Gee Bee (video game)

Gee Bee 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, where the goal is to score as many points as possible by deflecting a ball against bricks, pop bumpers and other objects in the playfield. It was developed by Toru Iwatani, known as the creator of Pac-Man and Pole Position. Outside Japan, it was published by Gremlin Industries.

Gee Bee was the first video game to be designed in-house by Namco. Prior to this, the company had manufactured arcade electro-mechanical games (such as Periscope and F-1) and published a number of video games by Atari, Inc. (notably Breakout) in Japan. Iwatani originally wanted to produce pinball machines for the company, but higher-ups at Namco disapproved of the idea. As a compromise, Iwatani instead made a video game with pinball-elements, combined with mechanics established in Breakout.

Gee Bee was the eighth highest-grossing arcade video game of 1978 in Japan, and sold 10,000 units worldwide. It was not as successful as hoped, but it would nevertheless help establish Namco's presence in the video game industry. Two sequels were produced in 1979: Bomb Bee and Cutie Q.