Google is clearly run by, as TV Tropes would put it, magnificent bastards. That’s the only logical explanation for this particular cunning easter egg. If you’re a bit of a retro nut (I wonder who around here that might apply to?), then possibly not reading this story might be best.
No, on second thought, read the stories. Please. But in another tab, head over to Google, go to image search by clicking on images, and then type in “Atari Breakout” (sans quotes) and watch your productivity temporarily plummet. It’s to celebrate the 37th anniversary of Breakout, a game with particular relevance to the tech industry, not just because of the Atari connection, but also the Apple one.
For those not up on their early computing history, the job of minimising the number of chips in Breakout fell to Steve Jobs. He passed it on to Steve Wozniak for the actual design work, because he was Steve Jobs, basically. Wozniak managed the design in four days straight with no sleep, and Jobs pocketed the bonus for the design. Although it wasn’t used for the final version of Breakout. According to Wozniak, the work heavily influenced how he designed the original Apple I.
For those who don’t give a fig about computing history, Breakout is surprisingly playable in a browser, something that wasn’t always true of every clone and conversion for systems that lacked a paddle controller… back when paddle controllers were rather cutting edge. Hey, now there’s an idea that Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo haven’t latched back on to for a while…
Source: Reddit