Breakout (MB Hall of Fame Inductee)

Hall of Fame Inductee
Breakout
Original Release: 1976 (Arcade)
Developed by: Atari
Published by: Atari

When Pong came out, people realized that the game came with a major flaw: you had to play the game with another person. People with no friends were left looking lonely in the corner. Atari responded several years later with Breakout which is essentially a Pong game for people to play by themselves. Atari and the creators of Pong felt that taking the Pong concept and developing into a single-player experience would be well received. They were right as Breakout not only did very well in the arcades but also spurned multiple sequels and has had a lasting legacy.

The idea of the game is very simple. It is essentially a game of Pong played vertically instead of horizontally. However, there is no computer player: the object of the game is to break all the blocks on the screen by bouncing the ball using the paddle. If a player misses the ball with the paddle and it falls past them, they lose a life. Once all the lives are gone, it’s game over. Once all the blocks on the screen are eliminated, the playing field is reset and the player will need to eliminate another set of bricks. Play ends after two sets. While the game is intended to be single-player, there is an option for competitive play with a second player. This option allows one player to play while the other player waits for the first player’s turn to end.

This game is notable for a variety of reasons but not because the game was an epic hit in the arcades. In fact, Breakout only saw moderate success in amusement areas. However, it did surprisingly well on the home market. Breakout was ported to the Atari 2600 and saw very good sales. It was a title that helped sell the console.

However, Breakout is notable for having Steve Jobs of Apple fame be part of the creation process. Jobs was working for Atari when he was tasked with designing the circuit board for the game. He was also given the incentive to eliminate as many chips from the final design as possible. Jobs had little knowledge of how circuit boards worked so he contacted his friend Steve Wozniak at Hewlett-Packard to work on the design and offered to split the bonus. Wozniak not only did an exemplary job with the design, he made the board so sophisticated that Atari’s engineers couldn’t figure it out. Atari had to scrap Wozniak’s design because it was too difficult for them to manufacture effectively. Wozniak had managed to eliminate fifty chips of the design of the unit but didn’t get all of the bonus money that he was promised. According to the deal, he should have received $2500 from Jobs but only received $375.

The design was somewhat ingenious as well. Even though Breakout was a priority for Atari and they were not afraid of the expenses involved in creating superior hardware, there was only so much they could do with the technology available in 1976. Still, they managed to employ some interesting techniques, such as colour which was a rarity in video games at the time. They were able to do this by putting colour films into the monitor. So the stationary blocks at the top of the screen had different colours by row. Another interesting concept in the game was how the game sped up after a certain amount of blocks were eliminated. This made sure that the game didn’t feel monotonous and provided a challenge to even experienced arcade gamers.

While Breakout was most famous as arcade and cocktail cabinets as well as a strong title for the Atari 2600, it was ported to a few other systems like the Commodore 64 and the Sony Playstation. It has also been reproduced in several Atari compilations over the years and has been brought to many modern consoles including the Nintendo DS, Microsoft Xbox, and Sony Playstation 2. It has also been published for the PC and Apple machines as well as for mobile phones.

Breakout saw a sequel that did incredibly well, Super Breakout took the arcades by storm two years later in 1978 offering more gameplay options and better graphics. It too has been ported to multiple consoles over the years. Although it isn’t as marketable as a franchise like Pac-Man or Mario, the gameplay is so simple that it has such a lasting impact. The basic gameplay has been copied by so many companies over the years that the many people have most likely played the base game in some shape or form but may not have played Breakout.

Atari’s Breakout will continue to be a somewhat strong property since it offers simple gameplay and it can easily be moved to different systems with little risk. It may not have been the best game from the era, or the most popular, or the most advance, but it left a lasting impact on the industry. Chances are if you’re interested in video games, you’ve played some form of Breakout.