Atari Breakout Easter egg introduced by Google

The Atari Breakout Easter egg is a hidden, playable version of the classic 1976 arcade game that Google introduced in May 2013 to celebrate its 37th anniversary. By searching "Atari Breakout" in Google Images, the search results turn into colorful, destructible blocks, allowing users to play the game directly in their browser.

To find this latest Easter egg treat you will need to conduct a search from the Google homepage, much like the previously mentioned barrel roll trick required. Head to Google.com and enter the search term "Atari Breakout". After the results appear, click on Images at the top of the page. At first you will see the normal image search results, but give it a second and these images will suddenly and quickly transform into the blocks, and a paddle and ball will appear at the bottom of your screen. Google calls its version "Image breakout".

Atari breakout trick Google

It does not get much simpler than this. Use the mouse to move the paddle back and forth across the screen bottom and attempt to bounce the ball up into the blocks to break them. You can gain extra balls as your score increases and the speed of the game also ramps up as you go along. When your play finally ends , Google offers you the opportunity to register your score.

There is not much to this, but Image Breakout provides a fun little time waster and will no doubt be interfering with the productivity of a number of people today, as it has already done with me. Hopefully Google will keep this little game alive.

• Turn off the music using the mute button at the top as it will get on your nerves soon.
• You can control the pad with the mouse or the left and right keyboard keys.
• The game features no extras like those that Arkanoid offers which makes the game somewhat boring after a while.