Any else like Volfied / Neo QIX

eXidy

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Ive been playing a lot of this lately. Even considering making a cab for it. Unfortunately i've never seen an overlay, bezel or marquee for this game. Only a conversion from Qix.

volfiedmarq.jpg


volfied1.jpg


Game is extremely challenging and a great upgrade to QIX. I really dislike Super Qix, but this game is different.

here is a review I found on the net:

Volfied by Taito

Players: 1-2

Released: 1989

Introduction

Qix was a fun, original arcade game by Taito released in 1982 where the player had to draw lines in a playfield, avoiding the Stix and Sparx that if touched would elimnate the player. Completing a line would result in the enclosed area filling up with a color and the point of the game was to fill up 75% of each board. Volfied is like an update/sequel to Qix, with a similar concept but with some enhancements that actually make it a better game including a throw away sci-fi storyline that can be read when the game begins.

Gameplay

As mentioned the way the game plays is quite similar to the classic game Qix but the differences improve the game to the point that it's the preferable title to pick up and play. With a large playfield to cover, the play controls a ship that must draw lines through the playfield, completely connecting them to another line. Once this is done, the enclosed area fills in with a graphic different than the playfield background and the player can continue on doing this until 80% or more of the playfield is covered. While in this game just uses various weird sci-fi style backgrounds for effect, the same concept in gameplay was used a year later in the soft-porn game Gals Panic (not by Taito though). Making the task of of covering the playfield difficult for the player is the presence of both large and small enemies that replace the Stix and Sparx from Qix. As Volfied follows a sci-fi storyline, the enemies are generally aliens of some kind that change in appearance and behavior with each level. Smaller enemies can be killed off by enclosing them when you draw the lines, earning bonus points for each enemy destroyed. It takes a little bit of strategy to do this at times but that is part of the fun. If the enemies touch you ship or hit it with energy bolts while you're out an about drawing things, it will weaken your shields. Once the shields hit 0, it's game over man. But wait, there's more!

Hit the link below to keep on reading

One does not have to complete a level by killing of the little bugs but since it earns the player bonus points it's worth trying out (and fun for some strange reason – it must be the explosions). To further spice things up in the game, they added power-ups fromvolfied1.jpg speeding your ship up temporarily to blessing you with a cannon that can destroy just about anything that gets within it's path. Power-ups show up when you encase a playfield block within your enclosed area (sorry, can't think of a better name for it as that sounds like something from a credit card commercial – "What's in your enclosed area?") The blocks usually will hinder you, depending on their placement in the playfield as they can't be connected to, so you must draw around them. It seems that most of the time that something bad happens to you, it's near one of these obstacles due to this. Cruel yes, but that's the game.

One thing that does turn off many players to Volfied is that it is rather difficult, even if you have good Qix skills (if those are to be considered a real skill set. I'm sure that it's something that the ladies look for :p ). Despite that, it's fun enough to keep you coming back for more but as to how many levels this game has it's hard to say as I have not had the pleasure of completing the game yet.

Graphics

Qix didn't stand out in 1982 and while there is nothing that would make Volfied really stand out in '89 it does look pretty good for the time. There is no slow down at any time, it can throw a decent number of sprites on the screen without flicker and some of the "boss characters" can grow to quite a large size on the screen (having large sprites used in your game was the rage back in the day, much like numbers of polygons, resolution of textures or style of lighting effects are important today).

Sound

Volfied has some nice tunes with a good beat to play to. It never is annoying and the sounds are quite good with a perfect balance in both bass and treble.

Cabinet

Taito usually didn't make cabinets that were meant to really stand out in a crowd and Volfied wasn't any exception to that rule. It was housed in a standard upright cabinet without much artwork to make it that appealing. The marquee is a little strange with a weird looking dragon floating above the Volfied logo.
 
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I thought the same thing until I played it. I think im hooked on it, played it for a couple of hours yesterday.

Jon
 
Dagnabit Jon! Now I want one and of course there aren't any on eBay or quarterarcade for sale :( looks like a fun game all the way. Ps zekes peak is fully operational again. It cured itself, go figure, heh.

Tom
 
I have a PS/2 version of this game. Pretty good, actually. Now I'm going to have to try to come up with a board set, aren't I?
 
I like Volfied. I've never seen a real machine though, only played it in mame.

I like Qix a lot too. If I had room, I'd have a dedicated machine.
 
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I bought 2 Volfied PCBs a few years back. Have been looking for a marquee and havent seen one, EVER.

Jon
 
Never played it, but it looks really cool. Love Qix, so I have to try this.
 
I think I've spent more time with Volified than any other game on Taito Legends 1. I'm not sure what it is about the game but it's quite addicting. I've never seen a machine, dedicated or otherwise of it though. The thought has crossed my mind about trying to get one for my arcade but it will probably look too weird for most players to give a try.
 
Jon, seriously great game! I have never heard of it, thanks for enlightening me. Really like the power ups and the different "bosses" in the game. Waaaaaay more interesting than regular old Qix. I am really shocked this never caught on. My best so far is about 200k. COOL. ASS. GAME.
 
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I have been playing quite a bit of Volfied lately. I got 276k on my best game. Still learning some of the tricks and how to take advantage of the power ups.

Jon
 
waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much going on!

No kidding!

I have a ps2 on the tv near my exercise machine and was cycling through the games I hadn't played recently and tried this. Had no directions so I stumbled through it until I realized it was the Qix concept. Even then I felt like I barely knew what was going on with all the action on the screen.

Having said that, the games that have a lot going on are usually the ones worth learning. I'll try it some more soon.
 
I have this game running in a generic cabinet!

Picked it up along with a bezel and a couple of marquees for $200. Stuck it into my time killers cabinet while that game is down for the count. I've been playing the piss out of it and managing what I thought was a respectable score of 45k.
then my friend comes over and in 2 levels racks up 244k....wtf...
What happened was he got the laser power up and shot the Dragon on the first level until it died. Then he was given the bonus for a complete map, at least that is what he told me as I was busy playing ghosts n goblins when he pulled this off.
 
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