HSC Season 6 Week 35: Q*Bert

[Ze_ro]

Important Note: This weeks competition is over and no further scores will be accepted.

 

Q*bert springs to life with all the adventure of the popular arcade game!

 

Colorful graphics and arcade-like sounds accompany the game's lively action. Hop Q*bert up and down the steps of a "three-dimensional" pyramid, changing each step's color as he lands. Complete the entire pyramid, and Q*bert moves to a more challenging pyramid.

 

But look out! The crafty arcade creatures are here, too, and they're after Q*bert. Hop out of danger fast - or soar to safety on a Flying Disc. But watch where you move Q*bert. One hop off the pyramid, and he'll be lost in space!

 

 

Game Information

• Game Name: Q*bert
• Released By: Parker Bros, 1983
• Left Difficulty: A / Expert - Red Balls Enabled
• Right Difficulty: N / A
• Game Mode: Default
• Chosen By: Linkz1

Post your scores right here in this thread, and I will add them to the list. Remember to play the game with the recommended game mode and difficulty settings as shown above so that your scores will be consistent with everyone elses. The deadline for posting scores is Wednesday May 6th at 1:00 AM (CST).

 

Current High Scores 95,500 (IHATETHEBEARS) [+11] 70,125 (Kurt_Woloch) [+10] 69,650 (toymailman) [+9] 68,700 (SpiceWare) [+8] 59,100 (Zoyx) [+7] 52,900 (Mister VCS) [+6] 46,250 (mightymage) [+5] 45,925 (mcge0053) [+4] 40,175 (vjames) [+3] 36,075 (aftermac) [+2] 34,225 (darthkur) [+1] 34,125 (theKLT) [+1] 33,200 (Impaler_26) [+1] 31,600 (sloth713) [+1] 30,750 (roadrunner) [+1] 28,775 (LarcenTyler) [+1] 11,725 (Crazy Climber) [+1] Best Tips Kurt_Woloch [+2] Challenges None yet TwinGalaxies Top 3 2,161,000 (Jonathan A Ewing) 1,000,050 (Todd Rogers) 196,475 (Alan W Hewston) (Game 1, Difficulty B)

Current Standings toymailman [337] Deteacher [290] darthkur [241] aftermac [235] Kurt_Woloch [169] Impaler_26 [154] DarthCalvin [117] jjd [87] Mister VCS [83] shadow460 [81] SpiceWare [69] LarcenTyler [67] Hornpipe2 [55] the 5th ghost [47] Nathan Strum [46] mcge0053 [39] doctorclu [34] SeaGtGruff [29] Jess Ragan [26] theKLT [25] homerwannabee [22] Zoyx [22] Jred [20] Spector [20] Omegamatrix [19] ClassicGMR [18] IHATETHEBEARS [16] iangamer [15] MrBeefy [14] Shannon [13] LoneWolfSeth [12] roadrunner [11] midnight magicman [11] vdub_bobby [11] ed1475 [10] Random Terrain [10] maf [9] TimsterAA [9] vjames [9] DtY [8] godzillajoe [8] missioncontrol [8] chuckwalla [7] LS_Dracon [7] LaserHawk3000 [7] BSA Starfire's girlfriend [7] RJ [6] lucifershalo [5] phaxda [5] Vectorman0 [4] vintagegamecrazy [4] Wickeycolumbus [3] joeypsp [2] rheffera [2] ratfink [2] Lendorien [1] Cafeman [1] Yar76 [1] Artlover [1] holgibo [1]

 

Scoring Points in Q*Bert

• Change cube to destination colour - 25 points
• Catch Sam - 300 points
• Catch Green Ball - 100 points
• Lure Coily off pyramid - 500 points
• Complete a Round - 3100 points
• You get an extra life after the first five rounds; then one for every four rounds thereafter.

 

Hints and Tips

The Manual

As always, you really should read the manual. In case you don't have the manual, AtariAge has a typed copy available online. Unfortunately, it doesn't provide any specific hints.

