VIQ-Bert

About

IQ-Bert is perhaps not the first, or even the best variation on Q*Bert for the VIC-20, but it is by far the smallest, weighing in at under a single kilobyte (programmed for the 2002 edition of the MiniGame Compo coding contest). As in the original Q*Bert, the player moves on a 3D pyramid, coloring the fields of the pyramid as he/she/it moves. Coloring all tiles clears the level. This would be easy were it not for the enemies moving around in haphazard patterns on the same pyramid. Unlike the original Q*Bert enemies, they don't change back the color of the game tiles, but contact is deadly. Another way to die is to fall off the pyramid. Later levels require coloring the same squares multiple times, and even later, you cannot pass the same square twice without changing the color back, so a strategy element is introduced.