Arcade marquee
Q*bert is a classic arcade game. First published by Gottlieb in 1982, it has been ported to numerous platforms. The logo uses Cooper Black in yellow letters with a red outline, set on a bouncing baseline. The Q has been customized – by default, this letter has a rather peculiar form in Cooper Black. The asterisk (*) is taken from ITC Zapf Dingbats. It has later been assigned a dedicated Unicode, as Teardrop-Spoked Asterisk (✻). The Gottlieb logo appears to be custom, with similarities to Handel Gothic.
Cabinet
Control panel
“Q*bert Qollects Quarters!” ad. The copy is set in ITC Souvenir.
Game flyer, featuring more Cooper Black and ITC Souvenir. The small print uses another ITC face, Eras.
Manual cover. The orange type is in Futura Extra Bold Condensed. The smaller type is ITC Avant Garde Gothic.
2 Comments on “Q✻bert”
I have my doubts on the Retroplace 5200 cover scan shown here:
1. Century Gothic wasn’t released until 1990, 6 years after the 5200 and its game library (released in 1982) ceased production (2 years later, in 1984).
2. “A Video Cartridge from”, “For the Atari 5200(TM) Game System” along with its banner, and “Under License from D. Gotten & Co.” look rather clean for a “cover picture” from what was supposed to be the 80s.
For a quick comparison, here’s a link that directs to an actual scan of the front cover from MobyGames: https://www.mobygames.com/game/qbert/cover-art/gameCoverId,27252/
In that case, the same exact text that I previously mentioned is set in ITC Avant Garde Gothic.
Excellent catch, Bryson! Agreed, that scan looks a lot like a later recreation. I’ve removed the picture in question (you can see it on Retroplace), and also the anachronistic Century Gothic credit.