How to play I.Q. 180 online
- Joystick: arrow keys, fire = Space bar
- Start a new game: F12 (the console’s Reset switch)
- Save and load your progress: Ctrl + 0–9 saves to a slot, Alt + 0–9 loads it
Gameplay
The title screen shows the 26 letters of the alphabet in order, followed by four small symbols. In the game they are spread over a grid of 30 numbered boxes, from 1 to 30, in mixed-up positions. A row of arrows below the grid points either down or up. According to an Italian Home Vision catalogue from the time, the letters and symbols are shuffled again when the arrows point up, and your task is to remember the position of as many letters and symbols as you can.
No full English manual has turned up, so the exact way you give your answers and how the score is counted are not documented. The best way to learn it is to press Reset, watch how the screen changes, and experiment with the joystick and the fire button.
Tips
- Remember the odd ones first. The four symbols stand out from the letters, so they make good anchors for the rest of the grid.
- Use the numbers. Link letters to box numbers (“A is in 21”) rather than trying to picture the whole grid.
- Use save states. Save before a round, so you can try again and see what you got wrong.
One game, several names
Like many cartridges from Taiwan in the early 1980s, I.Q. 180 was sold under more than one label. Home Vision, whose games came from Taiwan’s Gem International, listed it in Europe with the catalogue number VCS 83128, and Suntek sold it as I.Q. Memory Teaser. A further title, I.Q. 100, is also recorded. The Home Vision cartridge itself has not yet been preserved. Emulator databases list the file on this page as a release by the Taiwanese company Jone Yuan, which is the same game.
Similar games to play next
- I.Q. Memory Teaser – the same game under Suntek’s title
- Brain Games – Atari’s collection of memory and puzzle games
- Hunt & Score – Atari’s game of finding matching pairs
- Off Your Rocker – a Simon-style game of repeating patterns