Missile Command
Encyclopedia
Missile Command is a 1980 arcade game
by Atari, Inc. that was also licensed to Sega
for European release. It is considered one of the most notable games from the Golden Age of Video Arcade Games. The plot of Missile Command is simple: the player's six cities are being attacked by an endless hail of ballistic missile
s, some of them even splitting like multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRVs
), and in later levels smart bombs which can evade a less than perfectly targeted missile. As a regional commander of three anti-missile batteries, the player must defend six cities in their zone from being destroyed.
across the sky background via a trackball
and pressing one of three buttons to launch a counter-missile from the appropriate battery. Counter-missiles explode upon reaching the crosshair, leaving a fireball that persists for several seconds and destroys any enemy missiles that enter it. There are three batteries, each with ten missiles; a missile battery becomes useless when all its missiles are fired, or if the battery is destroyed by enemy fire. The missiles of the central battery fly to their targets at much greater speed; only these missiles can effectively kill a smart bomb at a distance.
The game is staged as a series of levels of increasing difficulty; each level contains a set number of incoming enemy weapons. The weapons attack the six cities, as well as the missile batteries; being struck by an enemy weapon results in destruction of the city or missile battery. Enemy weapons are only able to destroy 3 cities during one level. A level ends if all the cities are destroyed, or when all enemy weaponry is destroyed or reaches its target. A player who runs out of missiles no longer has control over the remainder of the level. At the conclusion of a level, the player receives bonus points for any remaining cities or unused missiles. Between levels missile batteries are rebuilt and replenished; destroyed cities are rebuilt only at set point levels (usually 10 or 12K).
The game inevitably ends when all six cities have been wiped out. Like most early arcade games, there is no way to "win" the game; the game just keeps going with ever faster and more prolific incoming missiles. The game, then, is just a contest in seeing how long the player can survive. On conclusion of the game, the screen displays "The End", perhaps a poke at oncoming Nuclear Holocaust
rather than the standard "Game Over" text (however, if the player is able to make the high score list, the game then prompts the player to enter his/her initials, with the "The End" sequence skipped).
The game features an interesting bug: once a score of 810,000 is reached, a large number of cities are awarded (150 cities plus the continuing accrual of bonus cities) and it is possible to carry on playing for several hours. At some later stage the speed of missiles increases greatly for a few screens. On the 255th and 256th yellow screens, known as the 0x stages, the scoring increases by 256 times the base value. For good players these two 0x stages could earn over a million points, this enabled them to reach a score of approximately 2,800,000 (although only 6 digit scores were shown, so it would display 800,000) and at this point the accelerated rate would suddenly cease and the game would restart at its original (slow) speed and return to the first stage, but with the score and any saved cities retained. In this way it was possible to play this game for hours on end.
: Eureka
, San Francisco, San Luis Obispo
, Santa Barbara
, Los Angeles
, and San Diego.
While programming Missile Command, the programmer, Dave Theurer
, suffered from nightmares of these cities being destroyed by a nuclear blast.
Missile Command is considered one of the great classic video games from the Golden Age of Arcade Games
. The game is also interesting in its manifestation of the Cold War
's effects on popular culture, in that the game features an implementation of National Missile Defense
and parallels real life nuclear war
. (See Culture during the Cold War
for more information on this.)
Missile Command was ported to the Atari 2600
. The game's instruction manual describes a war between two planets: Zardon (the defending player) and Krytol. The original arcade game contains no reference to these worlds. On level 13, if the player uses all of his or her missiles without scoring any points, at the end of the game the city on the right will turn into "RF" — the initials of the programmer Rob Fulop
. This Easter egg
is originally documented in Atari Age (Volume 1, Issue 2) in a letter to the editor by Joseph Nickischer, and is the second one publicly acknowledged by Atari
.
Missile Command was also ported to Atari's line of 8-bit computers. That version was also used in the Atari XEGS
as a built-in game that boots up if there isn't a cartridge or keyboard in the console.
In the 1990s, Missile Command was ported to handheld systems such as the Atari Lynx and Game Boy
.
On the Atari Jaguar
, there is also Missile Command 3D. It contains three versions of the game: Classic, 3D, and Virtual. The last version is the only game that works with the virtual reality helmet from Virtuality
(only 2 pieces are known to exist).
Having just acquired the Atari
label, Hasbro Interactive
released Microsoft Windows
and PlayStation versions in 1999, but they did not sell well. Hasbro Interactive released a series of Atari classic remakes around that time, most of which quickly found their way to the discount bin.
Missile Command was released via Xbox Live Arcade
for the Xbox 360
on July 4, 2007 for 400 Microsoft Points
(US$
5). It features updated, high-definition graphics.
On September 23, 2008, Missile Command was released for the iPhone
and iPod touch
though the App Store for US$5. Features include two gameplay modes ("Ultra" and "Classic"), online high score rankings, variable difficulty, and the option to use the iPod
function to play music instead of using the included game soundtrack.
