Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
A short history of Missile Command
Atari was the first successful arcade video game company. They started in 1972 with the release
of Pong, and continued perfecting the art of the arcade video games for the next 30 years (under
several different names including Midway West). Atari had some very popular games through out
the 1970s in the arcades including Gran Trak 10, Tank (under the Kee Games label), Breakout,
Football, and in 1979, their best-selling game of all time, Asteroids. In 1980, they badly needed
follow-ups to Asteroids to help them stay at the forefront of the video game industry.
To meet this demand, in 1980, Atari released two military themed games: Battlezone and Missile
Command. While Battlezone was one of the very first 3D shooting games, Missile Command was
something else entirely. The game echoed the same Cold War fear that played out on the nightly
news and in the “drop and cover” drills of 1970s elementary school classrooms: Nuclear
Holocaust. This was the same fear of the Generation X kids who were filling the arcades at the
time, and this was one factor in making the game very popular. Another factor was that is a very
enjoyable game to play.
Missile Command simulated a nuclear warhead attack on six cities that had to be defended by
the player. The player was armed with three independent silos, each containing ten antiballistic
missiles. Aiming with crosshairs controlled with a trackball, the player would launch missiles at
incoming warheads, killer satellites, and nuclear bombers independently using three separate fire
buttons. The antiballistic missiles were not fired directly at the incoming enemies, but instead at
where they would be once the missile reached its destination. When the missile had finished its
flight path, it would explode into an iridescent circle, destroying anything that touched it.
The unique game play led to players adopting all sorts of interesting strategies for getting a high
score. Some players starting each level with a massive salvo of explosions meant to knock off as
many incoming warheads as possible, while others would take a “cut your losses” strategy,
defending only half of their cities in an attempt to conserve as many missile as possible for their
chosen survivors. The three distinct missile bases also offered an interesting challenge: training
three fingers to fire a missile from the base closest to the incoming warhead while still being
accurate. Arguably, no arcade game before or since employed a shooting mechanism that
offered so many nuanced ways for the player to plan defense.
Designed by Dave Theurer and Rich Adam, the game was released in mid 1980 to great
success. While certainly not the size of Asteroids, it was still a huge hit with almost 20,000 units
sold. The game certainly caught the imagination of the Cold War generation, and may have even
acted as a kind of release for subconscious worries about nuclear annihilation. While the game
has lost visibility over the subsequent 30 years, a recent episode of the NBC television show
Chuck
, centered around Missile Command and a fictional back story for the game involving spies
and hidden codes, proves that game is very much embedded into the fabric of pop culture history.
For a shooter, Missile Command was also a very unique game. Oddly enough, while it was a very
popular game for its time, there were not many sequels or copies of the game in the arcades
during its heyday. However, there were a few commercial take-offs for home systems. Atlantis by
Imagic for the Atari 2600 took the idea and had the player defend an underwater city. A few years
later S.D.I. by Cinemaware created a cinematic story around a very similar contest for the Atari
ST and Amiga computers. In the 1990s Atari tried (and failed) to re-create the success of the
earlier game with Missile Command 3D for the Jaguar video game console. However, aside from
these (and a few from a few slightly updated re-releases on various platforms) very few games
have attempted to build on the basic playing style of Missile Command.
