Breakout

How to play

Move the paddle with your mouse, your finger or the arrow keys, and keep the ball off the floor. Every brick you break scores, and the higher rows are worth more. Clear the whole wall and the next level starts faster with a deeper wall. You have three lives. Where the ball hits the paddle decides where it goes, so the paddle is a steering tool rather than just a wall.

Tips

• Hit the ball with the edge of the paddle to send it out at a sharp angle. The centre returns it nearly straight up.
• Open a channel up one side and let the ball run along the top. Trapped up there it clears rows on its own.
• Move to where the ball will be, not where it is. Chasing it always arrives late.
• Slow down after a life is lost. Most second deaths come from rushing the restart.
• The ball speeds up as the wall thins, so the last few bricks are the hardest of the level.

The game that started a company

Breakout was released by Atari in 1976 and its original prototype was famously built by Steve Wozniak, shortly before he and Steve Jobs founded Apple. The design has been copied thousands of times since, most notably as Arkanoid in 1986, and its central idea has never needed improving: a paddle, a ball and a wall of bricks that each score when broken.

The detail that makes it a game of skill rather than luck is that where the ball meets the paddle decides where it goes. Hit it with the centre and it returns nearly straight up; hit it with the edge and it leaves at a sharp angle. The paddle steers. Higher rows here are worth more points, the ball speeds up as the wall thins, and clearing a wall starts the next level faster with a deeper wall.

Playing the angles

• Use the paddle edges on purpose. The angle you send the ball at is the only control you have, and the edges give the sharpest angles.
• Open a channel up one side. Once the ball is above the wall it bounces between the ceiling and the bricks and clears rows for free.
• Move to where the ball will be. Chasing it is always late; predicting it is on time.
• The last few bricks are the hardest of the level because the ball is fastest then. Slow your paddle movements down rather than speeding them up.
• On the keyboard, tap the arrow keys rather than holding them. Small corrections beat big ones.

Common questions

How do I control where the ball goes?

By where it hits the paddle. The centre returns it almost straight up; the edges send it out at a sharp angle.

Are all bricks worth the same?

No. Higher rows are worth more, which rewards getting the ball above the wall.

What happens when I clear the wall?

The next level starts immediately, faster, with a deeper wall. You keep your score and lives.