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Where Are They Now: Q*Bert
An anonymous reader writes "Two guys who worked on SNL and the Conan show cover the drug-addled history of Atari's classic blobish-looking character, Q*Bert."
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Why do people seem to think that all arcade games came from Atari?
One of Richard's suggestions for the main character was Q*Bert, a combination of CUBE (QUBE) and HUBERT. Don't ask me who Hubert is. Waxman recalls an intermediate step, "It went from *&!!#$$! to cubert but I was afraid it would be pronounced 'cub bert' so I had suggested that the 'cu' be changed to 'q'."
Looks like the asterisk might have come from the swearing characters.
Just seen this game sold in local computer store
here (Frys electronics) for Macintosh.
Have you seen Conan or SNL? Being "not funny" seems to be a trademark of their writers.
Great to see a link to jerkcity on slashdot. www.leisuretown.com is another good one, written by the same guy.
...or JIC you don't want to deal with the GD awful advertisments!!! - full text.
His adventures enthralled thousands. The punctation of his name baffled millions. Whether or not you were able to pronunce the word asterik you knew Q*Bert. Even those who did not participate in his adventures, they were aware of his sometimes fruitless attempts to outwit the dasterdly Coily the snake.
But where is he now?
A direct descendant of the Roman Emperor CueBertiMus MaxiMus, Q*Bert was raised with the knowledge that he was destined for greatness. This fact was never lost on his parents, who were always slightly disappointed that their "Little Bertie" never really applied himself towards his schoolwork, always seeming more content to be alone in his bedroom. Whether he would ascend the stairs with paint thinner, airplane glue, or turpentine, his parents secretly hoped that he would one day share with them whatever wood-working project he was surely building in there. In an interview in 1986 with Scratch and Sniff magazine, Q*Bert revealed that this was actually the beginnings of a life-long addiction to inhalants.
The altered state of mind that he often found himself gave him what his teachers generously referred to as "an over-active imagination", which by today's standards would be classified as "borderline schizophrenic." However, Q*Bert was perfectly content in his notions of government conspiracies against revealing the truth. Q*Bert was convinced that the world we live in is actually comprised of miniature cubes, and he would go at great lengths on this subject, spouting of phrases and word combinations that no one could really understand. Many would simply try and listen closely, or even recording what he said and playing it backwards, but, the fact of the matter was simple: Q*Bert was never really saying much of anything. Once this became apparent, he went largely unnoticed.
Word of this unique character reached Michael Ovitz who was then employed by the Atari Corporation as a scout for stars for their video game adventures. Q*Bert's strange features and oddly pixelated quality made him perfect. Ovitz felt that he had the next Frogger on his hands. He immediately approached Q*Bert and brought him to the offices to meet with the video game makers. The research and development team at Atari spent a great deal of time studying what made Q*Bert tick, and what type of game would suit him. Their first attempt, Q*Bert's Filthy Swear-o-Rama, never really got off the ground. Game programmers took a closer look scrawlings about how the universe was actually comprised of cubes, and how mastery of those cubes would lead to ultimate power. Or at least that's what he attempted to express, despite it actually coming out sounding more like "Eep Opp Ork Ah-Ah."
His ailing health made it impossible to tour in promotion of Q*Bert's Qubes, ensuring that it could never succeed.
It helped that he had countless drawings on the topic, which he was able to turn over to the designers. The notion of a game largely comprised of cubes excited all involved, because it was the one thing that could actually be made to look realistic at that time. Now, the only problem was to find a formidible adversary for Q*Bert. The ideal foe was already signed to an iron-clad ten-year contract: a purple snake named Coily, whose previous game Coily's Slither Disco '81 failed to catch on due to lack of interest in playing a game where a snake does the hustle.
By early 1983, the game was ready to go. Q*Bert would hop around trying to change the colors of the cubes, all the while attempting to evade Coily's dasterdly intentions. The flying disks were a last minute addition to add slightly more risk to the game, and because Q*bert seemed to like the way that flying through the air made him light-headed.
The game test-marketed so well that it was decided to market the game as a first-run arcade video game. This was great news for Q*Bert and Coily, who would each share three cents of every quarter that was put into the game which put Q*Bert on the fast-track to superstardom.
He was on top of the world. Happy for the first time in his life, he purchased an estate with a reinforced swimming pool which would satisfy his increasingly insatiable cocaine addiction. Unfortunately, with Q*Bert's recreation of choice, it was only a matter of time before tragedy would come knocking.
Riding high on both the success of the video game, and the coconut sized chunks of cocaine he inhaled, Q*Bert was totally unaware of a worsening health condition. Despite the fact that the septum of his nose had once been the size of a small child's arm, he was oblivious to its virtual disintegration, and his diagnosis with Paranasal Sinus Cancer caught him completely unaware.
Refusing to accept his condition, he returned to work. However, his constant hopping resulted in a thin layer of blood left on the entire game cube. With increasing awareness of the AIDS virus, Coily swore to never work with Q*Bert again.
At the height of his fame, you could have Q*Bert in your very own house. Although he preferred to be kept right next the cleaning supplies.
