Columns

Time you got around to sponsoring a child

Columns (also called Jewels) is a Tetris-like video game. In the game, columns of three or more symbols (such as jewels) fall towards the bottom of the screen; when the column reaches the bottom of the screen, it stays there and another column starts to fall, as in Tetris. The player can change the placement of the symbols within the column; when three or more of the same symbols touch, those symbols disappear and the ones on top fall towards the bottom. Again similar to Tetris, the columns fall faster and faster as the player eliminates more symbols. The goal of the game is to play for as long as possible before the screen fills up with symbols.

As with Tetris, Columns has been cloned many times on different computers. There was an Amiga clone called Squigs, and there is also a popular online Java game heavily based on it called Yahoo! Towers, which allows up to eight players to compete against each other.