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Arkanoid Amiga 1988

Discovery Software International ported Taito's legendary Arkanoid coinop of 1986 to the Amiga in February of 1988. A god-tier block-breaker with no equal, the original Arkanoid coinop was designed by Akira Fujita and Hiroshi Tsujino of Taito.

Arkanoid targets the gamesman with an eye for angles and the reflexes of a cat. Those with poor eyesight and sloth-like reflexes will get absolutely nowhere in Arkanoid, I'm afraid. Most players never got past the third round; that is, they saw less than 10% of the game. Those without block-breaker pedigree get the Game Over screen within 10 seconds flat.

The way it should be. The way all games should be. Get good, son. Get good.

Arkanoid of 1986 is the predecessor to Arkanoid 2 aka Arkanoid Revenge of Doh of 1987. The Amiga version of Arkanoid 2 was released in 1988 as well. Thus, Arkanoid was a big-name game on ST/Amiga in the late-80s. Block-breakers in general were big in 1987-88: the best block-breakers of all-time came out. And Arkanoid was and still is the pinnacle. Indeed, no game is better than Arkanoid.

A souped-up, high-speed clone of Atari's Breakout coinop of 1976, Arkanoid is one of the most fiendishly addictive games to appear on Western home computer game machines. In addition, Amiga Arkanoid is one of the greatest coinop ports of all-time; it is as playable as the original arcade game and practically arcade-perfect. In fact, I prefer Amiga Arkanoid to coinop Arkanoid because Amiga Arkanoid features +33 levels and does not chew through coins.

As in Breakout and other block-breakers, the object of Arkanoid is to destroy colored blocks by deflecting a ball into them with a bat that can only move horizontally along the bottom of the screen. The bat must deflect the ball before it reaches the bottom of the screen, or a life is lost. In Arkanoid, the walls of blocks are strongholds, the ball is an energy weapon and the bat is a spacecraft called "The Vaus."

Once all the blocks in a round have been destroyed -- every single one -- players auto-progress to the next round. There are 33 rounds in total though an extra 33 can be accessed by starting the game via F3/F4 rather than F1/F2. Either way, the player faces off against DOH in the finale's boss fight of Round 33.

Upon their destruction blocks randomly drop capsules that, when caught, confer power-ups to the Vaus. The most coveted capsule is the Break which allows the Vaus to warp to the next round regardless of round state, but the most fun power-up is the Space Invaders-style Twin-laser. Some blocks are indestructible and protect destructible blocks so the laser is not always useful, but some blocks also have soak or "hit-points" that make the laser eminently useful. Power-ups do not carry over to subsequent rounds.

The ball bounces off the Vaus, off the blocks, off the top, left and right walls of the round, and off annoying aliens that hover about the playfield and descend towards the Vaus. Aliens are destroyed when they come into contact with the Vaus. Points are awarded for destroying blocks and aliens and catching capsules.

The ball also accelerates over time, making it harder to hit. If the ball splits into three via Disruption capsule, the trio of balls accelerate three times as fast. The balls are clearly defined and move smoothly across the screen even when they are flying around at top-speed. The balls can reach incredible speeds; so much so, that connecting with a ball blurring across the screen at top-speed is, in itself, something of an achievement.

To master Arkanoid it is necessary to hit the ball using the edges of the Vaus in order to angle the ball into exacting or hard-to-reach places. Naturally, using the edge of a bat is risky because it increases the likelihood of missing. Arkanoid forces players to get good at angling the ball during round 3, which constitutes an early difficulty spike that has no doubt ended many a run over the years, and made grown men cry.

Arkanoid is all about reflexes, timing, prediction and trajectories -- and a bit of luck. Players can also make excuses for losing lives: the mouse rollers are dirty, the mouse ball is dirty, the mouse-rollers are faulty, the mouse button is faulty, the surface the mouse is on lacks consistency, and so on. But players will never blame the game itself.

As for the sound and music, they are as brilliant as the graphics and gameplay. The sound of rapid ricochets coupled with the booming twin-laser makes for an utterly superb soundscape that contends with any Amiga shooter.

ST/Amiga Arkanoid was the first truly great coinop conversion to 16-bit micros and remains one of the greatest M68K ports of all-time.

The 1987 Atari ST version of Arkanoid is almost as good as the Amiga one. The ST version of Arkanoid was programmed and drawn by Peter Johnson whereas the Amiga version of Arkanoid was developed by Chris Chirogene, Eric Reinhart, Rick Ross and Joe Sleator.

Arkanoid was distributed on 1x 3.5" 880 kB diskette.

Arkanoid on the ST/Amiga is a timeless classic. I give both versions 9.9/10: the highest score I have given any game.

Arkanoid Capsules

B: Break: Purple (Opens a door to the next round aka warp)
C: Catch: Green (Allows you to catch the energy ball, more and refire)
D: Disruption: Light Blue (Splits the energy ball into three balls)
E: Expand: Dark Blue (Increases the length of the Vaus)
L: Laser: Red (Enables the Vaus to fire twin-laser beams)
P: Paddle: Grey (1-up aka extra life)
S: Slow: Orange (Decreases the speed of the energy ball)

Arkanoid subtleties

Capsules won't drop if more than one ball is active
It is possible to aim for the corners of blocks in order to take out two blocks with one diagonal strike
Hitting the ball at sharp angles results in long trajectories that are more destructive
The mouse button can be held down in Catch mode to reduce tedium
Points can be farmed by leaving a few blocks alone, keeping the ball active and killing aliens (preferably with twin-lasers)
Sharp angles allow you to drill through walls of blocks that are in close proximity to border-walls
Even if you can warp to the next level, try lingering for a while to accumulate more points. Maybe a free life will drop. Don't get greedy, though!

Arkanoid IBM PC MS-DOS 1987

NovaLogic released Arkanoid for IBM PC MS-DOS in 1987. The IBM PC version of Arkanoid was programmed by David Seeholzer.

While not as good as the ST/Amiga Arkanoid the PC version of Arkanoid is still a great game though the overall balance and bat/ball physics are different. Indeed, PC Arkanoid is much easier than ST/Amiga Arkanoid.

In addition, PC Arkanoid lacks the intro, sprite drop-shadows and backdrop patterns.

PC Arkanoid displays in 16-color Tandy or EGA 320x200. PC Arkanoid supports mouse, joystick and keyboard control. Audio-wise, PC Arkanoid only employs Tandy sound or the IBM PC Internal Speaker.

PC Arkanoid was distributed on 1x 3.5" 720kB DD diskette or 1x 5.25" 360 kB floppy disk.

Arkanoid Apple 2 GS 1988

John Lund and Ryan Ridges ported Taito's Arkanoid coinop of 1986 to Apple IIGS in 1988. The Apple 2 GS version of Arkanoid is as technically impressive as Amiga Arkanoid, but Apple 2 GS Arkanoid lacks the extra 33 rounds of Amiga Arkanoid.

Arkanoid Commodore 64 1987

Imagine Software ported Taito's Arkanoid coinop of 1986 to Commodore 64 in 1987. C64 Arkanoid is utterly superb across the board as well. C64 Arkanoid was programmed by David Collier, drawn by Mark Jones and composed by Martin Galway.

cf. Block-breakers:

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