Diamonds is an arcade-style game released for the

Macintosh The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and software en ...

in 1992 by Varcon Systems, Inc.

Gameplay

The goal of Diamonds is to achieve a

high score In games, score refers to an abstract quantity associated with a player or team. Score is usually measured in the abstract unit of points (except in game shows, where scores often are instead measured in units of currency), and events in the ...

while completing as many levels as possible before running out of lives, or ultimately to complete the last level of the game. During the game there is a small ball constantly bouncing up and down on the screen, similar to Breakout. However, unlike the paddle in Breakout, the player can directly control the left and right motion of the ball using the arrow keys on the keyboard. In fact, this is the only control the player has over the game. To complete a level, all blocks with diamond symbols must be cleared away by bouncing the ball against them. However, before the diamond blocks can be destroyed, all solid color blocks must be removed by bouncing the ball off each block while the ball matches the color of the particular block. Among the various types of blocks are "brush" blocks, which alter the color of the bouncing ball when it makes contact with them, and skull blocks which cost the player one life. When beginning a level or after losing a life, the ball is initially light blue. The player needs to then eliminate all light blue blocks first because there are no light blue brushes to return the ball to that color. Therefore, if the ball's color is changed while light blue blocks remain, the only way to change the ball back to light blue is to intentionally lose a life.

Ports

In 1993 a port was written for the

Apple IIGS The Apple IIGS (styled as II), the fifth and most powerful of the Apple II family, is a 16-bit personal computer produced by Apple Computer. While featuring the Macintosh look and feel, and resolution and color similar to the Amiga and Atari S ...

by Richard Bennett and Sean Craig, however it sat in limbo due to licensing issues with Varcon Systems. After much delay and failure to have it licensed, it was publicly leaked by beta tester Joe Kohn in 1996. Also in 1993, a clone under the name of ''Go Bonkers'' was released for the

Sega Genesis The Sega Genesis, known as the outside North America, is a 16-bit Fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega. It was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master Syst ...

as part of the ''

Action 52 ''Action 52'' is an unlicensed, multicart video game compilation developed by Active Enterprises for the Nintendo Entertainment System, and by FarSight Studios, FarSight Technologies for the Sega Genesis. The NES version was released in 1991, fol ...

'' multicart by

Active Enterprises Active may refer to: Music * ''Active'' (album), a 1992 album by Casiopea * Active Records, a record label Ships * ''Active'' (ship), several commercial ships by that name * HMS ''Active'', the name of various ships of the British Royal ...

Sequels

Varcon Systems, Inc. licensed

MacSoft MacSoft was an American video game developer and publisher founded in 1993 by Peter Tamte as subsidiary of WizardWorks, specializing in the production of video game ports from Microsoft Windows to Macintosh operating systems, as well as produc ...

to release ''Diamonds and More Diamonds'' in 1994. The significant change to this new version was the addition of forty new levels after the original thirty. MacSoft also produced a three-dimensional edition of the game, ''

Diamonds 3D Diamond is a solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the chemically stable form of carbon at room temperature and pressure, b ...

'', in 1995. ''Diamonds 3D'' received a score of 4 out of 5 from ''

MacUser ''MacUser'' was a monthly (formerly biweekly) computer magazine published by Dennis Publishing Ltd. and licensed by Felden in the UK. It ceased publication in 2015. In 1985 Felix Dennis’ Dennis Publishing, the creators of MacUser in the UK, ...

''. Several years afterwards, a pseudo-sequel entitled ''Diamonds for Kids'' which featured overall lower difficulty than its predecessor and slight graphical adjustments to accompany a smaller play field was released as part of the compilation disc "''Kid's Arcade Pack''" produced by WizardWorks.

References

{{Reflist

External links

*http://diamonds.sourceforge.net/ An open source project dedicated to porting Diamonds to PC.
16-bit Windows version
of

Diamonds and More Diamonds Diamond is a solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the chemically stable form of carbon at room temperature and pressure, b ...

that will work in 32-bit versions of Windows, and will not turn in 64-bit versions of Windows Apple IIGS games Classic Mac OS games 1992 video games Video games developed in the United States Single-player video games