Ending WWF Wrestlemania with "next time, more censorship" and then revealing you meant Q-Bert because of @!#?@! was the perfect clue to send everyone in the wrong direction on speculating what this week's game was going to be. Hats off, sir.
I'm in agreement with other comments here, the Gyruss coin-op never had a spinner, it was always a joystick. The ROM isn't even designed for that sort of input. But that said, an arcade stick seemed nicely intuitive to me. And I rarely hear people complain about arcade Gyruss's controls, the way you would about, say, Zaxxon. You will encounter the quarterly stops on those big moves around the circuit, but you get used to the feeling that you need to be gradually changing direction and rolling the stick around, the same way a spinner would work, in a sense. As long as you update your direction in time, the movement remains smooth. If it were a simple left-right toggle, it would get confusing when you're at the top of the screen, where your movement would be reversed. The stick actually worked quite well, in a way that a d-pad probably doesn't capture. Although I admit I haven't tried the NES port myself.
I got to talk briefly to two of Q*Bert's creators at Retro Games Con last year, and they confirmed what I presume everyone suspects in that Ruby Spears was not in touch with them about the cartoon. I still had that lingering question in my head on the matter back then, since Q*Bert shoots projectiles from his nose in the cartoon, and that was a discarded mechanic in the game's early development, so I was all "was this just a weird coincidence or did they somehow know?"
@@Larryyeah, it’s a safe assumption, but I wanted to be as sure as I could be since I am going to do a podcast on the Q*Bert cartoon down the line, and why turn down an opportunity to get a first hand account?
Gyruss is one of the few arcade game I'm fond of, but I have never encountered a cabinet that included a spinner. It always had a joystick. In fact, I've yet to see even a picture of a Gyruss cabinet with a spinner.
I distinctly recall the game having a spinner bitd when I would play it frequently at the 7-11. Yet, I'm beginning to wonder if it's some kind of Mandella Effect, because, like you, I can't find any modern trace of a Gyruss cabinet with a spinner.
@@gabrielvampyreyou might be thinking of Tempest. Gyruss never had a spinner. I've owned several Gyruss and Konami 80's Gallery PCBs and played a fair share of original dedicated machines. All used standard 8-way stick controls.
I didn’t realize until now how much the NES sprite for Q*Bert looks like a two-legged Snuffleupagus from Sesame Street. Ultra Games’s instruction manuals were insane as they were filled with bizarre non sequiturs and pop culture references that seem to be put into the manuals simply for the amusement of the people writing them (the TMNT manual had a joke about Donatello’s weapon of choice and Bo Derek that most likely went over the heads of its entire intended target audience, including myself). The manual for Q*bert is perhaps the nuttiest example. The back of the box decides to give the game, which is already surreal in itself, an even more surreal plot: “The Tazmanian [sic] Kings of Chaos have trapped your ol’ pal Q*bert in their treacherous time warp.” As per the manual, “Your supreme challenge is to guide Q*bert though the entire time warp, until you free the pug-nosed hero so he can return to his true calling in life - playing a stuntman double for Don Johnson!” I recently read the autobiography of Warren Davis, Q*bert’s lead designer and programmer (who would later go on to develop the sprite-based motion capture technology used in such games as the original Mortal Kombat), and he points out that the Q*bert cartoon is not the direction he personally would have taken the characters (though he admits that direction may not have necessarily been suitable for children’s television). I can only imagine what his reaction would have been if he ever read Konami/Ultra’s backstory.
That is... inventive. But from what I recall of manuals in general, I wonder if the average kid gamer even realized these manuals were filled with made-up stuff. Even the regular manuals tend to be a little peculiar, back in those days.
I remember that Bo Derek joke existing in the TMNT manual, as Donatello has always been my favorite turtle. And 35 years later after checking Bo Derek's Wikipedia entry, I still had no idea who she is.
Gyruss is amazing on the NES. It's the only game I know of that operates in this type of shooter format. For those who have never played it, it's a true hidden gem in the NES library. One I highly recommend playing.
Gyruss is a top 5er for me. I find the default controls rather intuitive, actually. Note that *you can use the full d-pad*, not just the two directions. When your ship is on the left/right poles, you can then use Up/Down to move the ship upward/downward, until it locks to the top/bottom poles, from which you can use Left/Right. You shouldn't really be using just a back and forth motion, but sort of rocking the d-pad circularly with the ship. In a way, you're basically pointing the controller to the part of the screen you want your ship to be.
Correcting your correction in the description: while I know you rectified that Gyruss didn't have a spinner, it didnt have a non-self-centering joystick either. The US Centuri Gyruss machines used a regular centering 8-way stick from Monroe (which was trash), and the Japanese games almost certainly used a regular 8-way stick from Seimitsu for Konami's table units. Gyruss is my all-time favorite game; I've played a fair share of the machines, and owned several of the PCBs, both Konami and US Centuri versions. Konami also rereleased Gyruss to arcades in Konami 80's Arcade Gallery. I still own several of those System 573 PCBs with the software, and the controls are kept intact. Shame you had more difficulty adjusting to those controls, but I love it. Not everything is for eveyone though.
