🎮 How to Play
- Move your mouse (or drag on touch) to control the paddle.
- Bounce the ball up to break the colored bricks.
- Surprise! Bricks all look the same - but ~22% of them secretly drop a falling capsule when you break them. You only see what it is once it drops.
- Catch the good ones · ⇔ Wide paddle · ×3 Multi-ball · 🐢 Slow ball · ❤ Extra life · 💥 Power-ball · 💎 +200 bonus
- Dodge the bad ones · ⊟ Shrink paddle · 🔥 Fast ball - catching them hurts you!
- Tougher bricks (with cracks) need 2-3 hits. Steel bricks 🟪 are indestructible - only the 💥 Power-ball can punch through them.
- Don't let the ball fall - you have 3 lives. Survive all 12 levels to win.
- Break bricks without bouncing off the paddle to build a combo. ×5 / ×10 / ×15 grants escalating bonuses.
About this tool
Atari's Breakout (1976) - created by Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs. This 3Tej version adds 12 hand-crafted level layouts (heart, smile, diamond, castle, spiral, boss), multi-hit and steel bricks, surprise good/bad power-ups, particle effects, and a combo system. Bounce the ball, break the bricks, survive the surprises.
A short history of Breakout
Breakout was released by Atari in 1976 as a single-player descendant of Pong. The arcade cabinet was engineered by Steve Wozniak with Steve Jobs, and the design brief was simple: replace the second paddle with a wall of bricks the player chips away. The formula proved durable. Taito's Arkanoid (1986) added power-up capsules, multi-hit bricks, and the indestructible silver brick, the same vocabulary this version uses. Today the genre is a classic of casual gaming and a common first project for programmers learning collision detection.
How the ball physics work
Underneath the colour and capsules, Breakout is a geometry problem. The ball travels in a straight line until it strikes a surface, then reflects: the angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection, so a ball hitting a flat brick from below simply reverses its vertical direction. The clever part is the paddle. Where the ball lands on the paddle changes its horizontal speed: hit the centre and it goes nearly straight up, hit the edge and it shoots off at a sharp angle. That single rule is what lets a skilled player aim, steering the ball toward an awkward brick rather than just keeping it alive.
Speed matters too. The ball gets faster as you climb levels, so the reaction window shrinks. The slow-ball capsule buys you time; the fast-ball capsule, which is a trap here, takes it away. The power-ball briefly lets the ball smash through bricks, including the steel ones that otherwise only deflect it.
Worked example: building a combo score
Scoring rewards breaking bricks in a single flight without touching the paddle.
- Base value: a normal brick is worth 10 points; a two-hit brick is worth 20 when finally destroyed.
- Build a combo: break five bricks in a row without the ball returning to the paddle and the combo counter reaches 5.
- Combo bonus: from a combo of 5 upward, each break adds an extra bonus on top of the base value.
- Catch a diamond: the +200 bonus capsule lifts the score immediately if you catch it.
- Clear the level: finishing a level adds 50 points times the level number, so level 4 grants a 200-point clear bonus.
Capsule guide
Roughly 22 percent of bricks hide a capsule, and about 30 percent of those are harmful. You cannot tell until it drops, so weigh the risk before chasing one into a corner.
| Capsule | Effect | Catch it? |
|---|---|---|
| Wide paddle | Paddle grows for 10 seconds | Yes |
| Multi-ball | Splits into three balls | Yes |
| Slow ball | Ball slows for 8 seconds | Yes |
| Power-ball | Ball smashes through bricks and steel | Yes |
| Extra life and bonus | +1 life, or +200 points | Yes |
| Shrink paddle | Paddle shrinks for 8 seconds | No, dodge it |
| Fast ball | Ball speeds up for 6 seconds | No, dodge it |
Common pitfalls
- Chasing every capsule. Nearly a third are harmful and you cannot see which until it falls. If catching one means abandoning the ball, let it go.
- Hitting the ball with the paddle centre every time. The centre sends the ball straight up with no control. Use the paddle edges to aim at stubborn bricks.
- Ignoring steel bricks. Silver bricks never break by normal hits; only the power-ball punches through. Plan a route around them or save a power-ball.
- Breaking the combo needlessly. Every time the ball returns to the paddle the combo resets. For a high score, keep the ball aloft among the bricks as long as you can.
- Panic on the fast ball. The fast-ball trap is temporary. Widen your tracking and survive the few seconds rather than lunging and missing.
Related games
Frequently asked questions
Who invented Breakout?
Breakout was released by Atari in 1976. The arcade hardware was engineered by Steve Wozniak with Steve Jobs, building on Atari's earlier hit Pong. Taito's Arkanoid in 1986 later added the power-up capsules, multi-hit bricks, and indestructible steel bricks that this version also uses.
How do I control the angle of the ball?
By where the ball strikes the paddle. Hitting the ball near the centre sends it almost straight up; hitting it toward an edge sends it off at a sharper sideways angle. This lets you aim the ball at a specific brick rather than just bouncing it back, which is the core skill in Breakout.
Are all the power-up capsules good?
No. About 22 percent of bricks drop a capsule and roughly 30 percent of those are harmful. The good ones include a wider paddle, multi-ball, slow ball, power-ball, an extra life, and a points bonus. The harmful ones shrink the paddle or speed the ball up. You cannot tell which is which until it falls, so weigh the risk before chasing one.
How do I break the silver steel bricks?
Steel bricks cannot be destroyed by normal hits; the ball just bounces off them. Only the power-ball capsule lets the ball smash straight through steel for its short duration. Plan your route around steel bricks, or hold a power-ball until the ball can punch through them to clear the level.
How does the combo scoring work?
A combo counts how many bricks you break in a single flight without the ball returning to the paddle. Once the combo reaches five, each further break adds an escalating bonus on top of the base brick value, and clearing the level adds 50 points times the level number. Keeping the ball aloft among the bricks therefore scores far more than careful one-by-one play.