Arkanoid (C64)

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Arkanoid
Arkanoid - C64 - USA.jpg
Platform: Commodore 64
Year: 1987
Developer: Taito Corporation
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.

Screenshots

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This page needs more 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 ComposerArranger Length Listen Download
01 Theme Martin GalwayMartin Galway 2:22
Download
02 Theme (unreleased version) Martin GalwayMartin Galway 2:22
Download
03 Start Demo Hisayoshi OguraMartin Galway 0:05
Download
04 Game Start Hisayoshi OguraMartin Galway 0:03
Download
05 Extend Hisayoshi OguraMartin Galway 0:01
Download
06 Dimensional Fortress Doh Hisayoshi OguraMartin Galway 0:05
Download
07 Game Over Hisayoshi OguraMartin Galway 0:02
Download
08 Name Entry Hisayoshi OguraMartin Galway 2:28
Download
09 Name Entry (unreleased version) Hisayoshi OguraMartin Galway 2:28
Download
10 Unused Hisayoshi OguraMartin Galway 0:05
Download

Credits

(No Source. Game lacks credits.)

Albums

Project: Galway

Project - Galway.jpg

2003-??-??

Game Rip

Format

Download

SID.png

Download

(Info)


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

  USA.svg   USA
Arkanoid - C64 - USA.jpg
Title: Arkanoid
Platform: Commodore 64
Released: 1987-??-??
Publisher: Taito Corporation

Links


Arkanoid
Arkanoid Platform - A2.png • Platform - A2GS.png • Platform - AMI.png • Platform - ARC.png • Platform - AST.png • Platform - BBC.png • Platform - C64.png • Platform - CPC.png • Platform - DOS.png • Platform - MAC.png • Platform - MSX.png • Platform - NES.png • Platform - PC88.png • Platform - PC98.png • Platform - TMO.png • Platform - TRSC.png • Platform - TTO.png • Platform - ZXS.png
Arkanoid II: Revenge of Doh Platform - A2.png • Platform - A2GS.png • Platform - AMI.png • Platform - ARC.png • Platform - AST.png • Platform - C64.png • Platform - CPC.png • Platform - DOS.png • Platform - FC.png • Platform - MSX.png • Platform - X68.png • Platform - ZXS.png
Arkanoid Returns Platform - ARC.png • Platform - PS1.png • Platform - PS2.png • Platform - PS3.png • Platform - PSP.png • Platform - PSV.png
Arkanoid: Doh It Again Platform - SNES.png
Arkanoid R 2000 Platform - PS1.png
Arkanoid DS Platform - NDS.png
Arkanoid Live! Platform - X360.png
Arkanoid iOS Platform - IOS.png
Notable Songs Game Start
Notable Personnel Hisayoshi Ogura • Katsuhisa Ishikawa • Yasuhisa Watanabe • Seiji Momoi • Hirokazu Koshio • Martin Galway
Notable Companies Taito • Romstar