Qix - Any Fans?

[phuzaxeman]

QIX was an iconic game.  It's not a flashy game like the other titles but the 5200 QIX was the best version in 1982. I had both the 8bit and 5200 and the 5200 was more accurate to the arcade. 

 

Did you know the 1990 Game Boy port of Qix had Mario intermissions? 

 

Such a cool game. Any 5200 QIX fans out there?

 

 

[MrTrust]

Great game.  Nice blend of strategy and push-your-luck.  One of my favorites on the system when I was little because I could clear many levels by playing incrementally.  That's what makes it distinctive, though.  It's not a hard game unless you're trying to score push, and then it's brutal.

 

I never had an 800 BitD, and when I got it and it came with Qix, I was pretty disappointed.  It's not as pretty at all, but the more I play it, the more I like it.  I might even prefer it to the 5200; the controls feel a little better to me.

[+x=usr(1536)]

Yep, one of my favourites, both in the arcade and on the 5200.

 

Having grown up in a large part in PAL territory, the 5200 was something of a non-factor in my early computing life.  However, I did have an 800 and Glenn the 5200 Man's A8 hack of 5200 Qix on floppy.  For decades, this was Qix on the A8 to me - until I played a dump of the actual A8 version a few years ago.  It just didn't measure up.

 

Really an excellent port of a unique game, and did a great job of showing what the platform could be capable of in the right hands.

[Tinman]

Definitely a fan!  I loved this game in the arcade and dropped a lot of quarters into it.  I never played the 8-bit version, though. 

[+Cafeman]

You better believe I love 5200 Qix (and the coin-op original).  Qix is one of my most-played 5200 game, addictive game.  We did a HSC of 5200 Qix a few months back (I didn't win), loved playing it again.  

 

A8 Qix is so slow at filling in the playfield though. 

[+jeremiahjt]

I quite enjoy Qix on the 5200 and Lynx, but I have never played the arcade version nor any other ports.  I always try to go slow to score more points, but it always ends up costing me. I keep on doing the same thing though.

[SoundGammon]

It's one of those "just one more game" that keeps you playing!

[MrTrust]

11 hours ago, Cafeman said:

A8 Qix is so slow at filling in the playfield though.

 

And that's what's such a bummer, because otherwise the game is much faster than the 5200 one, which I guess is less arcade-accurate (and of course the graphics are much different; rectangular playfield etc.), but just as a player, I kind of prefer it.  I wonder if it's ever been hacked to speed the fill up.  It's be nice to see it, in any case; I really think the A8 is better than it gets credit for.

[BIGHMW]

Discovered Qix in 1983 at an arcade at Louie's Famous Food & Games in Tarzana, CA, played it many times along with Gorf, Phoenix, Missile Command and Tempest, Louie's was famous for the deal of getting 8 tokens for $1.00 everyday!!! That's 12.5 cents per play!!! Qix grew on me then so I was STOKED when I saw a cart of it at Best Products in the summer of 1984 for the 5200 (post-crash, drastically discounted), it was the first home version of Qix I played (the one for GameBoy was my next), then after getting my first XEGS 3 years ago and seeing A8 Qix I was disappointed that Atari put almost zero effort into it, but nowadays I'm glad to see that John Champeau @johnnywc and his company Champ Games has now given 2600 owners their own version of Qyx (yes it IS spelled "Qyx" that is not a typo knowing Champ Games) and it is a masterpiece!!!

 

QIX, timeless, priceless, and, very underrated, underappreciated, and under-respected.

[phuzaxeman]

6 hours ago, MrTrust said:

 

And that's what's such a bummer, because otherwise the game is much faster than the 5200 one, which I guess is less arcade-accurate (and of course the graphics are much different; rectangular playfield etc.), but just as a player, I kind of prefer it.  I wonder if it's ever been hacked to speed the fill up.  It's be nice to see it, in any case; I really think the A8 is better than it gets credit for.

The 8bit version is decent. It's a solid port. But the 5200 version was more true to the arcade with the layout, font, colors, scale, and speed.  The 8bit was wider, the font was different, and very slow filling up.  It also had less colors. The speed of the 8bit was faster than the arcade which feels different. Video game fans of the 80s don't talk about how much games like 5200 Qix was very close to the arcade hence my post.

 

 

[phuzaxeman]

18 hours ago, Cafeman said:

You better believe I love 5200 Qix (and the coin-op original).  Qix is one of my most-played 5200 game, addictive game.  We did a HSC of 5200 Qix a few months back (I didn't win), loved playing it again.  

 

A8 Qix is so slow at filling in the playfield though. 

It takes so long if you're filling up a large space.  Seems like forever. 

[+Stephen]

Love the game, 5200 is my fave version.  The computer version was shit - terrible sounds, the slowest fill routine I have ever seen.  There's a decent version on the Lynx, but I still come back to the 5200 version (played on computer).

