The player's perspective is that of looking down into a three-dimensional rectangular pit. Polycube blocks of various shapes appear, one at a time, and fall slowly toward the bottom of the pit. The player can use three buttons to rotate the block around any of the three coordinate axes, and can also maneuver the block horizontally and vertically with a joystick. Once any part of a block comes to rest on the floor of the pit or in contact with an already-placed cube, the entire block freezes in place and can no longer be moved. The player can press a button on the joystick to quickly drop a block. Once a solid layer of cubes is formed with no gaps (a "face"), it disappears and all cubes above it drop toward the bottom of the pit to fill the space. Completing multiple faces with a single block awards higher scores, and the player earns a "Block Out" bonus for completely emptying the pit.[1] A set number of faces must be completed in order to end each round.
Mirosław Zabłocki - co-author of the game (2023)
As the game progresses, the blocks begin to drop faster, the dimensions of the pit change from round to round, and differently-shaped blocks begin to appear. A bonus stage is played after every fifth round, in which the player has 30 seconds to form as many faces as possible in a 2x2 pit. The game ends if the blocks stack up to the top of the pit, with the exception of the bonus stages; in the latter case, the stage ends immediately and the player advances to the next round.
The game allows head-to-head competition between two players, each of whom has their own pit and blocks. When one player completes a face, all the cubes in the opponent's pit are raised by one level. A player can win a round by either being the first to complete a set number of faces or by forcing their opponent's cubes to stack up to the top of the pit. The first player to win a set number of rounds may continue the game alone in single-player mode.
PortsEdit
Apart from the other known console ports of Blockout, there were also two for NES: the first is an official unreleased prototype developed in 1990 by Technos Japan Corp. under the name "Block Out", while the second is an unauthorizedclone programmed by Hwang Shinwei and published by both himself and RCM Group in 1989/1990 (titled 3D Block).
The New York Times reviewed the game in an article about educational software for mathematics, writing that Blockout "doesn't pretend to be educational, but the skills required to master it are not unrelated to mathematics, particularly geometry."[5] A 1993 study found evidence that playing Blockout improved the spatial visualization ability of 10- to 14-year-olds.[10]
In Japan, Game Machine listed Block Out on their March 1, 1990 issue as being the tenth most-successful table arcade unit of the month.[11]
Dragon gave the game's Atari Lynx version a perfect score.[12] Robert A. Jung reviewed the Atari Lynx version of the game which was published to IGN. In his final verdict he wrote "This is a nice, addictive, no-nonsense strategy game. Without any patterns to memorize and several options to choose from, Blockout will keep its freshness for quite some time. If you thought Tetris was too simple, give this title a try." Scoring the game 8 out of 10.[6]
^The Blockout story on gamepuzzles.com (Kadon Enterprises) "Jean-Luc Pons, a self-declared addicted Blockout player in France, has created an improved C++ clone of the original Blockout version and offers Blockout II as an open source project for other addicted players. All these versions obtained permission from Kadon to use the Blockout name."
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This article is about the video game For the Serbian alternative rock band see Block Out band Blockout is a puzzle video game published in 1989 by California Dreams It was developed in Poland by Aleksander Ustaszewski 5 and Miroslaw Zablocki American Technos published an arcade version Blockout is an unlicensed 3D version of Tetris BlockoutDeveloper s P Z Karen Co Development Group Logical Design Works 1 Publisher s California DreamsAmerican Technos arcade Rainbow ArtsElectronic ArtsSegaAtari CorporationJelly Beans PC 98 Designer s Aleksander Ustaszewski 1 Programmer s Miroslaw ZablockiPlatform s Amiga 2 Apple IIGS Arcade Atari ST Commodore 64 MS DOS Sega Genesis Atari Lynx 3 Mac OS PC 98 4 ReleaseArcadeNA October 1989Mega Drive GenesisJP November 1 1991WW 1991Genre s Puzzle Contents 1 Gameplay 2 Ports 3 Reception 4 Legacy 5 References 6 External linksGameplay EditThis section does not cite any sources Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed November 2022 Learn how and when to remove this template message nbsp Mega Drive versionThe player s perspective is that of looking down into a three dimensional rectangular pit Polycube blocks of various shapes appear one at a time and fall slowly toward the bottom of the pit The player can use three buttons to rotate the block around any of the three coordinate axes and can also maneuver the block horizontally and vertically with a joystick Once any part of a block comes to rest on the floor of the pit or in contact with an already placed cube the entire block freezes in place and can no longer be moved The player can press a button on the joystick to quickly drop a block Once a