Breakout (DOS) - online game | RetroGames.cz
RetroGames.cz - staré hry ONLINE

„We don't stop playing because we grow old;                         
... we grow old because we stop playing.“                         

English EN       Czech CZ            

   
 Menu
 Games
 Others
 Search

 

   
 

Breakout - DOS


Control:

Game is con­trol­led by the same keys that are used to playing un­der MS DOS. For full­screen press 'Right Alt' + 'En­ter'.


Help:

If the game e­mu­la­ti­on spe­ed is low, you can try to in­cre­a­se it by re­lo­a­ding this pa­ge with­out a­ds or cho­o­se a­no­ther e­mu­la­tor from this table.


Other platforms:

This game can be played also in a version for Ata­ri 2600. We are wor­king on the others.



Game info:
Breakout - box cover
box cover
Game title: Breakout
Platform: MS-DOS
Author (released): Atari, Inc. (1978)
Genre: Action Mode: Single-player
Design: Steve Bristow, Steve Wozniak, Bradley G. Stewart, Steve Jobs
Music:
Game manual: not available
Download: not available (stream only)

Game size:

49 kB
Recommended emulator: DOSBox

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

   Breakout is an arcade game developed and published by Atari, Inc. It was conceptualized by Nolan Bushnell and Steve Bristow, influenced by the 1972 Atari arcade game Pong, and built by Steve Wozniak aided by Steve Jobs. The game was ported to multiple platforms and upgraded to video games such as Super Breakout. In addition, Breakout was the basis and inspiration for books, video games, film, 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 a brick is hit, the ball bounces away and the brick is destroyed. The player loses a turn when the ball touches the bottom of the screen. To prevent this from happening, the player has a movable paddle to bounce the ball upward, keeping it in play.
   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. The paddle shrinks to one-half its size after the ball has broken through the red row and hit the upper wall. 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 achievable for one player is 896; this is done by eliminating two screens of bricks worth 448 points each. Once the second screen of bricks is destroyed, the ball in play harmlessly bounces off empty walls until the player 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 1,344 points if he is adept enough to keep the third ball in play that long. Once the third screen is eliminated, the game is over.
   The original arcade version of Breakout has been officially ported to several systems, such as Video Pinball, the Atari 5200 (included in Super Breakout), and the Atari 2600. The Atari 2600 port was programmed by Brad Stewart. Stewart had been working on a backup project for the Atari 2600, which was eventually canceled. Consequently, Brad and Ian Shepherd were both available to program Breakout for the Atari 2600. They decided to compete in the original version of Breakout for the programming rights. In the end, Brad won. In development, he didn't receive help of the original designers (and was unaware who they were), and felt that there were few obstacles to overcome. Difficulties arose with the Television Interface Adaptor. The game was published in 1978 and was conceptually the same, but with a few key differences. First, there were only six rows of bricks. Second, the player is given five turns to clear two walls instead of three. One notable addition was the Breakthru variant, where the ball does not bounce off of the bricks, but continues through them until it hits the wall. Atari had this term trademarked and used it as a sister term to Breakout in order to describe gameplay, especially in look-alike games and remakes.

More details about this game can be found on Wikipedia.org.

For fans and collectors:
Find this game on video server YouTube.com or Vimeo.com.
Buy original version of this game on Amazon.com or eBay.com.

Find digital download of this game on GOG or Steam.

 
Platform:

This ver­sion of Breakout was de­sig­ned for per­so­nal com­pu­ters with o­pe­ra­ting sys­tem MS-DOS (Mi­cro­soft Disk O­pe­ra­ting Sys­tem), which was o­pe­ra­ting sys­tem de­ve­lo­ped by Mi­cro­soft in 1981. It was the most wi­de­ly-used o­pe­ra­ting sys­tem in the first half of the 1990s. MS-DOS was sup­plied with most of the IBM com­pu­ters that pur­cha­sed a li­cen­se from Mi­cro­soft. Af­ter 1995, it was pu­s­hed out by a gra­phi­cal­ly mo­re ad­van­ced sys­tem - Win­dows and its de­ve­lop­ment was ce­a­sed in 2000. At the ti­me of its grea­test fa­me, se­ve­ral thou­sand ga­mes de­sig­ned spe­ci­fi­cal­ly for com­pu­ters with this sys­tem we­re cre­a­ted. To­day, its de­ve­lop­ment is no lon­ger con­ti­nue and for e­mu­la­tion the free DOSBox e­mu­la­tor is most of­ten used. Mo­re in­for­ma­ti­on about MS-DOS operating system can be found here.

 
Available online emulators:

5 different online emulators are available for Breakout. These emulators differ not only in the technology they use to emulate old games, but also in support of various game controllers, multiplayer mode, mobile phone touchscreen, emulation speed, absence or presence of embedded ads and in many other parameters. For maximum gaming enjoyment, it's important to choose the right emulator, because on each PC and in different Internet browsers, the individual emulators behave differently. The basic features of each emulator available for this game Breakout are summarized in the following table:
 

Emulator Technology Multiplayer Fullscreen Touchscreen Speed
Archive.org JavaScript YES NO NO fast
js-dos JavaScript YES YES NO fast
js-dos 6.22 JavaScript YES YES NO fast
jsDosBox JavaScript YES NO NO slow
jDosBox Java applet YES YES NO fast


Similar games:

If you like Breakout you'll probably like also some of the similar games in the overview below. The games you see here are selected based on title similarity, game genre, and keywords. However, the list is generated automatically and can therefore be very 'subjective' especially for some specific games. To find a particular game, please use our search form.

Crackout Super Breakout Fireball Arkanoid Pong
Crackout Super Breakout Fireball Arkanoid Pong
 
Alleyway Warlords Off the Wall Video Olympics Paragon (Street Ball)
Alleyway Warlords Off the Wall Video Olympics Paragon
 
Arkanoid II: The Revenge of DOH Crackpots Joust Tapper Berzerk
Arkanoid II Crackpots Joust Tapper Berzerk

Comments:


 

This website is NOT sponsored or endorsed by Nintendo, Atari, Sega or by any other video games company. RetroGames.cz makes no claim to the intellectual property contained in the individual games.
Text content of RetroGames.cz is available under the Creative Commons 3.0 License. You can copy it freely, but indicate the origin and keep the license.

Facebook | Privacy policy | Terms of Service | Cookie statement | Advertisement | Report NA content

This website is hosted by WebSupport.cz.