[jerry1071]

good game i still play it

[+Ryan Witmer]

Qix was the first game I saw and played on the 5200 and it blew my mind.  Still love it to this day.

[christo930]

I didn't have an Atari 5200 when I was young, but I had a C64 and I loved the game Stix by A Trott. It was a low cost clone of Qix, but very well done. But then in the 90s I got a 5200 and the game and It's a great home version.  I like the Lynx version too. 

 

There is a game called Trap75 (Jezzball) that is similar to Qix and a lot of fun. There is another similar (almost like a Qix 2) to Qix game called Lady Killer that is a lot of fun too. It has the basic elements of Qix, but adds additional elements.  I play both of them on GP2X.  I'm pretty sure they are available on other systems. 

 

Qix is a pretty unique game and well worth returning to today.

[edladdin]

Many, many hours and much love playing this on my 4 port 5200 as a teenager.  I never saw the arcade version back in the Golden Age, and precious few since then.  By coincidence, I just saw one at Funspot last week!

[David Alexander]

[zzip]

On 6/9/2023 at 7:32 PM, MrTrust said:

 

I never had an 800 BitD, and when I got it and it came with Qix, I was pretty disappointed.  It's not as pretty at all, but the more I play it, the more I like it.  I might even prefer it to the 5200; the controls feel a little better to me.

Qix was one of the first games I got with my XL computer BITD.   Sure it isn't pretty, but to be honest, even the arcade game wasn't much of a looker.   It plays fine, even my father who generally hated video games took a liking to that version of Qix.

 

On 6/10/2023 at 9:33 AM, MrTrust said:

 

And that's what's such a bummer, because otherwise the game is much faster than the 5200 one, which I guess is less arcade-accurate (and of course the graphics are much different; rectangular playfield etc.), but just as a player, I kind of prefer it.  I wonder if it's ever been hacked to speed the fill up.  It's be nice to see it, in any case; I really think the A8 is better than it gets credit for.

Well the 8-bit version runs at twice the resolution as the 5200 and uses more of the screen, so it will take more CPU cycles for fills, but I still think it could be more efficient than it is.   Sometimes there's a delay before it even starts to fill.

[BassGuitari]

On 6/9/2023 at 6:12 PM, phuzaxeman said:

Any 5200 QIX fans out there?

*Raises hand*

 

I wasn't familiar with the game until I started getting into Atari stuff in the late '90s. I actually had it in my collection for several years before I made a serious attempt to play it; it didn't seem interesting to me at first. Once I knew how the game worked, I really got into it. It's one of my go-to Atari 5200 games now. (Although, so are most Atari 5200 games. There aren't too many duds on this system!)

[+Cafeman]

2 hours ago, zzip said:

Well the 8-bit version runs at twice the resolution as the 5200 and uses more of the screen, so it will take more CPU cycles for fills, but I still think it could be more efficient than it is.   Sometimes there's a delay before it even starts to fill.

I noticed the lower resolution too, and wondered if that’s why  5200 has greater speed in filling in the squares. However, as you said, I think it’s inefficient programming. If you make a box going counterclockwise versus going clockwise, one way draws slower than the other way consistently.  

[phuzaxeman]

5 hours ago, BassGuitari said:

*Raises hand*

 

I wasn't familiar with the game until I started getting into Atari stuff in the late '90s. I actually had it in my collection for several years before I made a serious attempt to play it; it didn't seem interesting to me at first. Once I knew how the game worked, I really got into it. It's one of my go-to Atari 5200 games now. (Although, so are most Atari 5200 games. There aren't too many duds on this system!)

Very cool!

[phuzaxeman]

On 6/11/2023 at 1:44 PM, edladdin said:

Many, many hours and much love playing this on my 4 port 5200 as a teenager.  I never saw the arcade version back in the Golden Age, and precious few since then.  By coincidence, I just saw one at Funspot last week!

Great find!

[Tempest]

I grew up with the 8-Bit version and loved it.  I haven't really played the 5200 version much because I'm so used to the 8-Bit version that it feels off even though it's actually closer to the arcade game (which I've also never played more than once).  Odd how they never back ported the 5200 version like they did with Dig Dug.

[phuzaxeman]

6 hours ago, Tempest said:

I grew up with the 8-Bit version and loved it.  I haven't really played the 5200 version much because I'm so used to the 8-Bit version that it feels off even though it's actually closer to the arcade game (which I've also never played more than once).  Odd how they never back ported the 5200 version like they did with Dig Dug.

Hey Tempest, have you played 5200 Tempest? It's another arcade port that was amazingly done that's not available on the 8bit. 

[+x=usr(1536)]

8 hours ago, phuzaxeman said:

Hey Tempest, have you played 5200 Tempest? It's another arcade port that was amazingly done that's not available on the 8bit. 

Unless you play Glenn's port / hack 

 

Disregard that; I have no idea what I was thinking when I wrote it.