Block Out

Two players take turns dropping blocks onto a board of 13 columns, each up to eight blocks high. Each player has a tray of four blocks, each in one of four shapes (a window at the top, at the bottom, both, or one tall window) and one of five colours. On your turn pick a block from your tray, carry it along the columns and drop it; it lands on top of that column's stack, and a full column refuses it. The block scores for each neighbour to its right, left and below: 15 for the same colour and 25 for the same shape, both counting if both match. A new random block fills your tray. When all 13 columns are full the game ends and the higher score wins. Play a friend or the computer.

Controls: Player 1 uses controller 1 and player 2 controller 2; in a one-player game either controller plays against the computer. Push left or right to move, holding to run, and press a side button to pick or drop a block.

ColecoVision version credited in the source to Claude (an AI made by Anthropic) for Amy Studio, in Amy, the language by Amy Bienvenu, 2026: a reimagined adaptation of the published rules. From COMPUTE!'s Gazette, November 1988: original Commodore 128 program (no author named in the issue). A Commodore 128 program; unrelated to the commercial 3-D falling-block game of the same name. This is a modern homebrew adaptation, not a commercial Coleco release.