Neon Retro Arcade

Q*Bert

1982

Gottlieb

Q*bert was born when programmers drew a pyramid of cubes inspired by MC Escher (and his dope rhymes). Soon enough, they knew they had a solid game concept (and something unique with that joystick rotated 45 degrees). Q*bert is beloved for the addictive gameplay, and also because of the incredibly satisfying audio throughout the game. From Q*bert's "swearing" to the sound of him falling off the pyramid, this game sounds great.

Story

Q*bert is an armless orange character with a long snout who jumps across the board changing tiles to the proper color while avoiding various enemies. Many characters move aimlessly across the screen, but once Coily the snake hatches, he goes right for Q*bert. Your only real defense is to jump on one of the floating discs while Coily pursues you- if Coily is close enough, he will jump to his death.

Tips & Strategies

Grabbing the green ball will pause time for a short period so you can regroup and plan your next moves.

Q*bert only says two actual lines of dialogue- everything else he says is really just a random string of syllables. Do you know what 2 lines of dialogue he says?

For awhile, the game was going to be called Snots And Boogers.