Title: Q-bert

Release Date: 1982

Developer: Gottlieb & Co.

Class: Wide Release

Genre: Platform

Maximum number of players: 1

Number of simultaneous players: 2

Game Controls:

• Joystick: 4-Way
• Total Buttons: 1
• Actions:
  N/A

Overview:

The object of the Q*bert game is to change the color of the top of the cubes to the Destination color indicated at the upper-left of the screen (below Player 1's score) by hopping onto them. When all the cubes in the pyramid have been changed to the destination color, the screen will advance to the next Round, with the player-controlled Q*bert character starting back on the top cube. At the beginning of each Level, there will be a short demonstration cycle with Q*bert hopping around four cubes to explain to the player the play action of each Level. Each Level consists of four Rounds. The current Level number and Round number is displayed at the upper-right of the screen (below Player 2's score in a 2-player game).

Facts & Trivia:

Released in October 1982.
Licensed to Konami for Japanese distribution (February 1983).

Inspired by artwork by M.C. Escher who was an artist that Jeff admired. Ron Waxman came up with the idea of Q*bert changing the color of the cubes. Q*bert's name originated by the combination of 'Cube' and 'Hubert', but the 'Cube-Bert' was changed to 'Q-bert' to make it more unique. The concept game was called 'Snots and Boogers' and then '@!#?@!' (which many of the programmers and Gottlieb VPs said would be impossible to get anyone to say) before the final version was called just 'Q*bert'. Slick and Sam were a play on the phrase 'spick and span' with Sam being named after co-worker Sam Russo. Rick Tighe came up with the idea of adding the pinball hardware which generated the very mechanical KA-CHUNK when Q*bert falls off the pyramid.

A Votrax SC-01 speech synthesis chip is used to generate the incoherent speech of Q*bert swearing, Slick and Sam (high pitch) and Wrong-way and Ugg (low pitch). The only true speech ever generated is Q*bert saying 'Hello, I'm turned on' when the game is first powered up and 'Bye Bye' after entering your initials at the end of a game.

Approximately 30,000 units were produced by Gottlieb.

Several early cabinets were produced with '@!#?@!' on the marquee.

Bob Gerhardt holds the official records for this game in 'Marathon' setting with 33,273,520 points on 11/28/1983.
Tom Gault holds the official records for this game in 'Tournament' setting with 1,895,565 points.

A slightly different version known as 'Mello Yello' was programmed for promotion of the Mellow-Yellow softdrink, but it was never released to the market.

For more facts and trivia check out www.arcade-history.com and www.arcade-museum.com

Game Ports:

Sega SG-1000 (1982)
Colecovision (1983)
Mattel Intellivision (1983)
G7000 Videopac
Atari 2600 (1983)
Atari 5200 (1983)
Atari 7800 (unreleased prototype, - "Bentley Bear In Q*bert")
Atari XEGS
Magnavox Odyssey 2 (1983, "Q*bert", Parker Brothers)
Nintendo Famicom (1989)
Nintendo Game Boy (1992) (Japanese release only).
Sony PlayStation (1999)
Nintendo Game Boy Color (2000)
Sega Dreamcast (2000)
Sony PlayStation 3 (2007, "PlayStation Network")

Atari 800 (1983)
Commodore VIC-20 (1983)
Commodore C64 (1983)
Commodore C64 (198?, "Hexpert")
Tandy Color Computer (1983, "Cuber")
Tandy Color Computer (1983, "Cubix")
Sinclair ZX-Spectrum (1983, 'POGO' – Ocean)
Amstrad CPC (1984, "Er*Bert" - Microbyte)
Texas Instruments TI-99/4A (1984)
BBC B ("R*THER" 1984 - Acornsoft)
Memotech MTX 512 (1985, "Qogo")
Tandy Color Computer 3 (1987, "Pyramix")
Amstrad CPC (1987, "Crazy Er*Bert" - Alternative Software)
Commodore Amiga (1992, 'Q.Bic' – CodeMasters)
PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (1999)
Apple Macintosh (2001)

Tips & Tricks / More info:

* Control Panel Instructions :
Goal : Change the tops of all cubes to a new color by hopping onto them.
Joystick moves 'Q*bert' from cube to cube. Hopping onto a disk will take you back to the top.
All green objects are safe to hit. All other objects are deadly.
Destroy the snake by leading him to the edge, then jumping on a disk.
Stay on pyramid! Only jump off to use a disk.

* A big part of the game is waiting to see where 'nasty' characters are going to jump. You need to make sure you always time a jump at the same time the 'nasty' characters jump, so you can always have a clear path to a new square.

* Since the game only has 9 levels, if you can master level 9 then you should be able to play indefinitely since level 9 repeats once you reach it and the game doesn't get any harder.

For more tips and tricks check out www.arcade-history.com and www.arcade-museum.com