I think the second control scheme was pretty intuitave for players, quite a few games used a "from the perspective of the character" controls in racing games like Super Sprint, RC Pro Am and Ivan "Iron Man" Stewarts Super Off Road, and probably whe you saw so few complaints when Resident Evil was released years later.
Both great NES conversions with Gyruss seeing some cool additions in content. Regarding the Gyruss arcade cabinet, I have never seen a cabinet with a spinner on it. All the ones I've played (going way back to it's initial release) have had a joystick. I own a Gyruss cabinet I bought back in the mid 90's and it has a joystick.
I had Gyruss as a kid and after a few weeks of diligent play it became one of those games I could finish every time I played it. Playing it now…well my reflexes and free time aren’t what they were 35 years ago.
Gyruss was my ultimate favorite game as a kid. I played it so much I could beat it without the code with lives to spare. The second control type is the only control type.
It was around this time back in 1993 when I played Gyruss for the first time when my cousin and I rented it from a mom and pop video store along with another NES and 2 Super NES games for the weekend.
I am one of those weirdos, thank you very much!! NES Max made buying potions in Final Fantasy bearable. Set a book on the turbo button, get a Coke, then come back fully stocked, both personally and in the game.
I've always had a fondness for both games you covered here. Q*Bert is one of my earliest gaming memories, back in the days I had to stand on a chair to play it! As for Gyruss, one of my favorites. We played that game to death on the Atari 2600 and I really like the NES port.
Basically the Gyruss arcade used a joystick that worked how I assume "Control A" works here - the stick tells the ship where to go instead of moving it in an explicit direction. Pushing the stick left sends the ship moving to the left edge of the circuit (where it will stop), just like up will send it to the top, down to the bottom, and up-right diagonal will send it toward the top-right corner. It's actually quite intuitive once you understand the nature of it, but it can be confusing and frustrating if you're running on the 'left travels left, right travels right' paradigm.
I never did play Q*Bert on the NES but I did love the music IN Gyruss even if the control scheme was less than ideal. I played through the entire game a couple of years ago via emulation & the helps of cheats. It was a pretty good time.
I actually forgot there even was a Qbert or Gyruss port on the NES. Unlike some of the earliest Namco releases, these aren’t ports of 1984 famicom releases either. Both are fantastic games and look like the best home releases for either (Gyruss is probably my favorite underrated arcade cabinet and this release looks incredible)
@Jeremy Parish - Konami used the "Ultra Games" label to get around Nintendo's draconian release limits. To get games published on the NES you had to limit your title releases to just a handful every year. By creating a shell brand, Konami could effectively double their releases. Thus, Ultra Games was born.
My main experience with Q*Bert came from the mini tabletop arcade machine from the mid-80s. It was very faithful, even though the visuals were even more compromised than the home console versions.
For the past year or so, I've been taking full advantage of Retro Mags and reading a ton of old video game magazines, and one thing I've noticed is that there are quite a few at least somewhat noteworthy games that got very little coverage, if any.
Two early 1980s arcade conversations from Konami as Ultra Games, I think I've played Q Bert on NES, and Q Bert as a 1950s nostalgia character on a cartoon is definitely a choice. Gyruss definitely looks cool, a shame about the controls.
Gyruss used a joystick. I've never encountered a gyruss without one. Maybe it originally had a spinner then had a revision for sticks? The movement felt very much akin to Konami's time pilot in terms of 'stick does circle character movements' but just applied differently.
Gryuss had a "Monroe" joystick, and so did Time Pilot if memory serves. Although often thought to be optical, the Monroe was a normal 8-way stick but could be rotated easily between diagonals, where the restrictor gate on normal 8-ways would make that movement awkward. I think I'm remembering that right, but either way the Monroe made doing clockwise or counter-clockwise movements buttery smooth.
@@125scratch2 Yes I believe so, but there was also some aspect of the design that made the movement smooth when turning in a circle. I know people have tried changing the gate on Wico joysticks to kind of get the same effect, but with mixed results
@@aaronreid8375 From my experience the circular gates they sell for Sanwa sticks work fairly well, but the feel is still different presumably due to the technology of the stick itself being different
Great arcade classics. My memory of Q*Bert for the NES was going to Blockbuster on a Friday after school and looking at the game section. My Mom, who wouldn't be caught dead playing video games anymore, saw Q*Bert and was like "oh, I love this game!" (She also enjoyed Burgertime, Donkey Kong and Frogger from the "Golden Age"). So I got it and couldn't stop falling off the screen. As a little kid, for some reason, the controls confounded me and all I ever did was fall to my death over and over again. I thought it was awful, until I played the arcade machine later as an adult and now I think it's a fantastic game. Gyruss I remember playing one time at a friend's house. I found it brutally difficult, so I never played it again. I got more into it when I revisited a lot of the games from the "golden age" in my later years. The Golden Age of Arcades was something else. I was pretty young when it happened, but I do remember when arcade machines were everywhere (including odd places like waiting rooms at doctor/dentist offices) and that they became part of popular culture, with TV shows, pop songs and more.
