Brick-ball is a game program in which the player, by manipulating a paddle to the left and right with either the '<' and '>' keys or a joystick, rebounds a bouncing ball into a wall of bricks to knock the bricks out one by one. Bricks knocked out score points which increase towards the back of the wall (top of the screen). Three misses of the ball with the paddle are normally allowed, but an extra ball is granted when a score of 400 points is reached.
The ball's speed is selectable at the start of the game, but when the 'back wall' is hit for the first time in each frame, this speed will increase slightly. At the end of the game there is a facility for a player to enter his name against a new high score (originally held by 'Microbee' for a score of 100) and the high score and player's score are displayed. A comment on the player's ability is also made, according to score.
The program also makes use of the Microbee's built-in speaker. A range of tunes and sounds are produced at various stages in the game.
It was published in the Wildcards Vol.3 and is presented as a tutorial to show the machine code novice that programming the Microbee's Z-80 chip is not as daunting a prospect as it may first appear.
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