Retro Game of the Day! Volfied
Volfied (or "Ultimate Qix," but really, which name would you prefer?) by Taito, arcade release in 1989 and ported shortly after to Sega Genesis, PC-Engine, and other platforms.
A game nearly lost to time, Qix was part of a very old generation of videogames where graphics were as simplistic as could be, and gameplay was the only leg to stand on. With it's unique "fill the entire screen by line-drawing boxes," Qix stood quite apart from the rest and enjoyed some popularity for it.
The game is still as enjoyable now as it was when it first appeared, but its looks never made it an easy one to sell. With its' legacy, a bevy of sequels followed (some official, most softcore-porn-themed knockoffs) although Volfied was the only "true" follow-up.
Volfied expanded on the original by sticking to what worked, and not trying to complicate things. The super-simple source material was given an appropriate sci-fi facelift, and gameplay was augmented with extra challenge. The game was interesting in that it improved on the original, and yet the two are able to coexist (it wouldn't be fair to say that Volfied is "better" than Qix...)
For a while I owned an arcade upright of Super Qix which was also known as Castle Qix. It came out in 87 and is very similar to the original although it had a strange castle theme and a wierd gremlin like thing you had to box in. Didn't like him as much as the original lazers but the game played great. It was a great buy for 25 bucks, I didn't know what I was getting till I fixed it but I was a huge fan of the first game. Sad to sell it when I had to move.
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