Blockout

n/a

Blockout
System(s): Sega Mega Drive
Publisher: Electronic Arts (US, Europe), Sega (Japan), Tec Toy (Brazil)
Developer: California Dreams, Logical Design Works
Original system(s): PC
Sound driver: Electronic Arts/Rob Hubbard
Genre: Puzzle
Number of players: 1-2
Release Date RRP Code JP 1991-11-01 ¥6,0006,000 G-4059 US 1991-06 $49.9549.95 705501 EU 1991-07 E175SMX UK 1991-07 £34.9934.99 E175SMX AU 199x BR 199x
Non-Sega versions Amiga Apple IIGS Arcade Atari ST Commodore 64 IBM PC J-3100 Lynx Macintosh PC-9801 VM

Blockout (ブロックアウト) is a puzzle game developed by California Dreams and published by Electronic Arts for the Sega Mega Drive in 1991. It has also been released for other consoles and computers.

Gameplay

Gameplay

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 D-Pad or rotated on all three axes with (x-axis), (y-axis), or (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  START , and the game can be paused with +. 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.

There is a single-player endless mode as well as a two-player competitive mode. In the single-player mode, 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. In the two-player mode, each player has a separate pit. When one player clears a floor, the floor of the other player's pit is raised by one level. If the player completely clears the pit (achieving a "Blockout"), the number of layers sent to the opponent is doubled. Layers can cancel each other out if both players clear floors at the same time. A player wins the match by being the first to clear a set number of floors (15 by default) or if the other player's pit fills and can no longer fit additional pieces.

In either mode, players can determine the dimensions of the pit and the block set. The dimensions that can be set are the depth (between 3 and 12 in single-player or between 3 and 10 in two-player), the width (between 3 and 7), and the height (between 3 and 7). The block sets are Flat, Basic, or Extended, with each set increasing in complexity and difficulty. The Flat set contains 8 shapes and resembles the tetrominoes from Tetris, but with the addition of a three-cube "L" shape and with one-, two-, and three-cube straight pieces replacing the "I" shape. The Basic set is similar to the Flat set and contains 7 shapes, but some of the pieces are three-dimensional rather than flat. The Extended set contains 41 shapes, many of which are three-dimensional.

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

• Original Design by: Alexander Ustaszewski
• Genesis Programming by: Edwin W. Reich, Jr., Steve Hayes
• Graphics by: Gary Martin
• Sound and Music by: Michael Bartlow
• Technical Director: Richard Hicks
• Produced by: Richard Robbins
• Assistant Producers: Jeff Haas, John Manley
• Special Thanks To: John Tomlinson

Source:

In-game credits

Magazine articles

Main article: Blockout/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

Print advert in Mega Force (FR) #1: "Juillet/Août 1991" (1991-06-18)

Print advert in Velikiy Drakon (RU) #33: "xxxx xxxx" (1997-08-07)
also published in:

• Velikiy Drakon (RU) #34: "xxxx xxxx" (1997-09-01)
• Velikiy Drakon (RU) #35: "xxxx xxxx" (1997-10-18)
• Velikiy Drakon (RU) #36: "xxxx xxxx" (1997-12-07)

Physical scans

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source

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Based on 0 review

Sega Retro Average

Publication Version Score 1700 igr dlya Sega (RU) 70 Beep! MegaDrive (JP) NTSC-J 65 Console XS (UK) PAL 76 Cool Gamer (RU) 60 Computer & Video Games (UK) 86 Famitsu (JP) NTSC-J 68 Game Mania (UK) 91 Gamers (DE) 67 Hippon Super (JP) NTSC-J 60 Hobby Consolas (ES) 82 Joystick (FR) PAL 85 Sega Mega Drive Advanced Gaming (UK) 81 Mega Drive Fan (JP) NTSC-J 59 Mega (UK) PAL 67 Mega (UK) PAL 65 Mega Force (FR) PAL 70 MegaTech (UK) 91 MegaTech (UK) PAL 91 MegaTech (UK) PAL 88 Mean Machines (UK) 91 Mean Machines Sega (UK) 91 Power Play (DE) 74 Raze (UK) PAL 69 Sega Power (UK) PAL 89 Sega Power (UK) PAL 100 Sega Pro (UK) PAL 76 Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) NTSC-J 60 Tilt (FR) 70 Tricks 16 bit (RU) 78 Video Games (DE) 75

	76
Based on 30 reviews

Blockout

Mega Drive, JP
Cover
Cart Manual

Mega Drive, US
Cover
Cart Manual

Mega Drive, US (cardboard)
Cover
Cart Manual

Mega Drive, EU (Yellow Cart)
Cover
Cart Manual

Mega Drive, EU (Grey Cart)
Cover
Cart Manual

Mega Drive, AU
Cover
Cart Manual

Mega Drive, BR
Cover
Cart

Technical information

Main article: Blockout/Technical information.

ROM dump status

System	Hash	Size	Build Date	Source	Comments
✔	CRC32 5e2966f1 MD5 c324d9a3cbfa530996b6ad202686627b SHA-1 f6620d3b712f3bd333d0bb355c08cf992af6e12d	128kB	1991-06	Cartridge (US/EU)	EA version

References

NEC Retro has more information related to Blockout