Arkanoid
| Arkanoid | |
|---|---|
European arcade flyer of Arkanoid
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| Developer(s) | Atlus (FC/NES) |
| Publisher(s) | Taito Corporation Romstar |
| Designer(s) | Akira Fujita |
| Composer(s) | Hisayoshi Ogura |
| Platform(s) | Arcade, Nintendo Entertainment System, Various |
| Release | 1986 |
| Genre(s) | Breakout |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
| Cabinet | Upright |
| Arcade system | Taito Arkanoid |
| CPU |
Z80 @ 6 MHz, M68705 @ 500 kHz |
| Sound | AY8910 @ 1.5 MHz |
| Display |
Raster (vertical), 224×256 resolution, 60 Hz refresh rate, 512 colors on screen, 4096 color palette |
Arkanoid (アルカノイド Arukanoido?) is an arcade game developed by Taito in 1986. It expanded upon Atari's Breakout games of the 1970s by adding power-ups, different types of bricks, a variety of level layouts, and visual layering and depth. The title refers to a doomed "mothership" from which the player's ship, the Vaus, escapes. Arkanoid revived the Breakout concept, resulting in many clones and similar games for home computers, even over a decade later.
The player controls the "Vaus", a space vessel that acts as the game's "paddle" which prevents a ball from falling from the playing field, attempting to bounce it against a number of bricks. The ball striking a brick causes the brick to disappear. When all the bricks are gone, the player goes to the next level, where another pattern of bricks appears. There are a number of variations (bricks that have to be hit multiple times, flying enemy ships, etc.) and power-up capsules to enhance the Vaus (expand the Vaus, multiply the number of balls, equip a laser cannon, break directly to the next level, etc.), but the gameplay remains the same.
At round 33 (36 for the NES version), the final stage, the player will take on the game's boss, "DOH", a head resembling moai. Once a player reaches round 33, he must defeat DOH with his remaining extra lives because there are no continues on the final round. In the NES version the final boss is on stage 36, and there are no continues throughout the entire game, so the entire game must be beaten in one sitting.
Upon release, the arcade game was critically acclaimed. In Japan, the gave it the Silver Award for being one of the four best games of 1986, along with Taito's own Bubble Bobble, Sega's Fantasy Zone and Tecmo's Rygar. In Europe, it was reviewed by Clare Edgeley in the December 1986 issue of Computer and Video Games, where she compared it to Pong and Space Invaders in its simplicity and addictiveness. She described Arkanoid as "a lovely game" that is "Fast, colourful, simple and addictive" and concluded it to be a "great little game". It was also commercially successful in arcades. The game appeared at number-three on Euromax's nationwide UK arcade chart in 1987, below Capcom's 1942 at number-one and Westone's Wonder Boy at number-two.
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