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Al,

Please add this info to the game archive.

Thanks,

		Rick

-----------------------------------------------------------------
I finally got Q*bert JAMMAtized and I thought I'd pass along how I
got the job done.  

For a bit of background I build various adapters to allow older
board sets to match up to the JAMMA wiring scheme.  It goes like
this: Louis's Harness shop (1-800-365-1941) sells a little chunk of
circuit board that allows you to mate 2 female 56 pin (JAMMA style)
connectors together.  The female connectors are available lots of
places.

You plug the male piece of circuit board into the JAMMA connector in
the game.  Then plug the other 56 pin connector to the circuit
board.  Put whatever connectors you need on the boards you want to
use.  Connect wires as needed between the connectors on the game
boards and the solder terminals of the 56 pin connector.

Once you have done a few it becomes fairly simple and some adapters
are useful for many games (like my Konami to JAMMA adapter).

Q*bert (GV103) requires a large Main Logic Board and a Sound Board
about a quarter of the size of the Main Logic Board.  I have
original docs but found David Shuman's pinout info on wiretap very
helpful and included a copy at the end of this.  Here is the DIP
SWITCH option info as it's not with the pinout info:

Switch 1	Demo Mode
  On		  infinite lives
  Off		  normal play

Switch 2	Attract Play
  On		  no sound
  Off		  sound

Switch 3	Normal/Free
  On		  free play
  Off		  normal play

Switch 4	Game Mode
  On		  cocktail
  Off		  upright

Switch 5	Not Used

Switch 6	Kicker
  On		  kicker on
  Off		  kicker off

Switch 7	Not Used

Switch 8	Not Used

On to the adapter.  I'm not going to explain this in detail.  I know
many of you are programmers with minimal electronics skills but to
walk those people through this connection by connection is more
than I want to take on.  What I'm providing here is pretty basic
stuff and if you can't handle the electronics get someone to help
you that can.

My goal was to make Q*bert plug into a JAMMA harness with as few
modifications as possible.  The first issue was that Q*bert puts out
separate active high H and V syncs and JAMMA wants an active low
composite sync.  I experimented with several circuits but the one
that seemed to work the best for the monitor that I was using was to
first invert each sync (with a 74LS04) and then AND the separate
syncs (with a 74LS08).  Again, this is what worked best for the
monitor I was using.  Sometimes it's easier to abandon trying to
combine the syncs and just connect the separate syncs directly.

The next issue was the +30 VDC required by the audio amp on the
sound board.  After looking over the schematics I determined that
the only thing that uses the +30 is the final audio amp, U23, an
LM379S.  My solution to the fact that the LM379S needed +30 (not
provided by JAMMA) was to simply not use the LM379S amp.

The following is a drawing of the 2 watt audio amp circuit I've used
successfully for some time.  B. G. Micro has the LM380s cheap.
Franklin Bowen was nice enough to do the ascii art.


                                            C2
                                    +12v
                                     |      | |
                                     |------| |----- GND
                                     |      | |
                                     |
                                     |      C5
                                     |
           C1                        |     +| |-
                                     |------| |-----GND
          +| |-                      |      | |
   Input---| |------+                |
           | |      |         |\     |
                    >       2 |  \   |               C3
               VR1 <  <-------+    \ | 14
                    >         | LM   \              +| |-   4-16ohm spkr
                   <          | 380N   \ ____________| |-------
                    |         |        / 8 out   |   | |
                    |         |      /           |
                    |         |    / | 7,3       >
                    |         |  /   |          <
                    |         |/     |           > R1
                    |                |          <
                    |                |           |
                    +----------------+       C4 ---
                                     |          ---
                                     |           |
                                     |           |
                                     +-----------+
                                     |
                                    GND

 C1=  50 uF 12v
 C2=  .1 uF 12v
 C3= 250 uF 12v
 C4=  .1 uF 12v
 C5=  20 uF 12v
 R1=    2.7 ohm
 VR1=   10k ohm

None of the values in this circuit are critical.  Feel free to use
up some misc.

To use this with the Q*bert adapter don't connect anything to the
+30 VDC or the sound board audio output (pin 7).  Instead wire up
the amp just described with the output directly connected to the
speaker.  For the input of the separate amp, solder a wire on to the
bottom of the sound board at pin 9 of U23 (the on board amp's
input).  Now, the external amp does all the work.

