Klax (history and reception)

Klax began as an Atari Games arcade game. Computer Entertainer's January 1990 issue, reporting on the Winter Consumer Electronics Show, said the coin-op "just hit the arcades earlier this month". A 2005 Japanese reference list of arcade games gives February 1990 for Atari Games' Klax in its overseas part, and March 1990 for Klax from Atari Games and Namco in its Japanese part; Hudson Soft's Famicom manual says Atari Games presented Klax in the arcades in spring 1990. klax-history/arcade-original

The sources do not agree to the month, and none of them is an arcade flyer or an operator's manual: Computer Entertainer's "this month" is the month of its January 1990 issue, and the reference list gives year and month only. No arcade source has been read for the coin-op's staff or hardware.

Cited by: Klax

VideoGames & Computer Entertainment's July 1990 issue printed RePlay magazine's chart of the top coin-ops of March 1990, from an earnings-opinion poll of operators, with "Klax by Atari" second among the best new upright games, after Namco's Winning Run. klax-history/arcade-chart

The chart starts on image 19 ("Top Coin-Ops of March 1990", "Best Upright Videos") and its Best New Uprights list runs on at the head of image 22 in the OCR; the page images haven't been checked for the layout.

Cited by: Klax

Tengen's NES manual credits the original game design to Mark Stephen Pierce and Dave S. Akers. For the NES version it credits the programming to Dave O'Riva, the graphics to Greg Williams, and the music to LX Rudis and Dave O'Riva. klax-history/design-credits

The OCR gives the credit labels and the names as two columns; the pairing was read on the page image (image 3), which also credits Mike Alexander under Special Thanks and Louis Saekow Design for the manual and packaging artwork.

Cited by: Klax

At the January 1990 Winter Consumer Electronics Show, Tengen announced but did not show an NES version of Klax, and also announced planned Genesis versions of Paperboy, RoadBlasters and Klax, according to Computer Entertainer. klax-history/nes-announced

Cited by: Klax

Tengen published the NES cartridge without Nintendo's license. Its manual prints "KLAX: TM Atari Games; licensed to Tengen, Inc. ©1990 Tengen, Inc" and refers players to Tengen's game counselors; Tengen's advertisement in Electronic Gaming Monthly's August 1990 issue says Tengen's products are not designed, manufactured, sponsored or endorsed by Nintendo, and that Klax was "Appearing first on the NES", to follow on the Genesis, the TurboGrafx and home computers. Nintendo of America's list of NES games has no entry for Klax. klax-history/nes-unlicensed

Nintendo's list is a later company document of the games released under its license; an absence from it is consistent with an unlicensed cartridge but doesn't date anything.

Cited by: Klax

The NES version was out by the summer of 1990: Electronic Gaming Monthly's Review Crew reviewed it in the August 1990 issue, whose review header gives its release as July, and Tengen advertised it in the same issue. Chris Scullion's NES Encyclopedia (2019) gives 1990, and Tengen as publisher and developer. No source read gives a day of release. klax-history/nes-release

Scullion's encyclopedia is a retrospective secondary source that names no source for its years.

Cited by: Klax

Electronic Gaming Monthly's Review Crew reviewed the NES version in its August 1990 issue: Steve gave it 7, Ed 6, Martin 7 and Sushi-X 7, out of 10. The header lists a Tengen puzzle game with 50 levels, and the description calls it an adaptation of "the recent Atari Games coin-op hit", a puzzle game "somewhat resembling a cross between Tetris and Columns". Steve called it "Tengen's revenge against Nintendo", with graphics and sound "remarkably close to the arcade, but more diversity in play would be nice". Ed found it different enough from Tetris to have its own identity. Martin called it "A good arcade translation of Klax for NES" that loses its appeal after 20 rounds, but "A good game!". Sushi-X called it "one great game idea which has gone astray", without "the 'progressive' appeal that you get with Tetris." klax-history/nes-egm-review

Value: review Electronic Gaming Monthly · of 10 · reviewers 7, 6, 7, 7

The OCR runs the Klax and Low G Man columns together and loses parts of several comments under the screenshots; the reviewers' tags, the marks, the header and the full comments were read on the page image (image 14, printed p. 14). The header's 50 levels differ from the 100 stages Scullion's encyclopedia gives the NES game.

Cited by: Klax

In the NES manual, Klax is a "tic-tac-tile game": colored tiles tumble down a conveyor belt and the player catches them and arranges them in same-colored lines. A Klax is three or more tiles of the same color in a row, vertical, horizontal or diagonal. The player's paddle moves between five positions at the foot of the conveyor and holds up to five tiles; the A Button flips the top tile into the bin below, Up on the control pad throws the top tile halfway back up the conveyor, and Down speeds the tiles up. There are up to eight colors plus a flashing wild tile that stands for any color. A tile the paddle misses drops and adds to the drop meter, and the game ends when the meter is full. klax-history/nes-premise

The diagram on p. 5 labels the vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines; the OCR keeps only "Diagonal" and "Horizontal". The wild tile is "a flashing block that will substitute for any color" (p. 5).

