Diamonds 3D — break the rooms open from the inside Runs here
1998 · Varcon Systems · Mac OS 8 · SheepShaver (Power Macintosh 9500) · 800×600 at 8-bit colour
Guide updated September 2026
Diamonds turned Breakout inside out: instead of a wall of bricks above you, you are inside a room and have to clear its walls from within. It was a genuinely good idea, it was a Macintosh original, and it spawned a series.
Diamonds 3D is the later, rendered-graphics entry. What is here is the demo build Varcon gave away — that is said plainly rather than buried, and it is the reason this one can be hosted at all.
Boots Mac OS 8.6 and opens Diamonds 3D, which asks to switch to 256 colours. Click Yes.
Controls
| Yes button | Let it set 256-colour mode, which it requires |
| Mouse | Move the paddle |
| Mouse button | Release the ball |
| Cmd-Q | Quit to the Finder |
This is the demo build Varcon distributed free to advertise the paid version — which is exactly how it is being used here. It is unregistered and unmodified. Varcon Systems is no longer trading and Diamonds 3D has not been sold in around two decades.
Archives
- Internet Archive — the Tucows Macintosh archive copy this was built from.
How it works & what to expect
| Machine | Power Macintosh 9500, 800×600 in colour |
|---|---|
| System | Mac OS 8.6, shared with every other title of this era |
| Emulator | SheepShaver, compiled to WebAssembly |
| Build | The freely distributed demo |
| Saves | Scores persist inside the emulated Mac |
This is the demo, not the full game. It has a limited set of rooms; the complete version was sold separately and is not here. The demo was meant to be passed around freely, which is what it is doing.
It requires 256-colour mode and asks to set it. The monitor is the emulated one, so nothing on your own machine changes.
Why it is remembered
Diamonds inverted the genre. Being inside the room rather than beneath the wall changes every angle you have to think about, and it is the rare Breakout variant with a genuinely new idea in it.
It was a Macintosh original. The first Diamonds came out for the Mac in 1991 and the series stayed there — one of a fairly short list of games that started on the platform rather than arriving from elsewhere.
The demo is the surviving artefact. The full commercial release cannot be distributed; the giveaway build can, which is the same distinction that decides what appears on this site generally.
Getting started
Click Yes at the colour prompt, then play a room without worrying about score.
Watch the angles off the side walls. Being inside the room means every surface is in play, and the instinct carried over from ordinary Breakout will be wrong for the first few minutes.
Colibricks, also here, is the conventional brick-breaker if you would rather have the wall in front of you.
Questions people ask
Is this the full game?
No. It is the demo build Varcon distributed free, with a limited set of rooms. The complete version was sold and is not here.
Why does it want to change my monitor?
It runs only in 256-colour mode. The monitor is the emulated one, so your own display is untouched.
How is it different from Breakout?
You are inside the room clearing its walls from within, rather than below a wall of bricks. Every surface is in play.
Is this the first Diamonds?
No. The original Diamonds came out for the Mac in 1991; this is the later 3D entry.
Can I save?
Scores persist inside the emulated Macintosh in your browser.
Why does it take a while to start?
It boots Mac OS 8.6 first, from the image shared with the other Mac OS 8 titles here.
