SameGame

SameGame was originally developed by Kuniaki Moribe, a Japanese programmer, under the title 'Chain Shot!' in 1985 for Fujitsu's FM-8 and FM-7 personal computers. The game was later renamed SameGame and ported to various Japanese platforms, eventually becoming one of the most widely cloned puzzle game designs in video game history.

SameGame is played on a grid populated with colored blocks, where players select connected groups of two or more identical tiles to eliminate them. When tiles are removed, blocks above fall down to fill the gaps and empty columns shift, making strategic planning essential because removing larger groups yields exponentially higher scores.

In SameGame, players click on groups of connected same-colored tiles to remove them, whereas in Bejeweled-style match-three games, players swap adjacent tiles to form lines of three or more. SameGame's group-elimination mechanic means the board only shrinks during play — no new tiles are added — creating a finite puzzle that rewards maximizing combo chains before the board empties.

SameGame and its many variants are widely available, including free browser-based versions, mobile apps, and implementations bundled into operating systems. The game's simple grid-based mechanics make it easy to implement, and countless versions exist online, from faithful reproductions of the 1985 original to modernized versions with power-ups and themes.