BaD #3: Super Qix

On 02/03/2022 at 01:15 PM by daftman

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Super Qix

Released: 1987

Pitch: Draw lines to reveal the hidden picture.

I'm not sure I've ever played a game in the Qix style before but the concept is familiar enough. You draw lines by moving your little character around. Whenever you enclose a space, it reveals that part of the picture below. Traveling along completed lines are little bad guys that will kill you on contact. Flying around haphazardly in the remaining open space is a goblin that will kill you if it touches an in-progress line. You must uncover 70% of the picture to beat the level and let me tell you, friends, this game is hard! I especially hate the goblin. That sucker is fast! And yet it's a very compelling game too. But be warned: If you have a game over, you have to restart that level, so not even infinite continues really lessen the difficulty here.

The player in this video is doing some high level strategy that is way beyond me! I certainly had a much harder time when I played it lol.

Edit: After initially writing this, I ended up going back and playing all the levels. Turns out there are 16! I really enjoyed Super Qix.

Cary Woodham

02/04/2022 at 05:59 PM

I never liked the original Qix much, as that waving line thing always made me nervous. The sequels like Super Qix and Volfied were a bit better, though. My brother Jeff LOVED Qix games, though. I always think it's interesting what classic arcade games I liked, and how they differ from what Jeff gravitated toward.

daftman

02/05/2022 at 01:47 PM

It's amazing how much tastes can differ among people who grew up together. Also, Volfied is coming up soon and I have opinions on that

02/06/2022 at 08:33 PM

Jeff and I really didin't grow up together, though. He's nearly 20 years younger than me. I just made sure to expose him to classic arcade games when he was little and let him pick which ones he liked. Some of his favorites included Qix, Spy Hunter, ExciteBike, and Punch Out. He liked those games way better than I did!

02/07/2022 at 11:43 AM

Whoa, that's a huge age gap! At least you could meaningfully contribute to his gaming education

02/08/2022 at 07:43 PM

Another arcade game Jeff really liked when he was litle was Circus Charlie. That game is where we got the phrase "Turbo Horse" from.

KnightDriver

02/06/2022 at 10:48 AM

Qix is a neat idea for a game. I played an earlier game called Amidar on Atari 2600 that used a similar concept.

02/07/2022 at 11:44 AM

I haven't heard of that one but then again, my Atari 2600 knowledge is pretty weak.

SanAndreas

02/07/2022 at 01:15 PM

Amidar was hugely popular in Japan. It was originally made by Konami. There were a lot of Amidar clones on home computers.

02/07/2022 at 04:32 PM

Yea, I forgot it was an arcade game first. I mainly played it on 2600 when I was a kid.

02/07/2022 at 01:12 PM

I had the Atari 8 but version of Qix. In the mid 90s at truck stops on vacation, I saw a soft core pornographic clone of Qix called Gals Panic. The object was to uncover young ladies in increasing stages of undress. If you did the puzzle wrong it would change the girl into a ninja or some other goofy picture.

02/07/2022 at 01:48 PM

I think there was a whole cottage industry of Qix-like porn games but Gals Panic is the one I always hear about. Qix was kind of the perfect game for nice pictures that needed low computing power.

PixlBit