Missile Command was released in North American arcades in July 1980, published by Atari. Later that year it was released in European arcades, published by Sega. While Atari are credited as the game’s developers, it was in fact created entirely by a single designer; David Theurer. This was a common practice at the time, especially for Atari. In 1981 the game was ported to the Atari 2600 and the Atari 8-bit. Often cited as one the greatest classic video games to emerge from the ‘Golden Age of Arcade Games’ it was listed at number eight on Softalk magazine’s 1983 list of ‘The Most Popular Atari Program Ever’ and regularly appears on Top 100 lists to this day. The game’s popularity has seen multiple console releases and remakes since that time, including on the Game Boy and Xbox 360.

Categorised as a part of the ‘Shoot ‘em up’ genre, Missile Command puts the player in the role of a planetary defender. The player is tasked with shooting down incoming missiles launched by an unseen extra-terrestrial threat. These missiles descend from the top of the screen, targeting six cities that sit at the bottom. If all six cities are destroyed the player loses and the game is over. As the player progresses through the intensifying stages of the game, the number of incoming missiles increases along with more options being unlocked that allow them to defend their cities by new means. These include smart bombs, bomber planes and satellites.

The original arcade version of the game was controlled by rolling around a trackball embedded in the front of arcade cabinet. This controlled a crosshair on screen that would be used to target the incoming missiles. The player would then use three buttons to fire at the missiles from one of their three silos. Each of these silos contain a limited amount of ammunition, therefore, along with aiming, ammo management factored into defending the cities. The use of the trackball was once cited by an Anti-Missile Defence system operator as being strikingly similar to the controls used for actual missile defence. The arcade version of the game was the only one to use the trackball controller.

The player cannot win the game. They can merely survive for as long as possible, increasing their high score before inevitably losing. Once this happens the words "The End” fill the screen in red, block capital letter.

This was an intentional decision by Theurer as his aim when designing Missile Command was to instill in the player the same sense of futility and anxiety he personally felt towards the threat of nuclear attack during the Cold War. Throughout the Cold War, but especially during the late-1970s/ early-1980s there much debate surrounding the use of Anti-ballistic Missile systems to defend the United States against incoming nuclear strikes. Theurer tapped into public anxiety surrounding the fear of nuclear attack, an anxiety that would eventually lead to Ronald Reagan’s 1983 announcement of the Strategic Defence Initiative, or ‘Star Wars’ as it was nicknamed. This announcement sparked the release of several other games that seemingly emulated Theurer’s own design.

Overview by Rob Burgess

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