SQIJ! is a 1986 game developed by Jason Kendall and published by The Power House. It was released on Commodore Plus/4, Commodore 16, and Commodore 64, but it is best known for its ZX Spectrum port by Jason Creighton, which is notorious for numerous coding errors making the game unplayable without cheating and very slow and buggy with cheating.
According to the backstory, there was a population holocaust that resulted in food running out, which is why Sqij is motivated to kill others by its violent hunger. During the game, Sqij has to find six pieces of the Enertree and assemble them on The Great Platform in the cave.
This game provides examples of:
- The Famine: According to the backstory, there was a major population holocaust which resulted in food running out, causing Sqij to kill others to satisfy its hunger.
- Hitbox Dissonance: In the ZX Spectrum port, Sqij will take damage if it enters the same column as an enemy, regardless of their respective heights.
- Game-Breaking Bug: The ZX Spectrum port is locked into Caps Lock and then only checks for lower-case letters, making it stuck if the player doesn't use a POKE command.
- Have a Nice Death: Run out of energy to receive the mocking message "What a plonker. You've just got yourself killed."
- Life Meter: Sqij has a energy meter at the bottom of the screen or just a counter that goes down when it gets hit.
- Punny Name: The ending screen describes the Enertree as standing forevermore in the cave of "Lotz-Too-Weet" — 'lots to eat'.
