Arkanoid Fanpage!

Arkanoid is an arcade game that was developed by Taito in 1986. It's ball and paddle style game where the player takes control of a paddle at the bottom of the screen and use it to try to destroy bricks by deflecting a ball into them and eventually clearing the screen to progress to the next level. The title 'Arkanoid' refers to a doomed mothership from which the player's ship, the Vaus, escapes. The story goes like this: "The time and era is unknown. After the mothership "Arkanoid" was destroyed, a spacecraft "Vaus" scrambled away from it. But only to be trapped in space warped by someone........"

There are a number of different thing that come into play while destroying bricks. Some bricks have to be hit multiple times, flying enemy ships appear, and power-up capsules fall from the destroyed bricks to enhance the Vaus including multiply the number of balls, equip a lasercannon, break directly to the next level. The game is very similar to Atari's 1978 classic, Super Breakout. Once the player reaches the final round, round 33, the player will take on the game's boss, a large head named "DOH".

The colorful graphics and extra items aren't the only impressive thing about Arkanoid. The gameplay in the arcade version and some home versions is controlled by controller with a knob to move the paddle left and right. The controller, contains a potentiometer and the faster the knob is turned, the quicker the paddle moves. Because of the Arkanoid's popularity, it was ported to numerous home consoles and computers. In addition to a large number of unauthorized clones, many sequels of the game were developed including Tournament Arkanoid, Arkanoid II: Revenge of Doh, Arkanoid Returns, Arkanoid DS, Arkanoid Live! and Arkanoid Plus!