Breakout begins with eight rows of bricks, with two rows each of a different color. The color order from the bottom up is yellow, green, orange, and red. Using a single ball, the player must knock down as many bricks as possible by using the walls and the paddle below to bounce the ball against the bricks and eliminate them. If the player's paddle misses the ball's rebound, they lose a turn. The player has three turns to clear two screens of bricks. Yellow bricks earn one point each, green bricks earn three points, orange bricks earn five points, and the top-level red bricks score seven points each. The paddle shrinks to one-half its initial size after the ball breaks through the red row and makes contact with the upper wall. Ball speed increases at specific intervals: after four hits, after twelve hits, and after making contact with the orange and red rows.
The highest score achievable by one player in a single game is 896 points, attained by clearing two full screens worth 448 points each. Once the second screen of bricks is destroyed, no additional bricks are generated, and the ball bounces harmlessly off the walls until the player restarts the game. Because of how two-player mode manages internal screen memory, an additional scoring quirk exists: if a player completes the first screen on their final turn and the ball is subsequently lost, the cleared screen status transfers to the second player as an extra board, allowing a theoretical maximum score of 1,344 points before the game concludes.
The original arcade cabinet of Breakout features artwork framing the game's premise as a prison escape. The artwork depicts the player character as a prison inmate attempting to shatter a brick wall of their cell by hitting a ball and chain with a mallet. If the player successfully destroys the wall in-game, the inmate escapes with others following.
Breakout is abandonware and no longer sold or supported by its publishers. Files are archived here for these platforms:
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