solid layer of cubes is formed with no gaps a face it disappears and all cubes above it drop toward the bottom of the pit to fill the space Completing multiple faces with a single block awards higher scores and the player earns a Block Out bonus for completely emptying the pit 1 A set number of faces must be completed in order to end each round nbsp Miroslaw Zablocki co author of the game 2023 As the game progresses the blocks begin to drop faster the dimensions of the pit change from round to round and differently shaped blocks begin to appear A bonus stage is played after every fifth round in which the player has 30 seconds to form as many faces as possible in a 2x2 pit The game ends if the blocks stack up to the top of the pit with the exception of the bonus stages in the latter case the stage ends immediately and the player advances to the next round The game allows head to head competition between two players each of whom has their own pit and blocks When one player completes a face all the cubes in the opponent s pit are raised by one level A player can win a round by either being the first to complete a set number of faces or by forcing their opponent s cubes to stack up to the top of the pit The first player to win a set number of rounds may continue the game alone in single player mode Ports EditApart from the other known console ports of Blockout there were also two for NES the first is an official unreleased prototype developed in 1990 by Technos Japan Corp under the name Block Out while the second is an unauthorized clone programmed by Hwang Shinwei and published by both himself and RCM Group in 1989 1990 titled 3D Block Reception EditReceptionReview scoresPublicationScoreIGN8 10 Lynx 6 MegaTech91 7 Mega67 8 PC Leisure nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp 9 AwardPublicationAwardMegaTechHyper Game The New York Times reviewed the game in an article about educational software for mathematics writing that Blockout doesn t pretend to be educational but the skills required to master it are not unrelated to mathematics particularly geometry 5 A 1993 study found evidence that playing Blockout improved the spatial visualization ability of 10 to 14 year olds 10 In Japan Game Machine listed Block Out on their March 1 1990 issue as being the tenth most successful table arcade unit of the month 11 Dragon gave the game s Atari Lynx version a perfect score 12 Robert A Jung reviewed the Atari Lynx version of the game which was published to IGN In his final verdict he wrote This is a nice addictive no nonsense strategy game Without any patterns to memorize and several options to choose from Blockout will keep its freshness for quite some time If you thought Tetris was too simple give this title a try Scoring the game 8 out of 10 6 Entertainment Weekly gave the game an A 13 deeming it the 17 greatest game available in 1991 14 Legacy EditAround 2007 15 a modernized authorized continuation remake 16 named Blockout II 17 was released with a license from Kadon Enterprises to use the trademarked Blockout name 18 The game is open source and was ported to many platforms the original wasn t available before like Microsoft Windows 15 Ubuntu 19 and the OpenPandora handheld 20 In 2021 a web browser based version 21 written in JavaScript and HTML5 was released It is officially licensed to use the name Blockout 22 References Edit a b c Blockout User s Manual for the Amiga Atari ST Macintosh Tandy and IBM PC and Compatibles archive org retrieved 4 April 2023 Block Out Video Games amp Computer Entertainment 1 November 1990 p 206 Blockout Atari Lynx Manual archive org 1990 retrieved 4 April 2023 Blockout giantbomb com Retrieved 4 April 2023 a b L R Shannon No Frills Mathematics Instruction The New York Times 23 January 1990 a b Robert A Jung 6 July 1999 Looking for a solid handheld puzzle game Atari s got the answer IGN Entertainment Retrieved 14 August 2018 MegaTech rating EMAP issue 6 page 76 June 1992 Mega rating issue 9 page 23 Future Publishing June 1993 Garth Sumpter November 1990 Blockout PC Leisure journal EMAP 3 62 NOSS A 1994 Forderung der Raumvorstellung bei 10 bis 14 Jahrigen durch das Computerspiel BLOCKOUT Diploma thesis University of Vienna Game Machine s Best Hit Games 25 テーブル型TVゲーム機 Table Videos Game Machine in Japanese No 375 Amusement Press Inc 1 March 1990 p 29 Lesser Hartley Lesser Patricia amp Lesser Kirk May 1992 The Role of Computers Dragon 181 57 62 Blockout EW com Retrieved 2018 11 03 Video Games Guide EW com Retrieved 2018 11 03 a b blockout II Downloads on SourceForge Blockout II on reloaded org blockout2 on blockout net The Blockout story on gamepuzzles com Kadon Enterprises Jean Luc Pons a self declared addicted Blockout player in France has created an improved C clone of the original Blockout version and offers Blockout II as an open source project for other addicted players All these versions obtained permission from Kadon to use the Blockout name blockout2 on apps ubuntu com blockout2 on repo openpandora org made blockout nu Kadon Enterprises Inc More about polyominoes and polycubes External links EditOfficial website for Blockout II Browser version Blockout at MobyGames Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Blockout amp oldid 1169972618, 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