Is this the first Google Image Search Easter Egg? Search for [atari breakout] and you can play Atari's Breakout game. It's an arcade game introduced in April 1976. The game has an interesting story that involves Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak and it influenced Steve Wozniak's design for the Apple II 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."
{ via TechCrunch, thanks Florian K. }
Find my cheat here: http://stackoverflow.com/a/16532928/22470
ReplyDeleteActually Atari's Breakout was released on APRIL 13th, not May 13th 1976... seems Google referenced Wikipedia and the entry is incorrect, Atari's own internal coin-op release date documents have Breakout released on April 13th, this is also verified by the engineer - Gary Waters, who built the production version of Breakout when the design done by Steve Wozniak (who was working at HP and did it for his friend Steve Jobs who was working as a tech at Atari, Inc.) the design Wozniak did was missing many key elements such as on-screen scoring, sound, 1 & 2 player selection.
ReplyDeleteIf you really want to know the full story and history of Atari, you should really pick up this book: Atari Inc. Business is Fun -
http://amzn.com/0985597402