Columns

The game uses a tall, rectangular playing area. Columns of three different symbols (such as differently-colored jewels) appear, one at a time, at the top of the well and fall to the bottom, landing either on the floor or on top of previously fallen "columns". While a column is falling, the player can move it left and right, and can also cycle the positions of the symbols within it. After a column lands, if three or more of the same symbols are connected in a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal line, those symbols disappear.

The pile of columns then settles under gravity. If this resettlement causes three or more other symbols to align, they too disappear and the cycle repeats. Occasionally, a special column with a multicolor Magic Jewel appears. It destroys all the jewels with the same color as the one underneath it.

Columns is one of the many tile-matching puzzle games to appear after the great success of Tetris in the late 1980s. It was created in 1989 by Jay Geertsen, a software engineer at Hewlett-Packard (HP), as a personal project to learn X11 programming on the HP-UX operating system. After completing the game, Geertsen shared it with colleagues at HP. Two of them ported Columns to Macintosh and MS-DOS.

As these ports gained popularity, Sega became aware of Columns and expressed interest in acquiring the commercial rights to the game. Geertsen informed HP of the situation, given that he had utilized corporate resources during the game's development. HP took approximately six months to deliberate on the request, ultimately deciding to sell non-exclusive rights to Sega, and donating the proceeds to the United Way. HP retained the rights to distribute Geertsen's original X11 version of Columns alongside HP-UX.

In Japan, Game Machine listed Columns as the eighth most successful table arcade unit of April 1990. It went on to be Japan's fourth highest-grossing arcade game of 1990 (below Capcom's Final Fight, Sega's Tetris and Super Monaco GP) and third highest-grossing arcade conversion kit of 1991 (below Capcom's Street Fighter II and Sega's Tetris).

Reviewing the game's appearance in Sega Arcade Classics for the Sega CD, Glenn Rubenstein gave it a B+ rating in Wizard magazine, describing it as "like Tetris but a bit better". Mega placed the game at number 34 in their "Top Mega Drive Games of All Time". In 2017, Gamesradar ranked the game 40th on its "Best Sega Genesis/Mega Drive games of all time".

Many sequels and spin-offs were produced: Columns II: The Voyage Through Time, Columns III: Revenge of Columns, Columns '97, Sakura Taisen: Hanagumi Taisen Columns 1 & 2, and many compilations and re-releases (Columns Arcade Collection, Sega Ages Vol. 07: Columns) as well. Since Columns was created by Sega, versions were made available on the Master System, Mega Drive/Genesis, Sega CD, Game Gear, Saturn, and Dreamcast. Additional versions of the game have also been made available for the PC Engine, Game Boy Advance, and PlayStation 2.

A Super Famicom version was released in Japan via the Nintendo Power service. The Game Boy Color version was specifically called Columns GB: Osamu Tezuka Characters, where it featured many of his characters such as Kimba and Astroboy, but also featured slightly less known characters like Unico. A mobile phone version, Columns Deluxe, was released in 2008.