Jamie Pauls
Several years ago when I was host of ACB Radio’s Main Menu program, I interviewed Philip Bennefall of Blast Bay Studios about a new side-scroller game entitled Q9 Action Game. In this game, an Alien named Q9 has crashed his spaceship on Earth and somehow become separated from it. You must guide Q9 through a series of adventures in order to reunite him with his spacecraft. I recall spending several hours playing this title, but after a while I put it aside and didn’t think much about it again.
More recently, Hartgen Consultancy included Q9 Action Game along with several other games in its Leasey product—a series of JAWS scripts that the company’s founder, Brian Hartgen, has developed that add an incredible amount of power to the JAWS screen reader. At a cost of £50.00/$63 for the Leasey Total package or £35.00/$43 for Leasey Advanced, the inclusion of Q9 is a deal that is hard to argue with. Hartgen Consultancy owns the rights to Q9, so you will not be able to access the game outside the Leasey suite.
Playing Q9
First, you can only play this game on the Windows platform. Second, although the game is basically self-voicing, the JAWS screen reader needs to be running in order for the game to work. It's not possible to play the game using another screen reader such as NVDA or Narrator. That being said, after you have launched the game, you can unload JAWS and the game will still function. Finally, there are no graphics in the game so everything is audio-based. You will need a pair of stereo headphones to take full advantage of the excellent sounds and original orchestral score found within the game.
From the game’s main menu, you are able to start a new game, load your last played game, play the game in survival mode with only one life instead of multiple lives, test your speakers, view your high scores, learn game sounds, and exit. There is a Register option, but I wasn't sure what the point was since I already owned the game. I wasn’t brave enough to test the registration option; I didn’t want to risk messing up my copy of the game.
In Q9, our feisty little alien must traverse various worlds with multiple levels in each world. You guide him through each world using your right and left Arrow keys. Right moves Q9 forward, Left moves him backward. Adding the Control key to either Arrow key allows Q9 to run instead of walk. It's possible to press and hold an Arrow key to walk or run without needing to hit the key multiple times. It's possible to change direction very quickly, thereby spinning around in the game. Pressing the Up Arrow key causes Q9 to jump up for a few seconds. You must then hit your Left or Right Arrow key multiple times to make him jump. Q9 has a club to kill various attackers that get in his way. He also owns a slingshot, and he can collect rocks along the way. Finally, he has a Deus shield, which allows him to both defend himself against enemies and weaken them at the same time. A press of the Spacebar activates Q9’s chosen weapon. Along with extra lives, extra strength, and extra points, you can collect additional Deus shields and rocks throughout the game. These bonus items come in the form of blips that you must catch before they fall to Earth and shatter. The documentation states that there is a fourth weapon, but I have yet to complete the game and find it. Even on the easiest level, this game is delightfully difficult to play! You can switch weapons quickly in the game by either pressing number keys at the top of your keyboard or cycling among weapons with the Alt key.
Hear the amount of ammunition available to your selected weapon by pressing the letter A. The letter H gives you Q9’s current health, and S tells you your current game score. Find out how many lives Q9 has left with the letter L. (I was amused during one round of game play to learn that Q9 had nine lives.) Page Up and Down let you adjust the volume of the background music. P pauses and resumes game play, and Escape ends a current game.
The “Learn Game Sounds" option in Q9 is especially nice, as it plays the game sounds on a loop until you manually stop the playback. This lets you get a real feel for the various sounds you will encounter in game play.
The game has four difficulty levels ranging from Easy to Insane. I especially like the fact that even the easy level provides a true challenge.
Level 1: The Jungle World
The game begins with Q9 walking through a jungle. His footfalls are in what sounds to my ear like tall grass. Birds and other sounds, along with the excellent musical score, give the game a truly immersive feel. As Q9 moves forward through this first world, he will encounter gorillas. They are slow and don’t hurt him much. A good whack or two with his club will take them out. The Leopards Q9 encounters in the Jungle World are a bit harder to take down.
