Line #27 VideoGame/QBert


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5	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_5762.jpeg]]
6	[[caption-width-right:350:[[{{Tagline}} Become the Supreme Noser!]]]]
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8	->''"[[SymbolSwearing @!#?@!]]"''
9	-->-- '''Q*bert''' upon losing a life
10
11	''Qbert'' is a 1982 arcade game published by Creator/{{Gottlieb}}, created by Warren Davis and Jeff Lee. In ''Qbert'', the player maneuvers the eponymous character around an isometric pyramid-like structure of tri-colored cubes. Q*bert's purpose is to hop around the tops of these cubes, changing every square to a specific color (e.g., from blue to yellow).
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13	The "changing the cube colors" idea came quite late in game development. Davis and Lee had implemented the pyramid level and enemies, but were unsure of what Q*bert's goal would be. It was Ron Waxman, vice president of engineering at Gottlieb, who suggested having the cubes change color when the player landed on them.
14
15	Qbert is harassed by an assortment of enemies. "Coily" the snake appears at the top of the pyramid inside a purple ball, bouncing toward the bottom of the screen. Once he hits the bottom row of cubes, the snake springs out from inside, hopping around in pursuit of the little orange hero. Red balls also appear at the top of the pyramid, bringing bouncing death if they collide with Qbert on the way down.
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17	Other threats come from "Ugg" and "Wrong-Way", a purple pig and gremlin team who bounce along the side of the cubes. Additionally, Qbert has to deal with "Slick" and "Sam", two green creatures who turn cubes back to their original color when they hop on them. Qbert can eliminate Slick or Sam by jumping onto them.
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19	Aside from some strategic hopping, Qbert's only defenses are the spinning discs at the side of the pyramid and the green balls that bounce across the squares. The discs provide a quick escape, floating Qbert back to the top of the pyramid as Coily jumps to his death in pursuit. The green balls freeze the enemies, giving Q*bert a free run of the pyramid for a limited time.
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21	''Qbert'''s use of sound was one of its most distinctive features. The game's sound board contained a Votrax speech synthesis chip, but according to David Thiel, who created the sounds for the game, the chip's output was so poor that some words were not understandable. In frustration, he programmed it to produce random phonemes, and discovered that the result sounded like an [[StarfishLanguage alien language]]. This randomized speech, played at different pitches, became the voices of Ugg, Wrongway, Slick, Sam, and Qbert himself. Sometimes if you're lucky, you'll get a cuss word from random babble. The only actual words that remain are "Hello, I'm turned on" when the game is booted up, and "Bye-bye" whenever you get a GameOver.
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23	Dedicated upright cabinets for ''Q*bert'' contain a pinball "knocker" (a solenoid that creates a knocking sound) inside the cabinet whenever a character falls off the pyramid, simulating the sound that a character might make if it actually fell to the bottom of the cabinet. In some units, this sound is created by a bean bag inside the case rigged to fall. This resulted in more of a "thud" than the distinctive "pop" created by the knocker-equipped cabinets.
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25	Qbert was one of the characters featured on ''WesternAnimation/SaturdaySupercade''. The game has a follow-up called ''Qbert's Qubes'' and an unreleased sequel called ''Faster Harder More Challenging Qbert'', a case of InWhichATropeIsDescribed. A home sequel, ''Qbert 3'', was later released for Super NES. In 2012, Creator/{{Disney}} released ''WesternAnimation/WreckItRalph'', which gave Q*bert a prominent role in the film. He also has a brief appearance in its sequel ''WesternAnimation/RalphBreaksTheInternet''.
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27	Of the many, ''[[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/qbert_crash.JPG many]]'' home ports of ''Qbert'', the MSX and NES versions were developed by Creator/{{Konami}}. The MSX version, however, starred a different-looking Qbert that was more pudgy and reptilian, similar to the design of the dragons from ''VideoGame/BubbleBobble''. Its gameplay was based on ''Q*bert's Qubes'', but it was perhaps more valued for the [[OldSaveBonus bonuses it gave to other Konami games when the cartridge was plugged into the second slot]].
