Game:

Qix (1981)

Duration: 6:19

913 views

24

https://www.patreon.com/ulillillia --- Another TAS I made, this time for an NES game called Qix. It's a game with a fun concept, but seems poorly executed. I remember renting that game long, long ago, but I've since got the actual game cartridge.
Unlike Pipe Dream, I'm not as decent at this game as there's often too much going on. A good run may get me to level 5 at the higher end.
With a TAS, I can take the game so much farther, even performing some weird stunts that are almost impossible for a normal human short of great skill and lots of luck. As I was making the TAS, I noticed that brief pauses and delays shifted the RNG. Tiny differences in the action yields modest changes... on occasion. Sometimes it's a big change, sometimes it's no change at all, sometimes it's just a tiny change. This is the first 16 levels in the game. With an infinite lives cheat active, I went all the way out to level 60. Past about level 9 or so, it's all the same - odd numbered levels have the pair of Qix so splitting them is often involved. Even-numbered levels have just a single Qix where I focus on jumping the score. Scoring has an easy algorithm. There are a total of 10,000 "blocks" where each one is worth 1 point. Get an array of 13x18 blocks and it's 234 points. If slow draw is used, double that. Then there's the ever-increasing multiplier from splitting the Qix.
I wonder what other such crazy things I can try to do. Tetris is a good idea. Normally, on a good run, I can get to about 90 lines, starting with level 7. With a TAS, I could probably max the score and more.

Other Statistics