Q*bert
| Q*Bert | |
| |
| Developer: | Gottlieb |
| Publisher: | Gottlieb |
| Game designer: | Jeff Lee |
| Release date: | 1982 |
| Genre: | Retro/Puzzle |
| Game modes: | Up to 2 players, alternating turns |
| Cabinet: | Standard and table |
| Controls: | Joystick |
| Monitor | |
| Orientation: | Vertical |
| Type: | Raster, standard resolution (Used: 256 x 240) |
| Size: | 19 inch |
| Notes | |
| Developed during the Golden Age of Arcade Games | |
Q*bert is a 1982 arcade game from Gottlieb. It features a main character of the same name. Q*bert was one of the most famous faces of the Golden age of arcade games and also one of the most bizarre. A furry orange orb with two eyes, two feet and one long snout, Q*bert was strangely adorable, and his game lived up to that wacky, unpredictable image.
Description
Designed with a nod to M.C. Escher, Q*bert's playing field is a faux-3D pyramid of tri-colored cubes. Q's purpose in life is to hop around the tops of these cubes, changing every square to a specific color (i.e. from blue to yellow). On early levels, this is as simple as a single hop on each square, but later rounds become more challenging; cubes have to be touched twice, cubes change back to the wrong color if they get hopped on again, etc. In the original arcade machine, if the Q*bert character hopped off the edge of the pyramid of cubes, he would fall to his death with a loud mechanically produced *plonk* sound at floor level.
Making the task even more difficult is the assortment of odd baddies who menace or jinx Q*bert's every move. "Coily" the snake appears at the top of the pyramid inside a purple ball, bouncing toward the bottom of the screen. Once he hits the bottom row of cubes, the snake springs out from inside, hopping around in pursuit of our little orange friend. Red balls also appear at the top of the pyramid, bringing bouncing death if they collide with Q*bert on the way down.
Other threats come from "Ugg" and "Wrongway," two purple gremlins who bounce along the side of the cubes, adding even more surrealism to an already whacked-out game. And on top of all this, Q has to deal with "Slick" and "Sam," two green mischief making pineapples who turn cubes back to their original color when they hop on them.
Aside from some strategic hopping, Q*bert's only defenses are the spinning discs at the side of the pyramid and the green balls that bounce across the squares. The discs provide a quick escape, floating Q back to the top of the pyramid as Coily jumps to his death in pursuit. The green balls are time freezers, giving Q*bert a free run of the pyramid for a limited time.
Q*bert's simple gameplay and controls (one joystick, no buttons) made the game a hit among all age groups. An animated cartoon merchandizing tie-in debuted on CBS' Saturday Supercade, with the orange furball now sporting arms, a mouth and a high school letterman's jacket. The cute, but foul-mouthed star (who muttered an unintelligible “@!#?@!” with every lost life) was a natural for the merchandising world, and stores soon stocked up on Q*bert dolls, lunchboxes, sleeping bags, etc.
Legacy
For a time, Q*bert was a king of the arcade world, but the video game crash of 1983 brought an end to his reign. The collapsed market was a death blow to Q*bert's arcade sequel, Q*bert's Qubes. The new game added more challenges to the Q*bert theme, scattering the cubes into separate space. Now, when Q*bert hopped off, the cubes actually rotated to a new side, shifting in the direction of Q*bert's jump.
Unfortunately, these new touches were wasted on a depressed market. Few Q*bert's Qubes machines even made it to the public, and the orange one's arcade career was over. Q*bert did make a comeback in home system conversions and in the Super Nintendo's Q*bert 3, and he remains one of the most well-known characters of the early 1980s arcade.
Ports
Q*Bert was ported to numerous home systems and was remade several times. In 1983, it was ported by Parker Brothers to ColecoVision, Intellivision, Atari 2600, Atari 5200 and the Commodore 64. In 1989, Q*Bert was ported to the Nintendo Entertainment System. In 1992, it was ported to the Game Boy. In 1999 a PlayStation version was released. 2000 saw the release of new versions for Windows and Dreamcast. Some were ports of the original code, others complete re-writes of the game. There is even a port for the Macintosh Classic, under a similar but different name - Bert: The Rise and Fall of a Swedish Politician.
External link
- The KLOV entry for Q*Bert
- atarimagazines.com (FAQ/Walkthrough, for the Atari version)
- db.gamefaqs.com (FAQ/Walkthrough, for the Playstation version)
- History of Q*bert The History of Q*Bert by (creator) Jeff Lee
- MobyGames' entry on the various Q*Bert games for home systems