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Q*Bert Game History

I bet any avid gamer from the early 1980s can identify with Q*Bert. The small orange character with a rather long tubular nose. The comic value of the game was immense. Whenever colliding with an on screen enemy the swear bubble would appear, along with very expressive eye movement. This emotion gave the character a very human touch, which many gamers instantly related to.

Released for the arcades in 1982, designed by Warren Davies and Jeff Lee, published and developed by Gottlieb, Q*Bert is a single or two player alternating turn game of the platform genre.

The object of the game is quite simple, guide Q*Bert around an isometric pyramid while changing the colours of the cubes. The early levels are straight forward as each cube will change colour at a single touch. However the colour will change back to the original if accidentally hopped on again. In the later levels the cubes have to be hopped on twice in order to change their colour.

Unfortunately the game isn't as straightforward as that. Preventing Q*Bert from a clear run (or hop in this case) at the pyramid he is constantly tormented by numerous enemies. These include Coily the snake, Ugg a purple pig, Wrong-Way a gremlin team, and Slick and Sam, two creatures who turn the colours of the cubes back into their original colour.

The only aids at Q*Bert's disposal are spinning disks situated at the side of the pyramid. These disks, once jumped upon transport our hero to the top of the pyramid. There are also green balls, that will freeze Q*Bert's enemies for a short time.

Unfortunately because of the video game crash of the early 1980s an arcade sequel never materialised. The original however was converted onto many home based systems, including; Atari 2600 and 5200; Commodore 64; Nintendo Game Boy and N.E.S; Sony PlayStation. There is currently a direct conversion of the arcade original for the Playstation3. This version is downloadable from the PlayStation store.

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