Changes: Top out

Revision as of 20:54, 12 February 2020

A top out (also called Tetris Death, or Topped Out) occurs when:

Top outs usually result in a game over. However, in Tetris Blitz, top outs result in a 3-second penalty and removal of line 16 upwards.

There are several variations of what constitutes a top out:

Block out: a piece is spawned overlapping at least one block in the playfield
Lock out: a piece locks when it is entirely out of bounds (that is, in the vanish zone above the ceiling)
Partial lock out: a piece locks when it is partially out of bounds, even if it would clear a line. This is not used in the Tetris Guideline as of 2009.
Garbage out: After lines are cleared and garbage is added, a block remains out of bounds.
- Line 41+ garbage out is the version used in the Tetris Guideline.

Different games have used different combinations of these conditions:

This list is incomplete.

Tetris (NES, Nintendo): a piece locks overlapping at least one block, but in some cases it is possible to move or rotate out of such a situation
Tetris (Game Boy): Similar to NES Tetris, but slightly more lenient in ways that aren't fully understood
Dr. Mario, Tetris and Dr. Mario, Puyo Pop, Super Puzzle Fighter II, Kirby's Star Stacker: block out
Bombliss: garbage out
Tetris (Atari), Tetris (NES, Tengen), The New Tetris, and Tetris DS (push mode): partial lock out or garbage out
Tetris Attack: garbage out; in multiplayer mode, evaluation is delayed by a split second
Tetris DS (standard mode and mission mode) and most other recent games: block out or lock out

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-A '''top out''' (also called '''Tetris Death''') occurs when:
+A '''top out''' (also called '''Tetris Death, or Topped Out''') occurs when:
 *a tetromino cannot be placed at least partially within the play zone.
 *garbage pieces are sent, pushing the top pieces above the spawn zone.