Put some spin on it: Q*Bert & Gyruss | NES Works 110
894A pair of vintage arcade conversions from Konami... err, sorry, I mean "Ultra Games." Haha, don't know how I could have made that mistake!!
Q*Bert and Gyruss only have one thing in common: Both arcade machines used control schemes that don't really map well to the NES D-pad. Otherwise, they don't have a lot of overlap—and that includes here on NES. "Ultra" poured its heart into this port of Gyruss, turning a fairly simplistic arcade shooter into a game on par aesthetically with their big 1988 hits. As for Q*Bert... well, it plays fine. But it doesn't have the Konami spit ’n polish you'd expect (for some weird reason) from a game from Ultra.
SPEAKING OF MISTAKES: I misremembered Gyruss as having spinner controls in the arcade, when in fact it had a non=centering 8-way joystick. Mandela Effected by my own petard. (The NES controls still don't quite work, though.)
Production notes:
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NES footage captured from Analogue Nt Mini. Video upscaled to 720 with xRGB Mini Framemeister. Camera work courtesy of Diamond Feit!