Arkanoid (C64)
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- For other games in the series see Arkanoid.
Arkanoid is an action ball-bouncing game built on the theme originally designed by Atari's Breakout. You control a paddle (a spaceship named "Vaus") at the bottom of the screen by turning a dial rather than a directional joystick. With the paddle, you must bounce a ball toward a wall of "bricks" at the top of the screen. Each hit breaks a brick, and when they're all broken, you move to the next stage. However, if you miss the ball with your paddle, you lose a life.
Taito innovated several new features to the Breakout theme which would later become staples of the genre including invincible gold bricks, monsters that roam around the screen, and capsules that grant power-ups like making your paddle bigger, breaking the ball into multiple balls, the ability to catch the ball, and so on.
Although the graphic resolution and color palette of Commodore 64 were inferior to Arcade version, the quality of 6581 chip music was much better than original YM2149.
Contents
Screenshots
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Music
Martin Galway did a decent cover of the all arcade music, even adding his own theme track. The bulk of songs are short jingles - only Name Entry and title track are full-length ones. This game even has an original unused arcade song - though it's unknown if or where it plays in the Commodore version.
This game was possibly the first Commodore 64 game to use the fourth digital channel for music (spoken intros, like it was in Ghostbusters (C64) or Suicide Express (C64), as much as sound effects like in Tarzan (C64), do not count). Later, that was a common feature used by many influental Commodore musicians, especially Jeroen Tel and Rob Hubbard.
Here, Martin Galway used it on both full-length tracks. Technically, these "drums" were still not samples, but made-up numbers, because Galway did not yet understand actual sample data.
Galway then developed a new better version of those tracks with proper drum samples. But, unfortunately, he was not able to add it to game, as he was late and the product already hit the shelves. This version has been lost for years, until 2003, when Galway sent the source code to HVSC team, and they converted it into the SID format. These tracks were also added into the recording table.
Recording
| # | Title | Composer | Arranger | Length | Listen | Download |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Theme | Martin Galway | Martin Galway | 2:22 | Download | |
| 02 | Theme (unreleased version) | Martin Galway | Martin Galway | 2:22 | Download | |
| 03 | Start Demo | Hisayoshi Ogura | Martin Galway | 0:05 | Download | |
| 04 | Game Start | Hisayoshi Ogura | Martin Galway | 0:03 | Download | |
| 05 | Extend | Hisayoshi Ogura | Martin Galway | 0:01 | Download | |
| 06 | Dimensional Fortress Doh | Hisayoshi Ogura | Martin Galway | 0:05 | Download | |
| 07 | Game Over | Hisayoshi Ogura | Martin Galway | 0:02 | Download | |
| 08 | Name Entry | Hisayoshi Ogura | Martin Galway | 2:28 | Download | |
| 09 | Name Entry (unreleased version) | Hisayoshi Ogura | Martin Galway | 2:28 | Download | |
| 10 | Unused | Hisayoshi Ogura | Martin Galway | 0:05 | Download |
Credits
- Ripper: High Voltage SID Collection (HVSC)
- Recorder: M1911
- Game Credits:
- Not Credited Composer: Hisayoshi Ogura
- Not Credited Composer: Martin Galway
- Not Credited Arranger: Martin Galway
(No Source. Game lacks credits.)
Albums
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Game Rip
Rip contains both SID files of original music and the alternative tracks meant to be added into the game.
Ripping music from Commodore 64 game is very hard process so it's beyond the scope of this site.
Audio Devices
This game use standard Commodore 64 6581 chip. On models that came with 8580, the samples are unpleasantly very quiet, and the beginning of the title track is completely mute because it uses only samples and not synthesized sound.
Releases
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Links
- mobygames.com/game/c64/arkanoid - MobyGames.
- gamefaqs.gamespot.com/c64/564810-arkanoid - GameFAQs.
| Arkanoid | |
| Arkanoid |  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  • 
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| Arkanoid II: Revenge of Doh | • • • • • • • •  • •  •
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| Arkanoid Returns | •  •  •  •  • 
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| Arkanoid: Doh It Again | 
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| Arkanoid R 2000 |
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| Arkanoid DS | 
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| Arkanoid Live! | 
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| Arkanoid iOS | 
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| Notable Songs | Game Start |
| Notable Personnel | Hisayoshi Ogura • Katsuhisa Ishikawa • Yasuhisa Watanabe • Seiji Momoi • Hirokazu Koshio • Martin Galway |
| Notable Companies | Taito • Romstar |
