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Breakout Clones
''Breakout'' is an arcade video game developed and published by Atari, Inc. and released on May 13, 1976. It was designed by Steve Wozniak, based on conceptualization from Nolan Bushnell and Steve Bristow who were influenced by the seminal 1972 in video games, 1972 Atari arcade game ''Pong''. In ''Breakout'', a layer of bricks lines the top third of the screen and the goal is to destroy them all by repeatedly bouncing a ball off a paddle into them. The arcade game was released in Japan by Namco. ''Breakout'' was a worldwide commercial success, among the top five highest-grossing 1976 in video games, arcade video games of 1976 in both the United States and Japan and then among the top three highest-grossing 1977 in video games, arcade video games of 1977 in the US and Japan. The 1978 Atari 2600, Atari VCS port uses color graphics instead of a monochrome screen with colored overlay. While the concept was predated by Ramtek (company), Ramtek's ''Clean Sweep'' (1974), ''Breakout'' sp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atari, Inc
Atari, Inc. was an American video game developer and home computer company founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. Atari was a key player in the formation of the video arcade and video game industry. Based primarily around the Sunnyvale, California, area in the center of Silicon Valley, the company was initially formed to develop arcade games, launching with ''Pong'' in 1972. As computer technology matured with low-cost integrated circuits, Atari ventured into the consumer market, first with dedicated home video game console, home versions of ''Pong'' and other arcade successes around 1975, and into programmable consoles using game cartridges with the Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS or later branded as the Atari 2600) in 1977. To bring the Atari VCS to market, Bushnell sold Atari to Warner Communications in 1976. In 1978, Warner brought in Ray Kassar to help run the company, but over the next few years, gave Kassar more of a leadership role in the company. Bushn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Super Breakout
''Super Breakout'' is a sequel to the 1976 video game '' Breakout'' released in arcades in September 1978 by Atari, Inc. It was written by Ed Rotberg. The game uses the same mechanics as ''Breakout'', but allows the selection of three distinct game modes via a knob on the cabinet—two of which involve multiple, simultaneous balls in play. Both the original and sequel are in black and white with monitor overlays to add color. It was distributed in Japan by Namco and Esco Trading. The arcade game was commercially successful in Japan and the United States. Atari published home versions–in color–for most of its consoles and computers, including as the pack-in game for the 1982 Atari 5200. Gameplay The fundamental gameplay—use a paddle to bounce a ball into a wall of destructible bricks—is the same as ''Breakout'', but ''Super Breakout'' contains three different game modes: Double gives the player control of two paddles at the same time—one placed above the other—with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United States Dollar
The United States dollar ( symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official currency of the United States and several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introduced the U.S. dollar at par with the Spanish silver dollar, divided it into 100 cents, and authorized the minting of coins denominated in dollars and cents. U.S. banknotes are issued in the form of Federal Reserve Notes, popularly called greenbacks due to their predominantly green color. The monetary policy of the United States is conducted by the Federal Reserve System, which acts as the nation's central bank. The U.S. dollar was originally defined under a bimetallic standard of (0.7735 troy ounces) fine silver or, from 1837, fine gold, or $20.67 per troy ounce. The Gold Standard Act of 1900 linked the dollar solely to gold. From 1934, it ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steve Jobs
Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American entrepreneur, industrial designer, media proprietor, and investor. He was the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Apple; the chairman and majority shareholder of Pixar; a member of The Walt Disney Company's board of directors following its acquisition of Pixar; and the founder, chairman, and CEO of NeXT. He is widely recognized as a pioneer of the personal computer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, along with his early business partner and fellow Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. Jobs was born in San Francisco to a Syrian father and German-American mother. He was adopted shortly after his birth. Jobs attended Reed College in 1972 before withdrawing that same year. In 1974, he traveled through India seeking enlightenment before later studying Zen Buddhism. He and Wozniak co-founded Apple in 1976 to sell Wozniak's Apple I personal computer. Together the duo gained fame and wealth a year later with produ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cyan Engineering
Cyan Engineering was an American computer engineering company located in Grass Valley, California.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfFGrQLuY8s Atari's Cyan Engineering - Splendor in the Grass documentary It was founded by Steve Mayer and Larry Emmons. The company was purchased in 1973 by Atari, Inc. and developed the Atari Video Computer System console, which was released in 1977 and renamed the Atari 2600 in November 1982. It also carried out some robotics research and development work on behalf of Atari, including the Kermit mobile robot A mobile robot is an automatic machine that is capable of locomotion.Hu, J.; Bhowmick, P.; Lanzon, A.,Group Coordinated Control of Networked Mobile Robots with Applications to Object Transportation IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, 2021 ..., originally intended as a stand-alone product intended to bring a beer. The company also programmed the original "portrait style" animatronics for Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre pizza chain in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Al Alcorn
