Timeball
 |
| Timeball | |
|---|---|
 TurboGrafx-16 cover art | |
| Developer(s) | Now Production |
| Publisher(s) | TurboGrafx-16 NEC, Hudson Soft X68000, Game Boy Broderbund, Tonkin House |
| Programmer(s) | Manuel Constantinidis (original game) |
| Platform(s) | TurboGrafx-16, Game Boy, X68000 |
| Release | JP: December 1990 NA: September 12, 1991 |
| Genre(s) | Puzzle |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, two-player (Game Boy) |
Timeball is a puzzle video game released by NEC for the TurboGrafx-16. The object of the game is to guide a ball along pieces of track by moving tiles like a sliding puzzle. The game's name in Japan is Blodia, an anagram of Diablo, the title of a computer game upon which Blodia is based. Versions of Blodia were released exclusively in Japan for the original Game Boy and the X68000. A spin-off titled Blodia Land: Puzzle Quest was released for the Famicom, replacing the ball with cartoon dinosaur-like characters. These versions were developed by Tonkin House and published by Broderbund.
Gameplay
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The grid on screen is composed of tiles. Some tiles have a piece of road, and a black tile represents "the void", an area where one can drag the tile nearby in order to complete a road which will be taken by a ball that will follow the path. Players must arrange the tiles such that the ball traverses all sections of track. The ball can be sped up by pressing a button. If the ball reaches a tile without a piece of track, it falls out of play.
The game also includes a level editor which allows for the creation of custom puzzles. An earlier "prototype" version without the level editor was published for the TI-99/4a and other computers as "Diablo" in 1985.