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''Breakout'' is an Arcade Game developed by Atari Inc. and introduced on May 13, 1976 . It was conceptualized by Nolan Bushnell and Steve Bristow , and influenced by the 1972 arcade game '' Pong ''. The game was ported to Video Game Console s and upgraded to video games such as '' Super Breakout ''. In addition, ''Breakout'' was the basis and inspiration for books, video games, and the Apple II personal computer. In the game, a layer of bricks lines the top third of the screen. A ball travels across the screen, bouncing off the top and side walls of the screen. When the ball hits a brick, the ball bounces off and the brick disappears. The player loses a turn when the ball touches the bottom of the screen, and to prevent this from happening, the player has a movable paddle to bounce the ball back into play. The Arcade Cabinet uses a black and white Monitor . However, the monitor has strips of colored Cellophane placed over it so that the bricks appear to be in color. HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT Breakout, a Discrete Logic (non- Microprocessor ) game, was conceptualized by Nolan Bushnell and Steve Bristow , after the latter had "rejoined" Atari after the merge of Atari subsidiary Kee Games . They had an idea to turn '' Pong '' into a single player game, where the player would use a ball to deplete a wall of bricks without missing the ball on its rebound. Bushnell was certain the game would be popular, and the two partnered to produce a concept. Al Alcorn was assigned as the project manager, and began development with Cyan Engineering in 1975. The same year, Alcorn assigned Steve Jobs to design a prototype. Jobs was offered $750 USD, with an extra $100 each time a chip was eliminated from the prospected design. Jobs promised to complete a prototype within four days. Jobs noticed his friend Steve Wozniak—employee of Hewlett-Packard —was capable of producing designs with a small amount of chips, and invited him to work on the hardware design with the prospect of splitting the $750 wage. Wozniak had no sketches and instead interpreted the game from its description. To save parts, he had "tricky little designs" difficult to understand for most engineers. Near the end of development, Wozniak considered moving the High Score to the screen's top, but Jobs claimed Bushnell wanted it at the bottom; Wozniak unaware of any truth to his claims. The original deadline was met, and 50 chips were removed from Jobs' original design. This equated to a $5000 USD bonus, which Jobs kept secret from Wozniak, instead only paying him $375. Atari were unable to use Steve Wozniak's design. By designing the board with as few chips as possible, he also cut down the amount of TTL (, 2001. ISBN 0-7615-3643-4http://www.thedoteaters.com/p2_stage1.php http://www.arcade-history.com/index.php?page=detail&id=3397 GAMEPLAY ''Breakout'' begins with eight rows of bricks, with each two rows a different color. The color order from the bottom up is yellow, green, orange and red. Using a single ball, the player must knock down as many bricks as possible by using the walls and/or the paddle below to ricochet the ball against the bricks and eliminate them. If the player's paddle misses the ball's rebound, he or she loses a turn. The player has three turns to try to clear two screens of bricks. Yellow bricks earn one point each, green bricks earn three points, orange bricks earn five points and the top-level red bricks score seven points each. To add to the challenge, the paddle shrinks to one-half its size after the ball has broken through the red row and hit the upper wall. In addition, ball speed increases at specific intervals: after four hits, after twelve hits, and after making contact with the orange and red rows. The maximum score that one player can achieve is 896, by eliminating two screens of bricks of 448 points each. Once the second screen of bricks is destroyed, the ball in play harmlessly bounces off empty walls until the player finally relinquishes the game, as no additional screens are provided. However, a secret way to score beyond the 896 maximum is to play the game in two-player mode. If Player One completes the first screen on his or her third and last ball, then immediately and deliberately allows the ball to "drain," Player One's second screen is transferred to Player Two as a third screen, allowing Player Two to score a maximum of 1344 points if he or she is adept enough to keep the third ball in play that long. Once the third screen is eliminated, the game is over. RE-RELEASES Ports The original arcade version of ''Breakout'' has been officially Port ed to several systems, such as Atari Video Pinball , the Atari 5200 (included in ''Super Breakout'') and the Atari 2600 . The had this term Trademarked and used it as a sister term to Breakout to describe gameplay, especially in look-alike games and remakes. ''Super Breakout'' The success of the game resulted in the development of Super Breakout a couple of years later. While ostensibly very similar to Breakout – the layout, sound, and general behaviour of the game is identical – Super Breakout is a Microprocessor based game instead of discrete logic, programmed using an early M6502 chip. Super Breakout is thus able to be emulated in MAME and is also featured in a number of different Atari compilation packs. The original Breakout has not been featured, since there is no processor in Breakout — the game would have been more "simulated" than emulated. In ''Super Breakout'', there are three different and more advanced game types from which the player can choose:
''Breakout 2000'' There was also a reinvented ''Breakout 2000'' game for the Atari Jaguar game console. Breakout 2000 was a 3-D version of the arcade classic. Designed for one or two players. The object of the game remained the same but in a 3D playfield. There were a total of ten different Phases to survive, each consisting of five playfields. Each playfield was more difficult to clear than prior one, and each Phase added even more difficulty and features. The game featured good and bad power-ups somewhat similar to Arkanoid. There were unbreakable bricks, multi-hit bricks and stacked bricks. Ball movement was limited to the lower level of stacked bricks so breaking a lower brick would allow the stacked bricks to fall into the now vacated location. The game also featured a 2 player mode that allowed two people (or a person and the computer) to compete head to head. In this mode a player's ball could loop around to the other player's playfield and break the opponent's bricks. A 2X bonus was awarded for breaking your opponent's bricks. IBM PC and PlayStation Breakout was once again updated for the IBM PC and also for the PlayStation . This version featured an ongoing storyline. In it, the character of Bouncer must rescue Daisy and his friends from the evil Batnix. With advice of Coach Steel, he travels different lands to rescue his friends:
Unofficial variations Many unofficial variations of Breakout were created for home computer platforms such as Apple II Plus , TRS-80 and PC . A version of the game called "Little Brick Out" was included on the DOS 3.2 System Master disk for the Apple II. INFLUENCES See also: Breakout Clones Apple II ''Breakout'' directly influenced Steve Wozniak's design for the (which he referred to as "Game Basic"), with his Integer BASIC version of Breakout being the first "proof of concept" application running on the prototype Apple II. His desire to play Breakout on his new computer also led to the addition of a paddle interface, and ultimately the bundling of paddle controllers and a cassette tape containing the code for Breakout for the Apple II's commercial release. ''Pilgrim in the Microworld'' ''Pilgrim in the Microworld'' is an Autobiography by David Sudnow detailing his obsession with ''Breakout''. Sudnow describes studying the game's mechanics, visiting the manufacturer in Silicon Valley , interviewing the programmers, and reading many books dedicated to ''Breakout''.http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D04E3DE1039F934A15750C0A965948260 ''Super Breakout'' story For Kid Stuff Records , John Braden recorded a 7-in 33 1/3 RPM record telling the story of ''Super Breakout''. This Science Fiction story dealt with NASA astronaut Captain John Stewart Chang returning from a routine mission transporting Titanium Ore from Io to space station New California. He encounters a rainbow barrier, presumably a force of nature, that seems to have no end on either side. He has three lobbing missiles of white light that he can bounce off the hull of his shuttle, and they prove able to break through the layers of the force field. With his life support systems failing, what follows is a test of endurance turned game as he strives to break through the barrier in space. Other games
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