website/content/software/breakthru-breakaway.md

title, tags, years, params

title	tags	years	params
Breakthru / Breakaway	ball and paddle breakout	1977	image specs screenshots machines company oc_id source /media/museum/software/atari_video-pinball_breakthru_s1.png label value year of release 1977 label value companies Atari label value type game label value media built-in system label value systems Atari Video-Pinball (C380) label value number of players 1 player title subtitle text image /media/museum/software/atari_video-pinball_breakthru_s1.png /museum/epoch-tv-block /companies/epoch 364 url date https://web.archive.org/web/20230328011755/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/software_detail.asp?id=364 2023-03-28

Breakthru is a variation of Breakout. The difference is that there are only 4 brick rows (2 red and 2 yellow ones) leaving a space between these two walls.

Red bricks score 7 points and yellow ones 1 point. Maximum score is 288 points. Strike a red brick and the ball speeds up. The paddle also shrinks to hald size the first time the ball hits the top boundary. After each miss, the ball returns to the original speed and the paddle returns to the original size.

If the ball becomes trapped between the red and yellow rows, it will knock out the yellow bricks it strikes. Red blocks disappear only when the ball comes directly from the paddle.

There are 4 options:
- Option 1: the paddle is regular size, you have seven balls
- Option 2: the paddle is regular size, you have five balls
- Option 3: the paddle is one half size, you have five balls
- Option 4: the paddle is one half size, you have three balls

Only early model of the Atari Video Pinball system had this game. Later ones (beige systems) had it replaced by Rebound 2, a basketball variation. In the same way, Epoch TV Block systems had Breakout and Breakthru, but it seems that there was an other model (labeled MB?) which had Rebound 1 & 2, and only Breakout.