Year & Price 1986 - £6.95 Publisher Imagine Graphics Sound Gameplay

"Arkanoid" (Imagine)

Description:
In principal, probably one of the most basic concepts of early computer games: knocking bricks out of a wall with a little bat and ball...Ahh but here we have Arkanoid.... here we have a bat and with style... here we have the John Travolta of the 'knocking bricks out of a wall and moving to the next level to knock more bricks out of a wall' Scene!

OK, you get the idea, no doubt many of us played Breakout - the classic game controlled with a paddle in the arcades, well this is a well converted and smooth replica and worthy of Crash Smash from the popular mag.

Object:
Each level is cleared by knocking out all of the bricks by moving and bouncing a ball off a small 'bat' at the bottom of the screen. Some bricks have special properties, such as widening your bat, making your bat 'sticky', increasing the ball speed, equiping your bat with missiles and more. Some special brick also created a quick exit when struck and allows you to move onto the next level by moving to the extreme right of the screen.

Vitals   Publisher Imagine-Dynamic Year 1984 19861986 Author Richard Wilcox Model 48k/128k Format Shooter/Arcade Price £6.95 Controls Keyboard Only Tips & More No. of Players Up to one player Graphics Sound Game-Play Overall

Articles:

History:
n/a

Criticism:
Ball flow and speed is well controlled and the reflection off the bat is also nicely done with a good degree of accuracy.

Lots of goodies fall from the bricks and allows for a much more involved and interesting gameplay, such as a multi-ball that gives you three balls at the same time so you can finish the level quicker. The special brick are marked with letters that give you an idea of what special property the brick has, for instance the 'L' brick give you a laser which can be used to blast mercilessly against any remaining parts of the wall.

Sound & Graphics:

Sound is minimal but inconsequencial and its lack of musical accompanyment does little to take anything from the game...in short, you don't really mind after a while, since the graphics are good and the action/game-play is smooth and responsive.. and very, veeery addictive.