Breakout (video game) Breakout (video game) Breakout is an arcade game developed and published by Atari, Inc., released on May 13, 1976. It was conceptualized by Nolan Bushnell and Steve Bristow, influenced by the 1972 Atari arcade game "Pong", and built by Steve Wozniak aided by Steve Jobs. "Breakout" was the basis and inspiration for certain aspects of the Apple II personal computer. The game was ported to the Atari 2600 and was followed by a 1978 sequel, "Super Breakout", which four years later became the pack-in game for the Atari 5200 console. "Breakout" spawned an entire genre of "Breakout" clones, and the
Early history of video games directly displayed via modification of a video signal; it was also the first video gaming device to be displayed in a television commercial. It sold for US$100 and shipped with several games, including "Table tennis", which Bushnell had seen a demo of and which "Pong" had been based on. The Odyssey sold over 100,000 units in 1972, and more than 350,000 by the end of 1975, buoyed by the popularity of the table tennis game, in turn driven by the success of "Pong". "Pong" and the Odyssey kicked off a new era of video gaming, with numerous other competitors starting