BlockOut II

{{Game }}
 * completion=0
 * image=
 * title=Blockout2
 * developer={{dev|Jean Luc PONS}}
 * publisher=
 * year=1989
 * systems={{syslist|windows|Linux}}
 * ratings=
 * title1=Blockout2
 * developer1={{dev|Jean Luc PONS}}}
 * publisher1=
 * year1=2007
 * systems1=
 * genre=Puzzle
 * modes=Single player, Multiplayer
 * series=Blockout2

BlockOut® II is a free adaptation of the original BlockOut® DOS game edited by California Dreams in 1989. BlockOut® II has the same features than the original game with few graphic improvements. The game has been designed to reproduce the original game kinematics as accurately as possible. The score calculation is also nearly similar to the original. BlockOut® II also features an online score database where you can upload your high-scores with their replays and get various statistics. The score registering system also includes an efficient fake score detection.

Link to BlockOut2 webpage. Open source code.

BlockOut® II has been designed by an addicted player for addicted players. It is an open source project (GPL) available for both Windows and Linux.

Here under is the information on the original from 1989. Blockout is a puzzle game, published in 1989 by California Dreams, developed in Poland by Aleksander Ustaszewski and Mirosław Zabłocki.

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. A set number of faces must be completed in order to end each round.

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.