Squad Challenge - Q*bert (Atari 2600)

[Justin]

 

 

 

Q*bert
Atari 2600
Controller: JOYSTICK / KEYBOARD / PLAYER'S CHOICE
Difficulty Level: Difficulty A
Play on: Real Hardware / Dedicated Console / Emulation OK! ✔
Squad Challenge ends 11:59 pm PST January 31, 2021

 

 

Objective

Play for the highest possible score using the difficulty settings defined in the challenge. Post a photo or YouTube video of your score in this thread. Scores must be achieved between January 15th through January 31st, 2021. Screen captures are not allowed as they are more easily manipulated for falsified scores. Multiple submissions are permitted. The player with the highest score at the end of the competition is the victor!

 

Eligibility

Anyone can join in. All players are welcome!

 

Play Rules

Games may be played on real hardware, Flashback / Mini console, or emulation, using any controller or keyboard, following all rules and game settings defined in the challenge. Choosing between real hardware or emulation, and choosing which controller to play on is part of formulating your strategy. Enhancements, rewinds and hacked versions of this game are not allowed.

 

Difficulty Level

Difficulty A. This is the most challenging configuration. These settings allow for invincible red balls entering the playfield.

 

Fair Play

Your integrity is everything. Players should play fairly, be honest, and have fun! Falsified scores will result in your immediate removal from the site. It goes without saying that we will not allow cheats, hacks, cartridge frying, enhancements, rewinds, deceitful photo manipulation, subterfuge, or any other unfair advantage. Everybody hates a cheater.

 

More

To review detailed rules on how to play, please visit the High Score Squad page here: 

 

 

Message

Welcome to our 96th Squad Challenge! We had such a tremendous turnout for our last Squad Challenge, I thought we'd double up with another Atari 2600 game. This time we're playing Q*bert! This was an arcade classic that made its way home to the 2600. Q*bert is a fun game that saw an initial release in 1983 from Parker Bros., and a later re-release of the same game by Atari Corp. after Parker Bros. had left the video game industry. ROM and Instructions are provided below. Good luck to everybody participating!

 

NOTE: We have a supreme lineup of games coming your way for High Score Squad in 2021! Here's a look at some upcoming events:

February: A Magnavox Odyssey ² game

March: A TurboGrafx-16 game, and a Golf game to celebrate The Masters coming up!

April: National Pac-Man Day!

June: 2021 Pole Position II Grand Prix, plus our Summer Pizza Party!

July: A Sega Master System game, HSW Day Ultimate Yars' Challenge, plus a game chosen by our Instagram followers!

September: An Atari Lynx game

November: A Sega Genesis game

December: 2021 F-ZERO Championship, plus a game for Atari Jaguar! 

Plus many more great games! (Schedule subject to change)

 

 

 

 

Qbert.pdf Qbert.bin

[Justin]

@nosweargamer has an excellent review of Q*bert for Atari 2600. It's a great place to start if you're new to the game!

 

 

[Justin]

Please remember to include your score when posting
to High Score Squad, especially if you're posting a video
of your performance or a blurry photo.

 

 

[Atari Creep]

Oooooooooh! Very fine choice. 

[Justin]

29 minutes ago, Atari Creep said:

Oooooooooh! Very fine choice. 

Thanks @Atari Creep 🙌

[nosweargamer]

Wow! I was just playing this today!

51,965

 

Wait....that's the wrong Qbert game!

I'm sorry, I'll rescind my score. I'm so embarrassed😨. 

(However, I was playing this earlier today and will be featuring it in a review this month 😁)

[nosweargamer]

Ok, here's a real one from a last second live steam I put together! 35,500

 

[Justin]

3 hours ago, nosweargamer said:

Wait....that's the wrong Qbert game!

I'm sorry, I'll rescind my score. I'm so embarrassed😨. 

(However, I was playing this earlier today and will be featuring it in a review this month 😁)

Haha it's okay @nosweargamer! I had to check myself about six times to make sure I wasn't posting Q*bert's Cubes in the description, the Rom, the instructions, etc. I once did an entire final project on the Spanish Civil War when I was in college, when the assignment was apparently about the American Civil War. I did a whole thing on Hemingway for nothing. I was distracted by Atari stuff and wasn't paying attention! I promised myself I'd never let that happen again with anything, lol.

Great score! Thanks for kicking things off.

[TrekMD]

OK, I played this last night and here's my score!

 

[socrates63]

27,300

Fun 2600 game! I’ve only played the arcade game, and this one took a couple of minutes to get used to the control. Very well done IMO. It’s going to be a fun couple of weeks. 

[HDN]

Thanks @Justin. Love this game.

[AtariSphinx]

Q*bert (A/A): 40,600

This should be fun playing.

[RadioPoultry]

Score: 40,250

I'm finding it very difficult to distinguish the green balls from the red balls (have I mentioned I'm color blind?), so I'm just avoiding all of them. I doubt I'm losing many points that way.

[Sabertooth]

I've gotta get in on this! Great scores so far, everyone! 

I think that this and Ms. Pac-Man were my most played 2600 games as a kid. I definitely have a soft spot for the 2600 port of Q*bert. These days I prefer the late Ken Siders' amazing b*nQ for 7800 but the Parker Bros. version on the 2600 really does a fine job of bringing the game home and mostly intact.  

Edited January 22, 2021 by Sabertooth

[HDN]

I love, love, love Q*Bert. It's one of my all-time favorite 2600 games. I sure hope I'll get around to it. It's been pretty hectic around here.

Why haven't I had time to play? Well, let me tell you about it all:

[Sabertooth]

61,850. On a Coleco Gemini with the console's stock controller.  

Tip: Try rotating your controller 45 degrees to the right to match the arcade controls. 

[RickR]

25,325

 

[RickR]

33.750.  @%&*

 

[Justin]

3 hours ago, RickR said:

33.750.  @%&*

Post of the @%&*ing year 👆

[RickR]

I've got to tell you, Q-Bert on 2600 is surprisingly good!  For one thing, it's the rare version that's actually easy to control (the manual says it best -- turn the controller 45 degrees so the button is on top like a baseball diamond).  I rarely fall off the pyramid in this version.  The animations are missing, and that makes it hard to tell which way the bad dudes are going to go.  But overall, the gameplay from the arcade version is all there. 

 

Edited January 24, 2021 by RickR

[Justin]

42 minutes ago, RickR said:

I've got to tell you, Q-Bert on 2600 is surprisingly good!  For one thing, it's the rare version that's actually easy to control (the manual says it best -- turn the controller 45 degrees so the button is on top like a baseball diamond).  I rarely fall off the pyramid in this version.  The animations are missing, and that makes it hard to tell which way the bad dudes are going to go.  But overall, the gameplay from the arcade version is all there. 

I’m glad you’re enjoying Q*bert Rick! there was a lot more excitement around Video Pinball than I expected, I wanted to continue that positive momentum with another 2600 game. I thought Q*bert would be a great game to play because it came later in the 2600’s life than Video Pinball, It’s a really good port of the arcade game on the 2600, and we haven’t done many Parker Brothers games in High Score Squad. 
 

Great scores everybody! Let’s keep this going!

[greenween]

63.475 played on an av modded 4 switch I got from RickR. 

[TrekMD]

Good scores!  Just out of curiosity, has anyone seen this homebrew version of Q*Bert that is currently being worked on?  It add several of the elements missing from the Parker version and it fixes the pyramid asymmetry. 

 

[HDN]

I filmed a gameplay video but I had some difficulties with it and it ended up being junk. So I’ll have to try again.

[nosweargamer]

47925