Developed by husband and wife team Randy and Sandy Pfeiffer, Taito's Qix was actually an American release, a challenging and unusual puzzle action game that's difficult to master. Players must take over the playfield by drawing boxes to capture it one piece at a time, while avoiding the menacing fractal-like Qix entity that floats around the remaining area and keeping ahead of its Sparx helpers. The strategy balances risk and reward, with the ability to earn more points for captured areas based on how fast you draw your lines (contact with the Qix or Sparx, or a fuse that lights when you stop moving, all spell death). The original game had an abstract quality that was either attractive or intimidating, depending on your point of view – later descendants such as Super Qix and Volfied added more options and personality, but perhaps lost something in the translation.