Q*bert Description

Q*bert was produced by Gottlieb, D., & Co., a Columbia Pictures Industries Co. in 1982.

Gottlieb, D., & Co., a Columbia Pictures Industries Co. released 58 different machines in our database under this trade name, starting in 1977.

Other machines made by Gottlieb, D., & Co., a Columbia Pictures Industries Co. during the time period Q*bert was produced include Combination Rotation (never produced), Spirit, Punk!, Critical Mass, Gold Rush, Magic, Mars God of War, Force II, Tidal Wave, and Pipeline.



A two-legged, big-nosed, orange creature jumps diagonally around on a pyramid, changing the color of the blocks he lands on. Avoid most moving objects and characters while luring Coily, the snake, to his demise by jumping off the edge of the pyramid onto one of the flying disks. The game has nine levels of four rounds each.

Q*bert - KLOV/IAM 5 Point User Score: 4.20 (22 votes)

Personal Impressions Score: 4.29



Overall 'Like': 4.43

Fun (Social): 3.20

Fun (Solo): 4.43

Collector Desire: 4.52 Technical Impressions Score: 4.27



Gameplay: 4.38

Graphics: 4.05

Originality: 4.81

Sound/Music: 4.14

Cabinet Information

Cabinet Style Weights and Measures

Type Upright/Standard Cocktail Cabaret/Mini

Conversion

Game Introduction

Game Play

As the attract mode explains, green is safe, nothing else is.

The first dangerous things to appear are the red Whammy Balls. They drop down onto the second row and bounce down in random directions before falling off the bottom.

Next is Coily. He begins as a large purple ball that acts just like a Whammy Ball until it reaches the bottom row. After a brief pause, it becomes the snake and will relentlessly chase QBert around the pyramid.

Ugg and Wrong Way appear together. They are oddballs in that their gravity is different. They bounce around the sides of the blocks Wrong Way on the left, Ugg on the right, going "down" until disappearing off their respective "bottom rows".

There are three different green things that appear. Unless the enemies prevent you, you will want to make it a point to collect anything green.

Slick and Sam appear together and do the same thing. They bounce down like Whammy Balls, but everywhere they land, the color of the cube changes to something other than the target. As such, they become quite a nuisance in later levels. If you can grab them, you will stop their mischief and net 300 points.

than the target. As such, they become quite a nuisance in later levels. If you can grab them, you will stop their mischief and net 300 points. The little green ball is among the least common of things to see because they are so useful. Collecting the green ball not only nets you 100 points but starts a brief time freeze where you can hop around without interference.

On each side of the pyramids, there are discs that Qbert can use to escape from the bad guys. Everytime Qbert jumps onto a disc, it will carry him back to the top of the pyramid. It is best to use a disc whenever Coily is close behind, so when Qbert uses a disc at that moment, Coily will jump off of the pyramid. Killing Coily also clears the board of enemies very handy.

You must have all squares changed to the required color to proceed to the next round. After all four rounds on a level are completed, you will proceed to the next level.

On the first level, you only need to jump on a square once to make it the correct color. At level two, you need to jump on them twice. At level three, you only need to jump once, but jumping on a square already at its target color changes it back! At level four, two jumps are required and jumping on a target color changes it to the intermediary color, requiring you to jump on it once more to change it back. At level five, jumping on a target color changes it back to the original color. It just gets harder from there as you may need to jump on a square three times or more. Also, as the game progresses, the pace gets faster. By about level six, you will be going about twice as fast as at level one. Level nine repeats infinitely.

Miscellaneous

The game was also sold as a bootleg version by Jeutel in France. Some of the manufactured boards were simple conversions from Jeutels Qbert bootleg boards, with some very basic hardware modifications.

One of the main differences between Faster Harder More Challenging Qbert and the original is that the flying disks on the sides of the pyramids change positions randomly throughout the game play. There is also a bonus round after levels two and five.

VAPS Arcade/Coin-Op Q*bert Census

Very Common - There are 568 known instances of this machine owned by Q*bert collectors who are active members. Of these, 496 of them are original dedicated machines, 14 of them are conversions in which game circuit boards (and possibly cabinet graphics) have been placed in (and on) another game cabinet, and 57 of them are only circuit boards which a collector could put into a generic case if desired.

For Sale - There are 13 active VAPS members with Q*bert machines for sale. There are 3 active VAPS members with extra Q*bert circuit boards for sale.

Wanted - Very Popular - There are 106 active VAPS members currently looking for Q*bert. There are 2 active VAPS members looking for Q*bert board sets.

This game ranks a 88 on a scale out of 100 (100 = most often seen, 1=least common) in popularity based on census ownership records.

This game ranks a 95 on a scale out of 100 (100 = most often wanted, 1=least common) in popularity based on census want list records.

Rarity and Popularity independently are NOT necessarily indications of value. [More Information]

Technical

Trivia

There was an erroneous rumor going around that the designer of the Furby is the original programmer of Qbert. This is untrue. The original Qbert arcade game was designed and programmed by Warren Davis with graphics by Jeff Lee and sounds by David Thiel. The designer of the Furby may have been one of the programmers of a Qbert conversion to a home system such as the Atari 2600, hence the confusion.

Faster Harder More Challenging Qbert never went into production and no dedicated cabinets are known to exist.

A 1983 Commodore 64 game entitled Humphrey bears a striking resemblance to 1982's QBert. Some C64 enthusiasts insist QBert was an idea stolen from the programmer of Humphrey, although there is no evidence to support that

Fixes

Legacy

Foto-Finder® (books)

Arcade Fever, Sellers (ISBN 0762409371): Page: 108; Color photo; Price guide:

Video Clips

Q*bert (Arcade)



Q*bert arcade game review - Qbert Gottlieb 1982



Q*bert shortplay by Ivan Paduano



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