Information AboutArkanoid |
''Arkanoid'' is an Arcade Game developed by Taito in 1986 . It is a simplified Clone of Sega 's earlier arcade game '' Gigas '' and '' Gigas Mark 2 '' which were in turn based upon Atari 's '' Breakout '' games of the 1970s . GAMEPLAY The player controls a small pad, known as the "vaus", which prevents a Ball from falling from the playing field, attempting to bounce it against a number of Brick s. The ball striking a brick causes the brick to disappear. When all the bricks are gone, the player goes to the next level, where another pattern of bricks appear. There are other variations (bricks that have to be hit a number of times, flying ships, etc.) and power-ups (enlarge your pad, multiply the number of balls, equip a laser cannon, go directly to the next level), but the main gameplay remains the same. At round 33, the final stage, the player will take on the game's Boss , "Doh". Once a player reaches round 33, he must defeat Doh with his remaining number of vauses in reserve; if not: game over. In other words, there are no continues on the final round. LEGACY Because of the game's popularity, four versions of the game were developed for the coin-op market: ''Arkanoid'', ''Tournament Arkanoid'' and ''Revenge of Doh'' (''Arkanoid II'') both in 1987 and ''Arkanoid Returns'' in 1997 . Many of the 8-bit computer ports (. ''Arkanoid Returns'' and a sequel, ''Arkanoid Returns 2000'', were released in Japan for the Sony Playstation . 16-bit versions had identical graphics as the arcade game. Commodore 64 conversion of Arkanoid is familiar to be the first game for that system to feature digitized samples used in music (that music was composed by Martin Galway ). Depending on machine, conversions used joystick, mouse or keyboard as a controller device. Mouse is generally considered as the best replacement for the original controller since it allows player to move bat at different speeds in a similar manner as the controller of the arcade game. ''Arkanoid'' has remained a popular game and is commonly cloned by aspiring game developers in Freeware and Shareware titles. Many companies have also regularly cloned the game in Video Arcade s. ''Arkanoid'''s popularity led to it being featured in '' Rainbow Islands '', which has a whole level (4 stages in all) dedicated to the game, including Doh as the level boss. Also, in some areas of '''', there are blocks inspired by ''Arkanoid'' which you must break through. However, ''Arkanoid'' and its sequels have not appeared on any of the recent Taito Memories or Taito Legends compilations – it has been claimed that this was due to legal action from Atari . ARKANOID CLONES Arkanoid has produced probably a larger number of "clones" than any other game. The Arkanoid conversion appeared in 1987 for C64, Amiga, Atari ST and IBM PC and that triggered the boom of clones. First dozen of clones was already released during the same year. The most famous Arkanoid clones are probably '' Krakout '' (1987), ''Traz'' (1988) and ''Krypton Egg'' (1989). Also Freeware game ''Bananoid'' got some attention on IBM PC due to its scrolling VGA graphics. ''Amegas'' (1987) on Amiga is historically very important since its music was the first piece of Tracker/MOD Music ever produced. These games of course could be called rather Breakout clones than Arkanoid clones since Arkanoid itself is a clone of Breakout. However, it was a conversion of Arkanoid that started the flood of clones when it appeared and many players had not even heard of Breakout in the second half of 1980s. Also, many of these games parodied Arkanoid very directly and thus included many features that appeared only in Arkanoid and not in Break Out. Clones released in 1987
Clones released in 1988
1989 and later
GAMES INSPIRED BY ARKANOID Some game designer developed the game idea further instead of just making a direct clone. For example Light Corridor (1990) is an variant using 3D graphics.
SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS
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