User:Namcokid47/Gee Bee

Gee Bee (ジービー) 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 possible by deflecting a ball against bricks, pop bumpers and other objects on the playfield. It was developed by Toru Iwatani, known as the developer of Pac-Man and Pole Position. Outside Japan, it was published by Gremlin Industries.

Gee Bee was Namco's first internally-designed video game, following their publishing of several Atari arcade titles, 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 sort-of compromise, Iwatani instead made a video game with pinball-elements, combined with mechanics established in Breakout. Gee Bee was not a commercial success and sold just under 8,000 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
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, the objective being to score as many points possible by deflecting a ball towards the 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. The actual layout of the game board is based on that of a human face. Having the ball touch the "NAMCO" rollover symbols will cause them to light up, and having all of them lit up will increase the score multiplier. Due to hardware limitations, strips of cellophane were applied to the monitor to compensate for the lack of color.

Development and release
In July 1976, Shigekazu 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 arcade games. Namco approved of the idea, and would purchase a surplus amount of PDA-08 microcomputers from NEC, with several employees being assigned to study the system with the potential of creating video games.

In 1977, Toru Iwatani would join Namco, shortly after graduating college. 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. 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. Gee Bee was first released in Japan in October 1978. That same year, Gremlin Industries licensed the game outside Japan.

The title of the game was named after the Japanese word for carpenter bee, "kumanbachi". Gee Bee was not a commercial success in either region - although official sales figures are unknown, estimated sales are believed to be less than 8,000 units sold. Nonetheless, the game helped establish Namco as a prime video game developer in Japan, and would lead them to producing their own arcade games alongside publishing those from other companies.

Legacy
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. 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 would design the sprites for a number of the sprites. 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. Both Bomb Bee and Cutie Q were ported over to the PlayStation in 1996 for the Japanese release Namco Museum Vol. 2, however international versions would instead replace both games with Super Pac-Man - Cutie Q was also ported over to the Wii in 2007 as part of compilation game Namco Museum Remix.