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29	In 2014, ''Qbert: Rebooted'' was released. It contains the original arcade game, and a new game with 3D graphics. The major change is that Qbert walks in hexagonal shapes instead of cubes. The revival of the character was motivated by his appearance in ''Wreck-It Ralph'', and he would later gain another prominent appearance in film in 2015's ''Film/{{Pixels}}''.
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31	Legendary [[InstrumentalHipHop turntablist]] DJ Qbert got his name from this series.
32	----
33	!!''Q*bert'' contains examples of:
34	* AbhorrentAdmirer: QBertha in ''FHMC QBert'', to the extent that she takes on Coily's role in the latter levels and will cost QBert a life if she catches him. Averted in her later appearance in ''Qbert: Rebooted'', where she gains a fair bit of AdaptationalAttractiveness and is shown as more of a DistaffCounterpart.
35	* AnimatedAdaptation: As part of ''WesternAnimation/SaturdaySupercade''.
36	* BottomlessPits: Audibly averted. If Qbert, Coily, or QBertha jump off the pyramid, they fall until the player hears either a "splat" or the arcade cabinet's knocker.
37	* CanonImmigrant: A borderline case: thirty-one years after the cartoon, a character ''named'' Qtee was added to 2014's ''Qbert Rebooted'' as an unlockable skin, but she looks entirely different from ''Supercade's'' version of Qtee, and she's Qbert's sister rather than his girlfriend.
38	* ColourCodedForYourConvenience: Somewhat. Of the game's moving objects, anything that's green (Slick, Sam, and the Green Ball) is safe to touch. Most dangerous things are purple (Coily, Wrongway, Ugg, and, in the unreleased sequel, Q*Bertha), but some are red (the Red Balls).
39	** Also, the cubes' platforms fit into this vein as well.
40	* DamnYouMuscleMemory: The non-standard joystick - all diagonal moves instead of up/down/left/right[[note]]which is just a standard joystick rotated 45 degrees[[/note]] - can take some getting used to.
41	** It gets worse if you switch from playing the arcade version to the home version where all the diagonal moves are mapped to left, right, up, and down on the control pad. Fortunately with the NES version, the controls can be remapped to the diagonal positions on the D-pad, which is only preferable if you're using a control stick.
42	* {{Determinator}}: Coily. Once he appears, he'll hunt QBert down without ever stopping unless you give him a DisneyVillainDeath. Same goes with QBertha in ''FHMC Q*Bert''.
43	* DisneyVillainDeath: If you jump onto a disc and ride it back to the top of the stage, if Coily is right behind you as you leap on, he'll jump after you and fall to his death, until he respawns later.
44	* DownerEnding: The NES version ends with Coily sneaking up on Q*Bert after all the congratulatory messages for beating all the levels.
45	* TheEighties: The era in which this game was created in.
46	* EveryTenThousandPoints: Extra lives are for the arcade game are first issued at 8,000 points, then every additional 14,000 afterward[[note]]e.g. 22,000; 36,000; 50,000; etc.[[/note]].
47	** The [=NES=] port slightly alters this to 6,000 and every additional 12,000[[note]]e.g. 18,000; 30,000; 42,000; etc.[[/note]].
48	* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: ''Faster Harder More Challenging Q*Bert'' lives up to its name:
49	** The first four rounds progress through the complications of the first four levels in the original game. That is, the second stage of FHMC made you jump on each cube twice (like the second set of stages in the original), and so on. Level 1, Round 4 of ''FHMC Q*Bert'' was as difficult as Level 4, Round 1 (the thirteenth round) of the original.
50	** Level 2 now features new behavior for Slick and Sam: they don't change the colors back, they instead lock cubes into a rainbow color that you can't change, and you have to lure Coily over them to reset them to their original color.
51	** Level 3 replaces Coily with QBertha, a female QBert who just wants to [[AbhorrentAdmirer love him to death]]. In addition to chasing Q*Bert, she changes the colors of the cubes back as she follows you around. Slick and Sam do not appear in Level 3.
52	** Level 4 brings Slick and Sam back. Now you have to lure Q*Bertha over the rainbow squares while trying to keep her from undoing too much of the rest of the pyramid. This pattern keeps up for a while, long enough that you think it's not going to change, and then...
53	** Level 7 now has Slick and Sam lock squares black. You have to lure QBertha onto such squares ''twice'' to change them back to normal. The only bright side is that QBert himself can't change the square's colors back on this level.
