The Atari 2600 sure did try to be the arcade in your home, and for a while it was.  The problem is, as time went on things improved in the arcade such as the hardware and challenge provided to the gamer.  Gamers wanted more challenge, more colors, more sounds and the poor Atari 2600 just couldn’t keep up, as evidenced by many of the later arcade ports (go ahead, just pick one and see).  One such title that was quite a bit of trouble to get on the Atari 2600 was Q*Bert, the Atari 2600 just didn’t have the graphical capability to do diagonal, isometric, style graphics quite right- it still doesn’t.  This hack is not improving the graphics all that much, instead it focuses on other parts of the game.

First up is the title screen, yeah now the Atari 2600 version of Q*Bert has a title screen, a quite good one too at least for the hardware we are talking about here.  The number of lives remaining is now represented by little Q*Bert’s that are also the same color as Q*Bert himself (probably due to limitations of the hardware).  The font used for the game has been changed so that it is more pleasing, and less jarring, to players.

Also, there is now AtariVox support for Q*Bert.  Q*Bert’s actions such as falling and getting hit now have voice effects to accompany them.  Nice touch there.

While this will never be the definitive arcade in the home port of Q*Bert, these changes to the original do improve it quite a bit.  Nothing that was done was superfluous, rather they are nice additions/alterations to the original that will probably improve reception with retrogaming fans.  While not a complete overhaul hack like some do, this version of Q*Bert adds just enough to warrant more than a few play through attempts by fans.

Source: Atari Age forums

Carl Williams

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