Difference between revisions of "Ball and paddle"

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[[Image:Arkanoid - ARC - Screenshot - Stage 1.png|thumb|256x256px|''[[Arkanoid]]'' is one of the most popular ball and paddle games.]]
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[[Image:Volleyball! - O2 - Screenshot - Red Serves.png|thumb|256x256px|''[[Volleyball!]]'' for the Odyssey 2.]]
  
'''Ball and paddle''' is a genre of [[video game]] where players control paddles which are used to bounce balls around. A similar genre which involves catching of ricocheting objects is the [[catcher video game|catcher]].
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'''Ball and paddle''' is a genre of [[video game]] where players control paddles which are used to bounce balls around. This genre gave rise to the [[block breaker]] and [[catcher video game|catcher]] genres.
  
 
==Personal==
 
==Personal==
Although my family had an [[Atari 2600]] in the mid-1980s with dozens of games and paddle controllers, we didn't actually own any ball and paddle games for it. It wasn't until the late-1980s that I learned about ''[[Arkanoid]]'', but I couldn't find it for the NES, so I had to be content to watch people play it in the arcade. The one time I did finally get a chance to play it, I very quickly got a game over. I remember playing ''[[Super Breakout]]'' on the Atari 2600 long after it was obsolete and, even after several tries, not being able to finish the first level. I had programmed a few ''Pong'' clones in QuickBASIC in 1996 and even Visual Basic in 1999 since they're easy to make. Some time in the early 1990s, my mother got a shareware copy of ''[[Moraff's Super Blast]]'', and, I liked it enough to buy it as part of a Moraffware collection. A friend of mine lent me a copy of ''[[Funpack]]'' in 1995 which included a game called ''[[Block Breaker]]''. I programmed a similar game from ''[[Black Art of Visual Basic Game Programming]]'' in the late 1990s. I finally got a chance to play ''Arkanoid'' on the NES in the late 1990s thanks to an emulator. Around 1999 or so, I bought a used copy of ''[[Arkanoid: Doh It Again]]'' for the SNES.
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Although my family had an [[Atari 2600]] in the mid-1980s with dozens of games and paddle controllers, we didn't actually own any ball and paddle games for it. Although I was aware of pong-like games, I never really played any because the genre was fully obsolete by the time I was old enough to play games. Because of this, the first ball and paddle games I played were block breakers and catchers. I remember programming my own versions of ''Pong'' in [[QuickBASIC]] and [[Visual Basic]] in the mid-1990s, and occasionally playing free demos. I even remember reading about Atari's ''[[Video Olympics]]'', which I thought sounded amazing (when I finally saw the game years later, I was disappointed). Pretty much all of the traditional ball and paddle games I've played quickly bored me.
 
 
For the many years I've played ball and paddle games, I've never really developed a love for any of them because they all get boring very quickly. There's just only so much you can do with the concept, so game play is mostly mindless reaction.
 
  
 
==History==
 
==History==
The ball and paddle genre began in 1958 with William Higinbotham's [[Tennis for Two]], but it was commercialized in 1972 with several games for the [[Odyssey]] like ''[[Table Tennis]]'', and a few months later with ''[[Pong]]'' in the arcade. The genre exploded in the mid-to-late 1970s with over 1,000 ''Pong'' clones and variants thanks to Atari figuring out how to put ''Pong'' on a single chip. [[Ramtek]] expanded into the [[block-breaker]] genre with ''[[Clean Sweep]]'' in May 1974 and ''[[Knockout]]'' September 1974. Former Atari engineers created [[Fun Games]] and released "Bust Out" in November 1975 in ''[[Take Seven]]'', which was a sideways version of ''Breakout'' before Atari could finally get ''[[Breakout]]'' to market, in April 1976. The genre saw a huge boom in the late 1970s and early 1980s with a few standouts like ''[[Super Breakout]]'' and ''[[Arkanoid]]''. Ball and paddle games have seen continuous development since then, but, by the 1990s, they had been mostly relegated to low-budget games released by independent publishers.
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The ball and paddle genre began in 1958 with William Higinbotham's [[Tennis for Two]], but it was commercialized in 1972 with several games for the [[Odyssey]] like ''[[Table Tennis]]'', and a few months later with ''[[Pong]]'' in the arcade. The genre exploded in the mid-to-late 1970s with over 1,000 ''Pong'' clones and variants thanks to Atari figuring out how to put ''Pong'' on a single chip. While developers kept making them well into the 1980s, the genre pretty much died at the end of the 1970s. Although programmers still make ball and paddles games, they're now usually done as programming tutorials and never published.
  