Cited by: Klax

The NES manual describes five types of wave, each set at its start: get a number of Klaxes, a number of diagonal Klaxes, a number of horizontal Klaxes, a number of points, or catch a number of tiles. A warp screen after the start lets the player choose the wave to begin at, and a second player can press Start there to play at the same time. The options let the player turn the drop meter off for wave 1, choose easy, medium or hard, turn ramping on or off, and pick sound effects or music; a Stuff menu holds Blob Ball, which the manual says "has no relationship whatsoever to the rest of KLAX". klax-history/nes-waves

The five wave types are the manual's; it says the numbers depend on the current wave. Scullion's NES Encyclopedia gives the NES game 100 stages (nes-release's source, the Klax entry), which the manual doesn't state.

Cited by: Klax

Hudson Soft released Klax on the Famicom in Japan on 14 December 1990, according to a retrospective Famicom catalog. klax-history/famicom-release

The catalog is an unsigned retrospective mook that names no source for its dates. No Famicom magazine of December 1990 has been read for the date.

Cited by: Klax

The Famicom cartridge, code HFC-V6, carries Hudson Soft's copyright of 1990 with Tengen's and Atari Games'. Its manual describes ten kinds of tile, five kinds of task set in each wave, and simultaneous play for two. klax-history/famicom-cartridge

The Famicom manual's ten kinds of tile differ from the NES manual's "up to 8 total colors" plus the wild tile. The manual's first page (image 4, read on the page image) doesn't mention the wild tile, so whether the ten include it is open.

Cited by: Klax

The home computer versions came out in the UK as Tengen/Domark releases in the spring of 1990. ACE's May 1990 release box gave the Atari ST and Amiga versions at £19.99 on disk; the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Amstrad and BBC versions at £9.99 on cassette and £12.99 on disk; a PC version at £24.99 on disk; and an MSX version at £9.99 on cassette, all for late April. The Games Machine's May 1990 review lists Tengen/Domark as producer, at £19.99 for the Amiga and Atari ST and £9.99 or £14.99 for the Commodore 64, Spectrum and Amstrad CPC. klax-history/computer-release

The release box gives planned prices and dates; the format names of its last three rows (PC, BBC, MSX) were read on the page image. No review of the PC, BBC or MSX versions has been read.

Cited by: Klax

ACE reviewed the Atari ST version in May 1990, by Laurence Scotford, who found that Klax "is not simply a Tetris clone" and "requires more thought and forward planning" than Tetris; the review's box gives graphics 8, IQ factor 5, audio 8, fun factor 9 and an ACE Rating of 880. ACE's August 1990 issue later printed 895 as the rating of the ST version reviewed in issue 32 ("ACE Rating 895"). klax-history/st-ace

Value: review ACE · of 1000 · score 880

The ratings disagree: the May 1990 review's own box (read on the page image) gives 880, and the August issue's Amiga update gives 895 for the version reviewed in issue 32, the figure issue 32 printed for Escape from the Planet of the Robot Monsters; which is ACE's error can't be told from the pages. The value is the review's own 880.

Cited by: Klax

ACE's May 1990 review of the Atari ST version gives a vertical Klax 50 points, a horizontal one 1,000 and a diagonal one 5,000. klax-history/st-ace-scoring

These are the three-tile scores; Sinclair User 102's players' guide (not pinned here) gives the same three for the Spectrum and higher ones for four and five tiles.

Cited by: Klax

ACE's August 1990 issue rated the Amiga version 830, at £24.95 on disk, finding it almost identical to the ST version apart from its sampled sound, and too fast between blocks to plan stacks: "A tough yet enjoyable puzzler." klax-history/amiga-ace

Value: review ACE · of 1000 · score 830

Cited by: Klax

The Games Machine reviewed Klax in May 1990, by Mark Caswell, and gave the Atari ST version 92% with its Star Player badge. The ST comment found the controls "a little tricky to master", the graphics "very good indeed", and Klax not "instantly playable", but a game that "grows on you". klax-history/st-tgm

Value: review The Games Machine · of 100 · score 92

Cited by: Klax

The Games Machine's August 1990 issue updated its review of issue 30 for three more versions: the Amiga version got 86% ("still doesn't push the host machine"), the Amstrad version 84% (playable despite "blocky and garish" sprites), and the Commodore 64 version 87%, with the comment that it is "as playable as the other versions". klax-history/tgm-updates

Each update names its machine in its header ("Tengen/Domark ■ Amiga", "■ Amstrad", "■ C64") and says "Originally reviewed TGM030". The OCR prints the C64 mark as "Machine rating", the others as "Machine update".

