Atari 2600: Breakout
September 14, 2008 - 12:56 pm - Posted by Sean
With the exception of Pong, it doesn’t get much more basic than Breakout for the Atari 2600.
Using a paddle controller, you repeatedly defect a ball against a wall of colored bricks, chipping away until they’re all gone.
The strategy is always the same – create an opening on the far left, right side or middle if you’re feeling adventurous so the ball becomes trapped in the hollow top area.
When this occurs, it tends to bounce around like crazy, doing most of your work for you. Consequentially your ball moves faster and your paddle experiences shrinkage.
To be honest, the “normal” Breakout game is pretty “blah”. You have little control over the ball. You can direct it left or right but you’re at the mercy of random angles.
The steerable variations, on the other hand, don’t have this problem. It feels a little funky at first, but ultimately it provides just the right degree of control.
Another interesting variation is “break-thru”, where the ball penetrates the entire wall, taking out dozens of bricks at a time. It’s a nice change of pace, but it sort of defeats the purpose of the game, doesn’t it?
There are also timed variations that challenge you to clear the wall as fast as possible, but for some reason the timer doesn’t stop until you’ve used all five of your balls, even if you only needed one to clear the wall! There are also “catch” and “invisible” variations, but I didn’t like these at all.
In terms of graphics, there’s not much to talk about, but the soft musical tones are easy on the ears.
Breakout will accommodate up to four players, but only for alternating turns. Even with its archaic gameplay, this oldie offers enough challenge and variety to keep you occupied for a while.
I remember playing breakout on my Atari back in the day. I actually have it on my cell phone now. It’s really addictive, just like Tetris.
@Eric: Do you still own your Atari 2600? My original system was sold at a garage sale (thanks mom) when I was a kid.
However, thanks to my grandparents who kept the Atari 2600 they purchased in the early 1980′s, they were kind enough to ask me if I wanted it a while ago when cleaning out boxes and of course I said yes.
I agree, Tetris is a lot of fun and addictive like Breakout. I do prefer the Tengen version which is a more realistic port of the game.