Q*bertis a weird videogame, and thestory of its creationis even weirder. Well, maybe notweirder. But it’s close, I swear!
For instance, did you know that it had one programmer, Warren Davis, and a single artist, Jeff Lee? Perhaps that wasn’t unseen back in those days, butQ*bertwas Davis’ first game, believe it or not.
“As the game got noticed by others at Gottlieb, everyone seemed to have ideas and I saw myself as the filter through which all ideas passed,” says Davis. “Since I was the only programmer, if I didn’t like an idea it didn’t go in the game. I really wanted to keep it simple.”
One such proposed idea was giving Q*bert the ability to shoot out of his nose, which thankfully didn’t make it through his filter due to the complexity of implementing such a thing. That, and the game was already plenty tough enough. I still suck at it to this day.
Also, I am reasonably certain that the image up there is going to give me nightmares for weeks to come. @!#?@! you, creepy Q*bert!
[ViaGo Nintendo]
