Breakout
Smash all the bricks with the bouncing ball — clear 3 levels to win.
Breakout
About Breakout
Breakout was designed at Atari in 1976 by Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, shrinking the two-player tension of Pong into a single-player wall-smashing ritual that defined early arcade gaming. Its descendants added power-ups and lasers, but the pure version — one paddle, one ball, one wall — remains a perfect test of anticipation and calm hands.
This version runs on a canvas court with a wall of bricks in six rainbow rows. Every brick smashed is worth 10 points, and you have 3 lives for the whole campaign: clear the wall to advance, and clearing level 3 wins the game outright. The wall grows denser as you climb (5 rows on level 1, 6 rows after) and the ball's base speed rises each level. The paddle physics reward skill — where the ball strikes the paddle sets its rebound angle, up to a sharp 60 degrees — and the game can be driven by mouse, touch-drag, or arrow keys, with Space pausing the action.
How to Play Breakout
Press Play. The ball launches from the centre towards the brick wall.
Move the paddle along the bottom — mouse, finger drag on the canvas, or the ← → arrow keys — to meet the ball and bounce it back up.
Each brick the ball touches is destroyed and scores 10 points. The ball rebounds off bricks, walls and the ceiling.
If the ball passes your paddle and leaves the bottom of the court, you lose one of your 3 lives and the ball is re-served.
Destroy every brick to advance a level; the wall gains a row and the ball gets faster. Clear level 3 to win the game, or run out of lives and it is Game Over.
Controls
Tips & Tricks
- 💡You are the angle-maker: the ball rebounds at up to 60° depending on how far from the paddle's centre it lands, so deliberately meet it with the paddle's edge to shoot it into corners the centre-bounce cannot reach.
- 💡Tunnel early. Clearing one column completely lets the ball slip behind the wall, where it rattles between bricks and ceiling, destroying several bricks per trip.
- 💡Watch the ball, not the paddle — your peripheral vision handles the paddle's position, and tracking the ball's descent angle tells you where to be a half-second sooner.
- 💡On the faster levels, stay near the centre when the ball is high in the wall; most deaths come from being caught sprinting back from a corner.
Breakout — Frequently Asked Questions
How many levels and lives are there?+
Three levels and 3 lives for the entire run — lives are not refilled between levels. Level 1 has 5 rows of 8 bricks; levels 2 and 3 have 6 rows, and the ball launches faster on each level.
How does scoring work?+
Every brick is worth 10 points regardless of its row or level. A perfect level 1 is worth 400, and a full three-level clear totals 1,400 points.
Can I control the ball's direction?+
Yes — that is the heart of the game. The rebound angle depends on where the ball hits the paddle: dead centre sends it straight up, while hits near the edge send it away at up to 60 degrees, at unchanged speed.
Does Breakout work on a phone?+
Yes. Dragging a finger across the canvas moves the paddle with the same responsiveness as the mouse, and the court scales to the screen width.
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