Qix (1981) is a Golden Age videogame involving, of all things, drawing. Draw boxes using "stix" to claim as much screen as possible without getting in the path of the "Qix" (pronounced either "kicks" or "quicks" depending on where you live), "Sparx" or "Fuse". Dividing the play-field fills the area without a Qix, claiming it for the player. Draw slower for more points and hope that you have enough coins. If a Qix touches one of the player's stix while in the process of drawing, a life is lost. Claim enough of the playfield, and the player wins and moves on to the next level. Later levels have two Qixs to deal with. If the player successfully draws a stix between them, the level is cleared automatically, and while you get no bonus points for it, the Score Multiplier is incremented by one. Simple but very addicting!
One of the few games designed by Taito America.
Several softcore Japanese games use the gameplay of this game. So did Cacoma Knight In Bizyland, which attempted to provide a context for the gameplay and created a Quirky Work in the process.
Qix received a sequel in 1987 called Super Qix, with improved graphics and a fairy tale fantasy theme. Instead of an abstract stick-like enemy, the Qix appears as a goblin-like creature, while the Sparx appear as sinister red skulls. Volfied (alternately known as Ultimate Qix or Qix Neo), released in 1989note , is a similar game with a Darker and Edgier science fiction theme, and incorporates power ups into the gameplay. The original game was also adapted by Nintendo into an early Game Boy title featuring cameo appearances by Mario. The latest game in the series, Qix++, was released for Xbox Live Arcade in 2009, and later as a Japan-exclusive port for the PlayStation Portable.
Qix contains the following tropes:
- Adaptation Expansion: The NES version adds "Spritz," which bounce around the screen in diagonals hoping to hit you.
- The Cameo: Mario in the Game Boy version.
- Endless Tasks, Endless Game: The levels keep on coming until the player runs out of lives.
- Everything Trying to Kill You: A Qix kills you if it touches a stix you're in the process of drawing. Sparx kill you by running into you anywhere on the screen. Stop drawing for more than a moment, and the Fuse will ignite and start chasing you down. The Fuse is notorious for killing via the "Spiral Death Trap" — you can't connect a new stix to itself, so if you inadvertently try to do so, then turn the wrong way while trying to correct, you'll end up drawing a spiral that you can't get out of. Then it's only a matter of time before the Fuse burns its way to you.
- Instant-Win Condition: If the level has two Qixes and you manage to separate them, the level is instantly cleared with no bonus points, but the Score Multiplier is incremented by one (to a maximum of nine).
- One-Hit-Point Wonder: Anything that can kill you will do so in one hit.
- Overflow Error: If your score goes over 1 million points in the original arcade version, you lose a million points.
- Score Multiplier: This starts at 1x, and is incremented by 1 each time that you manage to win a level by drawing stix in a way to separate the two Qixes in the level in levels with 2 Qixes. Your multiplier maxes out at 9x.
- Scoring Points: You score points for capturing areas on the play field, with double the points if you draw slow stix instead of fast stix for the entire capture. At the end of a level, you get extra points based on how much you've exceeded the required area percentage. There is a high score table. However, beware the Overflow Error that subtracts a million points each time if you exceed that amount if you are going for a high score.
- Stalked by the Bell:
- If you stop while drawing a stix, the Fuse will light itself and start chasing you along it. Once you start moving again, the Fuse will go out.
- Each level has a timer, during which the Sparx can only move along the edges of the field and of fully drawn-in areas. The first few times it runs out, more Sparx are added to the screen; eventually they all become "Super Sparx," which can chase you along an unfinished stix much as the Fuse does. In later levels, the Super Sparx come into play immediately.
- Video-Game Lives: Other than the traditional Collision Damage caused by the Sparx, the series has a unique take in which you can't let the Qix touch the stix you're currently drawing.
- Word Purée Title: "Qix" is not a real word in English.
- Xtreme Kool Letterz: The letter X shows up a lot.
