Arkanoid

From Free net encyclopedia

Template:Infobox Arcade Game

Arkanoid is an arcade game developed by Taito in 1986. It is a simplified clone of Sega's earlier arcade game Gigas and Gigas Mark 2 which were in turn based upon Atari's Breakout games of the 1970s.

Contents

[edit]

Gameplay

The player controls a small pad which prevents a ball from falling from the playing field, attempting to bounce it against a number of bricks. The ball striking a brick causes the brick to disappear. When all the bricks are gone, the player goes to the next level, where another pattern of bricks appear. There are other variations (bricks that have to be hit a number of times, flying ships, etc.) and power-ups (enlarge your pad, multiply the number of balls, equip a laser cannon, go directly to the next level), but the main gameplay remains the same. At level 33, the final stage, the player will take on the game's boss, "Doh".

[edit]

Legacy

Because of the game's popularity, four versions of the game were developed for the coin-op market: Arkanoid, Tournament Arkanoid and Revenge of Doh (Arkanoid II) both in 1987 and Arkanoid Returns in 1997.

Many of the 8-bit computer ports (ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC 464, Commodore 64, Atari 8-bit, Apple II) were very popular in Europe in the 1980s. Console ports on the NES and Game Boy were also popular and the game was also ported for 16-bit computers Amiga, Atari ST, Apple IIGS and IBM PC. A Super NES version called Arkanoid: Doh It Again was released in 1997. Arkanoid Returns and a sequel, Arkanoid Returns 2000, were released in Japan for the Sony Playstation. 16-bit versions had identical graphics as the arcade game. Commodore 64 conversion of Arkanoid is familiar to be the first game for that system to feature digitized samples used in music (that music was composed by Martin Galway).

Depending on machine, conversions used joystick, mouse or keyboard as a controller device. Mouse is generally considered as the best replacement for the original controller since it allows player to move bat at different speeds in a similar manner as the controller of the arcade game.

Arkanoid has remained a popular game and is commonly cloned by aspiring game developers in freeware and shareware titles. Many companies have also regularly cloned the game in video arcades.

Arkanoid's popularity led to it being featured in Rainbow Islands, which has a whole level (4 stages in all) dedicated to the game, including Doh as the level boss.

Also, in some areas of Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island and its Game Boy Advance remake Super Mario Advance 3: Yoshi's Island, there are blocks inspired by Arkanoid which you must break through.

However, Arkanoid and its sequels have not appeared on any of the recent Taito Memories or Taito Legends compilations – it has been claimed that this was due to legal action from Atari.

[edit]

Arkanoid clones

Arkanoid has produced probably a larger number of "clones" than any other game. The Arkanoid conversion appeared in 1987 for C64, Amiga, Atari ST and IBM PC and that triggered the boom of clones. First dozen of clones was already released during the same year. The most Arkanoid clones are probably Krakout (1987), Traz (1988) and Krypton Egg (1989). Also freeware game Bananoid got some attention on IBM PC due to its scrolling VGA graphics. Amegas (1987) on Amiga is historically very important since its music was the first piece of tracker/MOD music ever produced. These games of course could be called rather Breakout clones than Arkanoid clones since Arkanoid itself is a clone of Breakout. However, it was a conversion of Arkanoid that started the flood of clones when it appeared and many players had not even heard of Breakout in the second half of 1980s. Also, many of these games parodied Arkanoid very directly and thus included many features that appeared only in Arkanoid and not in Break Out.

[edit]

Clones released in 1987

  • Act out (Amiga)
  • Amegas (Amiga)
  • Ball Raider (Amiga)
  • Batty (C64)
  • Block Buster (Amiga)
  • Bouncer (Amiga)
  • Impact (Amiga, C64, Atari ST, ZX Spectrum)
  • Krakout (C64)
  • Pulsoid (C64)
[edit]

Clones released in 1988

  • Addicta Ball (Amiga, C64, Atari ST, ZX Spectrum)
  • Ball-Blasta (C64)
  • Ball Raider II (Amiga)
  • Crack (Amiga)
  • Crillion (C64)
  • Crystal Hammer (Amiga)
  • Hallax (C64)
  • Meganoid (Amiga)
  • Ricochet (C64)
  • Traz (C64)
  • Virus: The Breakout Error (C64)
[edit]

1989 and later

  • Bananoid (1989, PC, freeware)
  • Crasher (1991, C64)
  • Mega Ball (1995, Amiga)
  • Krypton Egg (1989, Amiga, Atari ST, IBM PC)
  • Plexnoid (1992, C64)
  • Snoball in Hell (1989, C64)
  • Titan (1989, C64)
[edit]

Games Inspired by Arkanoid

Some game designer developed the game idea further instead of just making a direct clone. For example Light Corridor (1990) is an variant using 3D graphics.

  • 3-D Breakout (C64, 1988)
  • Bank Buster (1988, Amiga, Atari ST)
  • Beyond the Black Hole (1990, C64)
  • Botics (1990, Amiga, Atari ST)
  • Bunny Bricks (1992, Amiga, Atari ST)
  • Escape from Tharkan (1990, Amiga)
  • Hot Shot (1989, Amiga, C64, Atari ST, ZX Spectrum)
  • Jinx (1988, Amiga, C64, Atari ST)
  • Light Corridor (1990, Amiga, Atari ST)
  • Lords of War (1989, Amiga)
[edit]

See also

[edit]

External links

de:Arkanoid fr:Arkanoid pl:Arkanoid pt:Arkanoid ru:Arkanoid fi:Arkanoid sv:Arkanoid

Retrieved from "http://www.netipedia.com/index.php/Arkanoid"