#0042 Q*Bert

Alright, today's a pretty big one. Today on 1K1VGYMPBYD we look at one of the most beloved and memorable games from the Golden Age, Q*Bert. An arcade isometric platformer with puzzle elements developed by Gottlieb in 1982.

Qbert represents the first video game played from an isometric psudo third-dimensional viewpoint. You start at the top of a MC Escher like pyramid, with 28 cubes. The whole game is played with a bizarre 4 way joystick rotated 45 degrees. In this game, you play as a... Whatever named Qbert who starts each level at the top of the pyramid and moves by hopping diagonally from cube to cube. Landing on said cube changes the color. The object of the game is to change every cube on the stage to the target color while avoiding a surprising variety of enemies, and avoiding jumping off the pyramid itself.

The idea of Q*Bert was thought up by Warren Davis and Jeff Lee. Basically, Lee drew a pyramid of cubes inspired by M. C. Escher and said “Let's make a game out of this!” And they did. Drawing inspiration from comics, cartoons, Mad magazine and even Ed Roth if you can believe it, they created an armless character who shot projectiles called “mucus bombs” from his nose at enemies (this was later removed during production). Qbert's design later included a speech balloon with a string of nonsensical characters, “@!#?@!”. Lee originally presented this as a joke.

Wanting to create a high quality game both in graphics and sound, they implemented a MOS Technology 6502 chip that generates sound effects, and a separate speech synthesizer to generate voices. David Theil originally wanted to use the speech synthesizer to create English phrases for the game, such as “You have gotten 10,000 bonus points”, but the closest he could get the machine to say was “bogus points”. Frustrated, Theil finally said “screw it, what if I just stick random numbers in the chip instead of all this highly authored stuff”. The result was the exact Qberteese that's used in the game. That was the cherry on top, and Q*Bert as we know it was born.

Alright, I'm just going to say this now, Qbert is amazing. It ranks up there with Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, and Missle Command as a near flawless masterpiece of a game. The concept is simple, anyone can pick it up, yet there is an almost chess like strategy in watching where all your enemies are and being able to predict their movements. Figuring out the best route to clear the stage keeps you on your toes. The graphics are clear, sharp, and the pixel art is top notch. The colors are vibrant and bright but not obnoxious, the characters designs are up there with the best like Pac-Man or Donkey Kong. Honestly, everything about this game is so well made and nearly every thought, every idea that went into making this game was to make it a better play experience. I especially love the little touches such as in the actual arcade machine, when Qbert falls off the pyramid the sound actually follows him to the ground and a pinball knocker makes a thud sound when he hits the ground. Little things like that are just not expected and go above and beyond to give a unique play experience that simply can't be replicated even today.

If I had to gripe, and I'm really nitpicking here, I suppose I would say I had a little trouble adjusting to the control scheme. Seasoned gamers especially are going to have a hard time with those controls. I got game over within a minute of my first playthrough due to accidentally jumping off the pyramid or into an enemy when I meant to go a different way.

After you get used to them though, the game gets surprisingly fluid, it's a game of watching what your enemy is doing and thinking on your feet. Overall, I'd say this is an amazing contender for game of the year, a near flawless execution of a unique and addicting concept with humor that always makes me smile. If you haven't played this game, it's five bucks on steam, go play it for an hour or six.

As a side note, I did the math earlier, and turns out I did roughly 40 games last year from the time I started, to newyears. Meaning that if I keep this same pace, I'll finish 1001 in roughly 25 years! That's... Shocking. I didn't even fathom just how long this was going to take me. It's a strange feeling, I love doing these reviews and playing these old games, but it's just so surreal to think that I'll be 50 before I finish this book. Taking into consideration that I'll have kids some day, and have a career, I might not even be able to do 40 per year for long. Suddenly this challenge really does seem like a bucket list, something to try and finish before I die. It's just weird to think that this is something I'll still be doing as an old man... Kinda makes me feel my own mortality...

Up next: Xevious (Aw hell yeah!)