Rubik’s Cube 3D

Prototype

Rubik's Cube 3D (also known as 3-D Rubik's Cube) is an unreleased Atari 2600 prototype programmed by Peter C. Niday at Atari in 1982. It is a completely different game from the Rubik's Cube cartridge that Atari did sell. Instead of walking a character over one flat face, you look at the cube at an angle, with three faces visible at once, and turn its rows and columns like the real puzzle. Nobody knew the game existed until a prototype turned up in 2002. You can play it here in your browser.

Play Atari 2600 Rubik’s Cube 3D online

  • ā† ā†‘ ā†“ ā†’ Joystick
  • Space Fire
  • F12 Reset
  • F11 Select
  • F4 / F9 Difficulty

Rate this game!

Click on a star to rate it!

Average rating 3 / 5. Vote count: 2

No votes so far! Be the first to rate this game.

2

How to play Rubikā€™s Cube 3D online

  • Turn the cube and its rows and columns: arrow keys and Space bar
  • Game functions: F11 (the consoleā€™s Select switch) is used by the game itself
  • Normal or cheat mode: F4 toggles the Player 1 (left) difficulty switch
  • Start again: F12 (the consoleā€™s Reset switch)

There is no known manual for this prototype, so the exact controls are not documented; try the keys and switches to find out how it responds.

Gameplay

In normal mode you first rotate the whole cube in any of four directions until the face you want to work on is in view. Then you turn the individual slices, its rows and columns, until the colours line up. If you give up, the game can solve the cube for you, which is quite a feat for a console with 128 bytes of memory.

In cheat mode you can paint the squares any colour you like. That even lets you build a cube that could never be solved, with too many squares of one colour. It may have been a tool for testing rather than a feature meant for players.

Why it was never released

Peter Niday started at Atari as a game tester and was promoted to programmer. Before he could finish this game, he was moved to Sorcererā€™s Apprentice. Atari thought the market had no room for two cube games and considered putting this one on the same cartridge as Atari Video Cube. The problem was how to let players choose between them: this game already used the Select switch, and a menu was not feasible. In the end marketing picked Video Cube alone, which was later sold again as the licensed Rubikā€™s Cube.

Similar games to play next

Atari Video CubeThe cube game Atari chose to release insteadAtari 2600Play ā–øRubik’s CubeThe licensed re-release of Video CubeAtari 2600Play ā–øSorcerer’s ApprenticeThe game Peter Niday worked on nextAtari 2600Play ā–øQ*bert’s QubesAnother colourful cube puzzleAtari 2600Play ā–ø