Museum of the Game ®

International Arcade Museum® — Killer List of Videogames®

Breakout

Description

A ball-and-paddle game where the object is to collect points while hitting a ball towards a wall of bricks. When hit, the tiles disappear and the ball rebounds.

Breakout was produced by Atari in 1976.

Atari released 136 machines in our database under this trade name, starting in 1972. Atari was based in United States.

Other machines made by Atari during the time period Breakout was produced include: Anti-Aircraft II -- aka Anti-Aircraft, Crash 'N Score, Hi-Way, Goal IV, Jet Fighter, Atarians, Night Driver, LeMans, Indy 4, and Cops 'N Robbers

Specs

Name	Breakout
Developer	Atari (United States)
Year	1976
Type	Videogame
KLOV/MOG #	7216
Class	Wide Release
Genre	Ball and Paddle
Monitor	Orientation: Vertical Type: Raster: Standard Resolution Color: Black and White with a Color Overlay
Conversion Class	unique
Game Specific	Breakout Pinout
# Simultaneous Players	1
# Maximum Players	2
Game Play	Alternating
Control Panel Layout	Single Player
Controls	Rotary: Analog Buttons: 1 - Serve
Sound	Amplified Mono (one channel)
Cabinet Styles	Cocktail Upright/Standard
Bezel	Breakout Bezel Image
Side Art	Breakout Side Art Image

Video Clips

Atari Breakout (1976)

Breakout KLOV/IAM 5 Point User Score: 3.00 (4 votes)

Fun Factor: 3.36

Overall Like	4.33
Fun (Social)	4.00
Fun (Solo)	4.00
Collector Desire	3.25

Technical Rating: 3.25

Gameplay	4.33
Graphics	2.33
Originality	3.67
Sound/Music	2.67

Personal Impressions and Technical Impressions each account for half of the total score. Within the Personal Impressions category, Like carries a little more weight than the other factors.

More pictures

Trivia

When Steve Jobs worked at Atari, the company was working on creating the arcade game Breakout, which required 80 Integrated Circuits ICs. The less ICs there were, the cheaper the games would be to produce, so Nolan Bushnell, Atari's president, offered Jobs 750 to come up with a design, with a 100 bonus for every IC that could be knocked out of the design. Jobs asked his friend Steve Wozniak for help with the challenge and offered to split the 750, and over four days and nights they put together a design that only required 30 ICs. Bushnell gave Jobs his 5000 bonus, which Jobs "split" with Wozniak by telling him it was a 700 bonus, giving him "half," or 350. Woz was delighted, but years later found out the truth.

As it was, Wozniak's design cut the number of TTL chips to 42, but Atari's manufacturing methods could not recreate the design in that way, and they eventually went with their own design which included about 100 TTL chips. The actual gameplay appeared to be the same as Wozniak's design.

VAPS Arcade/Coin-Op Breakout Census

There are 14,755 members of the Video Arcade Preservation Society / Vintage Arcade Preservation Society, 9,475 whom participate in our arcade census project of games owned, wanted, or for sale. Census data currently includes 164,460 machines (6,896 unique titles).

Very Common - There are 107 known instances of this machine owned by Breakout collectors who are active members. Of these, 93 of them are original dedicated machines. One is a conversion in which game circuit boards (and possibly cabinet graphics) have been placed in (and on) another game cabinet. 13 of them are only circuit boards which a collector could put into a generic case if desired.

For Sale - There are 5 active VAPS members with a Breakout machines for sale. There are 2 active VAPS members with a Breakout circuit boards for sale.

Wanted - There are 5 active VAPS members currently looking for Breakout.

This game ranks a 31 on a scale out of 100 (100 = most often seen, 1=least common) in popularity based on census ownership records.

This game ranks a 7 on a scale out of 100 (100 = most often seen, 1=least common) in popularity based on census want list records.

Rarity and Popularity independently are not necessarily indications of value. [More Information]

Flyers

Atari People. We're Still Playing Your Game

1976

Legacy

Breakout
Super Breakout

Manuals

Operation, Maintenance and Service Manual - Breakout Manual — **Operation, Maintenance and Service Manual**
(46 pages, 5 MB File)

Foto-Finder® (Books)

Arcade Treasures Kurtz (ISBN 088740619X) Page: 100; Color photo
The Encyclopedia of Arcade Video Games Kurtz (ISBN 0764319256) Page: 37; Color photo Price guide: No
Arcade Fever Sellers (ISBN 0762409371) Page: 24; Color photo
Encyclopedia of Arcade Video Games Kurtz (ISBN 0764319256) Page: 37; Color photo

eBay Listings

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