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Blockout - DOS


Control:

Game is con­trol­led by the same keys that are used to playing un­der MS DOS. For full­screen press 'Right Alt' + 'En­ter'.


Help:

If the game e­mu­la­ti­on spe­ed is low, you can try to in­cre­a­se it by re­lo­a­ding this pa­ge with­out a­ds or cho­o­se a­no­ther e­mu­la­tor from this table.


Other platforms:

This game can be played also in a version for Ge­ne­sis. We are wor­king on the others.



Game info:
Blockout - box cover
box cover
Game title: Blockout
Platform: MS-DOS
Author (released): California Dreams (1989)
Genre: Puzzle Mode: Single-player
Design: Aleksander Ustaszewski, Mirosław Zabłocki
Music:
Game manual: manual.pdf

File size:

1604 kB
Download: blockout.zip

Game size:

102 kB
Recommended emulator: DOSBox

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

   Blockout is a puzzle video game, published in 1989 by California Dreams, developed in Poland by Aleksander Ustaszewski and Mirosław Zabłocki. The game is the logical extension of Tetris into the third dimension. In regular Tetris, the player manipulates a set of tetrominoes which fall into a two-dimensional pit (seen from the side). The aim is to solve a real-time packing problem by forming complete rows, which then disappear and score points. Poor play leads to incomplete rows, caused by inefficient arrangements of tiles; these rows do not disappear, giving the player progressively less space and less time to play subsequent pieces.
Blockout - DOS version
Blockout - DOS version
Similarly, in Blockout, the player manipulates a set of polycubes which fall into a three-dimensional pit (seen from above; the pieces appear in the foreground and fall away). The pieces can be rotated around all three axes, and moved horizontally and vertically. The aim is to form complete layers.
   The game allows the player to choose the set of blocks they will play with and the size of the pit. Pits range from 3x3x6 to 7x7x18, giving a total of 195 possible pit sizes (counting e.g. 3x5x6 and 5x3x6 as identical). Three block sets are available — flat, basic, and extended — making a total of 585 possible game modes.
   Under 'Main Menu', three of the possible 585 game configurations are recommended to the player. These are called 'Flat Fun', '3D Mania', and 'Out of Control', and use the flat, basic and extended block sets respectively. Other features of the game include:
   Demo mode: This is not a pre-recorded game of an expert playing, but a well-programmed bot that plays a good game in any given setup. The bot finds smaller pits and more complex block sets more difficult, and achieves correspondingly lower scores.
   Practice mode: A game where the pieces do not move down with time. The player can manipulate the pieces for as long as they like before dropping them into place with the space bar. This is very useful for beginners learning to navigate the 6 keys required to rotate in two directions around each of three axes. Practice mode scores are not recorded in the High Scores file.

More details about this game can be found on Wikipedia.org.

For fans and collectors:
Find this game on video server YouTube.com or Vimeo.com.
Buy original version of this game on Amazon.com or eBay.com.

Find digital download of this game on GOG or Steam.

 
Game controls:

All DOS games were controlled directly from the PC keyboard. Some newer DOS games also used a mouse or other more advanced game peripherals for control. However, each game was controlled by different keys. You can find a detailed description of how to control this version of Blockout in the attached game manual. An overview of basic keyboard commands and keyboard shortcuts to control this game is summarized in the following table:
 
Keys

Action

1

Move the block down and left

2 or

Move the block down

3

Move the block down and right

4 or

Move the block left

6 or

Move the block right

7

Move the block up and left

8 or

Move the block up

9

Move the block up and right

Q

Flips the block counter-clockwise (around x axis)

W

Flips the block counter-clockwise (around y axis)

E

Flips the block counter-clockwise (around z axis)

A

Flips the block clockwise (around x axis)

S

Flips the block clockwise (around y axis)

D

Flips the block clockwise (around z axis)

Space

Drop the block

P

Pause / resume the game

Enter

Select the highlighted option

O

Turn sound on / off

Esc

Abort the current game or exit from the menu

 
Platform:

This ver­sion of Blockout was de­sig­ned for per­so­nal com­pu­ters with o­pe­ra­ting sys­tem MS-DOS (Mi­cro­soft Disk O­pe­ra­ting Sys­tem), which was o­pe­ra­ting sys­tem de­ve­lo­ped by Mi­cro­soft in 1981. It was the most wi­de­ly-used o­pe­ra­ting sys­tem in the first half of the 1990s. MS-DOS was sup­plied with most of the IBM com­pu­ters that pur­cha­sed a li­cen­se from Mi­cro­soft. Af­ter 1995, it was pu­s­hed out by a gra­phi­cal­ly mo­re ad­van­ced sys­tem - Win­dows and its de­ve­lop­ment was ce­a­sed in 2000. At the ti­me of its grea­test fa­me, se­ve­ral thou­sand ga­mes de­sig­ned spe­ci­fi­cal­ly for com­pu­ters with this sys­tem we­re cre­a­ted. To­day, its de­ve­lop­ment is no lon­ger con­ti­nue and for e­mu­la­tion the free DOSBox e­mu­la­tor is most of­ten used. Mo­re in­for­ma­ti­on about MS-DOS operating system can be found here.

 
Available online emulators:

5 different online emulators are available for Blockout. These emulators differ not only in the technology they use to emulate old games, but also in support of various game controllers, multiplayer mode, mobile phone touchscreen, emulation speed, absence or presence of embedded ads and in many other parameters. For maximum gaming enjoyment, it's important to choose the right emulator, because on each PC and in different Internet browsers, the individual emulators behave differently. The basic features of each emulator available for this game Blockout are summarized in the following table:
 

Emulator Technology Multiplayer Fullscreen Touchscreen Speed
Archive.org JavaScript YES NO NO fast
js-dos JavaScript YES YES NO fast
js-dos 6.22 JavaScript YES YES NO fast
jsDosBox JavaScript YES NO NO slow
jDosBox Java applet YES YES NO fast


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