The problem with any port of Q*Bert is they can't replicate the cabinet trick of making a THUD noise at the back of the machine whenever you fall off the pyramid.
It's funny how the perception of time worked differently back then. A 1983 game in 1989 absolutely did seem like a fossil, but I don't think 2023's kids would feel the same way about 2017's Mario Odyssey or Horizon: Zero Dawn. I randomly got Gyruss my first NES Christmas. My after school Stockholm Syndrome with the game meant that I was willing to master the controls, but once I did it wasn't tough at all. The mental hack (was I using control B? I forget) was just thinking in terms of cardinal positions - hold left to move to the leftmost point. Press up right to move to the upper right corner. Once I started thinking in these terms, the gaps in the enemy formations at these points became more apparent. You still needed to memorize the waves, but it wasn't a tough 1LC once I got it down. Now, Ninja Turtles which I got that same Christmas morning (the main thing I had asked for, which I guess might be why dad rolled the dice on another Ultra game with Gyruss)? I've never beaten Shredder down to this very day. That game was a toughie.
I never had trouble with how Q*Bert controlled on NES...more that the game is just tough as nails and it's a rite of passage to leap off the top square.
It feels a little far removed for me. Gyruss for NES is recognizably the arcade game with tweaks, whereas Almana is a wildly different game experience that just happens to use a grappling mechanic similar to the one in Roc'n Rope.
I remember picking up the first control scheme in Gyruss pretty quickly, but there was a good while where it and Super Mario Bros were all I had so I was pretty incentivized to get good. And I still couldn't beat it without a turbo controller and the 30 lives code.
I've always had a soft spot in my heart for Gyruss. The NES port is great. I was even impressed by the port that was put out for Atari 2600, if you've seen that. While it's repetitive and basic it doesn't control badly and has decent BGM which is practically unheard of for the platform.
I wish that NES qbert kept track of your highscore on the title screen or game screen. It's such a good port but with that glaring flaw. Kind of defeats the purpose of the game.
Gyruss's OST is amazing, but the FDS version has that extra oomph. Been looking for a cheap copy for the FDS for a while but still have yet to find one :(
Not just Bach, Jeremy-a plagiarized version of progressive rock band Sky's interpretation of the Toccata and Fugue in D minor! Given your interest in prog, I figured you might appreciate knowing that (if you didn't happen to know that already).
Oh some truly classic conversions...I still remember the ads for Q-bert on Atari in some of my comic books from back then, I wonder if there's anything to researching the old Atari/early NES comic book ads...?
I liked the NES Max controller. There's a reason why modern controllers share a similar shape, and the d-pad just took a little practice and was wonderful for games like RC Pro-Am. There isn't a controller I would want more for beating Blaster Master, that 3-4 hour game, than the NES Max. Though, I am a bit of a weirdo. I like pineapple on my pizza.
I think you might have misinterpreted the Control A scheme on Gyruss. Pushing left and right doesn't just move you left and right relative to your view; the same holds for up and down. Thus your left thumb is rolling around the D-pad during play, always pushing where you want your ship to go. As one of those "NES Max weirdos", I promise you that it's *great*.
NES Gyruss is one of my all time favorites. I easily put hundreds of hours into it back then. I had the whole thing in muscle memory and could do multiple full playthroughs without a game over. My reflexes have not aged well although I do remember really enjoying the X360 port as well.
Konami's Arcade Advanced would give us some decent ports of their arcades years later, with graphical upgrades even, but lacking the adjustments to fit the console. You're "what if" would have been cool. I would have dug seeing more arcade adaptations for the NES along side the classics Konami gave us.
I haven't played these classic carts in decades, but thankfully they're at least accessible. Can't say I have seen the vintage arcade versions. Good stuff with Konami.
Yep-Happy Days, American Graffiti, etc. etc. Fueled by reactionary pining for an age before civil rights and women's lib... see also a certain demographic's current obsession with the Roman Empire, apparently
@@JeremyParish Baby boomers were nostalgic for the years when they were kids and didn't have adult responsibilities. It was also the time period before the assassination of JFK and the escalation of U.S. military involvement in Vietnam.
Q*Bert NES was never really on my radar at all. did play a little of the arcade version in MAME though, definitely envy those that can put in high scores on it! Gyruss I did have on NES... did play a little bit of the arcade version, but yeah the NES version definitely provides some nice upgrades! Also interesting that they both tried to adapt unconventional control schemes from the arcade to the NES' d-pad.
Speaking of flaccid noses, the Playstation version of Q*Bert gave the male title character a nose, but not the female or any juveniles of the species. So it's really a...? As for Gyruss, the machines I played in arcades had joysticks. It's not ideal, but you get used to it. The NES game is a fantastic sequel to the original in any event.
Seems like NES Works 109 disappeared (got taken down?) from comments below sounds like was Wrestlemania....that's a bummer (or maybe i'm missing it) this channel is an amazing time capsule
Having never seen it, I have a theory that the Q*Bert cartoon series was 50s inspired following in the suburban-sitom-like shenanigans of Pac-Man in animated form.
