Games of the 8-, 16- & 32-bit era

Columns

Title	Columns
First release	1990
Developer	Sega
Publisher	Sega
Platforms	Arcade, Game Gear, MSX, Master System, Mega Drive / Genesis, NEC PC-98, PC (Windows), PC Engine / TurboGrafx-16, SNES / Super Famicom, ZX Spectrum
Genres	falling block puzzle game, match-three video game
Also known as	コラムス · Koramusu
Players	1–2 players
Co-op	No
ESRB rating	E Everyone
Releases	Master System: 1990-01-01 (PAL), 1990-09-15 (NTSC) MSX: 1990-01-01 Arcade: 1990-06-01 (NTSC-U) Mega Drive / Genesis: 1990-06-30 (NTSC-J), 1990-09-12 (NTSC-U) PC Engine / TurboGrafx-16: 1991-03-29 Game Gear: 1991-04-26 (NTSC-U)
Wikidata ID	Q1112940

Align glittering jewels horizontally, vertically, or diagonally to clear them from the board before columns reach the top. This puzzle game features a split screen mode for two players to compete as falling speeds increase. Success requires matching three or more colored gems to trigger vanishing sequences and keep the stack manageable.

Description: REG-Vault, CC BY-SA 4.0

View on Wikidata Read on Wikipedia

Facts from Wikidata (CC0), gaps filled from REG-Vault and TheGamesDB and Arcade Database (ADB). Only retro platforms tracked by this site are listed; the year is the earliest release date recorded on Wikidata.

Sources

Wikidata (Q1112940) · last updated 2026-09-27 · CC0

REG-Vault (megadrive/columns) · last updated 2026-10-28 · descriptions CC BY-SA 4.0

REG-Vault (zxspectrum/columns) · last updated 2026-10-03 · descriptions CC BY-SA 4.0

TheGamesDB (3085,95858) · last updated 2026-07-18 · no licence stated · internal use only

TheGamesDB (465,29108) · last updated 2026-07-18 · no licence stated · internal use only

TheGamesDB (33307) · last updated 2026-07-18 · no licence stated · internal use only

TheGamesDB (41180) · last updated 2026-07-18 · no licence stated · internal use only

TheGamesDB (23255) · last updated 2026-07-18 · no licence stated · internal use only

TheGamesDB (5738) · last updated 2026-07-18 · no licence stated · internal use only

Arcade Database (ADB) (columns) · last updated 2026-10-03 · CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 · internal use only

Arcade Database ADB

MAME romset	`columns`
Title at ADB	Columns (World)
Manufacturer	Sega
Year	1990
Genre	Puzzle / Drop
Players	2
MAME driver status	GOOD

Artwork: ADB (Arcade Database); artwork © original manufacturer (Sega); snaps by ProgettoSnaps via ADB. Non-free, internal use only (hotlinked, not downloaded).

Scraping using Arcade Database by motoschifo · CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 · romset via Wikidata P2451 (wikidata-qid) · fetched 2026-10-03 16:52 UTC · no fields filled (other sources take precedence)

Source: REG-Vault (upstream not stated) · © Sega · internal use only

1 / 20 Box art Box art (front) 1

Image credits

Box art, Screenshots, Logos, Artwork (11): Source: REG-Vault (upstream not stated) · © Sega · internal use only. REG-Vault page

Box art (1): Source: TheGamesDB (user-uploaded, NTSC release) · © Sega · internal use only. TheGamesDB page

Box art, Screenshots, Logos, Artwork (6): Source: TheGamesDB (user-uploaded) · © Sega · internal use only. TheGamesDB page

Screenshots (2): Source: libretro-thumbnails (upstream libretro-thumbnails (art by developers/publishers; see repo README)) · © Sega · internal use only.

Sprites

No sprite sheets yet. Find sprites on The Spriters Resource ↗ /

Videos

Game Gear Longplay [043] Columns

World-of-Longplays · Game Gear version · longplay · 35:38auto-matched
Watch on YouTube ↗ · auto:channel-harvest, checked 2026-10-25 18:41 UTC

Columns - RZX Playback

Spectrum Computing · ZX Spectrum version · longplay · 33:06auto-matched
Watch on YouTube ↗ · auto:channel-harvest, checked 2026-10-25 18:42 UTC

"Auto-matched" videos were found automatically (title + platform match via the YouTube Data API) and may occasionally be wrong. Videos are hosted by YouTube (embedded via youtube-nocookie.com; nothing loads from YouTube until you press play) and belong to their channels.