Gottlieb‘s classic arcade game Q*bert was first released in 1982. It delighted gamers with its quirky mix of cube-jumping and ‘painter’-style gameplay.

The aim of the game is simple: you are Q*bert and you must jump from cube to cube, changing the surface colour of each cube as you do so, the ultimate aim being: to change the colour of the entire pyramid by jumping on every cube. Some cubes require two or more jumps to get to the target colour, and in later levels cubes also alternate colour changes, which makes things very challenging.

There are also various characterful baddies roaming around every screen, all of whom will either kill you outright, or mess up your colour changes. So have to be avoided.

Most memorably, if Q*bert is ‘caught’ by a baddie a speech bubble appears above his head and he says something unprintable. Which is still funny now, but at the time it was a first, and a mild, visual gag that transcended language barriers.

Q*bert himself has gone on to become a video gaming legend in his own right, as well as star in a number of sequels and re-makes.

This original arcade Q*bert is still the one to play if you want to introduce yourself to the series.

More: Q*bert on Wikipedia