If you’re of a certain age then you’ll remember one of the best games of all time, and that’s Atari’s Breakout. Based somewhat on the ever popular Pong, the idea behind Breakout was a simple one – hit a ball with your paddle and try to break as many bricks as you can.
Over the years, Breakout has spawned all manner of clones, some good, some not so good, but the original is still held in high regard amongst those of us old enough to remember it the first time around.
That first time, by the way, was 37 years ago. That’s right, Atari brought Breakout to the world in 1976 and we’re very thankful that it did.
Turns out someone at Google is also a fan of a spot of Breakout, with the search behemoth deciding to mark the occasion by launching something pretty special. In fact, we’d go so far as to say it’s pretty damn awesome.
See, if you head on over to Google Image search and enter the term "Atari Breakout" then you’ll briefly see just what you’d expect: a collection of images based on your search. Not long after though, everything changes, and you’ll be faced with a playable version of the classic Breakout, right inside your browser. If you do actually want to look at images though, you can tap the relevant button. Who wouldn’t forgive themselves at least a couple of games of Breakout, though!?
There’s an element of competition here, too. Once you’re done, you can share your high score with all your friends on, you guessed it, Google’s very-own home-brewed social network, Google+. It’s a mind bending combination of the classically old and the highly modern in one handy package. It’s also led to some unhealthy competition – gotta beat that score!
It’s also interesting to see Google launching things like this outside of the company’s usual Google Doodles on the main search page. We wonder how many people would have found the Breakout game if it hadn’t been publicized, though!
So, where to play Breakout? Simply head over to the link here, and indulge yourself in an all-time classic game. We can assure you that this will turn your boring office routine into something fun.
We mean it!
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