How to Improve and Win at Q*Bert/Qbert (Arcade/MAME)

This video explains some useful tips to improve your gameplay on Q*Bert. It goes from the very basics of the game to some advanced techniques to get your skills above the average player. With lots of practice, patience and the video's advice, you should be able to improve consistently.

[@PumpedbyArcade]

A very impressive and in-depth description of Q*Bert to the bone.
This is pure science and should help me become a better player.
Your playful performance is terrific and leaves me a little speechless.
Thank you for this very good video!

[@zanti4132]

Your analysis of Q*Bert is quite thorough! In my younger days, I felt like I solved the game using essentially the same strategy described in your video. I once played the game for 13 hours on one quarter, racking up 6 million points. When it got to closing time for the arcade, it took me a half hour to sacrifice all my extra lives so that my score would register. The arcade owner was nice enough to leave the arcade open until this got done.
I do want to add my two cents on getting around the interesting problem of clearing the board on levels 5 through 9, i.e. the levels that go through a three-color sequence, when the polarity came out wrong and the board couldn't be cleared immediately. First, it is fortunate that this happens only 1/3 of the time. When it does happen, as mentioned in the video, the disks provide the easiest way to fix the polarity, but knowing *which* disks can change the polarity are vitally important. Those disks are the ones that can be reached from the odd-numbered rows, where the top row (the single spot at the top of the pyramid) is row 1, the next row (where everything drops) is row 2, and on down to row 7, the bottom of the pyramid. On level 9, the rounds start with five disks: two off row 3 on either side, and one off rows 4, 5, and 7. So four of the five disks are conveniently off odd-numbered rows.
As the disk on row 4 can't change the polarity, that is generally the disk that I would use early on to avoid Coily. The other disk that generally got early use is the one on row 7, which usually came after clearing the bottom two rows. Aside from being conveniently placed for when the bottom two rows got cleared, the row 7 disk is harder to use when changing the polarity due to it being at the bottom of the pyramid. That's why the best disks for fixing the polarity were the ones off row 3, hence the disks best saved for this situation, while the disk on row 5 could be used in an emergency, e.g. when the row 3 disks had already been used. (Yes, this is mentioned in the video.)
Now for the worst case scenario: what do you do when the polarity comes out wrong and you've used all the disks on the odd-numbered rows? That's when my emergency recourse was similar to a plan described in the video: get Q*Bert to the top of the pyramid and wait for Sam or Slick. Then it was crucial to catch Sam/Slick right after they came out, after they changed the color of a spot on row 2 and before they got to row 3. This would change the polarity of the board, allowing it to be cleared. If Coily messed up this plan by showing up before Sam or Slick came out, then my last resort to fix the polarity was to jump to row 2, then jump off the pyramid. This sacrificed a man but corrected the polarity, allowing me to clear the board.

[@RetroDiesel]

Thank you for this!!

[@georgeshelton6281]

It's also understandable that Debbie does Dallas never had any video game of its own.

[@AchimderKiller12]

Gut gespielt Mega nervenaufreibend