Qbert Speech Sound

[shertz]

This core is so close to being perfect. Any work on getting the Qbert speech implemented in to this game?

[Hodor]

This core is so close to being perfect. Any work on getting the Qbert speech implemented in to this game?

As far as I know, none at the moment. It would be nice, though.

[LamerDeluxe]

Apparently the needed speech chip hasn't been converted to FPGA yet and, from what I remember, it is not trivial to create as the technical details are not available. I guess it might be possible to recreate using audio samples.

I'm still waiting for my Replicade miniature Q*Bert cabinet to arrive. It has speech and even the solenoid kicker that gives a loud thud sound when Q*Bert falls 'into the cabinet'.

[shertz]

This site has a stock pile of NOS speech chips. They are only $10 each and I would be willing to buy a couple and send them to whom ever decaps the chips for FPGA.

https://www.arcadeshop.com/i/413/sound-amp-i.c..htm

[goldenage]

Qbert uses the SC-01 for speech, and the supply of that chip has really dried up in recent years. Going rate today is ~ $150+

[BabaYaga326]

Another odd bug in the Qbert core is when played in vertical orientation on my MISTercade (TATE), Qbert seems to gradually get higher and higher as he hops around, to the point where he’s not landing on the cubes in the right spot anymore. But when played in the horizontal orientation on my MISTer kit, he’s orientated correctly on the cubes as he jumps. The Qbert core on my MISTer kit does not show this bug when flipped in the vertical orientation, so it’s weird it only does it on my MISTercade.

Pics attached…

[aberu]

Another odd bug in the Qbert core is when played in vertical orientation on my MISTercade (TATE), Qbert seems to gradually get higher and higher as he hops around, to the point where he’s not landing on the cubes in the right spot anymore. But when played in the horizontal orientation on my MISTer kit, he’s orientated correctly on the cubes as he jumps. The Qbert core on my MISTer kit does not show this bug when flipped in the vertical orientation, so it’s weird it only does it on my MISTercade.

Pics attached…

https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Arcade- ... r/issues/9

When is the last time you updated the core?

Also, I don't believe an SC-01 decap would be needed, someone has already done it before and translated it to a simulation.

https://github.com/galibert/vsim

https://og.kervella.org/sc01a/

[BabaYaga326]

Another odd bug in the Qbert core is when played in vertical orientation on my MISTercade (TATE), Qbert seems to gradually get higher and higher as he hops around, to the point where he’s not landing on the cubes in the right spot anymore. But when played in the horizontal orientation on my MISTer kit, he’s orientated correctly on the cubes as he jumps. The Qbert core on my MISTer kit does not show this bug when flipped in the vertical orientation, so it’s weird it only does it on my MISTercade.

Pics attached…

https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Arcade- ... r/issues/9

When is the last time you updated the core?

I see what the problem is...
1) The QBert_20210923.rbf core does not have the clipping behavior.
2) The QBert_20211123.rbf core was introduced last November to fix the Vflip issue, but it then introduced the clipping issue I reported: viewtopic.php?f=25&t=3664

It appears that a fix for the H/V adjustment has yet to be released.

[shertz]

Another odd bug in the Qbert core is when played in vertical orientation on my MISTercade (TATE), Qbert seems to gradually get higher and higher as he hops around, to the point where he’s not landing on the cubes in the right spot anymore. But when played in the horizontal orientation on my MISTer kit, he’s orientated correctly on the cubes as he jumps. The Qbert core on my MISTer kit does not show this bug when flipped in the vertical orientation, so it’s weird it only does it on my MISTercade.

Pics attached…

https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Arcade- ... r/issues/9

When is the last time you updated the core?

Also, I don't believe an SC-01 decap would be needed, someone has already done it before and translated it to a simulation.

https://github.com/galibert/vsim

https://og.kervella.org/sc01a/

Ok great! So how do we implement this into the Qbert core?

[aberu]

Someone who knows how to read that old style schematic would have to translate it into verilog or vhdl. Then that would have to be turned into a module that can be integrated into the core.

[LamerDeluxe]

That is great, looks like an FPGA implementation is more feasible than I thought. Looks like it works with analog synthesis (formant filters) though, so that makes it more complicated to translate to FPGA.

Relevant uses of this chip in relation to MiSTer:

Tandy/Radio Shack TRS-80 Speech Module
Colorware's Real Talker voice synthesizer (SC-01) for the TRS-80 Color Computer
Alpha Products 'VS100' (for TRS-80 Model III) (SC-01-A)
Some Scott Adams text adventures implemented support of Votrax speech in Vic-20 ports of some of his text adventures, like Adventure Land (VIC-1914) and Voodoo Castle (VIC-1918)
Wizard of Wor
Gorf
Gottlieb Reactor
Q*Bert

I never knew about that VIC-20 game support, really cool, I had Voodoo Castle as a kid.

Would also be really neat to have a core where you could experiment with this chip by sending it text commands.

[shertz]

That is great, looks like an FPGA implementation is more feasible than I thought. Looks like it works with analog synthesis (formant filters) though, so that makes it more complicated to translate to FPGA.

Relevant uses of this chip in relation to MiSTer:

Tandy/Radio Shack TRS-80 Speech Module
Colorware's Real Talker voice synthesizer (SC-01) for the TRS-80 Color Computer
Alpha Products 'VS100' (for TRS-80 Model III) (SC-01-A)
Some Scott Adams text adventures implemented support of Votrax speech in Vic-20 ports of some of his text adventures, like Adventure Land (VIC-1914) and Voodoo Castle (VIC-1918)
Wizard of Wor
Gorf
Gottlieb Reactor
Q*Bert

I never knew about that VIC-20 game support, really cool, I had Voodoo Castle as a kid.

Would also be really neat to have a core where you could experiment with this chip by sending it text commands.

Wizard of Wor and Gorf have speech in their cores.

[TLPD-AVW]

Wizard of Wor and Gorf have speech in their cores.

These games play prerecorded audio samples in absence of proper sound implementation. If you look at the .mra files for these games marked with "(Speech)" you will notice that they have massive blocks of data containing these audio samples.
MAME uses .wav files to play sounds whenever the proper audio generating hardware is either not emulated yet or is actually impossible to emulate (Q*Bert physical kicker inside the cabinet or Journey audio cassette player). WoW and Gorf on MiSTer cores employ similar approach.

[mhartman]

Jrok has qbert speech implanted in his fpga Jamma board. So, it is definitely doable.

[goldenage]

Jrok has qbert speech implanted in his fpga Jamma board. So, it is definitely doable.

JROK ended up using samples. He implemented the SC-01 in FPGA, but concluded that without knowing the precise analog components used to mix phonemes, the result just didn't sound right.

[mhartman]

Jrok has qbert speech implanted in his fpga Jamma board. So, it is definitely doable.

JROK ended up using samples. He implemented the SC-01 in FPGA, but concluded that without knowing the precise analog components used to mix phonemes, the result just didn't sound right.

Good to know. Thanks!

[beamrider]

Qbert uses the SC-01 for speech, and the supply of that chip has really dried up in recent years. Going rate today is ~ $150+

Far cheaper to buy a used vintage Speak'n'Spell for $30-40 and de-solder the SC-01?

[goldenage]

Far cheaper to buy a used vintage Speak'n'Spell for $30-40 and de-solder the SC-01?

As you probably found out, no SC-01 in the Speak n Spell, and all the misc electronics that did have SC-01's have shot up in price on eBay too.

I did score an Intex Talker (Votrax clone) for $75 a couple years ago though.

[plxbollo]

Foound the issue. post can be deleted