Atari Breakout - Ball Directions

never
allowed
to
move
in
a
direction
exactly
per-
pendicular
to
the
front
surface
of
the
paddle,
toward
the
bricks
or
to
any
'Of
the
boundaries.
As
soon
as
the
first
ball
appears,
the
serve
buttons
go
dark,
but·
the
ball
number
in
the
upper
right
corner
of
the
pic-
ture
remains
at
"1."
On
subsequent
serves,
how-
ever,
the
number
will
be increased
by
1 each
time
a
new
ball
appears.
With
the
ball
moving
on
the
TV
screen,
the
player
must
now
try
to
volley,
that
is,
try
to
manipu-
late
the
paddle
knob
so
that
the
paddle
will
move
to
a
position
that
intercepts
the
ball
before
it
escapes
off
the
screen.
If
the
player
succeeds,
the
ball
will
rebound
off
the
paddle
and
move
back
toward
the
wall
of
bricks:
The
"blip"
sound
will
be
produced
whenever
the
ball
hits
the
paddle,
and
the
bounce
sound
whenever
the
ball
hits
a
boundary.
Whenever
the
ball
now
hits
a
brick,
that
brick
will
disappear
and
the
ball
will
rebound.
But
only
one
brick
can
disappear
at a
time;
the
ball
must
hit
the
backwall
boundary
or
the
paddle
before
another
brick
can
disappear.
A
"tick"
sound
is
produced
to
represent
each
point
of
the
brick's
score
point
value,
as
follows:
Bricks
in
the
first
two
rows nearest
to
the
paddle
are
worth
1
point
each;
bricks
in
the
next
two
rows are
worth
3
points
each;
those
in
the
next
two
rows
5
points
each;
and
those
in
the
two
rows
farthest
from
the
paddle
are
worth
7
points
each.
Therefore
the
entire
wall
of
bricks
represents a
total
of
448 score
points.
A serve
ends
right
after
the
player
fails
to
volley;
the
serve
buttons
light
up
as
soon
as
the
ball has dis-
appeared
off
the
end
of
the
screen. To
continue
the
play
sequence a
player
must
again depress
the
serve
button.
During
two-player
games
the
player-up
number
in
the
upper
left
corner
of
the
picture
changes
from
"1"
to
"2"
after
player
1 misses a
vol-
ley, and vice versa.
Each
player
in
a
two-player
game
receives an equal
number
of
serves.
The
play
sequence
continues
as
described
above
until
all
the
balls
set
up
by
a
third
owner/
operator
option·
have all been served.
If
no
credit
is
remaining
in
the
credit
accumulator
at
this
time,
then
the
game reverts back
to
the
attract
mode.
But
the
game
will
remain
in
the
play
mode
if
one
(or
both)
start
buttons
are
lighted,
because
this
means
that
credit
is
still
remaining
in
the
credit
ac-
cumulator.
After
the
game
reverts
to
attract,
it
au-
tomatically
"serves"
itself
a
new
ball and adds
"1"
to
the
ball
number
in
the
upper
ri~ht
corner
of
the
screen. This
ball
cannot
escape,
however,
because
it
cannot
get
past
the
solid
row
of
paddles
that
appear
in
the
picture
in
the
attract
mode.
Besides
the
slowest
ball
speed
already
de-
scribed,
during
any
one
serve
three
speed-ups
are
possible. The
first
speed-up
occurs
upon
the
4th
hit,
and
a
second,
faster
speed-up
occurs
on
the
12th
hit.
Ball
speed
changes
to
a
fourth,
fastest
speed
immediately
after
a
high-point
(either
5-point
or
7-point)
brick
is
hit,
regardless
of
what
it
had
been
beforehand.
Ball
speed
is
restored
to
the
slowest
value
at
the
beginning
of
each serve.
When
the
ball
intercepts
the
paddle
it
will
re-
bound
in
any
of
4
directions,
depending
on
which
portion
of
the
paddle
was
hit
(see Figure 3-4). This is
still
the
case even
after
the
paddle
has been
reduced
to
half
its
normal
width.
Note
that
the
ball
is
not
al-
lowed
to
move
in
a
direction
perpendicular
to
the
front
surface
of
the
paddle,
or
perpendicular
to
the
edge
of
the
paddle.
If
a
player
is
skillful
enough
to
knock
away
all
bricks,
as
soon
as
the
ball
subsequently
hits
either
the
backwall
boundary
or
the
paddle
a
second
full
set
of
bricks
will
appear.
The
player
can
then
earn
additional
score
points
by
knocking
away
bricks
in
this
second set.
No
extra serves
are
given
however,
and
no
additional
bricks
will
be
added
after
this
sec-
ond
set. This
feature
means
that
the
game's
highest
attainable score is
limited
to
896
points
(two
walls
of
bricks each
worth
448
points).
After
a
"breakout"
occurs
and
the
ball has
en-
tered
the
region
of
the
picture
between
the
rear-
most
row
of
bricks
and
the
backwall
boundary,
it
does
not
interact
with
any
of
the
score
or
other
nu-
merals.
Instead
it
merely
passes
through
them
with-
out
any
effect
on
its
motion.
BALL
DIRECTIONS
/
PADDLE
NOTES:
1)
Angle
of
rebound
is
determined
by
which
portion
of
the
paddle
that
the
ball
hits. The
ball's
angle
of
incidence
is
irrelevant.
2)
The
angles
of
rebound
become
more
perpendicular
as
ball
speed
increases.
3) The dia,gram
above,
with
four
sections,
still
applies
after
paddle
width
has
been
reduced
to
half
the
normal
value. -
Figure
3-4
Diagram
of
Ball
Rebounds off
Paddle
7