Talk:Breakout
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[edit] Wozniak's share
Two of the references contradict on the level of Wozniak's share, $350 or $375. 4 says:
He pays Wozniak his share of $375 from the original $750
While 3 says:
Jobs received a $5,000 bonus and told Woz it was only $700 and gave Steve Wozniak his '50%'... $350.
Which was it? Does Wozniak's book iWoz give specifics on this?
Also, does Woz's book corroborate this statement:
Years later this truth would come out and it would add to the already increasing friction between the two which eventually lead to Steve Wozniak quitting Apple.
- $350, which is half of $700. Likewise, the references are there to corroborate the full story of the item not being used, not just the ammount. Also, look again at the numbered references - iWoz is one of them. --Marty Goldberg 12:20, 7 December 2006 (UTC)
I removed the part about Wozniak leaving Apple because Jobs shortchanged him on Breakout. I think it has more to do with Wozniak, Jobs, and Apple than with Breakout and interrupts the flow of the article by getting it sidetracked. It's also factually disputable.
--typhoon 12:55, 10 Feb 2005 (UTC)
So, if Wozniak and Jobs were responsible for the game, why does the infobox have Bushnell as the designer? siafu 01:06, 24 Jun 2005 (UTC)
Bushnell was NOT the designer. It's a woz original. Sadangel 03:51, 31 July 2005 (UTC)
The thing is, Bushnell designed (here meaning conceptualized) the game, and Woz (enlisted by Jobs) designed the circuitry needed to make it work.
[edit] External links: Clones
Could someone please separate these clones into shareware vs. closed-source freeware vs. open-source? Seahen 01:40, 22 June 2006 (UTC)
Could someone with a bit more wiki-fu add back the clones links? They were useful, and removed with rather suspicious motives (in favor of some shockwave-only, platform-limited "official" version) by an Atari contractor.
- Actually, they were removed because they have no business in the article per the Wikipedia WikiProject Computer and video games‎ guides and viewpoints of regular project contributors, as well as the regular Wikipedia link guidelines. Wikipedia is not a link farm, and certainly not a collection of "wannabe's", which do not illustrate the actual game being discussed in the article. It's an Atari game, so it puzzles me why someone would question the official online Atari presentation of the game as the standard reference. The fact that Atari is one of several contractors I sometimes do work for has no bearing on the issue, any more than you being an anonymous contributor does. And lastly you are incorrect - the "official" Atari one is Java based not shockwave, and is cross platform. The licensed one is shockwave. --Marty Goldberg 05:44, 23 November 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Dubious story
"Wozniak's friend Steve Jobs worked at Atari, and took on the project from Al Alcorn, the project's manager. Jobs turned around and enlisted Wozniak to design the game, which he did in four days. However, Atari was unable to use Steve Wozniak's design. In his usual zest to design the board as elegant as possible, he also cut down the amount of TTL (transistor-transistor logic) chips to just 42 total. This final design he submitted through Steve Jobs, however, made it impossible to manufacture - it was just too compact and complicated to be feasible with Atari's then current manufacturing methods. Jobs still got paid for the design, and because of a bonus clause in the contract based on the ammount of TTL's cut ($100 per TTL) he earned a US$5000 bonus. However, he only paid Wozniak $350, which he stated was half of the claimed $700 design fee. Atari wound up having to design their own version for production, which ultimately contained about 100 TTL's." - added by User:Wgungfu
No sources are cited and this story makes little sense as written. Would the author care to explain? Mirror Vax 16:47, 14 September 2006 (UTC)
Ultimate History of Video Games, pgs 71-73 which also includes this direct quote from Alan Alcorn (the Breakout project manager) on the issue. The book also states: "No one could figure out how he did it, and the manufacturing plant could not reproduce it. In the end, Alcorn had to assign another engineer to build a version of Breakout that was more easily replicated. The final game had about 100 chips."
There's also: http://www.thedoteaters.com/p2_stage1.php
There's also this web site: http://www.arcade-history.com/index.php?page=detail&id=3397
What about it appears dubious or makes little sense now that you've been given sources? --Marty Goldberg 03:43, 15 September 2006 (UTC)
- Thank you. Alan Alcorn's description of the problem is rather vague. Do you know what he means? Is "it was just too compact and complicated to be feasible with Atari's then current manufacturing methods" your interpretation? What is meant by "manufacturing methods"? Mirror Vax 04:41, 15 September 2006 (UTC)
