MMMC - Qix

[scooterb23]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/scooterb23/mameclub.jpg

I wasn't going to do a new game this week because of my goof last week, forgetting to upload the rom. As I'm sitting here though, I decided to go ahead and put up a new one.

The game is Qix. The classic fill in the empty space game.

DP member jb143 told me about a site called drop.io that lets you host files for free, I thought I might go ahead and give it a try. So if you go to drop.io/dpmameclub
you should find the Qix ROM... even if you have it, please double check by trying to download from this location. I want to know if it works.

I do want to give Flack many thanks for being the ROM source for the MAME Club all this time. His help has been invaluable, now maybe he can enjoy not having me bug him every week :) .

Also, I'm going to try and put the D&D game from last week on this site, in case anyone still wants it.

[stargate]

It's highly addicting and borderline genious. IMO, much better than Tetris ever was. They really just don't make them like this anymore.

On a side note, the sound effects sound very familiar, like the same exact sounds from another game that I can't quite place.

[Bloodreign]

The abstract, yet slightly creepy sound effects help Qix a lot, heck you don't even get background tunes of any type, no short ditties or anything. Boxing that Qix in gets trickier each level, what with the Sparx chasing you, not to mention in later levels you get two Qix, but splitting them earns you bonus points that get higher each level you manage to successfully separate both Qix from one another. Then there's the option of slow draw or fast draw, slow draw nets you the most points but is the most riskiest thing to do. Most people thing the best way is to draw huge boxes to hurry and trap the Qix in, but slowly drawing small boxes and eventually giving the darned Qix barely any room to move gets more points, the more of the level you cover, the higher the end stage bonus is.

For a game from the early 80's, it's quite deep.

[scooterb23]

I'm very curious to find out how people do play this game. My typical strategy is to start by building a few quick boxes straight up the middle. Then when I know where the Qix is, I make some more small boxes to try and keep it from moving around. Then I attempt to fill in as much area as possible using the slow draw.

It's a moderately successful strategy, my best game is in the mid 60k range.

Also: fun fact. Back at Shakey's Pizzaria just outside Muncie, Indiana they had this game...and I was scared of it. The menacing sounds coming from the machine scared me so much, I refused to ever play it.

[intvsama]

I like to start off with as large a box as I can safely make. After that's done I just start quickly making smaller boxes until I hit the magic number.

It's a great game, one you rarely see in operation (like DK3) because its quality was overshadowed by more popular titles of its day.

I haven't played Qix in a while, think I'll fire it up.

[TheDomesticInstitution]

I tried playing this 2 weeks ago briefly, but didn't understand the controls and didn't look it up. So tonight I got a chance to give it a go and I actually like it. It always looked strange, and based upon visuals I decided I probably wouldn't like it. I just played about a dozen or so short games, and I'm starting to get the hang of it. I got close to breaking the 30000 minimum score but haven't yet.

It's funny though... my high scores came when I first started playing, and the more I began to understand it, the lower my scores were. Interesting.

[AB Positive]

I'm very curious to find out how people do play this game. My typical strategy is to start by building a few quick boxes straight up the middle. Then when I know where the Qix is, I make some more small boxes to try and keep it from moving around. Then I attempt to fill in as much area as possible using the slow draw.

One of my fave arcade games of all time - and you nailed my exact strategy - try to trap the qix in an almost-completed box made out of thin thin rectangles. Then, finish on slow draw and enjoy an almost-completely red 95% victoly.

Fun side note, by my completely unscientific research it appears that Qix-variants are somewhere around 3rd place in the "Genre to have the most hentai/porn games attached" under Mahjong and Pachinko.

[scooterb23]

Miss Nude World '96 was the best of those, btw.

[Oobgarm]

I subscribe to your strategy, scoots.

I'll give this one another run this week, see what I can come up with.

[Rendclaw]

The gaming crew I used to run with back in the early 80s were good for learning how to play the newer games.

I know what you mean about the sound effects, but that was party of the charm and the challenge of it. I used to have nightmares about the game, it rattled me that badly.

I always started with a smal box going right up the middle, and building on that. From there it was trying to fence the Qix in without it or the sparx killing you. I remember someone getting 98% one time, but he spent a lot of time spiraling the qix into an impossibly small area. And yes, splitting the two qix was the best strategy to get the most points out of the harder levels.