Written by Hungarian coder Zoltán Tass and published by Firebird in 1987, Zolyx is a variation on the ‘painting game’ theme, made popular by the classic arcade game, Qix.

Zolyx is similar to Qix in that you control a ‘dot’ which can be used to draw boxes inside the playing area by extending out from the edge, and returning back to the edge, to close the connection.

Depending on the difficulty level, a certain number of enemy pixels bounce around the inside of the playing field. If one of these bouncing pixels hits your line (or your ‘dot’), you lose a life. You can, however, if you’re quick, draw a box around an enemy pixel and trap it for extra points.

Also – unlike Qix (and in a genius moment of game design brilliance) – enemy dots also bounce around the ‘positive space’ that you’re drawing, making avoiding them even more difficult (especially at higher levels when there are more enemy pixels bouncing around).

You’re essentially drawing positive space inside negative space, and the bouncing dots threaten you inside both spaces.

Zolyx is a simple game but is great fun, highly addictive, and very challenging.

More: Zolyx on Moby Games