Micon-Block

Overview

Micon-Block is a block-breaking ball-and-paddle game developed and released by SNK for arcades in Japan in 1978.

The company's first released game and one of the earliest arcade games to use microcontrollers (rather than discrete logic boards, common in the 1970's), Micon-Block is a clone of the 1976 game Breakout. It has some minor differences, including a fourth score digit and a high score counter.

Not much is known about the game and its hardware, which was sold in kit form as "Micon-Kit". While the original is considered lost media, it did receive a few known (and dumped) updates, adding obstacles that move along the screen (including one based on the titular spaceship from the anime Uchuu Senkan Yamato). The first update is commonly known as "Micon-Kit Part II" or "Uchuu Senkan Yamato", and the second is commonly known as "Space Micon Kit".

Gameplay

Later updates add ships that scroll across the screen: one large and one small. Hitting each ship with the ball grants bonus points (5 for the larger ship and 10 for the smaller ship) while temporarily shrinking the paddle and teleporting the ball.