Smackdown came out on February 3, 1978, and was ushered into a world consumed by
Breakdown-mania. It was yet to be a year since its predecessor debuted, but
Smackdown was full of improvements over its older sibling. While the base game of
Breakdown is still present, new ways to play now exist in the form of Modes, which significantly changes up gameplay.
- Doubles: A new spin on Breakdown, Doubles does just what its name suggests, and doubles the amount of action onscreen by giving the player control of two paddles and hitting two balls.
- Cavity: This game mode is initially very easy, with the player controlling two paddles and hitting just one ball. But soon two new balls are added, and if the player wishes, they can break another ball out of the "cavity" on the top of the screen to increase the difficulty and fun.
- Continue: Doing away with the idea of two paddles and multiple balls, Continue plays like classic Breakdown, with one exception: the bricks slowly but surely move down the screen, and if they reach the bottom, it's game over.
Smackdown was perfect for a video game-starving America, and perhaps the best sequel ever made in gaming up to that point. But there was another, lesser known
Breakdown sequel, which released just a week later to little fanfare:
Breakdown 2.
Said to be one of Rolly Crump's pet projects that just happened to find a green light,
Breakdown 2 bucks the trend of imaginative naming for Disney video games hard. But that's not a knock on its gameplay. The game is, essentially, vertical
Pong, with two players controlling two paddles and attempting to break more bricks with their ball than their opponent. To denote who's hit which ball, the paddles are colored distinctly, and when a ball bounces off of it, it changes color to reflect the paddle's.
Smackdown quickly became just as popular as
Breakdown, and it was more and more likely to find the two Disney games than a
Pong machine. Indeed, Atari was struggling in the arcades, with most of their money coming in from their 2600 console and their parent company, MCA. Nolan Bushnell was also growing resentful of MCA, as his company was flooded with suits and the upstart Raymond Kassar vied for more power within Atari, fully supported by Michael Eisner and Lou Wasserman. It was no surprise that Bushnell was found, at one point, in the Tomorrowland Starcade at Disneyland, playing
Breakdown and muttering about how he was going to
kill Woody Woodpecker.
--From the article "Smacking Down Atari," on the blog
The History of Gaming: Pong to Pac-Man and Everything Else, dated June 11, 2005
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Mountain Studios, Montreux, Switzerland
February 17, 1978
Freddie Mercury stood in the recording booth at Queen's newest studio. It was a long way away from London, but it was easy to get fed up with big city life as big-time celebrities. He and his bandmates needed to focus on the next album,
Jazz.
"Alright Freddie... take it from the top," said Bryan May over the speakers. "Give it your all."
The guitar and drums started up in the background, and Freddie Mercury began to sing the lyrics to "Don't Stop Me Now," one of the band's favorite songs on the album.
"Tonight, I'm gonna have myself a real good time...
I feel ali-i-i-ive...
And the world... I'll turn it inside out, yeah
And floating around... in ecstasy...
So... don't stop me now...
Don't stop me
'Cause I'm having a good time, having a good time!"
Back in the recording booth, the other members of Queen were loving how the vocals were turning out, until...
BRRRRIIIINNGGG! BRRRRIIIINNGGG!
"I'll get it," said one of them, picking up the phone. "This is Roger Taylor of Queen, speaking. What can I do for you?"
May returned his attention to Mercury.
"
I'm burnin' through the sky, yeah!
Two hundred degrees
That's why they call me Mister Fahrenheit!
I'm traveling at the speed of light!
I wanna make a supersonic woman of you!"
"Uh huh," said Taylor over the phone. "Uh hu--wait how much money?"
"Who is it, Roger?" asked John Deacon.
"It's fuckin'
Disney."
"You mean, like the movie studio?" questioned May.
"No, I mean
Walt-fucking-Disney is on the phone with me right now."
"He is? What does he want?"
"He wants to know if we'd be willing to write and perform all the music for their new TV show,
Star Wars: The Animated Series!"
"Really?"
"Really!"
"
Don't stop me now, I'm having such a good time,
I'm having a ball!
Don't stop me now,
If you wanna have a good time...
Just give me a call!
Don't stop me now,
'Cause I'm having a good time!
Don't stop me now...
Yes, I'm havin' a good time
I don't want to stop at all..."
May cut into the speakers with Mercury. "Freddie, that was amazing, but get in here! We've got something big on the phone!"
--------------------------------
Atari World Headquarters, Sunnyvale, CA
February 18, 1978
Nolan Bushnell was swamped with work. Memos from men far above his pay grade littered his desk. A letter from Eisner himself reminded him that MCAUniversal was hounding Atari to fix up their arcade releases. And Raymond Kassar, sitting across from him, was his daily reminder that he didn't own his company anymore, but rather a soulless entertainment conglomerate.
"Mister Bushnell, I've received word from our parent company that Atari needs to shape up or ship out."
"I know, I know," sighed Bushnell. "Look at the 2600. It's been the best-selling video game console of this generation--hell, it's the best selling console
ever. How is that not an accomplishment?"
"It is a small victory, but the real money is in the arcades. And you have not been keeping up that end of the bargain. Your next game,
Super Breakout, which you said would take down Disney's
Breakdown? Near lawsuit levels of copyied ideas. It can't be released, not if you don't want to be sued."
"Are you kidding me?" gasped Bushnell. "You-- we-- all that time, all that money, down the drain?"
"Yes, down the drain," replied an unmoved Kassar. "Another thing MCA is not pleased with."
"Alright, fine. Fine. Just... get out of here, Kassar. I don't want to see your face the rest of the day."
Kassar just shrugged. "It's your funeral."
Nolan Bushnell got back to work. A few hours later, his secretary buzzed in. "Mister Bushnell, a Japanese businessman is on line two."
"Thanks, Ellie," Bushnell said. "Hello."
"Hello, Mister Bushnell. I am calling on the behalf of the Japanese video game company named Taito. We would like to know if your company would be interested in distributing our next game in North America."
"Depends on how good it is."
"We can send you a prototype, if you like."
"That'd be great. What's it called?"
"
Space Invaders."