Kurt_Woloch

- This has been mentioned in many places... since the enemies actually jump from cube to cube, if you get the timing right, you can jump through them if you jump in the opposite direction at the right moment. - The unsafest places to be are the two cubes in the second row from the top, because these are the spawning points of new enemies, and if those appear, you only have a split-second to avoid them, which may be too short if you were just heading for one of those two cubes, and while you're on the way, an enemy spawns. In this case, you have no way of avoiding that enemy. There are, however, ways to avoid that danger completely: - You can take advantage of the fact that the enemies all jump in sync. So, if you need to change color of one of those two cubes, wait until an enemy spawns on the other one, then quickly jump onto the one you want and further one level down. Even if an enemy appears on your target cube in the next jump cycle, you'll be gone quickly enough not to be harmed by it. - There are times when you get some free jumps before the next enemy is going to appear (or you can be harmed by it). One of those times, of course, is after you've hit a green ball. Another is after losing a life (you get 8-10 free jumps after that), and another immediately after starting a level. You are NOT safe after having lurked Coily to its death. This will momentarily kill all the other enemies, but another enemy may already spawn while you're still on your way to the top. - You have to watch for Coily on the advanced levels even more, because she will get more unpredictable, in that she won't always change position on a jump cycle, but sometimes will stay on the same cube for a longer time, especially while you're in the air. This may also lead to the "jump of death" not working because she will not jump away from the cube she's on while you're floating to the top... which also causes the other enemies not being killed. On the other hand, she may still jump off when you've already landed on the top.

IHATETHEBEARS

My game basically ended because I literally got to a board that couldn't be completed. By using all of the floating discs, I left it impossible to change all the cubes the right color. I was standing on the last cube and needed to change it one more time. But to do so couldn't be done since the cubes could be changed to three different colors on this board. I lost my last two lives because of this. The same thing once happened to me back in the 1980's. So note - just in case this might happen, always leave at least one floating disc.

 

--Zero

[Lauren Tyler]

28,775

[+SpiceWare]

30,550

[IHATETHEBEARS]

90,850

 

[Crazy Climber]

First try - 11725, maybe I will get some more time tonight

[vjames]

Finally got past the first screen where you need to only touch each cube once... of course that was on difficulty "B". I think this is the best I'm going to be able to do on "A". You get a lot of points for making Coily (the snake) jump off after you. I was even jumping off of the cubes into thin air at the end in desperation trying to get the cubes to all turn the right color, but to no avail.

[Kurt_Woloch]

OK, here's my best so far... 70125.

 

This is actually one of my favorite games, and definitely the one I own the most copies of for multiple systems I have (Atari 2600, C-64, TI-99). I still played it in emulation here because, being in Austria, I of course own the PAL version, which may have some different timings.

 

Of those versions, probably the C-64 one is the best, getting very close to the arcade version graphics-wise, though the animation still could be better.

 

The Atari 2600 version suffers from the usual compromises they had to do to make it doable on this system:

- The pyramid is only 6 cubes tall instead of 7.

- The violet guys jumping on the side of the pyramid, Slick and Sam, were not added. Actually, they call the green guy changing back the cube colors Sam in my German manual, though its real name in the arcade is Wrongway.

- The animation of the enemies is very... jumpy.

- The pyramid has got gaps between its plates, while it's closed in all other versions.

- The 3D effect of the cubes is wrong (on the right half of the pyramid, the dark side is the left side of the cubes, and on the left half, it's the right side

- All characters are displayed in monochrome, and sometimes they even flicker (Specifically, if Coily and another enemy appear on the same cube level, they both flicker)

- The score and lives display disappear as long as Q*bert is on one of the upper two pyramid levels.

- The timing is different. All characters except for Q*bert change positions simultaneously. Q*bert never gets faster, but the other characters do.

 

The PAL version also suffers from an incorrect color translation, where Coily and the Red Balls are both pink, so you can't keep Coily's egg from a red ball. This, however, doesn't apply for the NTSC version.

