''Tactic'' is a

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

, originally released for the

Acorn Archimedes The Acorn Archimedes is a family of personal computers designed by Acorn Computers of Cambridge, England. The systems in this family use Acorn's own ARM architecture processors and initially ran the Arthur operating system, with later models ...

in 1990 by Eterna. It takes the form of a falling block puzzle.

Gameplay

''Tactic'' is a falling block puzzle as popularised by the game ''

Tetris ''Tetris'' () is a puzzle video game created in 1985 by Alexey Pajitnov, a Soviet software engineer. In ''Tetris'', falling tetromino shapes must be neatly sorted into a pile; once a horizontal line of the game board is filled in, it disa ...

''. Unlike that game, all of the blocks are the same size but are a number of different colours (and on systems that cannot display enough colours, different shapes). The aim of the game is to drop the blocks so that blocks of the same colour form set patterns (e.g. a line in a set direction or a cross). The patterns required to complete the level are shown at the bottom of the screen. If a required pattern is formed, those blocks disappear causing any blocks resting above to fall. The

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

version adds bombs.

Release

The game was first released in 1990 for the Acorn Archimedes by Eterna. It was then converted to

BBC Micro The BBC Microcomputer System, or BBC Micro, is a family of microcomputers developed and manufactured by Acorn Computers in the early 1980s as part of the BBC's Computer Literacy Project. Launched in December 1981, it was showcased across severa ...

and

Acorn Electron The Acorn Electron (nicknamed the Elk inside Acorn and beyond) was introduced as a lower-cost alternative to the BBC Micro educational/home computer, also developed by Acorn Computers, to provide many of the features of that more expensive mach ...

by Superior Software. The BBC Micro version was released on the 1993 compilation ''Play It Again Sam 17'' but as that was the first of the series not to be released on the Acorn Electron, the Electron version was never released. The game was then released by Nessprod for

iPhone The iPhone is a line of smartphones developed and marketed by Apple that run iOS, the company's own mobile operating system. The first-generation iPhone was announced by then–Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, at ...

and

iPod Touch The iPod Touch (stylized as iPod touch) is a discontinued line of iOS-based mobile devices designed and formerly marketed by Apple Inc. with a touchscreen-controlled user interface. As with other iPod models, the iPod Touch can be used as a po ...

in 2009.''Tactic''
at GameFAQs

References

1990 video games Acorn Archimedes games BBC Micro and Acorn Electron games Falling block puzzle games IOS games Multiplayer and single-player video games Superior Software games Video games developed in the United Kingdom {{Puzzle-videogame-stub