2010-03-16

Tech-Tuesday – Busting and Breaking Bricks

I've been in the brick busting and breaking business for a very long time.  Roughly 30 years.

microvisionI started out on my Milton Bradley Microvision and the Block Buster cartridge that came with it.  (I would eventually have Bowling, Connect Four, and Sea Duel, too.)  I played this came CONSTANTLY.  I learned how it played.  I got better, and I was finally able to wrap the score over 999 (it was 1979 or 1980 – computing power was limited) on a single life.  And with that, my block busting career came mostly to an end.  For a while.

Then I got my first BlackBerry, and found Brick Breaker.  Hell yes, the King is Back.  For those of you who have never played, the goal is to use a paddle to bounce a ball off of of bricks, clearing the wall and then moving to the next level.  Some levels are easy, some diabolical.  Some offer a ton of power-ups (free lives, lasers, guns, etc.).  Some offer none.

Thru 3 different models, the game got better.  My game got better, too.  Recently I got to 33,950 and ALMOST cleared the round of 34 levels for the second time.  The second round is rough, because right off the bat, the ball starts off at high speed, and the bricks start advancing toward you every time you hit the ball.

BlackBerryYesterday, I blasted thru the second round, and got to the third round and something odd happened.  While the bricks started advancing toward you, the ball doesn't speed up.  How could the third round be EASIER than the second?  And same thing with the 4th round (shown above as "3x").  I have since rolled past 77,000 and am still going strong.  I've read on-line that that's it.  The rounds don't get more difficult, and the levels just repeat over and over again.

I think I'll roll it up to 100,000 and then just waste my lives, lock in that as the high score, and go into semi retirement.

And start playing Word Mole again.  ;-)

9 comments:

Crazy In The Making said...

Damn. I was feeling all proud of myself that I got to level 6 the other day while giving the kids a bath. Guess I need to put my paddle down and back away slowly. :)

Scope said...

Crazy, no! You are just entering the fun part. Soon you'll get dramatically better and the game will be fun as you keep getting better. In a way, I envy you.

Cora said...

I've never played it.

*hanging head in shame*

However, when I was a kid my dad used to travel to Japan a lot and he'd bring back these handheld video games for us (pre-Game Boy days.) We had a mini Pac-Man game, Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr, etc. And the rest of the neighborhood kids were SOOOOOOOOO jealous. They'd come racing down the street in a mob to see what game my dad brought back whenever he returned from Japan!

My favorite was Pac-Man. I don't remember the numbers, just that I could beat ANYONE's score. E-Z.

One day I got a score that I was especially proud of. I leapt up to go show everyone and then *SHIT* the battery door flew open and the batteries fell out, erasing my score and my proof of it. GAH!! I spent the rest of my kid days trying to get that score again, but no go.

GRRRRRRRRR.

I wonder if my dad still has that game?....

wigsf said...

Was playing Word Mole on Friday. Apparently, 'vibrator' is not a valid word. I was very upset and stopped playing immediately.

JenJen said...

grrr brick breaker taunts me...

Candy's daily Dandy said...

OMG Frick and Frack are obsessed with Brick Breaker!!!

They told me that some big CEO of some major company has the highset Brick breaker score ever.

J.J. in L.A. said...

I want that game on the Wii. Do you know if they have it?

Scope said...

Cora – I have a feeling you will play Brick Breaker sometime in the future.

wigsf – Amazing the words it doesn't know, and the crap it will let you put an "S" on, isn't it?

JenJen – Now you know what it's like to be teased. ;-)

Candy – See, there's home for the younger generation yet! And I don't doubt that some hotshot has the super high score on some old P.O.S LCD version of the BlackBerry, and won't upgrade because he wants to keep the high score on the device.

J.J. – I doubt it. I think RIM owns the copyright, and I doubt they'd share with Nintendo. But, since it is essentially a variation of PONG, I bet there is something similar.

ALL – Just went over 111,110 points, with 32 lives. I think once I get +100,000 over the previous high score, I will call it a game.

Crazy In The Making said...

Guess I should have included that I have been playing on and off for a year now and have only made it to level 6 recently.
Yeah, I totally suck at the game and have no doubt that Cora will probably beat my best score her first time playing. :)