XQuest (DOS)

It seems i don't review some game that start with letter 'X', yet. But Don't you worry! I make that up by playing XQuest (1994) on DOS. 

That's some bold and solid title, i like that. XQuest is made by one man nicknamed Atomjack. According to readme document on the directory, he intend to make Crystal Quest that's considered gem on Apple Macintosh, on PC. I didn't know about that game but i know i play this in my childhood. I feel bit sorry for him, because i kind of missed his pure noble intention. Nevertheless, young me enjoy this game very much.

The control is fairly simple: Use mouse movement to move your ship, press left button mouse to shoot, and press right button to unleash screen-clearing bomb. The main objective is: collect all crystals then you can exit level. Easy to understand, right?

 

There's not much content of 'Options' menu: only setting for sound volume and mouse sensitivity. I think i'm good to go.

 

Here's the game. If you pay attention to the instruction (and i hope you did), you know that i control ship that have circle shape with small yellow plus sign. Not the tubular droid on its left. That's enemy albeit the easiest type. It just wonders around slowly and nonchalantly until you shoot it that is. The green icon in the middle is a pickup to increase your bomb, by the way.

 

Once you have collect all of the crystal, the exit door on the north of the field will be open and you must enter it to end the level. So far the game sounds easy, right? But there's an impediment on the gameplay and it's not small. That is: your own ship. It moves too slippery fast, like there's no friction that decelerate your ship's speed or prevent it from moving too fast . Moreover it will explodes if it touches anything but pickup, including the wall even though i set the mouse sensitivity in the middle which is the default setting. The ship movement is akin to carrom piece in the well-polished carrom board game, so fast. Actually, that explains why the ship quite resembles a carrom piece and the whole stage like carrom board. They all come together.

 

The red thing on my left is mine. I try to shoot it with the white pellets and it doesn't work. So there's no other choice but to avoid it. Minesweeping is no go. There's kind of funny physic on the bullets. Their speed depends on your speed. If you move, the bullet will travel faster than when you shoot in stationary state. Also due to your ship's form, you can hardly tell where the bullet comes from. At least if you're standing still. If you keep moving, you can track where's your ship currently facing.     

Next level introduce us with this green aliens which is faster and more aggressive version of the droids. They're definitely more dangerous as you can see i'm getting cornered now. But fortunately, i have bomb. 6 of them, even. So i use it. The enemies don't spawn out of thin air, they spawn at that panel-like-thingy on left wall and right wall. Thus collecting gem near the spawning panel is highly risky but mandatory nonetheless.  

 

Here's the screen-clearing bomb in action. It just turns whole screen lit for moment while decimating the enemies but not mines. They stay forever and ever.

Later level introduces us with new enemy: that swirling blue things that move slow but have capability to shoot projectile. They're not hard to deal with. On the other hand that blue crystal on very edge of the level is really challenging to pick. There's bit of detail on spawning panel there that telegraph when it will spawn enemies or Super Crystal, in form of wave reading. I forget that there's Super Crystal that moves very fast but should you pick it, you can gain random benefit such as: instant screen-clearing bomb, the usual 3-way shoot upgrade, or ability to fire backward at the same time. It has shape of polygonal crystal. At first replay, i immediately think it was serious threat (because -let's be honest- everything is lethal to my ship here) and immediately shoot it.

 

In another level, there's green blob called Miner. Not that miner! This one called miner because it occasionally lays mine, you see. There's a chance that it puts mine near the crystal like overlapping-pixel near. Not to mention, the mines also indestructible. Medic_jeers05.wav  

 

If you finish a level faster than the par time, you will be granted with bonus score. This will prevent you to grind score from waiting and blasting enemies and conversely reward you to finish the level as fast as possible. For every 15,000 score, you will gain extra life. So it's very beneficial to amass score as many as you can. Strangely due to shorter par time on first stages, it's considered quite difficult to gain extra life early and naturally it's much easier in latter stages.

 

Then there's this nimbus clouds that act as durable enemy that needs 5 bullets or so to kill but you can use the bomb to clear them out entirely for a moment. Moreover, it shout "Ouch!" everytime it get shot and it's quite amusing to me.

 

Another enemy type here: these Angklung(s) that will spew a fast bullet to you if you kill them. They're quite annoying.     

 

My XQuest-ing is over due to these pair of bubbles. They are quite sedate like that first enemy type. But once they're close enough to you, they will chase you in sudden pace while barking. Yup, they shout "Woof!" or "Guk!" (in Indonesian) while charge at me. No wonder, they're named 'Terrier'.

 

But, wait! There's more. 2 years after XQuest release, Mark Mackey (Atomjack) released XQuest 2. Not exactly a sequel, but more to more polished version of the initial ones. The changes are mostly in reskin context. The ship is reskinned into more proper space ship so you can identify its head surely. The Super Crystal becomes blue Yashichi, kind of.      

Plus, there's more setting in 'Options' menu such as: difficulty and one/two player setup. There's also more detail on sensitivity: for Horizontal direction and Vertical direction. Also the default setting for them is significantly lower than in first version which is reasonable design.

 

Besides that, this version employs more enemy type. You see that nimbus clouds enemies? They're different from first version. Instead Meeby (the durable nimbus enemy on previous game) become pink ring with orb on its center like on rightside of screen whereas  this clouds are named Vince which are more serious on hunting you and shout "Duh!" like Homer Simpson when shot. In addition, Vince can be erased easily by bomb while Meeby is resistant to it.

Because the sensitivity is lower than in first version (although i changed it above default setting) and i get used to the game, i last longer by 2 levels. I call that glorious victory.

 

Atomjack's XQuest (1994) is marvelous arcade game even though it's not in arcade machine. The gameplay pace is brisk and simple but also requires player to play carefully. This mixture of gameplay makes the game intense. For those who doesn't like intense challenge, better stay away from this awesome game. There's no music at all but strong sound effects can make up the atmosphere on this game. The enemy variety build decent challenge on every level. But as i mentioned before, that sometime enemy will drop mine very near crystal. Or surround crystal. Either way, it's not fun and near breaking the game. Even though the control is slippery, you can understand it fairly easy.  

I think more people should play XQuest especially the latter version as it's more refined and friendly. Even though it's made by one man, it's superb game. I wish that it's real arcade game but instead we got Sinistar that's less fun and fair. Also, i hate Sinistar laughter and mock. Seriously.