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Q*bert was initially created by Jeff Lee, and was developed further by Warren Davis. Jeff drew most of the initial designs, including the iconic pyramid of cubes which was inspired by the artist Escher. Warren Davis first got involved because he wanted to attempt programming randomness into the game, which ended up being included as a game mechanic. The game went through many name changes before the team at Gottlieb landed on “Q*bert”. Q*bert was released in 1982 by Gottlieb, and proceeded to become one of the most popular arcade games of the 1980s. 

Q*bert is a two dimensional, isomorphic arcade game. The isomorphic nature of the graphics make the game seem three dimensional, which was revolutionary at the time since most popular video games with the same medium, such as Donkey Kong or Super Mario, were strictly viewed as two dimensional. Q*bert begins with the main character (named Q*bert) at the top of an isomorphic pyramid of 28 cubes. Most of Q*berts contemporaries utilized a flat joystick, however one of Q*bert’s creators had a different idea. Warren Davis went against the status-quo and rotated the joystick 45 degrees. This was clever because now the joystick movements are identical to the diagonal fashion that Q*bert jumps in. When Q*bert jumps onto a new cube on the pyramid, the colour of the cube changes. The goal of the game is to change the colour of all 28 cubes on the pyramid, while avoiding obstacles. One example of an obstacle is falling balls, which is exactly what Warren Davis is using his randomization algorithm for. The diagonal movements and pyramid design made playing Q*bert as an arcade cabinet game very unique, and this unique design can be attributed to most of the Q*bert’s success.