54	** Level 8: That bright side? Gone.
55	** On top of all that, the flying discs don't stay in one place. If you want to temporarily get rid of Coily or Q*Bertha, you have to make sure you're not jumping into empty air because a disc just moved. The only consolation here is that discs reappear after being used.
56	*** To make matters even more pressing, each flying disk used subtracts points from the end-of-level bonus.
57	** [[VideoGame/SmashTV Good luck! You'll need it!]]
58	* FakeDifficulty: When playing ''Rebooted'' on a [=PlayStation=] console, don't expect Q*bert to go in the direction you think you're pointing him towards. Sometimes he'll even go the completely opposite direction as well, especially after falling off the stage, costing 2 lives in less than a second.
59	** The PC version also has terrible controls with a gamepad, but it works fine with a mouse.
60	* FakeLongevity: ''Rebooted'' has 40 levels consisting of 3 rounds and Stars to unlock later levels are earned by completing 1 of 3 challenges: Beating the level, clearing the level under a certain time, and reaching a particular score. However, only 1 of these stars can be earned at a time, requiring each level to be completed a minimum of 3 times.
61	* {{Gonk}}: QBertha in ''FHMC QBert''. She is an extremely obese member of Q*Bert's species with messy hairs sprouting upwards on her head.
62	* HappyFunBall: Happy Fun Red Balls: Your main enemy.
63	** Coily's "egg" resembles a a larger, purple ball. The smaller green balls meanwhile are helpful collectables.
64	* InvincibilityPowerUp: Green balls not only freezes Q*bert's enemies, they also allow him to slip by them unharmed.
65	* IsometricProjection
66	* {{Jerkass}}: Slick and Sam, undoing all your hard work. In ''FHMC Q*Bert'', they're even worse. And in ''Rebooted'' there's no limit to how many of them can be on the screen at once!
67	* LoadsAndLoadsOfLoading: For a game that only takes less than 600 megabytes, ''Reloaded'' definitely takes a long time to load a level. There's even a noticeable pause in the action whenever a jewel appears on the screen.
68	* LuckyCharmsTitle
69	* NoPlotNoProblem: Well, you've got this weird little fellow hopping on the blocks on a pyramid, changing their color, while equally weird guys try to stop him. Why? [[RuleOfCool Do you need a reason?]]
70	* OhCrap: Two versions:
71	** When Qbert collides with an enemy, he has a speech bubble that reads "[[SymbolSwearing @!#?@!]]".[[labelnote:*]]an approximate rendering due to font restrictions; the @'s represent spirals.[[/labelnote]]
72	** When Coily goes off the edge, he gives an electronic cry.
73	* PinballSpinoff: ''Pinball/QBertsQuest'', also by Gottlieb, released in 1983.
74	* PunnyName: The title ''Qbert'' refers to the protagonist's name and also contains the word "cube", alluding to the playfield full of cubes. Qbert himself also resembles the letter Q.
75	* ReptilesAreAbhorrent: Coily. So much that he's even the BigBad of the 1999 game.
76	* ShootTheShaggyDog: After all of your efforts getting Q*bert through all 36 pyramids in the NES version, Coily catches up to and kills him offscreen.
77	* SpeakingSimlish: Q*Bert speaks this way due to the developers getting frustrated with the API of the Votrax chip.
78	* SymbolSwearing: Whenever Q*bert gets hit by something or jumps off the edge of the play field (the latter only in ''FHMC'' and ''Qubes'').
79	* SyntheticVoiceActor: The game has a Votrax SC-01 speech synthesizer on-board. But the developers were frustrated with the chip's complicated API to the point where they gave up after just two phrases (one heard when the game is powered on, another after one enters their initials in the high score screen) and the rest of the programming consists of the chip spouting gibberish.
80	* TheUnpronounceable: Some early versions of the game shipped with "@!#?@!" as the game's actual title. This was quickly changed for obvious reasons.
81	* TimeStandsStill: Grab a Green ball and this happens.
82	* TryAndFollow: Luring Coily to his doom by jumping onto a disc.
83	----
84	->''"[[TheStinger Bye-bye.]]"''

Context VideoGame / QBert