Fat Horse Games

Gaming like it's 1989

Some text

Barkout is an Arkanoid (or if you're really old, Breakout) clone where you control a paddle at the bottom of the screen to deflect and control a ball to destroy bricks above you. When all those bricks that can be destroyed have been destroyed, you advance to the next level. Some bricks reveal powerups (or powerdowns) when destroyed and if the ball leaves the bottom of the play area, you lose a life.

Story

After the mothership was destroyed by the evil Cat Empire, only ace pilot Willow "Twiglet" Twiglington and her spacecraft, The Maus, survived, only to be trapped on the unforgiving surface of a hitherto unknown planet...

Frequently Asked Questions (that I've literally never been asked)

About

This started life as a learning exercise to improve my C skills because someone close to me was starting a university course that included C programming, and I wanted to put myself in a better position to help if necessary.

It was also a chance to create the sort of game that I grew up playing, and to solve problems that had prevented me from finishing similar games when I was at university.

This is not the best Arkanoid clone you'll ever play (although neither is it the worst) and the source code should certainly not be looked on as the best way of doing things, but if you're so inclined you may still find it helpful.

The source can be downloaded at the bottom of the page from GitHub.

Why another Arkanoid clone?

Because it was the first type of game I tried (and failed) to program in Borland Turbo Pascal 7 many years ago at college. I kept hitting bugs that I couldn't solve and eventually gave up. Repeatedly.

Why is it called Barkout?

It's a pun on Breakout. It was supposed to be dog themed, but that ended up being restricted to the bone-shaped bonuses (bone-uses?) and the fact that enemies are cats. I was going to go with Barkanoid, but I thought that one-letter difference might be pushing copyright a little too much.

What language did you use?

C - with the SDL libraries for images, sounds, fonts and input.

Why C?

I have very little C experience and wanted to improve on that. With programming, the best way to learn is by doing, so I decided finally completing an Arkanoid clone in C would be a great learning exercise.

Who wrote the music?

I did. Good / terrible, isn't it? I used www.onlinesequencer.net to create all the music and sound effects in the game. Apart from the boss being hit or dying - that was me meowing into a microphone. For the music, I was trying to go with a similar feel to the original 8-bit music Arkanoid had on my Amstrad CPC. I think I've done OK in that respect.

And the graphics?

C'mon... even I can draw rectangles in GIMP.

What next?

A sequel, with all those things I didn't manage to get into this game. Different types of bricks, more exciting bonuses... plus the chance to write another piece of in-game music.

The title screen Level 3, showing enemies, bonuses, and different types of bricks. Level 11, with resurrecting bricks, switch bricks, enemies, and a catch powerup active. Level 13, with particle effects on the ball to indicate a powerup is active.