Genre: Arcade
Developer: Peter Johnson
Publisher: Taito

When Steve Wozniak and company were programming the bright blocks in "Breakout" in the 1970s, little did they know that this same graphics style would manifest over a decade later in Taito's "Arkanoid". Faithfully re-written and re-worked for Atari's 16-bit powerhouse by a fellow named Peter Johnson, this rendition sees the score and other elements moved to a right-hand pane, with the playing field to its left. Other than this variation, the port is just about arcade-identical!

The original "Arkanoid" arcade board's sound chip was not particularly sophisticated, so its opening motif was easy to adapt to the Atari ST's venerable PSG. In fact and like a lot of songs, it's arguable that the PSG renditions actually sound superior, with their sharply-defined and crystal clear notes. Unfortunately, the pleasant sing-songey major key sound effects of the arcade were replicated with more generic, sometimes off-key chimes, taking away part of what made the original game enjoyable to play.

For some, Arkanoid's opening stage is as iconic as the Pac-Man maze, or Doom's E1M1 blue-carpeted foyer. The gameplay kicks off immediately then, and it's quickly evident that the ST's comfortable, smooth-rolling mouse is a great match for a game of this style. All of the stages and even the boss are present. The only fly in the ointment is that the game seems to play just a touch faster than the arcade original, lending the proceedings even a bit extra challenge!

This Atari ST adaptation of the all-time classic arcade game is absolutely wonderful: from the opening aural motif to the movement of the paddle-- er, "ship"-- to the graphics, everything that made the arcade version so loveable is here, sans a slight whiff on the sound effects. Of course, Arkanoid itself has some design problems, particularly when situations become "boring" or borderline "stuck", with the player endlessly trying to make just the right shot. But even those frustrations are faithfully reproduced here, for better or for worse!