Shariki (1994)

Shariki (Russian: Balloons) is the original match three game. It was developed by Russian programmer Eugene Alemzhinym for DOS in 1994. The goal of the game is to gain progressively higher scores by matching three or more balls of the same color in a line (vertical or horizontal), by swapping adjacent balls. Each swap must result in a match. Matched balls are then removed, and new ones drop from the top to fill the gaps. The game is over when no more matches are possible in the game field.