History and development: Performed minor clean up.
| ← Previous revision |
Revision as of 10:22, 4 August 2009 |
| Line 23: |
Line 23: |
| |
|
|
|
| |
== History and development == |
|
== History and development == |
| - |
Breakout, a [[discrete logic]] (non-[[microprocessor]]) game, was conceptualized by Nolan Bushnell and Steve Bristow, after the latter had "rejoined" Atari after the merge of Atari subsidiary [[Kee Games]].
|
+ |
''Breakout'', a [[discrete logic]] (non-[[microprocessor]]) game, was conceptualized by Nolan Bushnell and Steve Bristow, after the latter had "rejoined" Atari after the merge of Atari subsidiary [[Kee Games]].
|
| |
|
|
|
| - |
They had an idea to turn ''[[Pong]]'' into a single player game, where the player would use a ball to deplete a wall of bricks without missing the ball on its rebound. Bushnell was certain the game would be popular, and the two partnered to produce a concept. [[Al Alcorn]] was assigned as the project manager, and began development with [[Cyan Engineering]] in 1975. The same year, Alcorn assigned [[Steve Jobs]] to design a prototype. Jobs was offered [[United States dollar|USD]]$750, with an extra $100 each time a chip was eliminated from the prospected design. Jobs promised to complete a prototype within four days.
|
+ |
They had an idea to turn ''[[Pong]]'' into a single player game, where the player would use a ball to deplete a wall of bricks without missing the ball on its rebound. Bushnell was certain the game would be popular, and the two partnered to produce a concept. [[Al Alcorn]] was assigned as the project manager, and began development with [[Cyan Engineering]] in 1975. The same year, Alcorn assigned [[Steve Jobs]] to design a prototype. Jobs was offered [[United States dollar|US$]]750, with an extra $100 each time a chip was eliminated from the prospected design. Jobs promised to complete a prototype within four days.
|
| |
|
|
|
| - |
Jobs noticed his friend [[Steve Wozniak]]—employee of [[Hewlett-Packard]]—was capable of producing designs with a small number of chips, and invited him to work on the hardware design with the prospect of splitting the $750 wage. Wozniak had no sketches and instead interpreted the game from its description. To save parts, he had "tricky little designs" difficult to understand for most engineers. Near the end of development, Wozniak considered moving the [[high score]] to the screen's top, but Jobs claimed Bushnell wanted it at the bottom; Wozniak unaware of any truth to his claims. The original deadline was met after Wozniak didn't sleep for four days straight. In the end 50 chips were removed from Jobs' original design. This equated to a $5000 USD bonus, which Jobs kept secret from Wozniak, instead only paying him $375. <ref> [www.woz.org] ''Letters – General Questions Answered''], Woz.org</ref><ref name="iWoz">[[Steve Wozniak|Wozniak, Steven]]: "[[iWoz]]", a: pages 147–148, b: page 180. [[W. W. Norton]], 2006. ISBN 13:978-0-393-06143-7</ref><ref name="UHVF">Kent, Steven: ''The Ultimate History of Video Games'', pages 71-73. [[Three Rivers Press]], 2001. ISBN 0-7615-3643-4</ref><ref name="DotEaters"> [www.thedoteaters.com] Player 2 Stage 1: The Coin Eaters]</ref><ref name="ArcadeHistory"> [www.arcade-history.com] Arcade History: Breakout]</ref><ref name="ClassicGaming"> [classicgaming.gamespy.com] Classic Gaming: A Complete History of Breakout]</ref>
|
+ |
Jobs noticed his friend [[Steve Wozniak]]—employee of [[Hewlett-Packard]]—was capable of producing designs with a small number of chips, and invited him to work on the hardware design with the prospect of splitting the $750 wage. Wozniak had no sketches and instead interpreted the game from its description. To save parts, he had "tricky little designs" difficult to understand for most engineers. Near the end of development, Wozniak considered moving the [[high score]] to the screen's top, but Jobs claimed Bushnell wanted it at the bottom; Wozniak unaware of any truth to his claims. The original deadline was met after Wozniak did not sleep for four days straight. In the end 50 chips were removed from Jobs' original design. This equated to a US$5,000 bonus, which Jobs kept secret from Wozniak, instead only paying him $375.<ref> [www.woz.org] ''Letters – General Questions Answered''], Woz.org</ref><ref name="iWoz">[[Steve Wozniak|Wozniak, Steven]]: "[[iWoz]]", a: pages 147–148, b: page 180. [[W. W. Norton]], 2006. ISBN 13:978-0-393-06143-7</ref><ref name="UHVF">Kent, Steven: ''The Ultimate History of Video Games'', pages 71-73. [[Three Rivers Press]], 2001. ISBN 0-7615-3643-4.</ref><ref name="DotEaters"> [www.thedoteaters.com] Player 2 Stage 1: The Coin Eaters]</ref><ref name="ArcadeHistory"> [www.arcade-history.com] Arcade History: Breakout]</ref><ref name="ClassicGaming"> [classicgaming.gamespy.com] Classic Gaming: A Complete History of Breakout]</ref>
|
| |
|
|
|
| - |
Atari was unable to use Steve Wozniak's design. By designing the board with as few chips as possible, he also cut down the amount of TTL ([[transistor-transistor logic]]) chips to 42. This made the design difficult to manufacture — it was too compact and complicated to be feasible with Atari's manufacturing methods. However, Wozniak claims Atari could not understand the design, and speculates "maybe some engineer there was trying to make some kind of modification to it". Atari ended up designing their own version for production, which contained about 100 TTL chips. Wozniak found the gameplay to be the same as his original creation, and couldn't find any differences.<ref> [www.thelogbook.com] Phosphor-Dot Fossils: Breakout<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref><ref> [www.gamasutra.com] Gamasutra.com Features - Woz Was Here - Steve Wozniak On His Gaming Past<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref><ref name="iWoz"/><ref name="UHVF"/><ref name="DotEaters"/><ref name="ArcadeHistory"/>
|
+ |
Atari was unable to use Steve Wozniak's design. By designing the board with as few chips as possible, he also cut down the amount of TTL ([[transistor-transistor logic]]) chips to 42. This made the design difficult to manufacture—it was too compact and complicated to be feasible with Atari's manufacturing methods. However, Wozniak claims Atari could not understand the design, and speculates "maybe some engineer there was trying to make some kind of modification to it". Atari ended up designing their own version for production, which contained about 100 TTL chips. Wozniak found the gameplay to be the same as his original creation, and could not find any differences.<ref> [www.thelogbook.com] Phosphor-Dot Fossils: Breakout<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref><ref> [www.gamasutra.com] Gamasutra.com Features - Woz Was Here - Steve Wozniak On His Gaming Past<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref><ref name="iWoz"/><ref name="UHVF"/><ref name="DotEaters"/><ref name="ArcadeHistory"/>
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
== Gameplay == |
|
== Gameplay == |
