(Super) Breakout

Breakout is Atari arcade game which was introduced in April 1976. This game is taken from a concept by Nolan Bushnell and Steve Bristow. This game is inspired by PONG game, which uses ball and paddle. However, in this game, player needs to break all the blocks/bricks which appear in the higher part of the screen in order to successfully finish a level. Super Breakout is the upgraded version of Breakout arcade game to home video console game.

Interactive

The look of Super Breakout, the upgraded version of Breakout

Pretty similar to PONG, this game also has paddle and a ball. The paddle can be moved left and right. The ball, however, travels across the screen, bouncing off the top and side walls of the screen. This game also has bricks/blocks to be destroyed.

Setting

In Breakout arcade, the set is a simple space-like environment with bricks on the higher part of the screen and one moveable paddle on the lower part of the screen. However, improvement to the graphic can be really felt with the improved graphic environment to the bricks, paddle and the ball

Concept

The idea is to destroy all of the bricks which appear on the top third of screen. The ball will travel across the screen, bouncing off the top and side wall of the screen. Every time the ball touches a brick, the brick will be destroyed/broken and the ball bounces away. The player controls the moveable paddle to control the bounce direction of the ball. When the ball reaches the bottom of the screen, it means that the player loses the turn. To make it more challenging, the paddle shrinks when the ball hit certain brick colour.

Te bricks are also organised to make the game more interesting and challenging. Some of the bricks also have a variety power-ups. These power-ups includes the double the ball, to increase the ball speed etc. However, this feature is might only available in other upgraded version (might not be developed by Atari).

The higher the level, the more complicated the composition of the bricks.

Different composition of bricks are made to make the game more interesting and challenging.

Goal

The goal is to destroy all of the bricks and avoid the ball to reach the bottom end of the screen.

Challenge

The earlier look/design of Breakout Atari 1976

There are 4 colour bricks in this game. Yellow will earn 1 point, green bricks earn 3 points, orange bricks earn 5 point, and the top level red bricks earn 7 point each. Whenever the ball breaks through the red row and hit the upper wall, the paddle will shrink. Not to mention that the ball speed increases at specific intervals such as after four hits, twelve, and after the ball touches orange and red rows.

All images is derived from: Breakout and Atari Super Breakout
Play Super Breakout!