Qix

From The Jolly Contrarian
Revision as of 08:46, 17 August 2016 by Amwelladmin (talk | contribs)
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Qix was a pioneering arcade game made by the Taito Corporation of Japan, which wasn't nearly as good as Defender. You can learn more about it here, but for our purposes it is a metaphor for stupid legal drafting.

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Gameplay

The player controls a marker that can draw lines (“Stix”) on a black screen of unclaimed “playfield” in an attempt to create closed rectangles on the playfield. the playfield is inhabited with one (or more) “Qix” (stick-like entities that perform graceful but unpredictable motions within the confines of the unclaimed playfield), which will kill you if they touch you while you in the middle of drawing a new rectangle When completed, the captured rectangle becomes a solid colour and points are awarded. To complete a level, the player must claim 75% of the playfield with solid rectangles.

The player's marker can move at two different speeds; areas drawn exclusively at the slower speed (orange-red on the screenshot shown) are worth double points. It cannot cross or backtrack along any Stix in progress.

A life is lost if the Qix touches any uncompleted Stix or if the marker is touched by any of the Sparx – enemies that traverse all playfield edges except uncompleted Stix. In addition, if the marker stops while drawing, a fuse will appear and burn along the uncompleted Stix toward the marker; if it reaches the marker, the player loses one life. The fuse disappears once the player moves the marker again. The player has no defenses against the enemies and must out-maneuver them in order to survive.