Your Blockout Story - post it here!

General Discussions about Blockout.

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Herc
Posts: 174
Joined: Sun May 20, 2007 12:54 pm

Your Blockout Story - post it here!

Post by Herc »

I opened this thread to hear you storys about how you have come to blockout, when you first played it, on what computer and what your happy, sentimental, funny or such memorys are with blockout..


so, to start, here is my story:

While still living in eastern germany short before the \"mauerfall\" (fall of the Berlin Wall), i played it in an after school young talents location called \"center of young talents (or in german pionierhaus)\". though i was in the electronics department, we often had a look into the computer science department, where my same aged friends used to crack and play computer games from west germany sent with parcels or brougth from the friendly grandmom that had one of these RARE border-crossing licences..
besides prince of persia, blockout was the first computer game i ever played there in the pionierhaus. We played it on an amber coloured hercules monitor! man was that cool! endlessly cool 3d graphics! Later that year, i got my first XT pc, also with Hercules graphics, at home. of course, this time i started playing blockout excessively. i often found myself playing lots of blockout instead of doing homeworks :huh: but it was extremely addicting and much more fun than learning english vocabulary.. and it was the key for my interest in 3d graphics and computer programming. so, finally blockout was the reason i choose computer science in highscool B)
i still remember my crude attempts and dreams to program blockout on an cplus4 ( the precursor to the c64 and my very first home computer) in basic. of course, i failed hard times and was wondering how in the world one can do real 3d graphics and not only draw some fake lines. in fact, i never crossed the line of drawing the background pit. \"

thats my story, please post yours here! (@JohnVdC: could you maybe please cut&paste your story to this thread?)<br><br>Post edited by: Herc, at: 2007/07/22 19:03
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Renato
Posts: 37
Joined: Wed Jul 11, 2007 3:56 pm

Re:Your Blockout Story - post it here!

Post by Renato »

It must be at the end of the eighties when I bought my first XT - PC with an internal hard disk of 20 MB - I would never get enough software and data to use the half of it, I thought B) . It was a Tulip PC – made in the Netherlands, that’s where I live. At the same time a luxurious VGA monitor entered the house. At that time we had no internet but a lot of good computer friends for sharing software and information (When you were blocked in Prinse of Perzia 1 - you had to wait until someone passed the spot). Via one of this friends I received a floppy (5,25 inch) via which Blockout ended up on the PC. From that time on I played it almost every day. I also dreamt about it, not how to program it, but how to position one block in the field. That were tiring nights. Unfortunately my friends were not that much interested in Blockout :S , so no emotions to share there. I just did it alone (sob) On a good day, when the internet came, I discovered that more people were like me, hurray, I’m not mad.
But then … disasters were coming :evil: . With the evolution of the videocards, on my next PC, Blockout did not work anymore – I had to kick off and became a tiny, sad ex-junky :blink: . But then, on a sunny day, someone released a version compatible with my video card and there it went again. Now, a few years later, this initiative, this really makes me happy. Blockout more future proof, who knows I can play it until I die. I’m curious when I get the age that my high scores are unreachable for myself and what I will do than. Well, we’ll see, I keep you informed. (For your notice: I’m almost 50 years old)
JohnVdC
Posts: 8
Joined: Thu Jul 19, 2007 11:00 am

Re:Your Blockout Story - post it here!

Post by JohnVdC »

As Herc asked, a small repost.

I got my first PC (or IBM compatible as they were called back then) in januari 1989. I think I discovered Blockout maybe a year or so later and it was the game I played most between 1990 and 1996 or so. The amount of times I must have played Blockout must be :blink:

I\'ve got a personal best of somewhere over 250K points (in Out Of Control, the only one that really matters) although I haven\'t been able to go anywhere near those scores for years now. I blame the fact that my PC got too fast although I suppose the truth is that I am getting a bit slower and I don\'t play enough anymore to instantly see where the next block should be going.

A few months back I dug up the game again but it stopped working properly on my machine, which is why I\'m so glad I found out about this project.

Kind regards,

John.
jlp_38
Posts: 264
Joined: Tue Jun 26, 2007 9:09 am

Re:Your Blockout Story - post it here!

Post by jlp_38 »

Hi,

Few words about my blockout story ;)

I made my first game on BlockOut I think around 1990. It was at
my father\'s office on a 286 (we didn\'t have a PC at home). I
immediately became addicted. I got my first PC when i entered
the university (Computer Science) in 1992. I\'m playing regulary
since this date. As John, I play especially in Out Of Control
and my best score is also around 250K. I programmed my first
clone of Blockout in 1997 when i started my professional life.
It was a unix X11 clone (HPUX and Solaris). Unfortunately it
doesn\'t run anymore as it uses the same technique than the
original Blockout, (8+1 colors in 16 colors mode 2 planes).
Today, I decided to rewrite this game because i\'ve got few
problems with the original under XP. However, I\'m really
impressed that this program still runs on modern systems.
fredjust
Posts: 66
Joined: Fri Jun 29, 2007 3:59 pm

Re:Your Blockout Story - post it here!

