Jolt Country

Here's the status of Qix --

1) Power is fucked up
2) It's in my garage
3) I ordered a new drop-in power center
4) I ordered a new fucking power supply because the power supply to Qix requires an adapter.

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 will do that. It's been so long since I've played non-emulated Qix that I can't remember the differences. In fact, I am going to load emulated Qix RIGHT NOW.

Oh, I'll keep a list of what this debacle costs me. Right now it is zero dollars as I swapped it for Spy Hunter.

However, I bought a drop-in AC power supply system from The Real Bob Roberts. SO that's $90.

I later learned that you need an adapter to a switching power supply (which the Bob Roberts kit has) for Qix. So I had to buy that. That was $39.

If I can get a working Qix for essentially $129, I'll take it.

So far this is all I got:



I need to learn more. There are three boards along the door. I need to know what each one does. I was given three other working top-most boards to test.

My only suggestion is to "wiggle everything" -- not entirely technical, but it got me pretty far in the hobby. :)

Does it play blind (ie: coin up)? I know that's pretty much the first step in determining whether or not it's just a video problem. You have more working games than I do at this point so I am not sure why I am offering you basic advice.

Possible helpful threads:

http://www.arcadecollecting.com/info/taito_reset.htm

(^^ This one looks pretty good)

http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=48696

http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=116131

http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=48629

You probably already have this, but on this page there's the Qix manual in PDF format with troubleshooting tips:

http://www.mikesarcade.com/arcade/manuals.html

Well, I can't help you with your machine, but I DID find Waldo.



THE
OK, LEAVING NOW
AARDVARK

Actually, after reading the manual it looks like there are a lot of ways to test / diagnose the thing. A lot more than I would have thought.

For such a simple game it's quite complicated in there.



THE
LOOKIT AT ALL THOSE WIRES
AARDVARK

On one end of the spectrum you have the newer x-in-1 PCBs. My 60-in-1 is on a board about half the size (maybe 8"x5") of a sheet of notebook paper.

Most of the mid-80s games were on boards the size of, oh, 3-4 sheets of paper, give or take.

Older than that -- I'd say most everything 1983 or earlier -- was on multiple boards. Stuff like Qix, Robotron, Q*Bert, Tron, Pole Position, all of those games are on three or four PCBs, all connected via cables, many of which requiring odd voltages. For those games, you not only have to test the boards, but the voltages to each one and the connections between them.

I went to drill the front lock off, and I chose too small a bit. The bit broke. Argh, bits!

"No no no no no no no no no no no." - Bit

Were you able to get the broken bit out?

No no no no no no no.

I am gonna revisit Qix tonight though.

I DID revist Qix last night and tonight.

Before I left his place, Exidy told me that he put blue dots on the known good chips. I looked at the CPU board and it was missing a chip. Well... it's.... it's gonna need those chips!

I assembled a good CPU board and started the game up. Now, it doesn't have any sort of battery backup, so I expected to see the language selection screen. I had to reseat U86, but that did it.

And Qix II: Tournament came up.

I apparently have a Qix II ROM board. As Exidy said in IRC:

<eXidy> top = cpu
<eXidy> middle = rom
<eXidy> bottom = sound

<eXidy> there isnt any game specific code on the top
<eXidy> thats why you can change the cpu with qix, zookeeper, electric yoyo, etc

He's gonna burn me Qix ROMs this week. I am a little concerned about the fact that Qix II tournament has garbled text in the middle of the display and when I set it to free play nothing happens, but psh, we'll just cross that bridge when we get to it.

Anybody that can burn rom chips has to be cool!

Yeah, I probably need to get a ROM burner. But god damn that's another thing I don't know how to do.

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.

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. :(

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!

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.

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.

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.