Previous Next

Q-Man is a fairly faithful version of the arcade game Q*Bert, with a couple of added extras. For those of you who have never discovered Q*Best in your local, here is a quick run-down on the idea for the game:

You control a Barry Manilow lookalike, know as the Q-Man, who has to jump around a pyramid made of cubes. These are drawn using 3D graphics, but the game itself is not in 3D. The object of the game is to change the colour of the top face of each cube by treading on it. Your efforts are hindered by bouncing balls which descend on you from the top of the pyramid, and "Jake the Snake" who appears on the third screen, and bounces up and down the pyramid chasing after you. You can also get killed by falling off the edge of the pyramid (obviously a silly thing to do!). Either side of the pyramid there are transport discs, which, when jumped on, take you to the top of the pyramid.

In my opinion, one of the best features of the arcade game was the quality of the colour. I feel that this could be improved upon in this version, using colour mixing of the same sort as games such as Gunsmoke. There also seems to be a delay between you pressing the key, and the Q-Man actually moving, but you sson get used to this. The program includes some features not present on the original, including hyperspace, which bounces you all over the pyramid (and occasionally off it) before dropping you at a random position, and smart-bomb, which destroys all the video nasties on the pyramid at that time. When you hit the smart bomb, your first reaction will probably be that your TV has gone on the blink: the screen wobbles frantically from side to side.

Do not be alarmed, however, because the program makes use of the 6845 video chip's 13th register, which controls the position of the extreme left hand character (see page 370 of the Advanced User Guide).

This program provides quite a good version of the game, and compares well to Superior Software's Q*Bert. The graphics are quite good, and the sound average. A good buy for all Q*Bert enthusiasts, but there are better games avaiilable.