2007/07/22 - alpha release
The code needs some cleanup, but everything is here.
Suggestions welcome in the forum.

Building the World

Walls, the ball, and a ton of bricks.

Define a Brick Class

var Brick = Class.create();
Brick.count = 0;
Brick.prototype = Object.extend(new Sprite(), {
            
    initialize : function (x, y, start_shade) {
        this.id = 'brick_' + Brick.count++;
        this.start_shade = start_shade;
        
        this.node = document.createElement('div');
        this.node.setAttribute("id", this.id);
        this.reset();
        this.setX(x);
        this.setY(y);
        $('bricks').appendChild(this.node);
    },
    
    reset : function() {
        this.solid = true;
        this.node.style.display = 'block';
        this.setShade(this.start_shade);
    },

    setShade : function(shade) {
        this.shade = shade;
        // setAttribute('class') doesn't work in IE!!
        this.node.className = "sprite shade" + shade;
    },
});

shading controlled by CSS class

#bricks div {
  width: 32px;
  max-width: 32px;
  height: 16px;
  max-height: 16px;
  border: solid #999 1px;
  background-color:#CCCCCC;
  display:block;
  position: absolute;
}
#bricks .shade5 {
  background-color: #777;	
}
#bricks .shade4 {
  background-color: #999;	
}
#bricks .shade3 {
  background-color: #bbb;	
}
#bricks .shade2 {
  background-color: #ddd;	
}
#bricks .shade1 {
  background-color: #fff;	
}

Generate the Bricks

var bricks = [];

dynamic html insertion

Why do this dynamically? We certainly could generate the divs by hand as we did with the paddle, but since we have a whole bunch of these bricks, and they all act the same way, it saves us a lot of work to express the level as a program.

@TODO: use the new Element.new builder syntax

    <div id="bricks"></div>

DEBUG = false;
function create_bricks() {    
    if (DEBUG) {
        bricks.push(new Brick(240, 100, 1));
        bricks.push(new Brick(280, 100, 1));
    } else {
        for (x=0; x<10; x++) {
            // the order is important here, because we do
            // collision testing in the order of the array.
            // generally, we want to test the bottom bricks 
            // for collisions first.
            for (y=4; y>=0; y--) {
                bricks.push(new Brick(x * 39 + 8, y * 22 + 30, 5-y));
            }
        }
    }
}

    create_bricks();

Draw the Lake

    <div id="lake"></div>

#lake {
  position:absolute;
  top: 280px;
  height: 20px;
  width: 100%;
  background-color:#CCCCCC;
  background: #ccc;
  border-top: solid #999 1px;	
  margin: 0px;
}

Define the Walls

    <div class="wall" id="leftWall"></div>
    <div class="wall" id="rightWall"></div>
    <div class="wall" id="ceiling"></div>
    <div class="wall" id="floor"></div>

.wall {
  display: none;
  width: 400px;
  height: 300px;
  position: absolute;
  margin:0;
  padding:0;
}
#leftWall  { top: 0px;  left: -400px; } 
#rightWall { top: 0px;  left:  400px; }
#ceiling   { top: -300px; left: 0px;  }
#floor     { top:  300px; left: 0px;  }