Atari - Breakout (1976), 4/10

Atari’s Breakout is very similar to Pong in its simple, yet appealing design, now built for one player, but can host up to four. In fact, while Atari’s project was predated by Clean Sweep (of almost identical design, just much simpler and based on simple pixel design), this title was directly inspired by Pong, creating a full circle of inspiration leading back to Atari’s latest production. Also, interestingly, Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs were involved in the hardware design of the project, contributing to their later Apple II computer. The title and its design are mostly notable for their inspiration of clone games and future developments taking the original idea to new creative avenues, making it most valuable for its influence, but not its continued relevance. The game continues to spawn clones via mini-games, a sub-genre of meta-gaming that continues to pervade primarily indie games but can occasionally find its way into bigger titles.