Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak are well known for co-founding Apple Computers but you may be surprised to know that their inventing history goes back before that to another legendary tech company Atari.
Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak are credited with inventing the game Breakout in 4 days in 1976 based on a request from Atari founder Nolan Bushnell who wanted a one-person version of Pong which was their best-selling game at the time.
In actuality it is now widely known that the game was designed largely by Steve Wozniak although both men were given credit for it.
The evolution of Breakout
In the early 1970s as the first generation of video game consoles began, video games were very new and primitive certainly compared to today’s games. Game play was much more basic and availability was scarce. One of the first commercially available video games made available was Pong which was actually designed as a test project that was so well received that it ended up getting turned into an actual game.
Before we look at Breakout, we need to take a quick look at Pong and remember what video games were like in the early 1970s:
They were nothing like what video games look like today.
What is Pong?
Pong was a revolutionary game invented in 1972 as a basic version of table tennis where the object of attention was a small white blip that is bounced back and forth between the two players left to right on the screen. Your goal was to bounce the blip and hope that your opponent missed hitting it back in which case you would score a point. The goal was to get to 11 points before your opponent did and be ahead by at least 2 points. You could then play multiple games such as Best of 5, Best of 7 etc to decide a winner.
What is Breakout?
Breakout was similar to Pong in that the object of attention was a blip but it was a one player game where you played against the computer. With Breakout, the object of the game was to break out of a layer of bricks that are at the top of the screen. Your have a paddle that moves left and right on the screen to adjust to where the blip is located. When your blip hits a brick, the brick is destroyed and your blip bounces back to your paddle for you to return again and continue breaking the wall.
Breakout vs Pong gameplay
Pong gameplay
Pong is a black and white game where the game play of the blip moves left and right and is played by two people. The paddles move up and down. The score is located at the top of the screen. Although Pong is usually referred to as compared to table tennis, the actual goal of the game is more similar to air hockey.
Breakout gameplay
Breakout was a color game that is played vertically in terms of the movement of the blip although the paddle moves to the left and right of the screen. The score of the game is shown at the bottom of the screen.
The legacy of Breakout
Breakout was an instant hit and by 1978 had already inspired a sequel Super Breakout. Atari produced a home version of Breakout for its Atari 2600 console and multiple other versions – and copies from other companies – were also created including Atari 2000 for their Jaguar system.
Intellivision produced a modern version of Breakout for its new Amico home video game console released in 2021.
One of the more successful and well-known copies of Breakout that took the game to a new level was Arkanoid which entered arcades in 1986 from Japanese developer Taito. Rather than one level like Breakout, Arkanoid featured brick walls of different board designs and multiple power up capsules – multiple balls, increased paddle size, laser cannon to destroy bricks – that enhanced the game play.
Here is a short video where Breakout designer Steve Wozniak discusses the design of the game and how it came about.