Gee Bee
1978 · Action · Arcade
Overview
Gee Bee (1978) is Toru Iwatani's cross between Breakout and pinball for Namco, described as the first video game Namco designed in-house.
Deep Dive
A rotary dial moves the paddles that knock the ball into walls of bricks, pop bumpers worth 10 points and spinners that slow it down. Lighting every letter of the NAMCO rollover targets (Gremlin's logo in North America) raises the score multiplier.
Developer Story
Iwatani designed it with help from programmer Shigeichi Ishimura. It sold about 10,000 units and was Japan's eighth highest-earning arcade game of 1978, but fell short of Namco's hopes, partly because of Space Invaders. Gremlin released it in North America in January 1979.
Did You Know?
- Iwatani had wanted to make pinball machines, and a video game with pinball elements was the compromise.
- It was followed in 1979 by Bomb Bee and Cutie Q.
Sources & further reading
- Gee Bee (video game) — Wikipedia