But the game is still good and playable, although it sometimes throws in some incorrect sound effects (especially on changing levels).

 

As a long-time owner of this game (it's a bit over 25 years now), of course I have some tips how to play this game:

 

- This has been mentioned in many places... since the enemies actually jump from cube to cube, if you get the timing right, you can jump through them if you jump in the opposite direction at the right moment.

- The unsafest places to be are the two cubes in the second row from the top, because these are the spawning points of new enemies, and if those appear, you only have a split-second to avoid them, which may be too short if you were just heading for one of those two cubes, and while you're on the way, an enemy spawns. In this case, you have no way of avoiding that enemy. There are, however, ways to avoid that danger completely:

- You can take advantage of the fact that the enemies all jump in sync. So, if you need to change color of one of those two cubes, wait until an enemy spawns on the other one, then quickly jump onto the one you want and further one level down. Even if an enemy appears on your target cube in the next jump cycle, you'll be gone quickly enough not to be harmed by it.

- There are times when you get some free jumps before the next enemy is going to appear (or you can be harmed by it). One of those times, of course, is after you've hit a green ball. Another is after losing a life (you get 8-10 free jumps after that), and another immediately after starting a level. You are NOT safe after having lurked Coily to its death. This will momentarily kill all the other enemies, but another enemy may already spawn while you're still on your way to the top.

- You have to watch for Coily on the advanced levels even more, because she will get more unpredictable, in that she won't always change position on a jump cycle, but sometimes will stay on the same cube for a longer time, especially while you're in the air. This may also lead to the "jump of death" not working because she will not jump away from the cube she's on while you're floating to the top... which also causes the other enemies not being killed. On the other hand, she may still jump off when you've already landed on the top.

[darthkur]

34,225

 

[+SpiceWare]

68,700

[Impaler_26]

First try:

 

25,425

[roadrunner]

30,750

[Mister VCS]

52,900

[Crazy Climber]

Finally got past the first screen where you need to only touch each cube once...

Thats the stage I got to last night, man if I could only get like a solid hour of free time to play this I know I could kick some ass. Seems like just too much stuff to get done though

[aftermac]

25,150

 

[mightymage]

46250

[IHATETHEBEARS]

95,500

 

My game basically ended because I literally got to a board that couldn't be completed. By using all of the floating discs, I left it impossible to change all the cubes the right color. I was standing on the last cube and needed to change it one more time. But to do so couldn't be done since the cubes could be changed to three different colors on this board. I lost my last two lives because of this. The same thing once happened to me back in the 1980's.

 

So note - just in case this might happen, always leave at least one floating disc.

 

[toymailman]

I had never played this game on the "A" setting before. Those red balls make it much harder.

 

50,400

[Kurt_Woloch]

Hmmm... I always wondered if there is a pattern that would allow you to complete the board in such a case, or if there isn't one.

 

My game basically ended because I literally got to a board that couldn't be completed. By using all of the floating discs, I left it impossible to change all the cubes the right color. I was standing on the last cube and needed to change it one more time. But to do so couldn't be done since the cubes could be changed to three different colors on this board. I lost my last two lives because of this. The same thing once happened to me back in the 1980's.

 

So note - just in case this might happen, always leave at least one floating disc.

[Impaler_26]

33,200

Edited May 3, 2009 by Impaler_26

[Kurt_Woloch]

By the way, with this game Stella exhibits a programming glitch: if you push F2 to reset the game while a game is still in progress, sometimes sprites (players) keep "hanging" on the screen although they are not supposed to be visible anymore, but they stay there until they get overwritten by another character being displayed in this place.

[aftermac]

29,425

 

[aftermac]

36,075

 

[Zoyx]

52225

[toymailman]

Got a little bit better.

 

69,650

[mcge0053]

45925

 

It seams like I always loose a life in the first round and then not again for four more rounds. Somehow, with the keyboard, it takes me a minute to figure which arrow to press to get to the next cube without jumping off the edge.

Edited May 6, 2009 by mcge0053