Arkanoid

Arkanoid Arcade Game

Arkanoid was a Taito arcade game from 1986, that was essentially a take-off and expansion of an Atari game called Breakout, which had the user bouncing a ball off a paddle to break bricks at the top of the screen. In this game, the user controlled a little space ship, called the Vaus, which in reality was a simple paddle used to try to keep the ball from leaving the playing area. When the ball ricocheted off the paddle and hit a colored brick, the brick would disappear, and when all bricks were gone, the player would level up (there were 33 total levels).

Arkanoid Arcade Game Cabinet

In an effort to make the game stand out from Breakout, it featured things like enemy ships, lasers, bricks that would require multiple hits, and a boss at the end of the game called “DOH”. The game was popular enough to warrant spin-offs, like Tournament Arkanoid and Arkanoid II, both from 1987. The game continues to hold on in one form or another, with Arkanoid: Doh It Again (1997), Arkanoid Returns (1997), and a number of versions for Nintendo home systems.