Gem Drop X

About

Magical Drop III is an arcade game for the SNK Neo-Geo system that the concept of Gem Drop is based on, per the project's own readme. Gem Drop X is a cross-platform SDL port of the original Atari 8-bit Gem Drop, playable on Windows, Linux, macOS, Classic Mac OS, Amiga, and Dreamcast. It's a single-player puzzle game where players grab colored gems and throw them to form vertical matches of three or more across 20 levels.

How it differs from the original

Unlike the original Atari version, Gem Drop X was first ported to X11/Xlib graphics and later fully rewritten to use SDL for both graphics and sound.

Getting started

Controllable via keyboard arrow keys, mouse clicks, or joystick: move left and right, grab gems above you, and throw them back up to create matches. Special bomb, wildcard, and clock tiles can be triggered by matching them into a line for extra effects like clearing nearby gems or slowing down new gem drops.

History

Gem Drop X descends from the 1997 Atari 8-bit Gem Drop by the same author, first ported to X11/Xlib graphics before being rewritten around SDL for both video and sound.

Media

Additional notes

Related project

Shares its origin with Gem Drop Deluxe, a separate later C port of the same original Atari Gem Drop by the same author.