Yahoo! Towers
Yahoo! Towers is a multiplayer game and a member of the Yahoo! Games network of online computer games. It is a puzzle game involving falling blocks. Games are played competitively amongst human users.
Rules
Blocks fall in lines of three blocks; individual blocks are distinguished by one of six colours and an associated character (one for each of Y, A, H, and !, and two for O). Yahoo! Towers differentiates itself from other Tetris-style games via these letters: if Y-A-H-O-O-! is spelt (using two different Os, but in either order), a process knowing as "Yahooing" or "hooing", a player temporarily gains the ability to add blocks to opponents' stacks. There are many different ways of "hooing", each giving the player different amounts of "falls", meaning how many pieces can be played before the ability ends.
Defense blocks help you and your partner (if you have one) clear your boards. Attack blocks hurt opposing teams' chances to win by several means.
Y- is grey, and associated with adding or subtracting a row of blocks.
A- is green, and associated with dithering or clumping.
H- is blue, and associated with adding or dropping stones.
O- is purple, and associated with color blasts or defuses.
O- is yellow, and associated with "medusa" and "midas" blocks.
!- is orange, and associated with removing opponents' powers or removing a color from the screen.
There are other blocks called "Special Cells". Its power varies depending on what kind of cell it is.
Special Cell #1- a rotating diamond that removes all stones from the board.
Special Cell #2- a diamond with a yellow static charge surrounding it. It can turn power blocks on the board into regular blocks.
Special Cell #3- a diamond with a yellow and pink static charge. It speeds up gameplay for a short amount of time.
Special Cells can be used on you, your partner or the opponent at anytime. They can only be removed if you use them and not by your opponent (if they try to use the ! block that removes powers). Only Special Cell #1 is a defensive power (the way you can tell is if you use all the cells at random) and should be used by you or your partner. However, while they May Be easy to use, their is no known way of how to get one (shows up on your screen at random).
Targeting
"Targeting" is when a player deliberately sends offensive powers to attack another specific player. This is usually frowned upon by novices but used by advanced players to eliminate competition quickly and decisively.
Each table has a maximum number of 8 players. Teams can consist of one or two players.
History
Yahoo! Towers first appeared on the scene in late 1999 as a beta, then in December of 1999 as the game currently exists. It quickly gained popularity and after a few months 1,000 players would be on at any given time. A popular ladder also existed through Case's Ladders and a hall of fame can still be found at the link below. Most of the best towers players played on that ladder and as one can see from the site, nearly everyone stopped playing by the time 2002 rolled around.
The game retains a small but dedicated following; approximately 100-200 users are online at any given time. Its decline can be attributed mostly due to the inception of Yahoo! All-Stars, which ended free ladder games and charged a premium for them.
Game Play
By arranging falling groups of three permutable blocks, each of one of the above Letters/Colors, your goal is to be the last player, or a member of the team with the last player, who has space to drop more blocks onto their screen (much like the end-game in Tetris). By grouping blocks into lines of three or more (vertically, horizontally, or diagonally) of the same color, they will clear, and the blocks from above will fall into their place. After clearing a certain (incremental) number of groups of one color, the next falling blocks of that color will have powers, as mentioned above. You can use these, positive for yourself/teammate, and negative against your opponents, by using the space bar to 'randomly' (editor knows of no pattern) distribute, or the number keys to assign a power to a certain player.
By spelling the entire "YAHOO!", using distinct "O"s, you can further devastate your enemies, by showering them with remnants of any blocks that you clear in the next few groups. The numbers of groups that you have this ability depends on how you constructed the "YAHOO!". If you spell it horizontally, you have one group to attempt to clear blocks, if diagonally, 2 turns, and vertically yields three turns. Combinations of these will further extend your attempts, and this is how better players will typically try to start a game.