Arkanoid Amiga 1988 Discovery Software International

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 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.

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 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.

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. In Arkanoid, the walls of blocks are space walls, the ball is an energy ball 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 also have soak or "hit-points" that make the laser eminently useful.

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. If the Vaus fails to connect with the ball, a life is lost. Aliens are destroyed when they come into contact with the Vaus. Points are awarded for destroying blocks and aliens and capturing capsules.

The ball also accelerates over time, making it harder to hit. If the ball splits into three via Disruption power-up, it accelerates more quickly. The balls are clearly defined and move smoothly across the screen even when they are flying around at top-speed.

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. 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.

Arkanoid is all about reflexes, timing, prediction and trajectories -- and a bit of luck.

As for the sound and music, they are as brilliant as the graphics and gameplay. Arkanoid was the first truly great coinop conversion to 16-bit micros and remains one of the greatest 16-bit port of all-time (ST/Amiga).

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.

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
• 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 versions the IBM PC version is still a great game though the overall balance and bat/ball physics are different. Indeed, the IBM PC version is much easier than the ST/Amiga versions. The IBM PC version lacks the intro, sprite drop-shadows and backdrop patterns.

IBM PC Arkanoid displays in 16-color Tandy or EGA 320x200. It supports mouse, joystick and keyboard control.

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

Indexes:

• Amiga Games Reviews (Index to all Amiga game reviews)
• Computer Game Reviews (Index to all computer game reviews)
• History of Computer Games (Master Index)