Q*Bert's Qubes ROM hack
by Jess Askey

Converting your existing Q*bert game into a Q*bert's Qubes game is a pretty straightforward procedure. The conversion kit was mostly just a ROM swap, but the forground object ROM's unfortunatley required an adaptor PCB since Q*bert's Qubes used twice the memory space as Q*bert. Well I took a look at the QQ manual and noticed that I wouldn't be too hard to hack this problem. The procedure is as follows:

• Download the ROM's.
• Burn all the necessary ROM's from the file (instructions are in the .zip)
• Modify the Game PCB
• Remove (+5V) from K4-26, K5-26, K6-26 and K7/8-26, this can be done by cutting the trace.
• Jumper pin 26 from all the foreground ROM's to A8 pin 12
• Remove both R31 and R33 (1K Ohm resistors)
• Remove Q2 (2N6044)
• Connect the base of Q1 (from front view, pin 1) to A8-15 via a 15KOhm resistor
• Check all your connections and have fun!

• Q*bert's Qubes does not use the knocker that is in Q*bert. It is unfortunate since the knocker sounds so good in gameplay.
• The sound ROMs are the same as a normal Q*Bert.
• Look at the Schematic for the Foreground Object Module
• Download the full Manual and Schematics for Q*Bert's Qubes (8.28MB Adobe PDF document)

Updated: April 9, 2001