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    Types: TextFile
    Names: »qix.man«

└─⟦b20c6495f⟧ Bits:30007238 EUUGD18: Wien-båndet, efterår 1987
    └─⟦this⟧ »EUUGD18/X/Qix/qix.man« 

TextFile

.\" @(#)qix.6 2.0 8/30/88 (c) Dan Heller
.\" <island!argv@sun.com>
.TH QIX 6 "30 August 1988"
.SH NAME
qix \- play a game of qix
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B qix
[ -r ]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.LP
.I Qix
was originally a video game written owned by Taito Corporation.
I spent enough money learning to get good at this game that it's
been embedded in my head for years.  Now that this game is written,
I've got \fIcentipedes\fP to deal with.
When \fIQix\fP starts up, it is running in demo mode to show the
user how to play it.  You will probably figure it out much more easily
than reading this silly man page.  After all, you don't get man pages
for the games you play in an arcade, do you?

The -r command line option specifies reverse video for X11 only.

.SH RULES
Since you're still with me, I'll tell you the rules of the game.
The object is to use the \fIpen\fP to draw lines which will enclose
a region which will give you points.  If you enclose more than 75%
of the board, then the board is cleared and the level of difficulty
increases.  When drawing lines, you can't cross over lines that are
not already part of a region; that is to say, you can't self-intersect
a line.  You may move around the board freely without drawing lines
as long as you remain on lines that have already been drawn.  Once you
start drawing, you \fIcannot stop\fP drawing until you have completed
a region.  See, you're already getting confused, I can tell.

.IR "Things to watch out for (enemies)."
When moving about the board, the \fIQix\fP will try to kill you.
This is an object with 7 lines that moves (seemingly) randomly bouncing
off things everywhere.  You are safe from the qix while you are not drawing
any lines.  If you are drawing lines, the qix may hit you or any part
of your unconnected line.

While you're trying to avoid the qix, you might get zapped by \fIsparx\fP.
These are electical pulses of something-or-other which has yet to be defined,
so it's best to stay away from them.  Sparx are always released in pairs
at the top of the playing board during play.  Sparks can zap you even
though you're not drawing lines.  In fact, normal sparx can't zap you
if you're drawing lines (hint: this is a way to escape sparx, but then
there's that damn qix you gotta avoid).  If you start taking too much time,
sparx will become \fIaggressive\fP and will follow you along your new
lines if you're drawing.  You will be informed when sparx become aggressive.

If that's not enough to avoid, there is the the \fIfuse\fP.  A fuse is
a special case type of spark.  If you are
drawing a line and you stop drawing before establishing an enclosed region,
a fuse will start at the beginning of your line and follow it till it
zaps you.  You can stop the fuse by resuming drawing.  If you stop again,
the fuse will start where it left off before.

As you progress to each level, the game gets more difficult.  The qix will
follow you more closely, it will go faster, it will drive you \fInuts\fP.
Sparx won't change; they remain as annoying as they do in the beginning.
If you progress to level 3, then there will be two qix to deal with.
If you split the two qix by drawing a line which separates them, then
you proceed to the next screen and all new points are doubled.  Each screen
after this repeats this.  You go from 2-times values to 3-times, and so on.

.SH "PLAYING THE GAME"
Actually moving the joystick is indeed the most difficult, frustrating
and bothersome part about learning this game.  But that's the price \fIyou\fP
pay for the number of blisters \fII\fP got on my first $50 with the coin-op
version of \fIQix\fP.  Since this games runs under two different windowing
systems, how easy it is to use is very dependent on which windowing system
your particular computer is using.  If it's \fISunview\fP, you'll do ok.
If it's \fIX11\fP, then plan on spending some time with it.

There are two different ways to move the pen.  The mouse and the keyboard.
The keyboard is much easier than the mouse, so I suggest you put the mouse
away.  At the bottom of the board there is an icon of the joystick which
shows which direction the mouse is moving (or wants to move).  To start
the game, send me a quarter in the mail and click the right mouse button
or press the spacebar.  To move the pen around, move the mouse in the
direction you want to go.  To draw a line, do as above, but press the
left mouse button to draw a fast line, or the middle button to draw a
slow line.  Slow lines go twice the speed as fast lines, but you get
twice the points for the area you cover.  You can change speeds from
slow to fast, but not from fast to slow.  To stop the pen, press the
spacebar once or the right mouse button once.  To suspend the game
(that is, stop all movement and free the mouse to move about the console),
press the spacebar or right mouse button a second time (from a \fIstop\fP
state).  To terminate the game, acheive this state, move the mouse to
the window which started this thing and hit ^C.  Or, you could just unplug
the computer; both are effective.

To use the keyboard to move the pen around, the letters h, j, k, and l,
are used to move left, down, up and right respectively.  To draw a line,
use a capital letter of each direction.  You'll find that the game will
respond more quickly to keyboard input than mouse input.  The game \fBwill\fP
respond to mouse movement, there is a delay and it's hard to get used to.
There used to be a method of drawing slow lines using the keyboard only,
but it doesn't seem to work anymore, so I won't tell you about it.  If you
need to draw a slow line, use the mouse.

You are given 5 (lives) chances and then you have to send me another
quarter to play again.

.SH "SOURCE CODE AND AUTHOR INFORMATION"
This program was written for the Sun Workstation by Dan Heller with
some added help by Sky Schultz for his interesting method of polygon
fills.  A completely non-intuitive, but effective, method of polygon
fill is found in auxiliary files distributed with the source.  This
stuff was written by Don Hatch who happens to be working at Ardent
Computer right now, but they had nothing to do with it.

A port to X11 was done in July, 1988 by Dan Heller in an attempt to
make an X11 program out of a Sunview program.  If you don't know X
already, I highly discourage using the source to this program as an
example.  If you know Sunview, then you might find it quite helpful
since virtually all of it is in Sunview; the X port is mostly defines
and stuff to get it to work.  The X version does not use the toolkit
at all.  It is implemented using the raw Xlib libraries only.

Please send comments, bug reports and quarters to:
.in +2
.nf
Dan Heller
<island!argv@sun.com>