Within days, Q*Bert was unable to perform, which could not have come at a worse time for him. A sequel to his eponymous adventure was the all-new Q*Bert's Qubes. A major media push had been planned, with Q*Bert doing a multi-city tour. But, not only was his health too poor to do the tour, but Atari executives felt that Q*Bert's fans would not be able to handle seeing his bulging eyes and cancerous growth on the side of his nose.
With Q*Bert unattached to the project, Q*Bert's Qubes met with minor success. He cast aside his recreational lifestyle and set out to beat his cancer. Sadly, a year of intense chemotherapy was not enough. His only chance for survival was to have his nose removed. Although it meant the end to his livelihood, and all he had worked for, Q*Bert was glad to be given a second chance at life. He had the procedure done, and spent several months recovering. The remainder of his fortune went to reconstructive surgery, so that he could function again.
Finally healthy, Q*Bert began to try and get his career on track. But, the public simply didn't recognize him, and the video game market had changed so drastically that there simply was no longer a home for him in the industry. A short-term job as a sunglass-clad rock n' roll orange for Sunkist paid the bills, but it wasn't enough for him. He'd always known he was destined for better things, and he knew if he worked hard enough, they would happen for him all over again.
Only they never did. Years went by, and despite guest appearances on Empty Nest and A Different World the public never really accepted the nose-less Q*Bert. Worse than that, Q*Bert could no longer accept himself. His ensuing depression illustrated how old habits die hard. With his nose removed, his ability to inhale toxic fumes had diminished, and he had to seek out larger and larger quantities of them.
It was just such a pursuit that put a tragic end to Q*Bert's struggles. On October 5, 1990, Q*Bert was found face down in an aquarium filled with kerosene. Friends within the video game community were devastated, and banded together to make sure that nothing like that would ever happen again. The Q*Bert Memorial Fund was set up in 1992, establishing for the first time health insurance for video game characters. Then to honor his memory, in 2000 a newly generated Q*Bert-like character took his place in an all-new adventure for Sega Dreamcast, proving that he might be gone, but never, ever forgotten.
Wouldn't that be the '.' ? Or has Perl changed since the last time I used it?
...oOOo..'(_)'..oOOo...
I loved the game, and still play it, Qix, and Bert (a mac 68xxx version of qbert) in both its original forms, and with the 2001 Q*Bert game for Macintosh.
.36final to .63 ) here
Licensed to Konami for Japanese manufacture and distribution. (02/1983)
Inspired by artwork by M.C. Escher who was an artist that Jeff admired. Ron Waxman came up with the idea of Q*Bert changing the color of the cubes. Q*Bert's name originated by the combination of cube and Hubert, but the "Cube-Bert" was changed to "Q-Bert" to make it more unique. The concept game was called "Snots and Boogers" and then "@!#?@!" (which many of the programmers and Gottlieb VPs said would be impossible to get anyone to say) before the final version was called just "Q*Bert". Slick and Sam were a play on the phrase "spick and span" with Sam being named after co-worker Sam Russo. Rick Tighe came up with the idea of adding the pinball hardware which generated the very mechanical KA-CHUNK when Q*Bert falls off the pyramid.
Approximately 30, 000 units were produced.
Grab the rom (valid for mame from
PLAY INSTRUCTIONS:
- Jump on squares to change them to the target color.
- Stay on playfield! Jumping off results in a fatal plumment unless a disk is there.
- Avoid all objects and creatures that are not green.
- Use spinning disks to lure snake to his death.
- Extra life at 8000 and each additional 14000.
Twenty years ago, gamers were captivated by a foul-mouthed orange mutant named Q*bert. In the two decades following his epic battle with the relentless Coiley, Q*bert's life evolved into a happy, normal existence. Q*bert had a girl, Q*dina (you can tell she's a girl because she's got a bow ), a powerless, frustrated enemy named Q*dirk, and a big cube land to hop around in and show off the enigmatic protrusion that must be the source of his power and charm (yeah, just go on thinking it's a nose).
Recently, with the help of Hasbro Interactive, an insidious corporation called Sega stole Q*bert's female and placed arch-nemesis Coiley in his path, hoping the ensuing confrontation would be enough to revive their doomed platform.
When asked to comment on the situation, Q*bert said, "&%$#@."
Don't think that a small group of dedicated individuals can't change the world. it's the only thing that ever has.
For what it's worth, Q*bert is available on cell phones with certain service providers (SprintPCS and ATT Wireless). SprintPCS is promoting it on the first page you see when you log on to the web on your phone. This is all thanks to our good friends at Sony Pictures Mobile (did I miss the Q*bert motion picture?). Of course they're charging $5 to use the game for only 60 days, so best not to be too thankful. Despite the steep rates, I do like the fact that my favorite games of yore are being reborn in the wireless world. How long 'till I can play dig-dug on the subway?
...is on the Onion A.V. Club interviews. They interviewed Jeff Lee, a Q*Bert creator, a while back, to see what he was up to.
e 3513b.html
Here is the article: http://www.theonionavclub.com/avclub3513/avfeatur
Here is a sample excerpt:
O: There was a TV show once, a cartoon.
JL: Right, in Q*Bert's heyday. I would love to see tapes of that. I remember they gave Q*Bert arms so he could have these adventures. He needed arms for some reason.
O: Why didn't you originally give him arms?
JL: For the game, you didn't need 'em! We just needed something that jumped around, and the arms were superfluous.
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