Gee Bee (video game)

Gee Bee[lower-alpha 1] is a block breaker/video pinball hybrid arcade game developed and published by Namco in 1978. The player controls a set of paddles with a rotary knob, with the objective being to score as many points as possible by deflecting a ball against bricks, pop bumpers and other objects in the playfield. It was developed by Toru Iwatani, known as the creator of Pac-Man and Pole Position. Outside Japan, it was published by Gremlin Industries.

Gee Bee
North American arcade flyer.
Developer(s)Namco
Publisher(s)
Designer(s)Toru Iwatani
Programmer(s)Shigeichi Ishimura
SeriesGee Bee
Platform(s)Arcade
Release
  • JP: October 1978
  • NA: 1978
Genre(s)Pinball, block breaker
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer (alternating turns)

Gee Bee was the first video game to be designed in-house by Namco – prior to this, the company had published a number of games by Atari, notably Breakout, in Japan. Iwatani originally wanted to produce pinball machines for the company, however, higher-ups at Namco disapproved of the idea. As a compromise, Iwatani instead made a video game with pinball-elements, combined with mechanics established in Breakout. Gee Bee was not as big of a success as hoped and only sold 10,000 units worldwide, although it would help establish Namco's presence in the video game industry. Two sequels were produced in 1979, Bomb Bee and Cutie Q.

Gameplay
Arcade screenshot.

Gee Bee is a block breaker arcade game intermixed with elements of a pinball table. The player uses a rotary dial to control a set of paddles on-screen,[1] the objective being to score as many points as possible by deflecting a ball towards objects placed on the board – these include Breakout-like brick formations, pop bumpers that award ten points each when hit, and spinners that slow down the ball.[2] Having the ball touch the "NAMCO" rollover symbols (replaced by the Gremlin logo in the North American version) causes them to light up and having all of them lit up increases the score multiplier.[2]

Development and release

Gee Bee was developed by Toru Iwatani and was Namco's first video game produced in-house.[3] The company began their insertion into game development in July 1976, when Shigeichi Ishimura, a Namco electro-mechanical game designer, proposed the idea of creating a video arcade game utilizing a CPU, with information accumulated from his work on electro-mechanical games.[4] Namco approved of the idea and purchased a surplus amount of PDA-08 microcomputers from NEC, employees being assigned to study the system's potential to create video games.[4]

In 1977, Toru Iwatani joined Namco, shortly after graduating college.[5] Before the arrival of Iwatani, Namco was in the midst of publishing Atari arcade games in Japan, following their acquisition of Atari Japan a few years prior.[5] Iwatani had wanted to create pinball machines as opposed to video games, however, Namco higher-ups disapproved of his idea. As a compromise of sorts, Iwatani was allowed to instead create a video game based on the concept of pinball, akin to Atari's Video Pinball dedicated console, intermixed with the gameplay elements established in Breakout.[5] Ishimura would assist with programming.[6] Due to hardware limitations, strips of cellophane were applied to the monitor to compensate for the lack of color.[7][1] The actual layout of the game board is made to resemble a human face.[2] The game was named after the Japanese word for carpenter bee, "kumanbachi",[1] and used the same font type from Atari's unreleased arcade title Cannonball from 1976.[8] Gee Bee was first released in Japan in October 1978.[4] That same year, Gremlin Industries licensed the game outside Japan.[9]

Reception and legacy

Gee Bee was not as successful as Namco hoped it would be – although official sales figures are unknown, it is generally believed to have sold 10,000 units.[6] Nonetheless, the game helped establish Namco as a prime video game developer in Japan, and led to them producing their own arcade games alongside publishing those from other companies.[2][4] The November 11, 1978 issue of Cashbox complimented the game's cabinet artwork,[10] while the December 30 issue stated that it had a "good looking cabinet and graphics".[11] In a retrospective, Earn Green of Allgame noted the game's importance for Namco, being Toru Iwatani's first video game for the company.[12] Retro Gamer listed Gee Bee as one of the best Breakout clones for its notability as Namco's first internally designed video game.[3]

Gee Bee would spawn two sequel titles – Bomb Bee was released a year later in 1979. This game includes colorized graphics, new gameplay additions such as a 1,000 point pop bumper, and the ability to earn extra lives.[4] A second sequel, Cutie Q, was released in 1979 – this one was not developed by Iwatani, but rather Shigeru Yokoyama, who would later create Galaga, although Iwatani designed a number of the sprites.[13] Cutie Q is notable for featuring "cute" characters, which would become a key inspiration for character design in Iwatani's next work, Pac-Man, released a year later.[14] Both Bomb Bee and Cutie Q were ported to the PlayStation in 1996 in the Japanese version of Namco Museum Vol. 2,[15] however international versions replaced both games with Super Pac-Man. Cutie Q was also ported over to the Wii as part of Namco Museum Remix in 2007[16] and its 2010 update Namco Museum Megamix.[17]

Notes
  1. Japanese: ジービー Hepburn: Jī Bī

References
  1. Iwatani, Toru (2005). Introduction to Pac-Man's Game Science. Enterbrain. p. 33.
  2. Masumi, Akagi (2005). It Started With Pong. Amusement News Agency. pp. 183–184.
  3. Breakout The Clones. Retro Gamer (117 ed.). Imagine Publishing. 2013. p. 40. Retrieved 2 August 2019.
  4. Microcomputer BASIC Editorial Department (December 1986). All About Namco (in Japanese). Dempa Shimbun. ISBN 978-4885541070.
  5. Kent, Steven L (2 October 2001). The Ultimate History of Video Games. p. 140.
  6. Kurokawa, Fumio (17 March 2018). "ビデオゲームの語り部たち 第4部：石村繁一氏が語るナムコの歴史と創業者・中村雅哉氏の魅力". 4Gamer (in Japanese). Aetas. Archived from the original on 1 August 2019. Retrieved 2 August 2019.
  7. "Gee Bee". Killer List of Video Games. Retrieved 19 May 2019.
  8. Ogata, Miyuki (24 November 2016). "バンダイナムコスタジオのフォント今昔物語＞＞『ジービー』『ゼビウス』から『サマーレッスン』まで". CGWorld (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 2 August 2019. Retrieved 2 August 2019.
  9. "Gee Bee" (PDF). arcade flyer. Gremlin Industries. Retrieved 19 May 2019.
  10. "Namco's AMOA Exhibit Will Focus On Four Machines" (PDF). Cashbox. 11 November 1978. p. C-16. ISSN 0008-7289.
  11. In Review (PDF). Cashbox. 30 December 1978. Retrieved 2 August 2019.
  12. Green, Earl. "Gee Bee - Review". Allgame. Archived from the original on 14 November 2014. Retrieved 2 August 2019.
  13. Namco Bandai Games (2011). "Galaga - 30th Anniversary Developer Interview". Galaga WEB. Archived from the original on 6 June 2019. Retrieved 13 July 2019.
  14. Kohler, Chris (2016). Power-Up: How Japanese Video Games Gave the World an Extra Life. pp. 51-2.
  15. "ナムコミュージアム VOL.2" (in Japanese). Namco. Retrieved 19 May 2019.
  16. Aaron, Sean. "Namco Museum Remix Review (Wii)". Nintendo Life. Retrieved 12 July 2009.
  17. Buchanan, Levi (22 November 2010). "Namco Museum Megamix Review". IGN. Archived from the original on 14 July 2019. Retrieved 2 August 2019.
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