Method Of Play

There are three distinct playing elements to Qiks. The first is the current player (marker) which is a diamond shaped object moved by the joystick. The second are the sparks which move along the periphery of the playing area and look like the end of a fuse. Lastly is the Qiks, which is a series of lines and always remains in the playing area.

You control the marker with the right joystick (even if you are player No.2). You can move along any line that is the same colour as the border. The sparks also move along the same lines that you do, if they run into you, you die!!!

To avoid them, you can move out into the blank screen by pressing the fire button. This is called "drawing" and introduces new dangers. When the marker draws, it leaves a trail. If the Qiks touches any part of this trail before you get back to the border, you die!!!

If you are drawing and stop for any reason, a spark will appear and follow your trail until it reaches you and once again you die!!! To stop drawing, once you have started you just run into any line that is the same colour as the border. At that point the program will fill in the area that you have enclosed. You will notice that your trail, which used to be white, is now the same colour as the border. This means that you can now move freely along the trail that you just made. But be careful - the sparks can also move on the same trail.

Scoring

When you draw and fill in an area the number of points which you get is equal to the number of pixels filled in divided by 4.

In the upper right hand corner of the screen, you will find the percentage you have covered. Once you have covered 75% or more you will advance to the next level. For every 1% over 75% you will get 100 bonus points. At level 3, 2 Qiks will appear, if you trap one in the area that has just been filled in, from that time on all of your point values will be doubled.

The more time you spend on any screen, the more sparks will appear. At higher levels they will appear even more rapidly.

Speech Capability

Qiks will talk to you if you have a Tandy Speech/Sound cartridge installed.

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CLOADM"" (ENTER)

There is a backup copy of the program on the reverse side of the tape.