Quod Init Exit (C64)

Now here's a thing, Quod Init Exit is a C64 game that really doesn't look like a C64 game. Despite the pastel palette, PC/Amiga developer Saimo has succeeded in making the C64 look a lot more like its 16-Bit cousin through the clever use of the machine's high resolution mode. Roughly translated from Latin as "what goes in, must come out" and starring a pig with a hefty appetite for fast food, Quod Init Exit is an impressive platform debut and one of our favourite C64 releases of 2010.

Another contender for 'Most Bizarre Game Design of the Year' award, QIE is all about eating food and getting to the toilet in time. Starting at dawn and running through into the night, your goal on each stage is to leap from platform to platform, catching the high velocity food that zips across the screen until your hunger-meter is full (avoiding starving to death and the nasty bottles of poison in the process). After you've eaten to capacity, you then have to catch the toilet and ride it off the screen to glory; fail to do so and you instead leave an unpleasant little deposit on the screen and it's game over.

The highpoint of QIE is without a doubt Saimo's amazing high-resolution pixel-art, and the suitably retro SID soundtrack provided by TND's Richard Bayliss is equally noteworthy. These two elements alone are enough to make you want to proudly show off the game to owners of other 8-Bit machines, not to mention the incredible speed at which it plays.

Programmed in BASIC, gameplay-wise it's all very simple and unlikely to hold your attention for long, but nonetheless I've yet to meet a C64 fan who hasn't been instantly won over by the cute presentation and uncomplicated yet addictive gameplay. Who would have thought that chasing a porcelain pan across a surreal, rainbow coloured landscape could be such fun?

Download the game here (from the Commodore Scene Database).
Run it using VICE (free software).