If you've ever played the 1982 arcade game Q*bert, then you're already familiar with b*nQ. Ken Siders has created a faithful reproduction of the popular arcade game for the Atari 7800 ProSystem. This is Ken Siders' second Atari 7800 homebrew written from the ground up. His first was Beef Drop, which is one of the most accurate ports of the arcade game Burgertime to any classic gaming system.
The object of b*nQ is to score as many points as possible by jumping on cubes, jumping on green objects, and luring the Snake to his death. When all of the cubes have been changed to the “change to” color, you will advance to the next round. After every four rounds you will advance to the next level. Later levels require jumping on cubes multiple times and the cubes will change in different color sequences, increasing the challenge of advancing to the next round.
b*nQ supports one or two players, so you can play alone or with a friend. You can select from one of four difficulty levels: Easy, Normal, Adept, and Expert, for greater challenges as you become better at the game. You can also choose whether your joystick operates in "rotated" mode (where you rotate the joystick 45 degrees) or operate it in "normal" mode where you use your joystick's diagonals to move b*nQ around the pyramid.
The label design for b*nQ was created by Darrin Rose, who won the b*nQ Label Contest held on AtariAge in November 2007. Not only does Darrin's winning design grace the label, but Darrin also created the b*nQ manual, which features more original artwork created just for the game.
AtariVox Support
If you have an AtariVox, AtariVox+, or SaveKey, your high scores will be saved and then reloaded when you power your Atari 7800 back on.
Additional Information
Includes cartridge and four-page, full-color manual. Supports both NTSC and PAL television standards.
| Author | Ken Siders |
| Number of Players | 1 - 2 |
| Controllers | Joysticks |
| Cartridge Size | 48K |
| Label and Manual | Darrin Rose |
I hope Ken Siders left us with the thought of bringing joy to many of us who still play our old Atari systems.
This version is not a disappoint. The graphics and sound are spot on. The sound is limited by hardware, but is very good.
When i got the game and switched it on i immediately though wow....The select screen and hi-score table making it feel instantly like the arcade version, When i began to play it i was a little disappointed due to the lack of initial pace, I don't know if this is due to me playing on a pal machine or not but by area 4 of the first level its absolutely fine and zips along at the pace im used to ( I assume this is intentional as my 2600 version is quick from the beginning) Anyways this is a minor detail, the game is basically awesome ken Siders is a very talented man and i will be picking up Beef drop soon, The only very small critique i could make is to say B*nq nose appears a little too long but again this is so minor it really doesn't matter, Aside from these things this is a brilliant version that outshines all other 8 bit platforms and had this been out in 86' people would of been amazed.......If you don't own it then you should!
The graphics in b*nQ are first-rate. All of the arcade game's characters are there, as are the instruction screen, high score list, and between-level demos that show you how to change the colors. The sounds are decent, although the 7800 just can't mimic those distinct Gottlieb sound effects very well, and I really miss having some sort of "clunk" sound whenever something falls off of the cubes. (While the arcade game used a solenoid from a pinball machine to achieve that, at least some sound effect there would have been welcomed.) Also missing are the arcade game's weird-sounding voices - perhaps AtariVox support could have remedied that.
Still, those are relatively minor gripes. All of the gameplay is intact, with varying difficulty levels (although there is no description of what the differences are), and a particularly nice option where you can choose which direction you want to orient the joystick - normal or at 45°. If you're a fan of Q*bert, b*nQ is a must-have.
Great graphics, excellent game play, the sounds are only limited by the hardware and even that is well done. I do have one question for Ken...
What's your next masterpiece, brother?!
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