Technology

In an arcade, Q*bert is played in something called an arcade cabinet, whose main display is a CRT television. CRT stands for cathode-ray tube, and it is an old style of displayed graphics that dates back to the 1930s. The user stands upright, and places their hands on whatever unique controls the cabinet contains for that game. The CRT displays are usually tilted upward, so the user tilts their head down to view the screen. In Q*bert’s case, the controls provided a unique gaming experience since a single joystick was able to be used to traverse a pseudo three dimensional pyramid. Due to this unique experience, preservation comes with challenges. 

Emulators are a great way to experience thousands of games from any console on your computer. An emulator is essentially a computer, within a computer that mimics the software of a particular game or device. Emulators are widely used by organizations and individuals, one example being the Internet Archive. Emulators are very powerful, but they are unable to recreate the entire experience, and authenticity is vital when it comes to the preservation of an endangered game, especially one with unique haptic technology such as Q*bert.

“How do I hold this thing? Controlling reconstructed Q*berts” by Hames A Hodges discusses various haptic technology solutions for Q*bert, one being how on a touch screen version of the game, the user just clicks which way they want Q*bert to start jumping. The execution of new haptic technologies for Q*bert requires changes to the game, so the authenticity of the preservation is questionable. Endangered games lie in an interesting space where emulation must include certain adaptations which can potentially affect the afterlife of the game.