Breakout was not just an evolution of Atari’s seminal arcade game Pong—it ignited an entire genre of block-breaker games and influenced the development of the Apple II computer, one of the first highly successful mass-produced microcomputers.
Released on May 13, 1976, by Atari Inc., Breakout was initially conceptualized by Nolan Bushnell and Steve Bristow, who were inspired by Pong, but wanted to create a single-player version where the player would use a paddle to maintain a ball that depletes a wall of bricks.
Wozniak, who was working at Hewlett-Packard, produced designs with “tricky little designs” to save parts. The task was grueling, with Wozniak working at Atari for four nights straight, even continuing to refine the designs during his day job. The final, working breadboard delivered to Atari used 44 chips—a feat considering most Atari games used 150 to 170 chips. Jobs withheld the information about a $5,000 bonus from Wozniak, who was unaware of it and only received a payment of $350.
Though Atari couldn’t use Wozniak’s compact and complex design for mass production and had to develop their own version using about 100 TTL chips, Wozniak’s original gameplay was preserved in the commercial release. Breakout became a tremendous commercial success, ranking among the fifth highest-grossing arcade video games in the United States and the fourth highest Japan upon its release in 1976. It was innovative not only in gameplay but also in design, featuring a black and white monitor with strips of colored cellophane to simulate color bricks.
The influence of Breakout extended beyond the arcade, as it informed Wozniak’s design for the Apple II computer. Features like color graphics circuitry, game paddle support, and sound were all integrated into the Apple II, reflecting the impact of Breakout. “A lot of features of the Apple II went in because I had designed Breakout for Atari. I had designed it in hardware. I wanted to write it in software now,” Wozniak remarked. He considered the day he demonstrated Breakout totally written in BASIC at the Homebrew Computer Club as one of the most satisfying of his life. It was a realization that the capability to program such games in BASIC would indeed change the world.
The legacy of Breakout has endured with re-releases and enhanced versions, including Super Breakout in 1978 and the 3D Breakout-inspired game published in 2000.
Relevant articles:
– TIL that Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak are the creators of Breakout, the iconic arcade game from the 70s. They built it as a single player evolution of Pong.