished a new segment of the program I'd burn a rom of the code I was creating for it. Later I discovered it had an emulation mode that allowed code to be loaded into it without needing to burn a rom to test it, so I could do tests a lot more frequently than I could when you had to burn a $20 rom chip each time.

by **Tdarcos** » Sun Dec 30, 2012 3:54 pm

Flack wrote:Once you get it all up and running, I would like to see video of the real Qix

I'm also interested in seeing the difference between the video game version and the one that became available on PCs. You might want to upload it to YouTube.

Here's one someone ran in emulation, so then if you video one we can see how it compares.

[youtube][/youtube]

by **Flack** » Sun Dec 30, 2012 8:07 am

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:This probably wouldn't be feasible. You have an entire board's worth of chips that would need to be changed. I see what you mean and where you are going with it, though. But it would be awkward as all get-out due to the ways the ROM board connects to the other two.

Yeah I was thinking it was literally just one chip. I know there are switching systems out there (there's one for the Mortal Kombat boards for example) but yeah, I wouldn't want to be the guy to invent one from the ground up.

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:Someone did make a Taito multigame board. I have to imagine it being lame because Qix and Arkanoid are vertical games, and so many other great Taito games are horizontal.

Agreed. The minute it's not the original boards it seems like what's the point over MAME?

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:(I would like Elevator Action in my arcade. Just tough to justify when the controls aren't unique.)

I have a fondness for the game (it's the first machine I ever bought) but you're right about the controls, and if I were restarting my collection, I wouldn't buy it.

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:Arkanoid (My Warlords was converted to an Arkanoid. I actually have a working Arkanoid cabinet at the moment, until I can find a Warlords wiring harness.)

Every time I play Arkanoid on a multicade with a joystick I want to break the stick off, find the people that came up with that idea, and ... well, you know.

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:Bubble Bobble (Great game. Had a chance to get one from Bruce with a fucked-up monitor, but passed.)

Agreed, I love this game. And it's a fun two-player too.

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:Elevator Action (Great game, one of my top 100, probably.)

Again, agreed. I think as a kid I associated this with Cloak and Dagger and Jack Flack so, yeah, I'm fond of it. I like games that, after I'm dead, I feel like it was because of my mistakes and not because the game cheated me.

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:Jungle Hunt (Never liked this one.)

Wha? I used to love this game! It's all patterns and there's not much to it but ... eh, maybe my liking it is nostalgia talking.

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:Puzzle Bobble (Never played this one.)

Really? Maybe you know it as Bust-A-Move? It's where you shoot bubbles up and pop bubbles of the same color? I had it on the Neo Geo (hell I had it on the Super Nintendo back in the day). Another good two player game.

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:Qix (Have it already.)

Another good game, although half the time when I get killed I feel like I got cheated by some shady Qix programming.

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:Rainbow Islands (Never played it.)

You're not missing much.

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:Rastan (Never played it. Side scroller?)

Side scroller based on Conan (more or less), yes. I really liked this game as a kid but it's pretty hard because since the graphics are so large a lot of times you'll hop up on a platform and find half a dozen baddies waiting for you. I always considered it to be the 2D version of Golden Axe.

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:Space Invaders (I can play this on my Ms. Pac due to the multikit I have for it.)

Seems like one of those games that would be neat to own and nobody would play it ever.

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:Zoo Keeper (Have it)

One of those games I thought I was good at until I saw other people play it.

by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Sun Dec 30, 2012 4:22 am

The Happiness Engine wrote:My understanding is that there is a whole board holding the game, so your switch would require switching all the harnesses that connect to it, which depending, may be feasible (a kvm-like board that flips to each set of sockets to/from various games?)

it certainly isn't a simple toggle though. :(

Oh, yeah, I re-read this again, and The Happiness Engine has it correct.

But the essential problem is wiring all the different boards together and then getting juice going, all without having to go to the back of the cabinet. Taito games are the smallest upright games, so there won't be any space for extra boards.

There is a guy who made a similar working project for Nintendo games, though.

by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Sun Dec 30, 2012 4:20 am

Flack wrote:So if it'll play all those games by simply replacing one chip, how feasible is it to make a legit multicade, with some sort of toggle that just toggles between those two or three chips?

I realize that might be the same as saying, "well all you need to make Frankenstein is some bodies, some lightning, and some sewing skills," but coming up with a couple of sockets and wiring and a 4-way switch or something seems doable.

This probably wouldn't be feasible. You have an entire board's worth of chips that would need to be changed. I see what you mean and where you are going with it, though. But it would be awkward as all get-out due to the ways the ROM board connects to the other two.

Someone did make a Taito multigame board. I have to imagine it being lame because Qix and Arkanoid are vertical games, and so many other great Taito games are horizontal.

(I would like Elevator Action in my arcade. Just tough to justify when the controls aren't unique.)

Yeah, here's the Taito Multiboard (and I know you weren't suggesting emulation)

http://www.paradisearcadeshop.com/en/mu ... a-pcb.html

Game list is:

Arkanoid (My Warlords was converted to an Arkanoid. I actually have a working Arkanoid cabinet at the moment, until I can find a Warlords wiring harness.)

Bubble Bobble (Great game. Had a chance to get one from Bruce with a fucked-up monitor, but passed.)

Elevator Action (Great game, one of my top 100, probably.)

Jungle Hunt (Never liked this one.)

Puzzle Bobble (Never played this one.)

Qix (Have it already.)

Rainbow Islands (Never played it.)

Rastan (Never played it. Side scroller?)

Space Invaders (I can play this on my Ms. Pac due to the multikit I have for it.)

Zoo Keeper (Have it)

The Taito kit is $275. I could probably get an Elevator Action for $275, so I have never pulled the trigger.

by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Sun Dec 30, 2012 4:14 am

Flack wrote:Once you get it all up and running, I would like to see video of the real Qix compared to the 60-in-1 Qix. The emulated one doesn't feel accurate, but it's been so long since I played the original that I can't put my finger on the differences.

I never did that! I will do that for you in 2013.

Here is what I tried to do tonight:

- Soldered on a NiCad battery, because the original rechargable battery was missing. This will let me save settings and high scores.

- Got the battery on and it was keeping a charge. Only! It fucked up my screen. Christ!

- So I removed the battery. Screen did not go back to normal.

- Spent hours fiddling with the controls on the monitor. This was not helped by the fact that this is a monitor from 1981 and it does not exactly have friend dials, and I did not have another person around to tell me how the display looked.

- Got the display working correctly again.

- Soldered the battery back on.

- SCREEN'S SHIT AGAIN

- Removed the battery

- Got the display back to normal.

There ... there isn't any reason to think that the battery is causing the screen to fuck up. I suspect I have shitty connectors connecting the three boards that make up Qix. So when I unplug the board (in order to solder on the NiCad) things g-- wait, no. That can't be it, because I am solving it with the vertical hold on the monitor itself.

This deal is looking worse and worse!

by **The Happiness Engine** » Mon Jul 16, 2012 1:10 pm

My understanding is that there is a whole board holding the game, so your switch would require switching all the harnesses that connect to it, which depending, may be feasible (a kvm-like board that flips to each set of sockets to/from various games?)

it certainly isn't a simple toggle though. :(

by **Flack** » Sun Jul 15, 2012 6:21 am

So if it'll play all those games by simply replacing one chip, how feasible is it to make a legit multicade, with some sort of toggle that just toggles between those two or three chips?

I realize that might be the same as saying, "well all you need to make Frankenstein is some bodies, some lightning, and some sewing skills," but coming up with a couple of sockets and wiring and a 4-way switch or something seems doable.

Qix

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