Blockout

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Blockout
System(s): PC-9801 VM
Publisher: Acclaim Japan
Developer: California Dreams, P.Z.K. Development Group
Original system(s): IBM PC
Genre: Puzzle
Number of players: 1
Release Date RRP Code JP 1991
Non-NEC versions Arcade Amiga Apple IIGS Atari ST Commodore 64 IBM PC J-3100 Lynx Macintosh Mega Drive

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Blockout (ブロックアウト) is a puzzle game for the PC-9801 VM. It has also been released for other consoles and computers.

Gameplay

Gameplay screenshot.

The game is a falling block puzzle game that can be seen as a 3D Tetris. The game uses a top-down perspective, looking down into a three-dimensional rectangular pit, with the objective being to clear "floors" rather than lines. Like Tetris, the player is given a series of shapes made up of cubes, which fall one at a time into the pit. The player loses if the pit fills with pieces such that additional pieces can no longer be dropped.

Pieces can be repositioned using the Arrow Keys or rotated on all three axes with  Q / A  (x-axis),  W / S  (y-axis), or  E / D  (z-axis). Grid lines appear on the walls of the pit to help the player position the shapes, and the pieces are rendered as wireframes that can be seen through. Pieces can be dropped with  Space , and the game can be paused with  P  or abandoned with  Esc . Once any part of a piece comes to rest on the floor of the pit or on top of an already-placed cube, the player has a moment in which to move the piece before it is frozen in place and the next piece starts to drop. Each layer of placed pieces in the pit is colored differently to indicate their depth (with a bar appearing to the side of the pit showing the level of each color). Once a solid layer of cubes is formed with no gaps, it disappears, and all cubes above it drop toward the bottom of the pit to fill the space.

The player plays to achieve a high score, and the game continues until lost. Clearing multiple floors with a single pieces awards more points, and completely clearing the pit awards a "Blockout" bonus. Pieces drop more quickly as the game progresses.

History

Release

Though the game resembles Tetris, it is not a licensed Tetris game. A similar game, Welltris, was designed by Tetris designer Alexey Pajitnov and released in 1989 (the same year as the original PC release of Blockout). It also involves blocks falling into a pit from a top-down perspective, but it follows different rules (with pieces falling on the walls of the pit rather than inside).

Legacy

Like Tetris, the formula behind Blockout has been recycled and rebranded numerous times, including by Nintendo and T&E Soft as 3D Tetris for the Virtual Boy in 1996.

Production credits

• Design & Programming: Alexander Ustaszewski
• Programming: Mirek Zabłocki
• Graphics: Maciej Markuszewski
• Sounds: Dorota Błaszczak

Source:

In-game credits

Physical scans

PC-9801 VM, JP

References

Sega Retro has more information related to Blockout