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Showing posts from 2013

Do a Google image search for 'Atari Breakout' and let the rest of your day disappear?

Always looking for new opportunities to turn its mammoth search engine and associated features into interactive and exceedingly distracting Easter eggs, Google has put on another show in honor of the 37th birthday of Atari's classic video game "Breakout." Just try typing "Atari Breakout" into Google's image search. Instead of getting the usual cluster of high- and low-resolution images of the retro paddle-based game, the screen then transforms all the images into tiny bricks for you to destroy in a game Google is calling "Image Breakout." Occasionally and for whatever reason, Google image search will redirect to another search entirely before activating the game. I got "Parmigiana" and "Chicago" in that order, so I was destroying tiny little bricks made out of Italian Parm sandwiches and Windy City landmarks. Originally created by Nolan Bushnell and Steve Bristow, "Breakout" debuted in 1976. It was based on a simil