The arcade game that introduced Q*bert, the character hopping across a pyramid of changing cubes, was Q*bert.
Gottlieb released Q*bert in 1982. The player guides the orange, long-nosed character diagonally around a pyramid, changing cube colors while avoiding enemies and preventing the character from falling off the structure. The controls use a four-way joystick, but movement is limited to diagonal directions because of the pyramid’s geometry.
Q*bert’s enemies include Coily, Ugg, Wrong-Way, and Sam, each presenting a different movement challenge. The game’s sound effects are also unusual: its original cabinet used custom audio hardware that produced electronic tones rather than speech or conventional music. Q*bert became one of Gottlieb’s best-known video games and later appeared in cartoons, merchandise, and other games. It is sometimes described as a platform game, but its fixed isometric playfield and color-changing objective distinguish it from traditional scrolling platformers.