Post by fredjust »

here my story,
sorry for my bad english but i\'m french
thanks to
http://translate.google.com/translate_t?langpair=fr|en

I discovered blockOut with a friend on his PC 1512
after a game of golf (4 color or blue, very nice :laugh: ). The first time we launch the game on the 5.25 floppy it was on 6x6x14, so we played on this mode, we try to make five line (start on level 0)

after I found 3Dmania, and I play this mode on each
my computer since 1991, BlockOut always works on it :woohoo:
on my first a 386 with 1 Mo RAM and 40 Mo Drive
and on my actual with 1 Go RAM 80 Go Drive (so x1000 !!)

the most impresive today is my finger,
they do the good move without thinking
My head don\'t know keys but I do the good move without thinking !
If I think I loose time ;)
boogaboo
Posts: 16
Joined: Wed Sep 12, 2007 12:20 am

Re:Your Blockout Story - post it here!

Post by boogaboo »

Well, I\'m 30 years old now, and when I was about 17 up to 21, it was my favorite game on my XP..(when civilization 1 didn\'t budge in).

Funny, but I also tried to learn how the whole depth/perspective works by calculating and drowing it.
I had no time or knowledge to actually write something like that, so I dreamt I do.

I had a competition with a female friend back then... mainly on 3X3 extended...
We would get stoned and play for hours :)

I also don\'t know how to play and usually move my fingers b4 I know where to and the keys make no logic.. just instinct. :blink:
The downside is that I\'m used to \"QWE\" keys but NOT the \"ASD\" keys.. I use them much less although I do find places to use them.. not so instinctively..<br><br>Post edited by: boogaboo, at: 2009/11/04 17:58
jlp_38
Posts: 264
Joined: Tue Jun 26, 2007 9:09 am

Re:Your Blockout Story - post it here!

Post by jlp_38 »

I moved this topic to General Discussion.
Don\'t hesitate to post few words about your Blockout story :)
delacroixp
Posts: 29
Joined: Sat Feb 09, 2008 9:39 pm

My Blockout experience !!!

Post by delacroixp »

Like Renato I too got an XT in the late 80\'s (640kb RAM, 20mb HDD)... but I only had a paper-white monitor (green & amber also available).

I fell in love with Blockout and setup 27 variations on Lotus 123 ... 9 for each blockset (3x3, 5x5, 7x7, @ 6/8/10 depth [anything over 10 is for sissies]).
I avoided even-number pit areas (eg, 3x4, 6x5, etc) because the centerline jumps out at you and becomes annoying or at the very least, disconcerting.
Extended is my favourite blockset allthough I often dreamt of creating a more Extreme blockset (did Com Sci at UCT \'84-7 [Prof Ken McGregor is still head of Department]) that would favour a 7x7 pit area.

The difficulties or complexities in switching between ASD and QWE (boogaboo does a little) led me to believe that joysticks were the only way to take Blockout to the next level.

It\'s all good !


:):evil::sick:
Pascal<br><br>Post edited by: delacroixp, at: 2008/07/23 21:57
MRo
Posts: 16
Joined: Sat Jan 31, 2009 5:17 pm

Re:Your Blockout Story - post it here!

Post by MRo »

In 1990, I lived in East Berlin. Still do, and fortunately the city has grown together quite well.
After the German reunion, while I was in my 2nd year of CompSci at the TU Dresden, I bought my first PC, a 386SX with SVGA color monitor and a whopping 40MB IDE harddisk.
And it was about that time that I got BlockOut.
I was hooked immediately. After trying several setups,
I settled on playing OutOfControl exclusively.
I had been playing regularly without competition for years,
and somewhat lost interest in the game when a new colleague in 1998 mentioned the game and that he considered himself quite good, with an OOC score of about 200000.
He didn\'t believe me when I claimed I could beat that.
So we set up a small competition, and afterwards my interest in playing had been rekindled (and yes, I won the bet :laugh: ).
I even bought an old ATARI LYNX game console just because there was a BlockOut module for it and I wanted so see what it was like. Well, the screen really s**cks and playing with a control cross and some buttons is very awkward.
I prefer a PC with a proper keyboard. :)
In Y2K I beat the 300K limit for the first time.
I play almost every day now, and my daily goal is to get a +250K score.
There are days when it just won\'t work, and others when I make it in the first attempt. And sometimes the first digit turns out to be a 3...