From time to time, Q9 encounters pits that he must jump across. The sound of howling winds and Q9’s feet walking in mud alert you to the presence of these pits. If Q9 falls into a pit, he loses a life. If he loses all his lives, the game is over!
Finally, Q9 will encounter rhinos in the jungle world. If a rhinoceros hits Q9, he loses health. To avoid being hit, he must jump over them.
The sounds of all these animals are quite well done, and it's a joy to encounter and defeat them.
Occasionally, Q9 will encounter “fortune fields.” These distinct-sounding areas of energy will either increase or decrease his strength if he passes through them.Q9 can take his chances or jump the field thereby avoiding it altogether. Other creatures in the game are also affected by the fields, so it's possible to let Q9 stand near one for a bit and see what happens to his enemies.
The end of every level found in the various worlds is signified by a bell sound that indicates a portal. I will describe this as a “sparkling” or “shimmering” sound. You may think of a better descriptor when you play the game.
Between levels 2 and 3 in almost every world are bonus rounds where Q9 can collect ammunition, lives, strength, and everything else available in the game. He has 30 seconds to listen for the blips and run to the various collectible objects before he falls through a waterfall to the next level of his current world.
Level 2: The Cave World
Next, Q9 must make his way through the Cave World. Here it sounds like he walks on a hard surface, and you can hear the echo of the cave. Dripping water adds to the effect. In this world, bats plague Q9 from time to time. If he ignores them, you will have more difficulty hearing approaching enemies. It’s best to have Q9 jump up and club them. Be careful though, because they can hurt him and he will lose health if he gets bitten.
Along with the already familiar gorillas, Q9 will encounter bears in the cave. They are dangerous. Either use a slingshot or Deus shield to kill them.
Level 3: The Mountain World
Q9 walks on snow in this world. Along with bears, Q9 will encounter packs of wolves in the mountains. When wolves surround Q9 it can be difficult to neutralize them without incurring damage. Finally, boars show up in the mountain world. Q9 can kill them with one strike of his club, or he can simply jump over them.
Level 4: The Death World
In the death world, Q9 confronts every enemy he has faced in previous worlds along with one other foe—demons. These demons can teleport to different areas, so Q9 can find himself surrounded by wolves and demons. Add a bear or two along with a charging rhino, and Q9 may just lose a life!
The Boss Level
What is any good game without a “boss” level, right? Who is the Boss in this game and how does it end? Now what would be the point of my giving you too much information? You will need to play the game to find out. To be perfectly honest, so will I. It has been many years since I successfully completed the game, and I haven’t been able to do so during the course of this review. I plan to keep trying!
The Bottom Line
I had a lot of fun traveling down memory lane with my little pal Q9 as I was replaying this game. The voice acting, sound effects, and music are all top quality. Commands are simple, and the plot, while also simple, is engaging.
I found that JAWS occasionally conflicted with game commands, thereby causing some sluggish responsiveness when playing. Setting JAWS to Speech On Demand helped, but I sometimes needed to either restart JAWS or the game to make things right. Using another strategy, once the game was loaded, I completely unloaded JAWS and was able to play the game with no problem. Once I exited the game, I restarted JAWS again. I have alerted Brian Hartgen to these issues and he will take a look at them. Keep in mind that the game is several years old and no longer in active development, so those issues may simply be the price paid for playing a “vintage” game.
Although there are mild instances of profanity, I don’t believe either the language or scenes of violence are sufficient to detract most people from playing the game.
I will review the latest version of Leasey in a future article, but if you have the scripts on your computer and feel like playing some of the games the suite of applications has to offer, I would definitely recommend Q9 Action Game as one of the titles you should consider.
This article is made possible in part by generous funding from the James H. and Alice Teubert Charitable Trust, Huntington, West Virginia.
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- Accessible Vintage Games Series, Part 1: Super Egg Hunt Plus by Jamie Pauls
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