Arkanoid (eng.)

Arkanoid

Arkanoid is a 1986 computer game developed by Taito. It is a Breakout clone that originally appeared as an arcade machine. The player must use a paddle to bounce a ball to knock colored bricks out of a block. The player must not miss the ball, or they lose. There are numerous improvements over Breakout, such as power-ups, enemy spaceships, and laser cannons. Furthermore, the width of the paddle and the number of balls can be adjusted. The game features 32 levels and a final level. It sparked a new boom for Breakout clones.

The game was developed by Imagine and released for Commodore’s C64 and Amiga, MSX, Atari 800XL, Atari ST, Schneider/Amstrad CPC, TRS-80, and Sinclair ZX Spectrum, among others. The music was composed by Martin Galway. The 1988 IBM version was designed for PC (DOS) by David Seeholzer.

Taito itself also developed other Arkanoid games:

• Arkanoid 2: Revenge of Doh (1988)
• Arkanoid: Doh It Again (1997, SNES)
• Arkanoid Returns (1997, Arcade)