The Q-Bert NES control scheme should have been, hold A and press left/right to go up, hold B and press left/right to go down. Any ROM hackers out there?
I have Opinions on Q*bert and Gyruss.... Konami's port of Q*bert is weird for that introductory character and their attempts to jazz up something that didn't need jazzing. This is the first time I noticed that delay in Q*bert's jumping, on NES, after landing on a square, it really strikes me as bad in watching this video? BTW, mentioning it just because I think it didn't get nearly the attention it deserved--the best home sequel to Q*bert is Q*bert 3 on SNES. NES Gyruss is interesting. I prefer the arcade game's music, but the NES version's is far from bad. A conversion of Gyruss _needs_ good music. A minor correction: I don't think arcade Gyruss used a spinner. There is one at a local arcade and it has a joystick, and KLOV also says it uses a joystick. I agree that it seems like it _should_ use a spinner though. The difference between dial controllers that have stops at the end, and those that spin endlessly in either direction, is surprisingly great. The former can be implemented in hardware with a simple potentiometer, varying the voltage according to how far along its range the control has been spun and then converting that voltage into a digital value; the latter requires a more complex set-up and coding. They were great enough that the Atari VCS/2600 had separate controllers for each style, the Paddles that were packed in with the original system, and let two players complete at each port, and the Driving controllerx supplied with Indy 500, used in no other officially-produced game.
I find the Atari 2600 version of Q Bert very enjoyable, once you get used to the controls. Never tried the NES one, but the design of Q Bert himself seems better on the Atari
It really is just that much easier to hold the square 2600 joystick at a diagonal than it is the NES gamepad. 2600 QBert was always one of my favorites on the system but I could never quite get comfortable with this version.
The major American TV networks used to show cartoons on Saturday mornings and cartoons were shown in syndication before and after school on weekdays. Deregulation of children's TV programming in the U.S. during the 1980s led to an explosion of animated series based on toys, video games, and other merchandise. The market became oversaturated.
@@ginormousaurus8394 I think we lucked out in the UK getting only the best US cartoons plus our own crazy creations and Cities of Gold, Ulysses etc. Never did get Thundercats season 2 tho.
UlTRA games came about as each game dev could only publish 5 games per year, due to artificial restrictions from Nintendo via chip/cart availability. So Konami created a shadow dev of their own company, Ultra Games, in order to publish more and get around the restriction.
Ending WWF Wrestlemania with "next time, more censorship" and then revealing you meant Q-Bert because of @!#?@! was the perfect clue to send everyone in the wrong direction on speculating what this week's game was going to be. Hats off, sir.
In the episode that actually got censored?
I'm in agreement with other comments here, the Gyruss coin-op never had a spinner, it was always a joystick. The ROM isn't even designed for that sort of input. But that said, an arcade stick seemed nicely intuitive to me. And I rarely hear people complain about arcade Gyruss's controls, the way you would about, say, Zaxxon. You will encounter the quarterly stops on those big moves around the circuit, but you get used to the feeling that you need to be gradually changing direction and rolling the stick around, the same way a spinner would work, in a sense. As long as you update your direction in time, the movement remains smooth. If it were a simple left-right toggle, it would get confusing when you're at the top of the screen, where your movement would be reversed. The stick actually worked quite well, in a way that a d-pad probably doesn't capture. Although I admit I haven't tried the NES port myself.
I got to talk briefly to two of Q*Bert's creators at Retro Games Con last year, and they confirmed what I presume everyone suspects in that Ruby Spears was not in touch with them about the cartoon. I still had that lingering question in my head on the matter back then, since Q*Bert shoots projectiles from his nose in the cartoon, and that was a discarded mechanic in the game's early development, so I was all "was this just a weird coincidence or did they somehow know?"
I think the nose looks like a cannon, so probably the first assumption of a lot of people, that or it worked like an elephant's trunk.
@@Larryyeah, it’s a safe assumption, but I wanted to be as sure as I could be since I am going to do a podcast on the Q*Bert cartoon down the line, and why turn down an opportunity to get a first hand account?
@@LarryI'n sure I thought so as a 6 year old.
Gyruss is one of the few arcade game I'm fond of, but I have never encountered a cabinet that included a spinner. It always had a joystick.
In fact, I've yet to see even a picture of a Gyruss cabinet with a spinner.
I distinctly recall the game having a spinner bitd when I would play it frequently at the 7-11. Yet, I'm beginning to wonder if it's some kind of Mandella Effect, because, like you, I can't find any modern trace of a Gyruss cabinet with a spinner.
@@gabrielvampyreyou might be thinking of Tempest. Gyruss never had a spinner. I've owned several Gyruss and Konami 80's Gallery PCBs and played a fair share of original dedicated machines. All used standard 8-way stick controls.
I didn’t realize until now how much the NES sprite for Q*Bert looks like a two-legged Snuffleupagus from Sesame Street.
