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On September 27, 2004 a find of extreme archaeological importance was made in the Mojave Desert of California.

While hiking through the desert on vacation from his glamorous job as engineer at IGN Entertainment, Geoff Fortytwo stubbed his big toe on a square blue stone that was sticking up slightly out of the sandy ground. Curious, Geoff called in some favors from an archaeologist friend that he had saved the life of during a firefight in Viet Nam.

In just a few short weeks they had dug out the sand and discovered that these were in fact the original Q\*bert stairs which were built by the ancient QueBerrta people about 4000 years ago.

Discovered near the stairs were the remains of the infamous creature known as Q\*bert as well as the remains of the vicious snake Coily. In life Q\*bert was a 10 foot tall orange egg shaped monster with a huge tubular nose. He wiled away the days attempting to paint the steps of the Q\*bert stairs without being killed by Coily. Coily was an evil creature who disliked nice paint jobs and did all he could to prevent Q\*bert from doing a good job painting the stairs.

Tours of the stairs can be arranged by appointment.


1.1 Here we start with the wood blocks that I cut to use to create the plaster mold.

<img src="http://g42.org/projects/QbertSteps/QbertSteps.1.woodBlocks.1.20040805.s.jpg" width="400" height="300"/>



1.1 Here is the resulting plaster mold.

<img src="http://g42.org/projects/QbertSteps/QbertSteps.2.madeMold.1.20040826.s.jpg" width="400" height="300"/>

<img src="http://g42.org/projects/QbertSteps/QbertSteps.2.madeMold.3.20040826.s.jpg" width="400" height="300"/>

<img src="http://g42.org/projects/QbertSteps/QbertSteps.2.madeMold.5.20040826.s.jpg" width="400" height="300"/>



1.1 Plaster sure is messy!

<img src="http://g42.org/projects/QbertSteps/QbertSteps.2.plasterOnMyShirt.5.20040819.s.jpg" width="400" height="300"/>



1.1 Here I put the plaster mold together with its wooden sides and then put cement in it to make the steps of the pyramid.

<img src="http://g42.org/projects/QbertSteps/QbertSteps.3.usingMold.1.20040909.s.jpg" width="400" height="300"/>

<img src="http://g42.org/projects/QbertSteps/QbertSteps.3.usingMold.2.20040909.s.jpg" width="400" height="300"/>

<img src="http://g42.org/projects/QbertSteps/QbertSteps.3.usingMold.3.20040909.s.jpg" width="400" height="300"/>

<img src="http://g42.org/projects/QbertSteps/QbertSteps.3.usingMold.4.20040909.s.jpg" width="400" height="300"/>



1.1 Cement isn't good for the hands.

<img src="http://g42.org/projects/QbertSteps/QbertSteps.3.cementOnMyHands.1.20040909.s.jpg" width="400" height="300"/>



1.1 The results!

<img src="http://g42.org/projects/QbertSteps/QbertSteps.4.outOfMold.1.20040923.s.jpg" width="400" height="300"/>

<img src="http://g42.org/projects/QbertSteps/QbertSteps.4.outOfMold.2.20040923.s.jpg" width="400" height="300"/>

The two people here are the instructors in my cement casting class at [The Crucible>http://thecrucible.org/].\\
<img src="http://g42.org/projects/QbertSteps/QbertSteps.4.outOfMold.4.20040923.s.jpg" width="400" height="300"/>

<img src="http://g42.org/projects/QbertSteps/QbertSteps.4.outOfMold.7.20040923.s.jpg" width="400" height="300"/>

<img src="http://g42.org/projects/QbertSteps/QbertSteps.4.outOfMold.8.20040923.s.jpg" width="400" height="300"/>



1.1 An ancient Q\*bert pyramid wouldn't be complete without the remains of Q\*bert and Coily.

<img src="http://g42.org/projects/QbertSteps/QbertSteps.5.clayQbert.1.20040924.s.jpg" width="400" height="300"/>



1.1 Here it is on display in the break room at IGN.com.

<img src="http://g42.org/projects/QbertSteps/QbertSteps.5.onDisplay.1.20040928.s.jpg" width="400" height="300"/>

<img src="http://g42.org/projects/QbertSteps/QbertSteps.5.onDisplay.2.20040928.s.jpg" width="400" height="300"/>

<img src="http://g42.org/projects/QbertSteps/QbertSteps.5.onDisplay.3.20040928.s.jpg" width="400" height="300"/>

<img src="http://g42.org/projects/QbertSteps/QbertSteps.5.onDisplay.4.20040928.s.jpg" width="400" height="300"/>

<img src="http://g42.org/projects/QbertSteps/QbertSteps.5.onDisplay.5.20040928.s.jpg" width="400" height="300"/>

<img src="http://g42.org/projects/QbertSteps/QbertSteps.5.onDisplay.6.20040928.s.jpg" width="400" height="300"/>

<img src="http://g42.org/projects/QbertSteps/QbertSteps.5.onDisplay.7.20040928.s.jpg" width="400" height="300"/>



1.1 Random Info

* The cement Q\*bert steps weigh 124 pounds.
* The plaster mold weighs 69 pounds.
* The wooden blocks used to create the mold weigh 39 pounds.

Those steps were not easy to carry to work. I scraped up my left arm quite a bit. After that I searched around and found a nice trolley that I then used to carry the sand bags up to the break room.
QbertSteps

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