Born in the arcades in 1986, Taito's classic evolution of the Breakout theme became a magnificent Atari ST game in 1987. The game was a sheer delight to play and one of the first to demonstrate the superior processing power of the new 16bit machines.

Arkanoid introduced a wealth of new features to the Breakout genre including solid and moving bricks, 'glue' power-ups that enabled you to catch the ball for more accurate positioning before launching it back at the bricks above, multiple balls and even lasers for you to shoot the overhead bricks with. The pacing of the gameplay was splendid - once you'd got past that unreasonably difficult level three - and that made the game one of the most addictive arcade conversions of all time.

Several sequels followed; Arkanoid 2, The Revenge of DOH was very worthy, but by the time Arkanoid 3 appeared the number of clones that had flooded the market had desensitised the public to bat 'n' ball games and it bombed.

Breakout games have occasionally enjoyed periods of success though when some clever spark has turned their creative hand to them, but Arkanoid lives in our memories as one of the best of all time thanks to its clever design and sheer level of addiction.