Qix (Arcade & Atari 5200) - Let's Play 1001 Games - Episode 610
13Enter the world of lines...
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I'm Gaming Jay: Youtube gamer, let's player, fan of retro games, and determined optimist... Join me in this series while I try out EACH of the video games in the book 1001 VIDEO GAMES YOU MUST PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE, before I die. The game review for each game will focus on the question of whether you MUST play this game before you die. But to be honest, the game review parts are just for fun, and are not meant to be definitive, in depth reviews; this series is more about the YouTube gamer journey itself. From Mario games to the Halo series, from arcade games to Commodore 64, PC games to the NES and Sega Genesis, Playstation to the Xbox, let's play those classic retro games that we grew up with, have fond memories of, or heard of but never got a chance to try! And with that said, the game review for today is...
Qix
from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qix
Qix[a][b] is a 1981 puzzle video game developed by husband and wife team Randy and Sandy Pfeiffer and published in arcades by Taito America. Qix is one of a handful of games made by Taito's American division.[4] At the start of each level, the playing field is a large, empty rectangle, containing the Qix, a stick-like entity that performs graceful but unpredictable motions within the confines of the rectangle. The objective is to draw lines that close off parts of the rectangle to fill in a set amount of the playfield.
Qix was ported to the contemporary Atari 5200 (1982), Atari 8-bit family (1983),[5] and Commodore 64 (1983), then was brought to a wide variety of systems in the late 1980s and early 1990s: MS-DOS (1989), Amiga (1989), another version for the C64 (1989), Apple IIGS (1990), Game Boy (1990), Nintendo Entertainment System (1991), and Atari Lynx (1991).
Controls consist of a four-direction joystick and two buttons: "Slow Draw" and "Fast Draw".
The player controls a marker which initially moves along the edges of the playfield. Holding down one of the draw buttons allows the marker to draw a line (Stix) in unclaimed territory in an attempt to create a closed shape. A captured area is filled with color and points awarded. Areas drawn with Slow Draw (orange-red in the screenshot) are worth double. A life is lost if the Qix touches any part of the line before it is completed.
The marker cannot cross or backtrack along the line being drawn. If the marker stops while drawing, a fuse appears and burns along the line toward the marker; if it reaches the marker, the player loses one life. The fuse disappears once the marker is moved. If the player draws a spiral with no room to move at its center, the fuse is triggered. The attract mode calls this a "Spiral Death Trap."
Sparx are enemies that traverse all playfield edges except unfinished lines. A life is lost if one hits the marker. A meter at the top of the screen counts down to the release of additional Sparx and the mutation of all Sparx into Super Sparx, which can chase the marker along uncompleted Stix.
To complete a level, the player must claim a 75% percentage of the playfield (adjustable to be between 50% and 90%). If a level is completed by exceeding the minimum area percentage, a bonus is awarded for every 1% beyond the threshold.
Starting in level three, the player faces two Qixes. Splitting the playfield into two regions, each containing one Qix, ends the level. No immediate bonus is awarded for this, but a bonus multiplier is applied to the scoring in all subsequent levels. This multiplier starts at two and increases by one for every additional splitting of the Qix, to a maximum of nine. Levels also add additional Sparx and the eventual appearance of only Super Sparx.
Qix II - Tournament (1982) is a version of the original Qix with a new color scheme and which awards an extra life when 90% or more of the screen is enclosed.[16] Super Qix was released in 1987. Another sequel, Twin Qix, reached a prototype stage in 1995, but was never commercially released.[16][17] The later game Volfied, also known as Ultimate Qix on Sega Genesis or Qix Neo on PlayStation, was created as an additional sequel to Qix and also released on several mobile phones.
The 1990 Game Boy port of Qix was published by Nintendo with intermissions in which Mario is involved. In one, he is seen in a desert wearing Mexican clothing and playing a guitar with a vulture looking on.[18] The outfit later appears as a costume that Mario can wear in Super Mario Odyssey.[19] The Game Boy port was released as a Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console title in Japan on June 15, 2011,[20] and in North America and Europe on July 7.