 
==Games==
 
==Games==
This is a list of ball and paddle games that are important to me, for all ball and paddle games, see the [[:Category:Video Game Genre - Ball and paddle|category]].
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There aren't any ball and paddle games that are important to me. For all ball and paddle games, see the [[:Category:Video Game Genre - Ball and paddle|category]].
 
 
{| class="wikitable sortable"
 
! Title !! Released !! Developer
 
|-
 
| ''[[Alleyway]] || 1989-04-21 || [[Intelligent Systems]], [[Nintendo]]
 
|-
 
| ''[[Arkanoid]]'' || 1986-04-26 || [[Taito]]
 
|-
 
| ''[[Arkanoid: Doh It Again]]'' || 1997-01-15 || [[Taito]]
 
|-
 
| ''[[Block Breaker]]'' || 1993-??-?? || [[WayForward Technologies]]
 
|-
 
| ''[[Moraff's Super Blast]]'' || 1990-12-04 || [[Moraffware]]
 
|-
 
| ''[[Super Breakout]]'' || 1978-09-?? || [[Atari]]
 
|-
 
| ''[[Wizorb]]'' || 2011-09-28 || [[Tribute Games]]
 
|}
 
  
 
==Links==
 
==Links==
{{Link|MobyGames|https://www.mobygames.com/browse/games/paddle-pong}}
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{{Link|MobyGames|https://www.mobygames.com/game/genre:paddle-pong/}}
  
 
* [https://www.mobygames.com/game-group/pong-variants mobygames.com/game-group/pong-variants] - MobyGames - ''Pong'' variants.
 
* [https://www.mobygames.com/game-group/pong-variants mobygames.com/game-group/pong-variants] - MobyGames - ''Pong'' variants.
* [https://www.mobygames.com/game-group/breakout-variants mobygames.com/game-group/breakout-variants] - MobyGames - ''Breakout'' variants.
 
  
  
 
[[Category: Video Game Genres]]
 
[[Category: Video Game Genres]]

Latest revision as of 14:31, 16 April 2024

Volleyball! for the Odyssey 2.

Ball and paddle is a genre of video game where players control paddles which are used to bounce balls around. This genre gave rise to the block breaker and catcher genres.

Personal

Although my family had an Atari 2600 in the mid-1980s with dozens of games and paddle controllers, we didn't actually own any ball and paddle games for it. Although I was aware of pong-like games, I never really played any because the genre was fully obsolete by the time I was old enough to play games. Because of this, the first ball and paddle games I played were block breakers and catchers. I remember programming my own versions of Pong in QuickBASIC and Visual Basic in the mid-1990s, and occasionally playing free demos. I even remember reading about Atari's Video Olympics, which I thought sounded amazing (when I finally saw the game years later, I was disappointed). Pretty much all of the traditional ball and paddle games I've played quickly bored me.

History

The ball and paddle genre began in 1958 with William Higinbotham's Tennis for Two, but it was commercialized in 1972 with several games for the Odyssey like Table Tennis, and a few months later with Pong in the arcade. The genre exploded in the mid-to-late 1970s with over 1,000 Pong clones and variants thanks to Atari figuring out how to put Pong on a single chip. While developers kept making them well into the 1980s, the genre pretty much died at the end of the 1970s. Although programmers still make ball and paddles games, they're now usually done as programming tutorials and never published.

Games

There aren't any ball and paddle games that are important to me. For all ball and paddle games, see the category.

Links

Link-MobyGames.png