Ultra Games’s instruction manuals were insane as they were filled with bizarre non sequiturs and pop culture references that seem to be put into the manuals simply for the amusement of the people writing them (the TMNT manual had a joke about Donatello’s weapon of choice and Bo Derek that most likely went over the heads of its entire intended target audience, including myself). The manual for Q*bert is perhaps the nuttiest example. The back of the box decides to give the game, which is already surreal in itself, an even more surreal plot: “The Tazmanian [sic] Kings of Chaos have trapped your ol’ pal Q*bert in their treacherous time warp.” As per the manual, “Your supreme challenge is to guide Q*bert though the entire time warp, until you free the pug-nosed hero so he can return to his true calling in life - playing a stuntman double for Don Johnson!” I recently read the autobiography of Warren Davis, Q*bert’s lead designer and programmer (who would later go on to develop the sprite-based motion capture technology used in such games as the original Mortal Kombat), and he points out that the Q*bert cartoon is not the direction he personally would have taken the characters (though he admits that direction may not have necessarily been suitable for children’s television). I can only imagine what his reaction would have been if he ever read Konami/Ultra’s backstory.
That is... inventive. But from what I recall of manuals in general, I wonder if the average kid gamer even realized these manuals were filled with made-up stuff. Even the regular manuals tend to be a little peculiar, back in those days.
I remember that Bo Derek joke existing in the TMNT manual, as Donatello has always been my favorite turtle. And 35 years later after checking Bo Derek's Wikipedia entry, I still had no idea who she is.
Gyruss is amazing on the NES. It's the only game I know of that operates in this type of shooter format.
For those who have never played it, it's a true hidden gem in the NES library. One I highly recommend playing.
Gyruss is a top 5er for me. I find the default controls rather intuitive, actually. Note that *you can use the full d-pad*, not just the two directions. When your ship is on the left/right poles, you can then use Up/Down to move the ship upward/downward, until it locks to the top/bottom poles, from which you can use Left/Right. You shouldn't really be using just a back and forth motion, but sort of rocking the d-pad circularly with the ship. In a way, you're basically pointing the controller to the part of the screen you want your ship to be.
100% agree with all of this.
My mother loves Q Bert, that's meaningful to me as she's rarely expressed any interest in games.
Correcting your correction in the description: while I know you rectified that Gyruss didn't have a spinner, it didnt have a non-self-centering joystick either. The US Centuri Gyruss machines used a regular centering 8-way stick from Monroe (which was trash), and the Japanese games almost certainly used a regular 8-way stick from Seimitsu for Konami's table units. Gyruss is my all-time favorite game; I've played a fair share of the machines, and owned several of the PCBs, both Konami and US Centuri versions.
Konami also rereleased Gyruss to arcades in Konami 80's Arcade Gallery. I still own several of those System 573 PCBs with the software, and the controls are kept intact.
Shame you had more difficulty adjusting to those controls, but I love it. Not everything is for eveyone though.
Alas
I think the second control scheme was pretty intuitave for players, quite a few games used a "from the perspective of the character" controls in racing games like Super Sprint, RC Pro Am and Ivan "Iron Man" Stewarts Super Off Road, and probably whe you saw so few complaints when Resident Evil was released years later.
Both great NES conversions with Gyruss seeing some cool additions in content. Regarding the Gyruss arcade cabinet, I have never seen a cabinet with a spinner on it. All the ones I've played (going way back to it's initial release) have had a joystick. I own a Gyruss cabinet I bought back in the mid 90's and it has a joystick.
Said it before, will say it again. Best video game channel on RUclips.
Just played Q-Bert with my kids after seeing him in the Wreck-It Ralph Movie... Result: 2 new Q-Bert fans :D
I could have had 30 lives?! That was a slow burn surprise after more than 30 years.
I had Gyruss as a kid and after a few weeks of diligent play it became one of those games I could finish every time I played it. Playing it now…well my reflexes and free time aren’t what they were 35 years ago.
The Colecovision port of Q-Bert was my first video game obsession as a tiny child.
Gyruss is always a joystick game, even in the arcade. No spinner.
Are you telling me I Mandela Effected my memories of the arcade game? Clearly you’re from the wrong universe.
Sorry sir you sure did.
I just googled some photos of the machine and it looks like you are correct, they all show a joystick.
Yeah
I came here to point this out too.
Gyruss never had a spinner in the arcade.
Wait, maybe this means *I'm* from the wrong universe.
It feels weird to call Q*Bert's "nose" anything but a schnozz
Tripping up Arcade Pit contestants for years.
Gyruss was my ultimate favorite game as a kid. I played it so much I could beat it without the code with lives to spare. The second control type is the only control type.
It was around this time back in 1993 when I played Gyruss for the first time when my cousin and I rented it from a mom and pop video store along with another NES and 2 Super NES games for the weekend.
I am one of those weirdos, thank you very much!! NES Max made buying potions in Final Fantasy bearable. Set a book on the turbo button, get a Coke, then come back fully stocked, both personally and in the game.
I've always had a fondness for both games you covered here. Q*Bert is one of my earliest gaming memories, back in the days I had to stand on a chair to play it! As for Gyruss, one of my favorites. We played that game to death on the Atari 2600 and I really like the NES port.
