Columns

Columns is a 1989 Macintosh shareware puzzle game by Chris Christensen in which columns of three gems drop down from the top of the board and are cleared by lining up three or more matching symbols horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. It is a direct tribute to Sega's Columns concept, adapted to the Classic Mac desktop.

Gameplay

Falling triplets can be slid left or right and their internal symbol order rotated, allowing the player to set up multi-match chains and cascading clears for higher scores as the drop speed accelerates.

Origins

Released in 1989 by Chris Christensen, this Mac take on Columns appeared early in the Mac shareware puzzle wave that followed the success of Tetris and Sega's own Columns.

Genre Context

It belongs to the matching falling-block subgenre alongside Tetris derivatives, and was one of several Mac shareware titles to translate the Columns formula to a black-and-white or early colour Macintosh display.

Classic Mac Era

The game targets late-1980s and early-1990s Macintosh hardware running System 6 or 7, with a small footprint suited to the compact Mac line.