Quarth

Infobox VG
title=Quarth


caption=Quarth for the MSX
developer=Konami
publisher=Konami and subsidiaries (Ultra (company) in US)
released=Arcade: November 1989
US Game Boy: June 16 1990
MSX2: 1990
Famicom/NES: 1990
i-mode phones (Europe): 2005
genre = Puzzle game/Shoot 'em up
platforms=Arcade, MSX2, NEC PC-9801, Famicom/NES, Game Boy, Mobile Phone

"Quarth" is a hybrid puzzle game/shoot 'em up developed by Konami which was released in 1989 as an arcade game, sold as "Block Hole" outside Japan. Besides the arcade version, there were also ports of the game to the MSX (with a built-in SCC chip), Famicom/NES, and Game Boy—home releases used the "Quarth" name worldwide (with the exception of the Game Boy Color release on the European "Konami GB Collection Vol.4", where the game was renamed to the generic title "Block Game" for unknown reasons). In 2005 Konami also included the game in the Nintendo DS title "".

"Quarth" was released on the Konami Net i-mode service as "Block Quarth", with an updated "Block Quarth DX" in 2001—this was released in 2005 on O2's i-mode services in the British Isles minus the "DX" suffix.

Gameplay

"Quarth" is a combination of "Tetris"-style gameplay and a fixed shooter in the "Space Invaders" tradition. The player's focus is on falling blocks, and the action is geometrical. Rather than arranging the blocks together to make a row of disappearing blocks, a spaceship positioned at the bottom of the screen shoots blocks upwards to make the falling block pattern into squares or rectangles. Once the blocks have been arranged properly, the shape is destroyed and the player is awarded points based on the shape's size. The blocks continue to drop from the top of the screen in various incomplete shapes. As each level progresses, the blocks drop at greater speed and frequency. There are also various power-ups which could be located to increase your ship's speed, among other bonuses.

The game continues until the blocks reach the dotted line at the bottom of the screen, whereupon the player's ship is "quarthed," crushed flat.

Multi-player

Like most arcade games, the game featured a multi-player mode. In the arcade, this was demonstrated via a split screen with Player 1 on the left and Player 2 on the right. For the Game Boy, multiplayer required the Game Boy Link Cable with each player able to view only their fields on their own Game Boys.

The MSX2 and NES version had two different 2-player modes: Mode A, where both players worked together on the same game, and Mode B which was the same as the arcade split-screen game.

External links

* [http://www.rottentomatoes.com/g/game_boy/quarth/overview.php/ Rotten Tomatoes's Overview of the Game Boy version]
*moby game|id=/quarth

References