Konami made games under the Ultra label to get around Nintendo restrictions for releasing only so many NES titles in a year.
Basically the Gyruss arcade used a joystick that worked how I assume "Control A" works here - the stick tells the ship where to go instead of moving it in an explicit direction. Pushing the stick left sends the ship moving to the left edge of the circuit (where it will stop), just like up will send it to the top, down to the bottom, and up-right diagonal will send it toward the top-right corner. It's actually quite intuitive once you understand the nature of it, but it can be confusing and frustrating if you're running on the 'left travels left, right travels right' paradigm.
I never did play Q*Bert on the NES but I did love the music IN Gyruss even if the control scheme was less than ideal. I played through the entire game a couple of years ago via emulation & the helps of cheats. It was a pretty good time.
I can't believe it's taken me this long to realize that he's called Qbert because he jumps on cubes.
Q*BERT and Gyruss are two great classic arcade games. 😀👍🎮
I actually forgot there even was a Qbert or Gyruss port on the NES. Unlike some of the earliest Namco releases, these aren’t ports of 1984 famicom releases either. Both are fantastic games and look like the best home releases for either
(Gyruss is probably my favorite underrated arcade cabinet and this release looks incredible)
@Jeremy Parish - Konami used the "Ultra Games" label to get around Nintendo's draconian release limits. To get games published on the NES you had to limit your title releases to just a handful every year.
By creating a shell brand, Konami could effectively double their releases. Thus, Ultra Games was born.
I am well aware. I guess sarcasm doesn’t come through even in videos sometimes.
My main experience with Q*Bert came from the mini tabletop arcade machine from the mid-80s. It was very faithful, even though the visuals were even more compromised than the home console versions.
For the past year or so, I've been taking full advantage of Retro Mags and reading a ton of old video game magazines, and one thing I've noticed is that there are quite a few at least somewhat noteworthy games that got very little coverage, if any.
Two early 1980s arcade conversations from Konami as Ultra Games, I think I've played Q Bert on NES, and Q Bert as a 1950s nostalgia character on a cartoon is definitely a choice. Gyruss definitely looks cool, a shame about the controls.
Gyruss used a joystick. I've never encountered a gyruss without one. Maybe it originally had a spinner then had a revision for sticks? The movement felt very much akin to Konami's time pilot in terms of 'stick does circle character movements' but just applied differently.
Gryuss had a "Monroe" joystick, and so did Time Pilot if memory serves. Although often thought to be optical, the Monroe was a normal 8-way stick but could be rotated easily between diagonals, where the restrictor gate on normal 8-ways would make that movement awkward. I think I'm remembering that right, but either way the Monroe made doing clockwise or counter-clockwise movements buttery smooth.
@@aaronreid8375 So like a circular gate?
@@125scratch2 Yes I believe so, but there was also some aspect of the design that made the movement smooth when turning in a circle. I know people have tried changing the gate on Wico joysticks to kind of get the same effect, but with mixed results
@@aaronreid8375 From my experience the circular gates they sell for Sanwa sticks work fairly well, but the feel is still different presumably due to the technology of the stick itself being different
Great arcade classics. My memory of Q*Bert for the NES was going to Blockbuster on a Friday after school and looking at the game section. My Mom, who wouldn't be caught dead playing video games anymore, saw Q*Bert and was like "oh, I love this game!" (She also enjoyed Burgertime, Donkey Kong and Frogger from the "Golden Age"). So I got it and couldn't stop falling off the screen. As a little kid, for some reason, the controls confounded me and all I ever did was fall to my death over and over again. I thought it was awful, until I played the arcade machine later as an adult and now I think it's a fantastic game.
Gyruss I remember playing one time at a friend's house. I found it brutally difficult, so I never played it again. I got more into it when I revisited a lot of the games from the "golden age" in my later years.
The Golden Age of Arcades was something else. I was pretty young when it happened, but I do remember when arcade machines were everywhere (including odd places like waiting rooms at doctor/dentist offices) and that they became part of popular culture, with TV shows, pop songs and more.
The problem with any port of Q*Bert is they can't replicate the cabinet trick of making a THUD noise at the back of the machine whenever you fall off the pyramid.
It's funny how the perception of time worked differently back then. A 1983 game in 1989 absolutely did seem like a fossil, but I don't think 2023's kids would feel the same way about 2017's Mario Odyssey or Horizon: Zero Dawn.
I randomly got Gyruss my first NES Christmas. My after school Stockholm Syndrome with the game meant that I was willing to master the controls, but once I did it wasn't tough at all. The mental hack (was I using control B? I forget) was just thinking in terms of cardinal positions - hold left to move to the leftmost point. Press up right to move to the upper right corner. Once I started thinking in these terms, the gaps in the enemy formations at these points became more apparent. You still needed to memorize the waves, but it wasn't a tough 1LC once I got it down. Now, Ninja Turtles which I got that same Christmas morning (the main thing I had asked for, which I guess might be why dad rolled the dice on another Ultra game with Gyruss)? I've never beaten Shredder down to this very day. That game was a toughie.
