Made it level 12 and I could actually tell that the qix are slower then the single on 11, definitely should of made it to 13... if there is one lol. I might have one more shot tonight.

Died on 11 not 12...got a little ahead of myself there! The pair of Qix on 11 were definitley slower than the single on 10 though.

Just for kicks I booted up the arcade original Qix on MAME a little while ago... talk about brutal. It makes this port look tame in comparison.

179,236

I ran out of time playing this week and this is my best score by far. I was just starting to get the hang of everything and might have been able to break at least 200K if I had more time. On the other hand I was really starting to lose patience with this one and I could only sit and play it for so long before giving up and wanting to pick up something else. Actually I "rage-quit" this one a couple of times this week! =P Also getting Mario Kart 8 played a factor into my number of attempts this weekend.....

No worry pal, this is a natural reaction to this game and those Qix motherfucker.

41488

I tried as best as I could fun little puzzle game but really aggravating!

465k, awesome score BryGuy!

240,507

I wish I could have done better, but I still enjoyed replaying that cool game. Arch and Bry gave him a proper beating, so it's alright

Haha thanks dude! I was really suprised by how much I liked this game. Too me... I rank this game right up there with Marble Madness as one of the more addiciting games I've played in the contests thus far.  

35,369
I remember playing this game as a kid on my Commodore 64. Never was that good at it and only once made it past the third level.

Indeed, both games have that addictive appeal that only old abstract video games seem to be able to create.

64,219

I tried to do a cram session on this game today after not having time all week, and that wasn't a good idea. I've played this many times in the arcade, but I've never been good at it so a little extra time may have helped. Either way, it's the best score I ever got so it's all good.

Side note: I actually do own this game but I could barley see the lines being formed on my TV without having my face two inches away from it, so I went to using a ROM instead.

Nothing to brag about sadly. Especially sad when I put more time into this contest than any of the others.

109618

119,431

Cut it close. Hardly put any time in with this to be honest. Basically just played it for the past 30 minutes. The Qix can be hella annoying with their propensity for not doing what you hope or expect them to. Not a bad game,just couldn't get into it this week. And it's a puzzler,so I already knew I was going to put up at best a moderately decent score...most of the time anyway. Great scores everyone!

QIX - Final scores:

1- BriGuy82 - 465309 (+11 points)
2- arch_8ngel - 428491 (+10 points)
3- guillavoie - 240507 (+9 points)
4- Balloon_Kid - 228426 (+8 points)
5- Vectrex280996 - 193803 (+7 points)
6- arnpoly - 179236 (+6 points)
7- gutsman004 - 119431 (+5 points)
8- BilltownSparty - 111722 (+4 points)
9- jump_man95 - 109618 (+3 points)
10- cgfeelit - 78053 (+2 points)

PARTICIPATION POINTS (+1 point)

EgasKrad - 64219
pats1717 - 41488
Velinos - 35369

I think BriGuy and I both put in enough time to figure out exactly what the Qix will do.
(I suspect the majority of our deaths came from playing too aggressively and "missing" a segment that should have reconnected in time, or accidently letting a sprite/spark hit us while we were focused on Qix behavior)

I won't say they're fully controllable, but they can definitely be manipulated.

And while their motion SEEMED erratic, the main thing is that you just have to pay attention to their apparent max speed and their total distance from your cursor.

Once you start drawing they are magnetized to your cursor, at varying levels of intensity, based on your in-game level.


Exploiting that is one of the methods for trapping them in tiny spaces.
Basically, you draw a tiny space with a "ledge".
Then you draw a partial line, hidden behind the ledge, and just sit there, with an uncompleted line, as long as possible (without the fuse hitting you, of course).
The longer the partially drawn line sits there, the stronger the attraction from the Qix becomes, until it gets sucked into the small space.
You finish your line while they're on the way into the trap, and then close out the trap quickly to finish the level.


That mechanic is why the larger the line you try to draw at once, the more quickly the Qix seem to come thwart your plans.

^^ I know I tried that a few times with mixed results. I remember two times where that worked just outstanding ... and about 5 or 6 times where the stupid Qix flat out ignored me. Now that was probably a function of doing that in the first two levels so the Qix was less likely to come charging over.

My specific technique was to trace along the bottom of my trap back and forth while tapping the D-Pad to move slightly just to keep the fuse away.

I don't think the game cares what you did in a previous level, unless it was to amplify non-drawing attraction based on score. (i.e. why if I was doing really well, Level 9 was murderous, but if I had missed some big combos I could reach Level 11 or 12)

But the attraction to an actively drawing cursor seemed comparable, either way.



But yeah, the "trace from behind the wall" and just barely nudging the fuse along was a sound strategy.


The main takeaway from all of it was, while it does not necessarily produce consistently good games to do the "minimum draw" technique, that IS how you slam the big scores (realizing that for every big game you've played 10 really quick ones that didn't pan out)

I would try to lure the Qix in a corner and box it in. I usually went for the bottom right corner. Sometimes it went right over there,other times it meandered in another corner. I could get 93%-97% on the first two levels no problem but after that I usually botched things up. All in all,not a bad game....just not one of my favorites.

From what you had mentioned a few days earlier, in the later levels the Qix is drawn toward your cursor a lot more.  So in the earlier levels the Qix is not as attracted to your cursor which in turn makes it more difficult to lure into a trap.  Then perhaps later levels are harder because the Qix is more erratic, as well as that it is much harder to draw since it sticks around more.  I think the amount of attraction is very likely driven at least partially by score.  I say that not having had a really large score so I could be wrong!

All that aside, I know I struggled a lot and only got the score I did because I got lucky once.  I slammed the door on Levels 1 and 5. 

Yes, the higher the level, the stronger the apparent attraction, for sure.

My earlier comment in this whole chain (in reply to gutsman) was just to point out that the "erratic" behavior of the Qix is a red herring.

It doesn't matter what it looks like they are doing.
Their momentum can change instantly when you start drawing.

So the ONLY things to worry about are how far they are from you and the speed of the level.

Their erratic motion is just to distract you and trick you into thinking they will maintain momentum in a specific direction.

Thanks a bunch for the results!

Yeah,I knew it wasn't completely random and the Qix often headed your way as you drew,but they were still erratic enough to be a pain.

I think it would be neat to know the true inner workings of the Qix (so we could put up 1M+ scores!) My more refined guess is the attraction is dependent on cursor distance and current line length and the "erratic" movement has to do with rate of acceleration driven by current score. Or some mix and match of those ideas ... or nothing like that at all! But it's at least fun to throw some loose theories out there.

Seriously, I think the "erratic" movement is just a cartoon.

It is totally meaningless, since the Qix don't really have momentum (i.e. they can change direction instantly).

The motion is just meant to distract your or lull you into thinking the Qix is moving away from you so you have time to draw.