In September 2008 I discovered BlockOutII and I love it. :cheer:

^_^<br><br>Post edited by: MRo, at: 2009/01/31 19:27
amit
Posts: 56
Joined: Tue Apr 22, 2008 5:52 pm

Re:Your Blockout Story - post it here!

Post by amit »

hello everyone, i am amit from new delhi, india, age 22

regarding the blockout story, i have been playing blockout since the age of 6-7 in year 1993, the california dreams version on a 80286 pc in those days. at age 7, i used to consider a score of 8000-9000 even as a good score and the 3d knowledge was limited. at that age only i became interested in this game. although i lost touch after about 1-2 years of playing due to the pc being formatted, it was about 7 years later in 2002 that i got a chance to again play it. remembering the days back then, this time at age of about 15, my understanding of the pieces was a lot better and i could get scores in the range of 70000-80000 and started playing in the block set of \"EXTENDED\" as i found the flat & basic blocksets boring. it was the same california dreams version and i played in out of control and other n*n*2m pit size variations with the blockset \"EXTENDED\".

in early 2008, when in the 4th year of my b.tech, i happened to discover a windows version of blockout from this site & downloaded it. a facility of uploading scores made me happy. looking at the list of highscores in the range of > 200K made me a bit unhappy as the scores of 80000(80K) which i used to think of as excellent when i used to play all by myself, started looking very poor when compared to others. i started playing with the blockset \"EXTENDED\" and in the same n*n*2m pit dimensions, usually 5*5*12 EXTENDED, which became my favourite pit size. and i happened to flood its high score list a bit. gradually i started improving in blockout and started to get scores above 150K. and now 1.5 years from that time, in 2009, i have broken the 250K barrier as well getting a high score of 259K in 5*5*12 EXTENDED & another 253K score in 5*5*14 EXTENDED.

my aim in blockout is to get a 300K score and also get a 250K+ score in \"out of control\". also, later on i would like to be the top scorer in atleast 5 of n*n*2m type pit sizes with the blockset \"EXTENDED\".

hope u all enjoyed my blockout story:)
amit
Posts: 56
Joined: Tue Apr 22, 2008 5:52 pm

Re:Your Blockout Story - post it here!

Post by amit »

amit wrote: my aim in blockout is to get a 300K score and also get a 250K+ score in "out of control".
i have happened to do both of these now with a score of 322K in 7x7x18 EXTENDED & a score of 263K in out of control :D
danimass
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Feb 28, 2011 7:09 pm

Re:Your Blockout Story - post it here!

Post by danimass »

I played blockout since 1996 when i lived in japan, i forgot to play my ps1, ps2, NES, and others consoles for just play blockout:s_mad: . It`s amazing game, but need facebook version today.B)
amit
Posts: 56
Joined: Tue Apr 22, 2008 5:52 pm

Re:Your Blockout Story - post it here!

Post by amit »

@danimass, even i dont like playing other games. i have so many other popular games installed on my pc, but just cant stay away from playing blockout. i play it almost everyday now & since last 3 years

and there should be a facebook application of blockout as well
snoeijhard
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Apr 17, 2011 8:15 am

Re:Your Blockout Story - post it here!

Post by snoeijhard »

HELLOOOOOOOW Block out fans!

I started playing the game when I was about 10 years old. My uncle gave me a disc with the game, and it was next to california games and price of persia the game I loved most.
Offcourse all my friends had a gameboy and were masters at tetris because they practiced all day.
I had something to show them who was the better gamer :D BLOCKOUT!

I just tried to find if facebook has a block out game to play with friends as I am sure nobody will beat me in this game hahaha :D.. but what a surprice...
I just played the game 3 times, and came to level 9 35000 points, but I am really curious how some people can score more then 2 times the amount I scored??? 2 times my score .. okay.. somebody might be really really good and started in level 8 instead of 6, played 4 layers at the same time constantly.. But more than 100.000??? Is this really possible? Are these players computers themself? Or does their computer slow down the game???
Just curious about how that is possible :)

Have fun! and don\'t get to square eyes :D

Mattijs Snoeij
dima
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Aug 06, 2011 10:48 am

Re:Your Blockout Story - post it here!

Post by dima »

Hi everyone
California Dreams - is my first and only computer game I ever played. In 3x3 Basic I need to get first places in 3x3x6 - 3x3x10 and 3x3x18 - and before I die I\'m gonna do that. It\'s a lot of fun to play. It\'s quite interesting that I ended up living in California working as a professor of computational linguistics. Thanks to the game - I guess. And the best of luck to every one -- keep on playing the best game yet made for brains and soul.
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