In Q*bert, the player maneuvers the eponymous character around an isometric pyramid-like structure of tri-colored cubes. Q*bert's purpose is to hop around the tops of these cubes, changing every square to a specific color (e.g., from blue to yellow).

Level design

On early levels, the player's task is as simple as a single hop on each cube. Later rounds become more challenging: cubes have to be touched twice, cubes change back to the wrong color if they get hopped on again, etc. If Q*bert hops off the edge of the pyramid of cubes he falls to his demise. When this occurred, the original arcade machine cabinet would issue a mechanical sound produced by a pinball machine knocker.

The level layout was inspired by another programmer, Kan Yabumoto, who had filled a screen with an Escher-like cubes pattern^[1].

The "changing the cube colours" idea came quite late in game development. Davis and Lee had implemented the pyramid level and enemies, but were unsure of what the Q*berts goal would be. It was Ron Waxman, vice-president of engineering at Gottlieb, who suggested having the cubes change colour when the player landed on them^[1].

Enemies

Q*bert is harassed by an assortment of enemies. "Coily" the snake appears at the top of the pyramid inside a purple ball, bouncing toward the bottom of the screen. Once he hits the bottom row of cubes, the snake springs out from inside, hopping around in pursuit of the little orange protagonist. Red balls also appear at the top of the pyramid, bringing bouncing death if they collide with Q*bert on the way down.