Q*bert/Versions

Atari 2600
Released by Parker Brothers in 1983. Re-released by Atari in 1988

Atari 5200 & Atari 800
Released by Parker Brothers in 1983. The 5200 and 800 versions are identical.

Colecovision
Released by Parker Brothers in 1983.

Commodore 64
Released by Parker Brothers in 1983.

Commodore VIC-20
Released by Parker Brothers in 1983.

Game Boy Color
Released by Majesco in 2000.

This version features:
 * New characters and enemies.
 * New power-ups.
 * Many different levels.
 * Disks and warp cubes that take the player to different boards and create a maze that needs to be followed.
 * New graphics and animation.

Intellivision
Released by Parker Brothers in 1983. Quite accurate overall. Like a few other home conversions, the pyramid has been shortened to six rows. The level introduction/demonstration scenes are not present, but the accompanying music is. Sound effects, in general, are quite accurate, and just about all gameplay elements appear to be intact. The Intellivision does a reasonable job of reproducing the sounds of Q*Bert "cursing" when a life is lost.

NES
Released by Konami in 1989, under the Ultra Games label.

Odyssey 2
Released by Parker Brothers in 1983, primarily in Europe.

Sega SG-1000 and SC-3000
Released by Tsudaka Original in Japan for the Othello Multivision which is a Sega SG-1000 clone.

TI-99/4a
Released by Parker Brothers in 1984.

Parker Bros. table-top
Seeing the success that Coleco had with their table-top arcade conversions, Parker Brothers decided to enter the market with one of their licenses. The transition from graphics to fixed vacuum fluorescent display was pretty successful, since Q*bert does not require a lot of animation in order to portray the on-screen action. The game is vastly simplified obviously, with the only enemies present being the red balls and Coily. Still, the discs on the side of the pyramid are present and work the same way that they do in the arcade. The case design for table-top Q*bert is distinctly different from other arcade table-top conversions, but it still contains many of the decorations found on the original machine as decals. Parker Brothers did not produce any other arcade table-top conversions.

Nelsonic watch
Nelsonic created a line of digital watches that were capable of playing video games, including Pac-Man and Frogger. The gameplay of the watch is a shortened version of the tabletop with one less row of cubes along the bottom of the cube, so it takes six less blocks to complete each stage.

Atari 7800
A homebrew development started by Ken Siders in 2005. Still in development by August 2006, going under the title bonQ, and quite accurate by all accounts. Ken Siders has completed a very faithful homebrew of BurgerTime for the 7800

Commodore 64
The C64 saw a number of unofficial Q*Bert clones. A clone titled Kanga was published by Future Computer Applications at an unknown time, but presumably shortly after Q*bert gained popularity. May only have been released in Europe. Ian Gray developed Cuddly Cuburt, which was published by Interceptor Software in 1983. Frank Lindsey developed J-Bird which was published by Orion Software, also in 1983.

Game Boy
Released by Jaleco in 1992. This conversion is technically the start of the updates to the official arcade rules that feature new creatures and modified stage configurations beyond the original pyramid (which is featured in the first stage).

Game Boy Color


A full version of the arcade port was released for free in 2000, you can download the image ROM here: http://www.1000klub.com/Qbert/

It was a translation of the arcade code ported down to the Game Boy Color. Read the link for more information about how it was ported.