Qix

Qix
North American arcade flyer
Developer(s)Taito America
Publisher(s)Taito
Atari, Inc. (Atari 8-bit, 5200)
Atari Corporation (Lynx)
Nintendo (Game Boy)
Designer(s)Randy Pfeiffer
Sandy Pfeiffer
SeriesQix
Platform(s)Arcade, Amiga, Apple II, Apple IIGS, Atari 8-bit, Atari 5200, Lynx, Commodore 64, MS-DOS, FM-7, Game Boy, NES, Mobile phone
Release
  • NA: October 1981
  • JP: November 1981[1][2]
  • UK: November 1981
  • AU: January 1982
Genre(s)Puzzle
Mode(s)1-2 players alternating turns

Qix[a] (/ˈkɪks/ KIKS[b]) is a 1981 puzzle video game developed by husband and wife team Randy and Sandy Pfeiffer and published in arcades by Taito America. Qix is one of a handful of games made by Taito's American division (another is Zoo Keeper).[4] At the start of each level, the playing field is a large, empty rectangle, containing the Qix, an abstract stick-like entity that performs graceful but unpredictable motions within the confines of the rectangle. The objective is to draw lines that close off parts of the rectangle to fill in a set amount of the playfield.

Qix was ported to the contemporary Atari 5200 (1982), Atari 8-bit computers (1983),[5] and Commodore 64 (1983), then was brought to a wide variety of systems in the late 1980s and early 1990s: MS-DOS (1989), Amiga (1989), another version for the C64 (1989), Apple IIGS (1990), Game Boy (1990), Nintendo Entertainment System (1991), and Atari Lynx (1991).

Multiple home and arcade sequels followed and the concept was widely cloned. In the Gals Panic series from Kaneko, each captured area is not filled with a color, but reveals part of an image of a woman.

  1. ^ "クイックスアップライト筺体版" [Qix upright cabinet version]. Media Arts Database (in Japanese). Agency for Cultural Affairs. Retrieved 26 May 2021.
  2. ^ "クイックス TT テーブル筺体版" [Qix TT table cabinet version]. Media Arts Database (in Japanese). Agency for Cultural Affairs. Retrieved 26 May 2021.
  3. ^ Qix North American promotional flyer. United States of America: Taito America Corporation. October 1981. Archived from the original on 25 March 2019. Retrieved 3 June 2020.
  4. ^ "MobyGames: Game Browser: Games Developed By: Taito America Corporation". MobyGames. Archived from the original on 2021-10-31. Retrieved 2020-09-09.
  5. ^ I Break for Arcadians: Good news, bad news - new games, joystick reviewed: Qix, By Joaquin Boaz, InfoWorld, 8 Aug 1983, Page 23


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