Q*bert

Q*bert is Parker Brothers’ 1983 Atari 2600 conversion of Gottlieb’s arcade game. It is a one-player action-puzzle game in which Q*bert begins on the top cube of a stepped pyramid and hops diagonally from cube to cube. The aim is to turn every cube from its starting colour to the current destination colour, then move on to the next round. The Atari 2600 edition has five levels with four rounds in each; after Level 5, it repeats from that level’s first round.

The port keeps the arcade game’s central risk-and-route puzzle but presents a reduced six-row pyramid instead of the arcade board’s 28 cubes. It also leaves out the arcade enemies Ugg and Wrongway. Q*bert starts with four lives, shown at the top of the screen. A hop off either side or the bottom row costs a life, and the next Q*bert starts again at the top after a fall.

Use a joystick in the left controller port, held so its corners form a diamond and the fire button is at the top. Moving in the four diagonal directions makes Q*bert jump along the pyramid. Reset starts the game. The left difficulty switch selects Novice or Expert: Novice removes the Red Balls, while Expert includes the full set of hazards described in the game’s rules.

Each level changes the colour puzzle. In Level 1, one landing changes a starting-colour cube to the destination colour and a destination-colour cube stays finished. Level 2 requires a starting cube to pass through an intermediate colour before reaching its destination. Levels 3 through 5 become less forgiving: landing on completed cubes can reverse their colour, so a previously completed route may need to be rebuilt. Q*bert, enemy movement, and enemy appearance rates all increase as rounds advance.

Red Balls and Purple Balls travel down the pyramid and are dangerous on contact. A Purple Ball hatches into Coily at the bottom. Coily can be removed by luring him toward the correct exit cube and then taking the adjacent flying disc: Q*bert returns safely to the summit while Coily falls away. Flying discs are also escape routes, but jumping from the wrong cube to reach one sends Q*bert off the pyramid. Their number and placement vary by level and round.

Sam is not lethal, but he undoes Q*bert’s colour work by changing cubes back; colliding with him stops him and earns points. Catching a Green Ball freezes the other characters briefly and also scores points. The scoring table awards 25 points for changing a cube to its destination colour, 300 for Sam, 100 for a Green Ball, 500 for luring Coily off the pyramid, and 3,100 bonus points for every completed round. The game grants one bonus Q*bert after the first five rounds and another after every four rounds thereafter.

This version is a compact home interpretation of the arcade original: it preserves the colour-changing objective, diagonal navigation, discs, Coily, and escalating rounds, while simplifying the board and character set for the Atari 2600. A game ends once every Q*bert has been lost; pressing Reset begins again at Level 1, Round 1.