Q*Bert: Level 5, Round 2 at last!

[Chris-in-NJ]

Finally made it there! No fewer than seven discs on it too. I would regularly make it a few boards into Level 5 on the arcade game too all those years ago.

 

I now have no difficulty playing this with a 7800 joystick, just keep the left fire button pressed more or less at all times and the game works flawlessly with my Redemption adapter. It's nice to have a Q*bert so much more faithful to the real thing than the watered-down 2600 version that I used to play all the time (which I had in fact won from a Parker Bros. competition!)

[Shannon]

Yeah... I've always loved the 8-bit version (aka 5200, home computer)

[+Cafeman]

Is it at level 5 that the speed doubles? I have always loved 5200 Qbert -- in fact I love the control. When you let go of the lower fire button, Qbert stops. And since it is true diagonal control with the 5200 sticks (as opposed to the digital 8bit/2600 sticks where you gotta turn 'em sideways -- ick!), I have always felt in total control.

 

I chuckled at your post, I've been there too!

[Chris-in-NJ]

Level 5 is where, after jumping on a cube twice to get it to its target color, jumping on it when it's the target color changes it back to the starting color, meaning it has to be jumped on twice again. It's really fast and can be incredibly frustrating when Slick or Sam comes out and ruins half your work.

 

I could play the 2600 version with the joystick held normally; I was so used to playing it this way that when I first tried it with the Redemption adapter, I found myself moving the joystick in the non-diagonal positions and wondering why it didn't work properly. Also found myself trying to jump through Coily a number of times like you can with the glitch in the 2600 version

[+Cafeman]

Okay, that's right, I remember now. Starting with Level 5, you can encounter situations where you MUST use a disc (or jump off to your death!) or else you can't solve the level!

 

It must be level 6 I was thinking about -- same rules as level 5, but twice as fast. And I do mean "twice" !!!

[jnice]

Yeah, I've NEVER figured out how to solve the boards in level 5. I usually will get everything the right color except ONE, and then be totally lost trying to figure out how to not come up with an odd number of blocks left (while avoiding Coily, mind you). I suppose the "pause" button would be helpful so I could study the pattern, eh?

[+Cafeman]

jnice, if you end up with one odd block left, you either have to use one of the discs and hope that helps out, or get one of the 2nd row of cubes (from the top) to be the unsolved color, then jump off & burn a life. Then you'll start again on the first cube (but it won't change it's color since you haven't jumped there), and with on more jump to the offending 2nd row cube, you solve it.

 

You should have several bonus Q*berts once you get to level 5, to burn if you need to (and you continue to earn more with points). Level 6 and up is the real fun! Try to get there!

[tyranthraxus]

I guess we need someone to hack a "Faster, Harder, More Challenging

Q*Bert!" for you now

[Chris-in-NJ]

A few days ago, I made it to Level 6, Round 3. Score was 165,370. Man, Level 6 is *fast*

 

A strategy I tried that works rather well at these higher levels is to resist the temptation to turn all the cubes to the target color right away, that is to double jump each one as soon as possible, since chances are you're going to be jumping on them at least twice anyway.

 

On one of the boards of Level 5, Sam (or is it Slick) changed the last cube to the target color for me. Came as a bit of a surprise when the board ended while I was jumping between cubes.