9/22/20 Qix (1981)

Qix (1981) by Randy and Sandy Pfeiffer, published by Taito for the arcade, Amiga, Apple II, NES, DOS, Atari 5200, Commodore 64, and many more. Believe it or not, in the year 1981, this was quite the hit. Developed by a husband and wife duo who dreamt up the concept while in their jacuzzi, Qix challenges you to control a small diamond on a track; you can draw lines to form shapes which will fill in. The objective is to fill in a majority of the screen before being hit by the sparks that travel along the border or the titular Qix, the strange, multicolored, waving… thing that bounces around. I’ve never played a game that had such good music and such bad sound effects. There’s this terrible, grinding noise that I think is supposed to be the sparks, but they’re always on screen and so it plays constantly. Qix plays like a decent arcade title, with repetitive gameplay that gets gradually harder. If you take too long to make a shape, two more sparks are added, in addition, the Qix itself has erratic, unpredictable movement and can sometimes box you into small spaces without a way to get out. That’s a little annoying, but this is overall a fun little title that was a smash the year it released. In Keith Egging, president of Taito’s, own words, “Once the novelty wore off, the game faded.” Still it’s worth checking out if you like classic arcade games, and it actually inspired a fair number of imitators and copycats, including a game by Namco of all developers. Theirs, from 1996, is called Dancing Eyes, and puts a spin on the Qix formula by being an… erotic puzzle game…? Huh…