Block Hole (Arcade)

Block Hole
Also known as: Quarth (JP) Developer: Konami Publisher: Konami Platform: Arcade (custom) Released internationally: 1989 Released in JP: October 9, 1989 This game has regional differences.

This article is a work in progress. ...Well, all the articles here are, in a way. But this one moreso, and the article may contain incomplete information and editor's notes.

Quarth is Konami's baroque-themed puzzle shooting arcade game. However, Konami chose to partially strip out this unique theming for its overseas release and repackage it as a more standard puzzle shooter, plainly and banally titled Block Hole.

Regional Differences

Title Screen

As mentioned, while the title screen of Quarth is baroque-themed, the title screen for Block Hole has been redone to be more standard with its space theme.

However, both games do have their logos palette-cycled.

Japan	World

Player 1 and 2

The most obvious difference between Quarth and Block Hole is the way the single-player game is set up in both versions.

Quarth centers the single-player mode in the middle of the screen and doesn't allow a second player to drop in while gameplay is still active. Block Hole moves the single-player mode to the left side and leaves room on the right side for a second player to drop in anytime.

Quarth	Block Hole

Also, as can be seen, the player ship in Block Hole has been changed to a more standard ship from the original baroque-themed version of Quarth.

Music

Block Hole has a few tracks swapped out from Quarth for its soundtrack.

As of this writing, the only official soundtrack release for the arcade version is on Konami Game Music Collection Vol. 2 (KICA-1016).

Title BGM

Oddly enough, while the official soundtrack release has the title BGM for Quarth as part of the track "The Marauding Block", it presents the title BGM for Block Hole as its own separate track.

Quarth	Block Hole
(no title)	The Prologue Of "The Block Hole"

BGM 1

Block Hole gets an entirely new theme for BGM 1, titled "The Theme from Block Hole" as opposed to "The Theme from Quarth".

Quarth	Block Hole
The Theme From Quarth	The Theme From Block Hole

The Menace of the Block (BGM 2)

While this track is largely kept the same in both games, the Block Hole version is slightly remixed from the Quarth version.

For whatever reason, this track was omitted from the official soundtrack release mentioned above.

Quarth	Block Hole