Allan Alcorn (born January 1, 1948) is an American pioneering engineer and computer scientist best known for creating ''Pong'', one of the first video games. Atari and ''Pong'' Alcorn grew up in San Francisco, California, and attended the University of California, Berkeley, graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences in 1971. He worked for the pioneering video company Ampex, where he met Ted Dabney and several other people that would end up being constants through the Atari, Inc., Apple, Cyan Engineering and Pizza Time Theater (now known as Chuck E. Cheese's) companies. Alcorn was the designer of the video arcade game ''Pong'', creating it under the direction of Nolan Bushnell and Dabney. ''Pong'' was a hit in the 1970s. In addition to direct involvement with all the breakout Atari products, such as the Atari 2600, Alcorn was involved at some of the historic meetings of Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs (at that time an Atari em ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ultimate History Of Video Games
''The Ultimate History of Video Games'' is a 2001 non-fiction book by Steven L. Kent. Published initially by Prima Publishing and then by Three Rivers Press, it is an updated version of the self-published ''The First Quarter: A 25-Year History of Video Games''. Development The book was constructed primarily from over 500 interviews, with industry figures granting multiple conversations. Three potential sources declined. He had originally intended to release the book in 1995, and then in 1996, but then he "finally published the damned thing" independently in 2000. 5,000 copies of this first edition were quickly sold exclusively through Amazon, and then Prima Publishing bought the rights. Kent initially opposed referring to the new edition as "ultimate". An index was added. He bemoaned that the Three Rivers Press edition was released before the launches of the GameCube and Xbox. In 2018, and again in 2019, he mentioned that he was working on a second volume, which was eventually ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kee Games
Kee Games was an American arcade game manufacturer that released arcade and video games from 1973 to 1978. History Kee was formed by Joe Keenan, a friend and neighbor of Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell, in September 1973. In reality, Bushnell had worked with Keenan to create Kee Games in response to the pinball and arcade distributors of the time who demanded exclusivity deals; Bushnell believed that Kee Games could offer similar but renamed arcade games, or "clones", to distributors, which would greatly expand Atari's distribution beyond the limits of these deals. Bushnell assigned several of Atari's staff to work at Kee Games, including Steve Bristow, Bill White, and Gil Williams, and discreetly supplied them the parts for which they could make their games. To the public, Kee Games advertized itself as a competitor to Atari and that it was hiring defectors from Atari. Through 1973 and 1974, Kee's games were slight modifications of Atari games already released or games that ha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Microprocessor
A microprocessor is a computer processor where the data processing logic and control is included on a single integrated circuit, or a small number of integrated circuits. The microprocessor contains the arithmetic, logic, and control circuitry required to perform the functions of a computer's central processing unit. The integrated circuit is capable of interpreting and executing program instructions and performing arithmetic operations. The microprocessor is a multipurpose, clock-driven, register-based, digital integrated circuit that accepts binary data as input, processes it according to instructions stored in its memory, and provides results (also in binary form) as output. Microprocessors contain both combinational logic and sequential digital logic, and operate on numbers and symbols represented in the binary number system. The integration of a whole CPU onto a single or a few integrated circuits using Very-Large-Scale Integration (VLSI) greatly reduced the cost of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Logic Gate
A logic gate is an idealized or physical device implementing a Boolean function, a logical operation performed on one or more binary inputs that produces a single binary output. Depending on the context, the term may refer to an ideal logic gate, one that has for instance zero rise time and unlimited fan-out, or it may refer to a non-ideal physical device (see Ideal and real op-amps for comparison). Logic gates are primarily implemented using diodes or transistors acting as electronic switches, but can also be constructed using vacuum tubes, electromagnetic relays (relay logic), fluidic logic, pneumatic logic, optics, molecules, or even mechanical elements. Now, most logic gates are made from MOSFETs (metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistors). With amplification, logic gates can be cascaded in the same way that Boolean functions can be composed, allowing the construction of a physical model of all of Boolean logic, and therefore, all of the algorithms and mathem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arcade Cabinet
An arcade cabinet, also known as an arcade machine or a coin-op cabinet or coin-op machine, is the housing within which an arcade game's electronic hardware resides. Most cabinets designed since the mid-1980s conform to the Japanese Amusement Machine Manufacturers Association (JAMMA) wiring standard. Some include additional connectors for features not included in the standard. Parts of an arcade cabinet Because arcade cabinets vary according to the games they were built for or contain, they may not possess all of the parts listed below: *A display output, on which the game is displayed. They may display either raster or vector graphics, raster being most common. Standard resolution is between 262.5 and 315 vertical lines, depending on the refresh rate (usually between 50 and 60 Hz). Slower refresh rates allow for better vertical resolution. Monitors may be oriented horizontally or vertically, depending on the game. Some games use more than one monitor. Some newer cabinets h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1974 In Video Games
1974 had new titles such as ''Speed Race'', ''Dungeon'', ''Gran Trak 10'', ''Tank'' and ''TV Basketball''. The year's best-selling arcade game was ''Tank'' by Kee Games. Best-selling arcade video games in the United States The following titles were the best-selling arcade video games of 1974 in the United States, according to annual arcade cabinet sales estimates provided by Ralph H. Baer. Events * The number of copies of ''Pong'' and its commercial clones exceed 100,000 units. Approximately 10,000 of these units were manufactured by Atari, the original developer of ''Pong''. * H.R. "Pete" Kaufman leaves Ramtek to found Exidy, Inc. * Namco acquires the Japanese division of Atari, Inc. and formally enters the video arcade game market. * Atari acquires Kee Games as a "marketing ploy." Atari will continue to use the "Kee Games" title as a brand name until 1978. * Philips, Royal Philips Electronics N.V. acquires Magnavox, which becomes "Philips Consumer Electronics." Notable rel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