I never had trouble with how Q*Bert controlled on NES...more that the game is just tough as nails and it's a rite of passage to leap off the top square.
As far as "What would Konami do with Roc 'n Rope?", wouldn't Almana no Kiseki for FDS be the answer to that?
It feels a little far removed for me. Gyruss for NES is recognizably the arcade game with tweaks, whereas Almana is a wildly different game experience that just happens to use a grappling mechanic similar to the one in Roc'n Rope.
I think the Gyruss screen structure is meant as the view from below the player's ship in a standard "bottom shooter" game like Galaga.
I remember picking up the first control scheme in Gyruss pretty quickly, but there was a good while where it and Super Mario Bros were all I had so I was pretty incentivized to get good. And I still couldn't beat it without a turbo controller and the 30 lives code.
I never saw a gyruss arcade with a spinner. It has a joystick similar to the game 720
I've always had a soft spot in my heart for Gyruss. The NES port is great. I was even impressed by the port that was put out for Atari 2600, if you've seen that. While it's repetitive and basic it doesn't control badly and has decent BGM which is practically unheard of for the platform.
I played Gyruss on the NES and I liked the feel of the controls ! It was different and challenging enough. gg JP
I wish that NES qbert kept track of your highscore on the title screen or game screen. It's such a good port but with that glaring flaw. Kind of defeats the purpose of the game.
Gyruss's OST is amazing, but the FDS version has that extra oomph. Been looking for a cheap copy for the FDS for a while but still have yet to find one :(
Not just Bach, Jeremy-a plagiarized version of progressive rock band Sky's interpretation of the Toccata and Fugue in D minor! Given your interest in prog, I figured you might appreciate knowing that (if you didn't happen to know that already).
Oh some truly classic conversions...I still remember the ads for Q-bert on Atari in some of my comic books from back then, I wonder if there's anything to researching the old Atari/early NES comic book ads...?
Gotta say, the second control scheme sounds more appealing. Easier to get used to and no sudden stop jank.
I liked the NES Max controller. There's a reason why modern controllers share a similar shape, and the d-pad just took a little practice and was wonderful for games like RC Pro-Am. There isn't a controller I would want more for beating Blaster Master, that 3-4 hour game, than the NES Max. Though, I am a bit of a weirdo. I like pineapple on my pizza.
Hey guys, we found him! The world’s only NES Max fan!
I think you might have misinterpreted the Control A scheme on Gyruss. Pushing left and right doesn't just move you left and right relative to your view; the same holds for up and down. Thus your left thumb is rolling around the D-pad during play, always pushing where you want your ship to go. As one of those "NES Max weirdos", I promise you that it's *great*.
Fun fact: Q*Bert was originally going to have shooting and be called "Snots & Boogers." Really!
So, the Age of Ultra has begun.
(Yeah, I got nothin'. Just sacrificing bits to the algorithm gods.)
NES Gyruss is one of my all time favorites. I easily put hundreds of hours into it back then. I had the whole thing in muscle memory and could do multiple full playthroughs without a game over.
My reflexes have not aged well although I do remember really enjoying the X360 port as well.
Gyruss is my favorite NES Arcade game
Konami's Arcade Advanced would give us some decent ports of their arcades years later, with graphical upgrades even, but lacking the adjustments to fit the console. You're "what if" would have been cool. I would have dug seeing more arcade adaptations for the NES along side the classics Konami gave us.
I'm one of those weirdos that enjoys the NES MAX, haha, it's not bad at all for some games.
I had nes Gyruss growing up in the early 1990’s. I never once thought the enemy’s bullets was difficult to see or the game had bad controls.
Which arcade is that in. your live action segments?
I haven't played these classic carts in decades, but thankfully they're at least accessible. Can't say I have seen the vintage arcade versions. Good stuff with Konami.
Really happy to see NES Works back full time. That year of “literally what” Sega fare was torturous.
I'm not done with Sega, kid.
Technosphile, next two weeks are Sega. It looks like we're getting alternating months of NES and Sega. Also, 1988 on Master System is pretty rad.
Q Bert cartoon brainstorming session:
" you know what everyone loves? The '50s!"
There was nostalgia for the 1950s and early 1960s in the 1970s and 1980s, similar to how there was nostalgia for the 1980s and 1990s in recent years.
Yep-Happy Days, American Graffiti, etc. etc. Fueled by reactionary pining for an age before civil rights and women's lib... see also a certain demographic's current obsession with the Roman Empire, apparently
@@JeremyParish Baby boomers were nostalgic for the years when they were kids and didn't have adult responsibilities. It was also the time period before the assassination of JFK and the escalation of U.S. military involvement in Vietnam.
@@ginormousaurus8394Saw a lot of that in my childhood.
Q*Bert NES was never really on my radar at all. did play a little of the arcade version in MAME though, definitely envy those that can put in high scores on it! Gyruss I did have on NES... did play a little bit of the arcade version, but yeah the NES version definitely provides some nice upgrades! Also interesting that they both tried to adapt unconventional control schemes from the arcade to the NES' d-pad.
Oh man, I've been saying it like Guy-russ all these years... so I've been wrong this whole time?
