Klax

 

The paddle can only hold six tiles, after that they will begin to fall off.  If you don't want a particular tile you can temporarily throw it back by pressing up, but eventually it will come back down the conveyer.  Every time a tile falls off a miss counter lights up, when all your miss counters are lit up it's game over.  To help you in your task, occasionally you will get a special glowing tile.  These glowing tiles are a wild card and can be used for any color.  Wild tiles are necessary to complete some of the more advanced patterns such as the Ultra Star and Tengen Stax. , but use them wisely as they are few and far between.  For more information on these advanced patterns check out KlaxWorld.com.

 

Of course Klax wouldn't be one of the greatest puzzle games of all time if didn't contain a few secrets.  By completing the "Big X (a 5x5 X pattern) on certain waves, you can warp ahead to the higher levels.  Completing the Big X is rather difficult as you must place the center tile last (otherwise you'll just score a diagonal), but is the secret to getting those amazingly high scores.  The 7800 version of Klax is unique as it contains three"Impossible" levels.  These secret levels can be accessed after beating all 100 waves.

 

Impossible Level 1

     

All you have to do is get one simple horizontal, how hard can that be?  Look, they even set you up with two like colored tiles!  Just drop one in and you're golden.  Unfortunately all you'll get on this level are rust colored tiles, no yellows or greens.  Hmm... They also seem to have neglected to give you three empty spaces to make your own rust colored Klax.  How about using the two rust colored tiles in column one and three by stacking four rust tiles in the second column?  Wait a minute, dropping the 3rd tile scores a vertical Klax!  How on earth do you get four in that column?

 

Impossible Level 2

    

If you thought the first impossible level was bad, then you're gonna freak when you see this one.  Here you only have to get one diagonal, how hard can that be?  Once again they've set you up with several tiles, just stack a few in the center column and you're done.  Wait a minute, all the tiles on this level are wild tiles!  How do we make a diagonal Klax without having a horizontal or a vertical Klax first?  

 

Impossible Level 3

    

Unlike the first two impossible levels, this one doesn't have any devious puzzles involved.  This level is just a straight forward point wave.  Unfortunately it's a impossible point wave!  True to the hint's words, the game is cheating this time.  Try as hard as want, you'll never score those 140,000 points...  Or will you?  Patience is the key....

 

While the 7800 version Klax may be one of the best home versions out there, it was sadly never released.  Around the time Klax was completed Atari decided to drop all support for the 7800, so many games that were completed or nearly so were shelved.  Thankfully in 2002 Lee Krueger of ResQsoft (http://home.earthlink.net/~resqsoft/products.htm) was able to contact the programmer and obtain permission to sell reproductions to eager Atari 7800 enthusiasts  But one has to ask, if it's now the 2000's, is there still time for Klax?

 

Version	Cart Text	Description
?/??/92		Final Version

 

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