Cited by: Klax

The Games Machine's August 1990 update gave the Amiga version 86%. klax-history/amiga-tgm

Value: review The Games Machine · of 100 · score 86

Cited by: Klax

The Games Machine's August 1990 update gave the Amstrad CPC version 84%. klax-history/cpc-tgm

Value: review The Games Machine · of 100 · score 84

Cited by: Klax

The Games Machine's August 1990 update gave the Commodore 64 version 87%. klax-history/c64-tgm

Value: review The Games Machine · of 100 · score 87

Cited by: Klax

Zzap!64 reviewed the Commodore 64 and Amiga versions together in August 1990 and made both Sizzlers, with 92% overall each. The header gives Domark/Tengen, at £9.99 and £14.99 for the Commodore 64 and £19.99 for the Amiga. The review describes 100 waves, each completed by points, tiles survived, or Klaxes, with a warp screen at the start and every five waves; the Commodore 64 game fits in a single load, and the Amiga game adds a simultaneous two-player mode on a split screen. Phil called it "even better (and, believe it or not, more addictive) than Tetris" and, on both machines, "by far the best Tengen conversion yet". Rated parts: Commodore 64 presentation 80%, graphics 71%, sound 69%, hookability 92%, lastability 91%; Amiga presentation 85%, graphics 74%, sound 80%, hookability 92%, lastability 91%. klax-history/c64-amiga-zzap

The OCR keeps neither Overall mark nor the C64 presentation mark and doesn't name the reviewers; these were read on the page images (images 10-11, printed pp. 10-11). The two ratings columns are headed 64 and amiga.

Cited by: Klax

Zzap!64 gave the Commodore 64 version 92% overall in August 1990, as a Sizzler. klax-history/c64-zzap

Value: review Zzap!64 · of 100 · score 92

Cited by: Klax

Zzap!64 gave the Amiga version 92% overall in August 1990, as a Sizzler. klax-history/amiga-zzap

Value: review Zzap!64 · of 100 · score 92

Cited by: Klax

Crash reviewed the ZX Spectrum version (Tengen/Domark, £9.99 and £14.99) in June 1990 as a Crash Smash, with 92% overall. Mark, who wrote the main review, gave it 94%, and Nick 90%; Nick called it "Connect Four taken into the 90s". The verdict was "A cracking coin-op conversion to tease and frustrate", and the ratings box gives presentation 89%, graphics 86%, sound 70%, playability 90% and addictivity 91%. klax-history/spectrum-crash

Value: review Crash · of 100 · score 92

"MARK 94%" closes the main text, which Mark signs. The second reviewer, Nick, his mark, and the ratings other than presentation and addictivity were read on the page image (image 43, printed p. 43). Crash's later re-review of the Winning Team compilation (issue 89) is indexed but not read for this set.

Cited by: Klax

Your Sinclair reviewed the ZX Spectrum version (Domark/Tengen, £9.99 on cassette and £14.99 on disk) in May 1990 and gave it 81°. Its reviewer, Jonathan, described the player's bat at the bottom of a conveyor belt, called Klax "a winner" among colored-block strategy games, and thought Tetris "probably has the edge". The final verdict gives life expectancy 85°, graphics 70°, addictiveness 88° and instant appeal 69°. klax-history/spectrum-your-sinclair

Value: review Your Sinclair · of 100 · score 81

The review prints the reviewer's first name only, "Jonathan", beside a caricature on p. 82 (read on the page image); no surname appears on either page.

Cited by: Klax

Sega Visions' November 1992 issue described the Game Gear version as "the coin-op hit brought straight to the Game Gear", with diagonal Klaxes the hardest to make and worth the most points. klax-history/game-gear-sega-visions

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By 1991 Klax had appeared on many systems. Atari's Lynx advertising in Electronic Gaming Monthly's August 1990 issue offered Klax, "The latest arcade mega-hit from Atari Games", with 100 levels; Game Player's capsule of June 1991 lists Tengen's Klax for the NES, NEC, Genesis, Lynx, PC, Amiga, ST and 64. In May 1991 Nintendo Power listed Klax among the Game Boy games coming from Mindscape. klax-history/other-versions

Game Player's credits all of them to Tengen; the Lynx advertisement is Atari's. No version beyond the NES, Famicom, home computer and Game Gear ones has been researched for this set, and the Game Boy release itself isn't claimed.

Cited by: Klax