Zoop is a puzzle game developed by Hookstone

Hookstone

Hookstone was a UK video game development group, active from 1994 until ~1998.The group members were Jason McGann, Peter Tattersall, Cliff Davies, Ian Bowden, Dave Box, Justin Johnson, Gordon Hall, James Smart and Chris White....

, and published by Viacom

Viacom

Viacom Inc. , short for "Video & Audio Communications", is an American media conglomerate with interests primarily in, but not limited to, cinema and cable television...

 New Media.

Some of its rules resemble those of Plotting (known in some territories as Flipull), but unlike Plotting, Zoop runs in real time.

Official Zoop games have been released for Game Boy

Game Boy

The , is an 8-bit handheld video game device developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on , in North America in , and in Europe on...

, Game Gear

Sega Game Gear

The was Sega's first handheld game console. It was the third commercially available color handheld console, after the Atari Lynx and the TurboExpress....

, Mega Drive/Genesis, Super NES

Super Nintendo Entertainment System

The Super Nintendo Entertainment System is a 16-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America, Europe, Australasia , and South America between 1990 and 1993. In Japan and Southeast Asia, the system is called the , or SFC for short...

, Atari Jaguar

Atari Jaguar

The Atari Jaguar is a video game console that was released by Atari Corporation in 1993. It was the last to be marketed under the Atari brand until the release of the Atari Flashback in 2004. It was designed to surpass the Mega Drive/Genesis, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and the Panasonic...

, Sega Saturn

Sega Saturn

The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console that was first released by Sega on November 22, 1994 in Japan, May 11, 1995 in North America, and July 8, 1995 in Europe...

, PlayStation, Microsoft MS-DOS

MS-DOS

MS-DOS is an operating system for x86-based personal computers. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems, and was the main operating system for IBM PC compatible personal computers during the 1980s to the mid 1990s, until it was gradually superseded by operating...

, and Macintosh

Macintosh

The Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a...

.

To garner interest for the game, Blockbuster offered the game as a free rental for the SNES for a time.

Game play

The player controls a triangle in the center of the screen. Every second (or more often in advanced levels), a piece comes in from the side and possibly pushes other pieces forward. Two consecutive pieces will never come in from the same quadrant, and runs of consecutive identical pieces on one row are longer, statistically

Statistics

Statistics is the study of the collection, organization, analysis, and interpretation of data. It deals with all aspects of this, including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of surveys and experiments....

, than one might think.

If a piece falls into the center square, the game is over.

If the player shoots a piece of the same color as their triangle, it will be "zooped" (cleared) and points

Score (game)

In games, score refers to an abstract quantity associated with a player or team. Score is usually measured in the abstract unit of points, and events in the game can raise or lower the score of different parties...

 are earned. If the piece behind the target piece is also of the same color, it is also "zooped." The same goes for the next piece, and so on. In the example gameplay screenshot, shooting to the left of the position in the screenshot will "zoop" the green pieces and return the player to the center, facing right (the opposite direction).

If a piece of a different color than the player's current piece is shot, the player's piece will switch colors with it. This is also what happens when a piece of a different color is encountered after zooping one or more pieces of the same color. In the example, shooting down would bounce off the orange piece (leaving a green piece behind), and return with the orange piece.

When the quota of "zooped" pieces is met, the game speeds up and (before level 10) the background changes.

Various special pieces do different things:

• A proximity bomb (shaped like a lightning bolt) blows up pieces in a 3×3 area centered at the target piece.
• A line bomb (often shaped like a gear) clears a whole target line of pieces.
• A color bomb (often shaped like a paint splotch) clears all the pieces in a quadrant that match the target piece.
• Collect five spring pieces to clear the whole screen.
• If a piece is pushed right next to the center square, it immediately disappears. In this way, the player may not lose because of a powerup entering the middle square.

Points

Generally speaking, every cleared piece is worth 100 points. In the case of zooping more than one piece at once, each piece is worth 100 points more than the piece before it. For example, zooping 3 pieces results in 100 + 200 + 300 = 600 points. In addition, if a row is full (one more piece being added will cause a loss of game) and all the pieces are of the same color, zooping the row earns a bonus of 5,000 points for the smaller rows on the top and bottom, and 10,000 for the rows on the left and right. All pieces cleared as a result of any of the four powerup items are worth 100 points.

Opti-Challenge

To make matters even more difficult, the game also employed what was referred to as "opti-challenge" backgrounds. As the game progressed, the backgrounds would become increasingly distracting. Early on, this would involve the use of contrasting colours, and increasingly intricate colour schemes. Background patterns would also become more intricate and would make subtle use of asymmetrical elements. Ultimately, the background on level 9 employed black and white tiles, roughly the size of the invading pieces, while the center square contained a picture of clouds, which expanded to fill the screen on levels 10 and later. Although the opti-challenge element of the game was used as a selling point, very little information exists about the technique itself, and no other game on the market has ever openly claimed to use opti-challenge graphics.

Sound and music

The MS-DOS version of the game supports various sound cards, and features wavetable-like MIDI music. The sound effects have a cartoonish tone to match the vivid colors used through the stages. The music is basically jazz, and "evolves" with the game. The title and options screens, and the first stages, feature "smooth jazz" tunes. As the levels get harder, the music gets more and more tense, adding to the fast-paced atmosphere of the game.

Pop culture reference

Zoop is shown prominently on packaging for the Okama GameSphere in the South Park

South Park

South Park is an American animated television series created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the Comedy Central television network. Intended for mature audiences, the show has become famous for its crude language, surreal, satirical, and dark humor that lampoons a wide range of topics...

episode "Towelie".