YouTuber Apple Demo found a third-generation iPod prototype that included a sport known as Stacker, however the sport by no means appeared within the retail mannequin. Along with Apple’s personal model of Tetris, the engineering pattern iPod was loaded with different unreleased video games, together with one titled Block 0 and klondike, aseen enjet.
There is a “DVT” (Design Verification Check) label engraved on the again of the prototype iPod the place the storage capability would usually be, which Apple’s demo defined signifies it is within the mid-stage of growth. There are nonetheless two songs in its storage and a helpfully named playlist indicating that the unit was used for battery testing.
After some tinkering and porting the interior arduous drive to a second-generation iPod, Apple’s trial model made the drive boot correctly, and of the video games out there, they solely demoed Stacker.
They even contacted Tony Fadell, the previous senior vp of Apple’s iPod division, to search out out why the Tetris clone was by no means launched. Nonetheless, Fadell’s solely remark from 2022 was “as we added video games in later software program releases,” leaving Stacker’s inner story to stay a thriller for now. A number of years later, Apple did launch a license for the Tetris sport on “basic” iPod fashions, which supported new video games bought from the iTunes Retailer.
Stacker makes use of the iPod’s click on wheel to maneuver the falling blocks left and proper, then the middle button drops them to the underside of the display screen. Like Tetris, the objective of the sport is to get a excessive rating by finishing and clearing traces of bricks with out stacking too many bricks from the highest. The sport is not fairly polished but – the video reveals at the very least one bug the place a brick overlaps a pile and will get caught whereas spinning. Nevertheless it works!