It’s a fake word, but I assume it’s supposed to evoke “gyrate”
@@JeremyParish Ohhh, like a Gyro (not the sandwich). That makes perfect sense, and now I know (and knowing is half the battle).
Speaking of flaccid noses, the Playstation version of Q*Bert gave the male title character a nose, but not the female or any juveniles of the species. So it's really a...?
As for Gyruss, the machines I played in arcades had joysticks. It's not ideal, but you get used to it. The NES game is a fantastic sequel to the original in any event.
You know, I've never actually played Q*Bert
What happened to NES Works #109?? 😭😭
WWE legal
@@JeremyParish 😭😭 Damn WWE LEGAL!! TY for the reply though 🙂🙂
I was wondering the same thing… anybody found it anywhere? I hate that there is a gap now… I need to see it!
Does it need to be redone with fewer clips or something?
The Colecovision conversion of the rare sequel, “q-Bert’s qubes” was such a better game and I always wished there was a NES version
Seems like NES Works 109 disappeared (got taken down?) from comments below sounds like was Wrestlemania....that's a bummer (or maybe i'm missing it) this channel is an amazing time capsule
Yeah Vince McMahon personally threatened me with violence for criticizing his favorite game
Having never seen it, I have a theory that the Q*Bert cartoon series was 50s inspired following in the suburban-sitom-like shenanigans of Pac-Man in animated form.
I think a good byline/subtitle for this episode coukd have been" Gyruss, Up.Up,. Qbert...Down Down"
Gyruss was one of my favorites, played it to death on the 5200.
The Gyruss controls... I would be so mad at being stopped all the time. So very very mad.
The Q-Bert NES control scheme should have been, hold A and press left/right to go up, hold B and press left/right to go down. Any ROM hackers out there?
I have Opinions on Q*bert and Gyruss....
Konami's port of Q*bert is weird for that introductory character and their attempts to jazz up something that didn't need jazzing. This is the first time I noticed that delay in Q*bert's jumping, on NES, after landing on a square, it really strikes me as bad in watching this video? BTW, mentioning it just because I think it didn't get nearly the attention it deserved--the best home sequel to Q*bert is Q*bert 3 on SNES.
NES Gyruss is interesting. I prefer the arcade game's music, but the NES version's is far from bad. A conversion of Gyruss _needs_ good music. A minor correction: I don't think arcade Gyruss used a spinner. There is one at a local arcade and it has a joystick, and KLOV also says it uses a joystick. I agree that it seems like it _should_ use a spinner though.
The difference between dial controllers that have stops at the end, and those that spin endlessly in either direction, is surprisingly great. The former can be implemented in hardware with a simple potentiometer, varying the voltage according to how far along its range the control has been spun and then converting that voltage into a digital value; the latter requires a more complex set-up and coding. They were great enough that the Atari VCS/2600 had separate controllers for each style, the Paddles that were packed in with the original system, and let two players complete at each port, and the Driving controllerx supplied with Indy 500, used in no other officially-produced game.
I find the Atari 2600 version of Q Bert very enjoyable, once you get used to the controls. Never tried the NES one, but the design of Q Bert himself seems better on the Atari
It really is just that much easier to hold the square 2600 joystick at a diagonal than it is the NES gamepad. 2600 QBert was always one of my favorites on the system but I could never quite get comfortable with this version.
First time I played gyruss, I wrecked it.
I can never match that. Only got the cart like 4 years ago
@4:05...get the green guy!
I am genuinely impressed by how fast the enemies move in Gyruss; I wonder if it would be a good subject for one of Sharopolis's deep dives.
Were you at California Extreme?
I wish!
@@JeremyParish me too, maybe next time
Love Q*Bert 😍
How were there enough hours in a day for all those 80’s American cartoons.
Look up "latchkey kids" sometime.
The major American TV networks used to show cartoons on Saturday mornings and cartoons were shown in syndication before and after school on weekdays. Deregulation of children's TV programming in the U.S. during the 1980s led to an explosion of animated series based on toys, video games, and other merchandise. The market became oversaturated.
@@JeremyParishPretty much what we did! This was also the rise of home video and cable TV which brought us what our parents never had.
@@ginormousaurus8394This was very true.
@@ginormousaurus8394 I think we lucked out in the UK getting only the best US cartoons plus our own crazy creations and Cities of Gold, Ulysses etc. Never did get Thundercats season 2 tho.
Why’d they make Q-bert’s nose all droopy and sad looking. He looks depressed.
Whats the song playing in the early channel surf?
"Wild Thing" by Tone Loc.
UlTRA games came about as each game dev could only publish 5 games per year, due to artificial restrictions from Nintendo via chip/cart availability. So Konami created a shadow dev of their own company, Ultra Games, in order to publish more and get around the restriction.
I'm increasingly coming to realize that understated irony doesn't play well on RUclips.
You took footage for this episode at the expo, I see
はい
I will not stand for this NES Max slander.
We found him! It’s the one NES Max liker
@@JeremyParish there are dozens of us… dozens!!
despite never liking this game a had a q-bert beach towel.Weird.