I spent my New Year holiday trying to clean up some problems with my Qix. Qix takes a 6.3 volt line to make the lights behind the marquee work. Most arcade games have a fluorescent tube behind the marquee. Taito games have a bunch of little 47 bulbs there. I don’t know what magic the original power supply for Qix did to get a 6.3v line going (common voltages in arcade games are +5v, -5v, +12 and sometimes -12v) but as it turns out, running +5 into the lights from my new power supply is good enough.

Good enough! Sometimes getting most of the voltage is good enough. I couldn’t half-ass it soldering on a cordless phone battery, to act as Qix’s new NiCad batter. Mine now saves my horrible scores. I broke 70,000 once.

That said, we all want the best for 2013. One of the ways we can all do that is to become better Qix players. I have a lot of faith in the readers of this site, which is why I am not calling this post “Qixing Off The New Year.” So please watch this video and marvel at two things:

1) Getting two straight 99% fills on Qix
2) The sparx trap up top. It’s beautiful. Round and round they go!

This video will change your opinion on Qix, if you don’t think it’s one of the best arcade games. The best part is, even if you see the strategies used, you still need the skill to pull them off, and there is still room for creativity while working in the basic strategy.

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Ice Cream Jonsey