Atari Revives Its Classic ‘Breakout’ Game on Ethereum Layer-2 Base

Legendary game publisher Atari is back with its next augmented version of a classic video game, this time bringing the 1976 classic Breakout to Coinbase’s Ethereum layer-2 network Base.

As a part of Base’s “OnChain Summer,” players can compete against others for a top spot on the Atari Breakout leaderboard. The players with the highest scores will have a chance to win weekly prizes, including a retro 2600+ game console, gift cards, and more.

Atari first announced the partnership with Base in July, with the release of the blockchain-based version of their iconic Asteroids video game, in which players operate a simple spaceship and destroy asteroids to progress.

In Breakout, designed by Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell and a pre-Apple Steve Wozniak, players use a paddle and ball to blast through brick walls.

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“Enter Degen, Bitcoin, and Higher modes by shooting special bricks,” Atari said of the latest release. “Points double for 10 seconds!”

As with Asteroids, players will need to connect their Coinbase, MetaMask, Rainbow, or WalletConnect wallets to play and mint a Breakout NFT for 0.0015 ETH, or around $3.60.

Proceeds from the mint will be distributed to the developers and artists behind each game, Base said.

“All scores are logged on-chain, and from there, it gets pretty fun,” Atari director Tyler Drewitz said on a Base Twitter stream in July. “There’s a weekly leaderboard, and we have an overall leaderboard with some pretty big prizes.”