The other non-JAMMA power supply voltage required by Q*bert is -12
VDC.  I suspect that you could get away with powering the -12 with
the JAMMA -5 but didn't try it myself.  Enough of the older games
required -12 to make me supply that voltage with a separate supply
and connector.

The last complication was caused by the fact that the joystick for
Q*bert is rotated 45 degrees from the way a standard joystick is
mounted.  It is a standard 4-way stick, it's just turned 45
degrees.  This is why the pinout info contains connections for
things like "DOWN-RIGHT" on a single pin.

I didn't want to remount a stick so I took advantage of a suggestion
by Mark Jenison (I mentioned your name Mark, are you happy now? :-)
) and used 4 "OR" gates on a single 74LS32 to make an 8-way
standard joystick do the job without rotating its mounting.  The
wiring went like this:

	Joystick         Q*bert input
	
	up  ----1 \ 
	            ---- 3--- up-left
	left ---2 /
	
	up -----4 \ 
	            ---- 6--- up-right
	right --5 /
	
	down --10 \ 
	            ---- 8--- down-left
	left -- 9 /
	
	down --12 \ 
	            ---- 11-- down-right
	right -13 /
	
I also added 4.7K (again, a non-critical value) pull-up resistors
between each joystick connection and +5.  Normally the game board
provides the pull-up resistor but here its needed at the joystick to
pull the inputs high.  The joystick contact closure brings the
inputs low.

With this scheme 2 adjacent inputs going low when the joystick is
moved to 45, 135, 225, or 315 degrees gives one low output in the
direction required by Q*bert.  I suspect the joystick is more
difficult to use than if you really rotated a 4-way joystick but the
game is definitely playable.

I know some of you will be disappointed but I didn't connect a
cabinet knocker but you gotta make some hard decisions at times ;-)

Well, I hope you people found this interesting.  Thanks to Mark
Jenison who worked with me on the adapter and to Kevin Klopp (alias
mowlawnman) for loaning me his working sound board to help me debug
mine.

                      Rick Schieve
               Richard.L.Schieve@lucent.com			


--------------------------------------------------------------------
pinouts for Q*bert (Gottlieb, 1982)
submitted by David Shuman (shu@caltech.edu, essayes@telerama.LM.com)

MLB = Main Logic Board
SB = Sound Board
-- = No Connection

Main Logic Board (MA-378)
60-contact edge connector (A1P1)

A	+5 VDC			1	GND
B	+5 VDC			2	GND
C	+5 VDC			3	GND (COIN RETURN)
D	--			4	--
E	COIN 1 (OPTIONAL)	5	COIN LOCKOUT (OPTIONAL)
F	COIN METER		6	KNOCKER*
H	--			7	--
J	--			8	--
K	--			9	--
L	--			10	--
M	A6P1-2 (SB)		11	--
N	--			12	A6P1-4 (SB)
P	--			13	--
R	SELECT TEST SW**	14	GND
S	COIN SW #2		15	STEP TEST SW***
T	COIN SW #1		16	1P START
U	--			17	2P START
V	--			18	UP-LEFT
W	--			19	DOWN-RIGHT
X	--			20	DOWN-LEFT
Y	UP-RIGHT		21	--
Z	A6P1-8 (SB)		22	A6P1-9 (SB)
a	A6P1-11 (SB)		23	A6P1-12 (SB)
b	VERT. SYNC		24	RED
c	--			25	BLUE
d	VIDEO GND		26	GREEN
e	HORIZ. SYNC		27	+11.5 VDC
f	+5 VDC			28	GND
h	+5 VDC			29	GND
j	+5 VDC			30	GND

*connects to one end of the knocker solenoid, which is wired in parallel 
with a 1N4004 diode.  The other end of the solenoid connects to +30 VDC, 
which also provides power to the audio amp.
**closed = game; open = test.
***normally open.

Sound/Speech Assembly (MA-216)
24-contact edge connector (A6P1), only one side of board has contacts.

A	--				1	+12 VDC REG.
B	--				2	A1P1-M (MLB)
C	--				3	-12 VDC
D	--				4	A1P1-12 (MLB)
E	--				5	+5 VDC
F	--				6	GND
H	--				7	AUDIO OUTPUT
J	--				8	A1P1-Z (MLB)
K	--				9	A1P1-22 (MLB)
L	--				10	+30 VDC REG.
M	--				11	A1P1-a (MLB)
N	--				12	A1P1-23 (MLB)n.



 


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