Breakout (video game)

Breakout
Arcade flyer
Developer(s)	Atari, Inc.
Publisher(s)	NA/EU: Atari, Inc. JP: Namco[1]
Designer(s)	Nolan Bushnell Steve Bristow[6] Steve Wozniak
Programmer(s)	Arcade Steve Wozniak Gary Waters Atari 2600 Brad Stewart
Platform(s)	Arcade, Atari 2600
Release	Arcade NA: May 13, 1976[2] JP: May 1976[1] EU: 1976[3] Atari 2600 NA: November 9, 1978[4][5]
Genre(s)	Action
Mode(s)	1-2 players alternating turns

Breakout is an arcade video game developed and published by Atari, Inc.^[7] and released on May 13, 1976.^[2] Breakout was released in Japanese arcades by Namco. The game was designed by Nolan Bushnell and Steve Bristow and prototyped via discrete logic chips by Steve Wozniak with assistance from Steve Jobs. In the game, eight rows of bricks line the top portion of the screen, and the player's goal is to destroy the bricks by repeatedly bouncing a ball off a paddle into them. The concept was predated by Ramtek's Clean Sweep (1974), but the game's designers were influenced by Atari's Pong (1972). The arcade version of Breakout uses a monochrome display underneath a translucent colored overlay.

The game was a worldwide commercial success. It was among the top five highest-grossing arcade video games of 1976 in the U.S. and Japan, and among the top three in both countries for 1977. A port of the game was published in 1978 for the Atari 2600 with color graphics. An arcade sequel was released in 1978, Super Breakout, which introduced multiple bouncing balls. Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs went on to found the Apple Computer Company with Ronald Wayne. The company's influential Apple II computer, designed mostly by Wozniak, has technical elements inspired by Breakout's hardware.

Atari was involved in a series of court cases over their ability to copyright Breakout, and they were ultimately allowed to do so. The game spawned an entire genre of clones nonetheless. In Japan, the genre is known as block kuzushi ("block breaker") games. Breakout was the inspiration for Taito's Space Invaders (1978) and Taito's Arkanoid (1986), which both spawned dozens of imitators.