Let’s say you’re a major toy manufacturer named Kenner. Let’s say it’s late 1983, and your last big license – a little summer flick called “Return of the Jedi” – is now but a memory, with no sequels in sight. TV is a barren wasteland of variety shows and programming that just doesn’t lend itself to toys.
What do you do? Why, you hitch a ride aboard a multicolored disk carrying a little orange guy with a big nose! This guy’s gonna be a star!
Q*Bert was premiered by Gottlieb in 1983 to a great deal of hype, and it wasn’t without reason. This intensely cute, easy-to-learn-but-hard-to-beat coin-op featured a large cast of memorable, and thus marketable, characters. And the game was a success the moment it hit the arcades. Toy licenses, among other things, were a natural evolution for Q*Bert and his qonglomeration of qo-stars. – Read the rest of the article here from Classic Gamer Magazine (courtesy of Old School Gamer)!
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