After nearly 35 years since its creation, the original version of the match-three puzzle game Columns has been rediscovered and shared online. Despite Sega’s more well-known adaptations of the game, the origins of Columns can be traced back to Jay Geersten’s development of the game on the HP-UX operating system in 1989 while working at Hewlett Packard. Geersten’s code was later adapted for various other platforms such as MS-DOS, Atari ST, Macintosh, and Windows 3.x. It was believed for some time that the HP-UX version was lost, but a video game collector, @TrevgauntletNeu, recently claimed to have found and successfully run the original game on MAME.
Screenshots and a gameplay video have been shared, showcasing the game’s early form, which notably differs from Sega’s versions with plain blocks resembling Tetris and without the mythological themes that later became associated with the franchise.
More screenshots of Columns for HP-UX. #Columns #Unix #RetroGaming pic.twitter.com/2oGTiCaXUf
— Trevgauntlet Noə (@TrevgauntletNeu) May 2, 2024
