Classic Video Games Codexery

Breakout (video game)

A 1976 arcade game that defined the block-breaking genre.

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The player uses a paddle to bounce a ball into a wall of bricks, which disappear on contact.[1] It was a discrete logic game, meaning it used no microprocessor.[1] Atari, Inc. developed and published the 1976 action arcade video game Breakout, with Namco handling its release in Japan.[2]

Making and release

Nolan Bushnell and Steve Bristow designed Breakout, and Al Alcorn was the project manager.[1][3] Development began at Cyan Engineering in 1975.[3] Wozniak worked four consecutive nights at Atari while keeping his day job at Hewlett-Packard.[4][5] Atari could not manufacture Wozniak's compact design and developed its own version using about 100 TTL chips.[6][5]

Ramtek's 1974 game Clean Sweep, where a ball is used to erase dots, served as a forerunner to Breakout.[7] The task of constructing a prototype was given by Bushnell to Steve Jobs, an Atari employee who lacked training as an electrical engineer.[3] Jobs was promised $750 for the work, plus an extra $100 for each TTL chip under 50 that the final design used.[3] The finished breadboard had 42 chips in Wozniak's initial schematic and 44 in the submitted version; Jobs got a $5,000 bonus but gave Wozniak only $350.[4][8][5]

Breakout went on sale in North America during April 1976, with a retail price of 1095 USD.[5]

What the cited sources add

The arcade-history account states that the upright cabinet had sideart showing the word 'Breakout' in red letters being smashed by a ball.[5] Zachary Hample of New York holds the official record for the game with 896 points as of June 25, 2002.[5] The arcade-history source notes that Bushnell offered $100 per IC removed from the design.[5] Wozniak stated in a 1984 interview that "we only got 700 bucks for it"[4]

The Gamasutra interview reports that Wozniak speculated Atari engineers failed to understand his optimization techniques.[6][9]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Breakout (video game)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Kent, "Ultimate History of Video Games", Three Rivers Press, 2001 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Breakout (video game)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Atari Unit Selling Prices & Production Numbers (1972–1999)", Atari Games, 1999 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Breakout (video game)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Isaacson, "Steve Jobs", Simon & Schuster, 2011, p. 166 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Breakout (video game)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Wozniak, "Letters – General Questions Answered", Woz.org; Wozniak, "iWoz: Computer Geek to Cult Icon", W. W. Norton & Company, 2006, p. 147–148, 180; Kent, "The Ultimate History of Video Games", Three Rivers Press, 2001, p. 71–73; "Breakout", The Dot Eaters; "Breakout, Arcade Video game by Atari, Inc. (1976)", www.arcade-history.com; GameSpy Staff, "Classic Gaming: A Complete History of Breakout", GameSpy (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  5. "Breakout, Arcade Video game by Atari, Inc. (1976)", www.arcade-history.com. facts only, no text reused. arcade-history.com
  6. Wikipedia, "Breakout (video game)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Wozniak, "iWoz: Computer Geek to Cult Icon", W. W. Norton & Company, 2006, p. 147–148, 180; Kent, "The Ultimate History of Video Games", Three Rivers Press, 2001, p. 71–73; "Breakout", The Dot Eaters; "Breakout, Arcade Video game by Atari, Inc. (1976)", www.arcade-history.com; "Phosphor-Dot Fossils: Breakout"; "Features - Woz Was Here - Steve Wozniak On His Gaming Past", Gamasutra.com, 2007-05-04 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Breakout (video game)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Hunter, "PONG and Atari", The Dot Eaters, 2015; Baer, "Videogames: In the Beginning", Rolenta Press, 2005, p. 12–13 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Breakout (video game)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "The Apple Story / Part 1: Early History", BYTE, December 1984, p. A67 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  9. "Features - Woz Was Here - Steve Wozniak On His Gaming Past", Gamasutra.com, 2007-05-04. facts only, no text reused. gamasutra.com

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Breakout (video game) (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Steve WozniakPongArkanoidRuth Bader Ginsburg

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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