Missile Command was made available on Microsoft's
Game Room
service for its Xbox 360
console and for Windows-based
PC
s in June 2010.
to convert Missile Command into Super Missile Attack. This made the game even harder, and added a UFO to the player's enemies.
In 1982, a multi-player sequel was planned but never released although at least one prototype appeared in an arcade in santa clara, California. This game would have been identical to the first except with twice as many cities and batteries and the players cooperating to save each other's cities from the onslaught.
In 1984, Atari released a game called Liberator
, which was seen by some as being a sequel to Missile Command with the situation essentially reversed; in Liberator, the player is the one attacking planetary bases from orbit.
In 1992, Atari developed a prototype of an arcade game called Arcade Classics for their 20th anniversary. The game included Missile Command 2 and Super Centipede (an updated version of the original Centipede
).
John Braden
recorded two different stories for Kid Stuff Records
detailing the peaceful world of Zardon and the invasion of the Krytolians. The 12" album tells the broader story, beginning with an emergency meeting in which the Zardonian public learns of the threat for the first time. It has two songs, a title track and "Zardon Commanders". The 7" tells a smaller, more specific story.
OMGPOP
released an online multi-player game inspired by the original version, in 2010.
. For example, there is an open source
SDL
game with the same rules as Missile Command called Penguin Command
Marathon settings:
In 1981, Floridan Jody Bowles played a Missile Command arcade game for 30 hours at The Filling Station Eatery in Pensacola. Bowles racked up 41,399,845 points with only one quarter using regular "Marathon Settings", besting the previous known record, according to Atari spokesman Mike Fournell. The official world marathon record is recorded as 80,364,995 points and is credited to Victor Ali of the USA, this score set in 1982. It is believed Ali played the game continuously for 56 hours. The only current challenger to the marathon world record is William Carlton of Portland, Oregon. Despite numerous attempts in recent years, Carlton has yet to top Ali's score.
Tournament settings:
On March 9, 2006, Tony Temple, a UK
based gamer, set a new world record
for Missile Command in Tournament mode on tournament settings confirmed by Twin Galaxies
. Because tournament settings give the player no bonus cities, it is considered to be one of the most difficult video games of the Golden Era. His score of 1,967,830 points beat the record previously held by US gamer Roy Shildt for more than 20 years. Shildt maintains that he played using slightly different settings to Temple, even though the particular setting he refers to would not have been monitored at the time he set his record; this according to the official Guinness manuals from that era. Temple's record was recognized by the Official Video Game & Pinball Book of World Records and was listed in the 2007 Guinness Book of Records, as well as the Guinness Gamers Edition Book 2008. Tony Temple has subsequently increased his world record on two occasions, culminating in a score of 4,472,570 verified on 9 September 2010. This score took 2 hours 57 minutes, and represents the first officially verified time that a player has passed the killscreen at wave 256 on Missile Command under tournament settings. His nearest rival, Jeffrey Blair, posted a score of 1,874,925 also in 2010. Shildt now sits in third place. Temple, Shildt and Blair remain the three most prominent Missile Command players using tournament settings, and a live match-up is eagerly anticipated by the classic arcade community.
Arcade game
An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, usually installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars, and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, and merchandisers...
by Atari, Inc. that was also licensed to Sega
Sega
, usually styled as SEGA, is a multinational video game software developer and an arcade software and hardware development company headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan, with various offices around the world...
for European release. It is considered one of the most notable games from the Golden Age of Video Arcade Games. The plot of Missile Command is simple: the player's six cities are being attacked by an endless hail of ballistic missile
Ballistic missile
A ballistic missile is a missile that follows a sub-orbital ballistic flightpath with the objective of delivering one or more warheads to a predetermined target. The missile is only guided during the relatively brief initial powered phase of flight and its course is subsequently governed by the...
s, some of them even splitting like multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRVs
Multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle
A multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle warhead is a collection of nuclear weapons carried on a single intercontinental ballistic missile or a submarine-launched ballistic missile . Using a MIRV warhead, a single launched missile can strike several targets, or fewer targets redundantly...
), and in later levels smart bombs which can evade a less than perfectly targeted missile. As a regional commander of three anti-missile batteries, the player must defend six cities in their zone from being destroyed.
Gameplay
The game is played by moving a crosshairCrosshair
A reticle is a net of fine lines or fibers in the eyepiece of a sighting device, such as a telescope, a telescopic sight, a microscope, or the screen of an oscilloscope. The word reticle comes from the Latin "reticulum," meaning "net." Today, engraved lines or embedded fibers may be replaced by a...
across the sky background via a trackball
Trackball
A trackball is a pointing device consisting of a ball held by a socket containing sensors to detect a rotation of the ball about two axes—like an upside-down mouse with an exposed protruding ball. The user rolls the ball with the thumb, fingers, or the palm of the hand to move a cursor...
and pressing one of three buttons to launch a counter-missile from the appropriate battery. Counter-missiles explode upon reaching the crosshair, leaving a fireball that persists for several seconds and destroys any enemy missiles that enter it. There are three batteries, each with ten missiles; a missile battery becomes useless when all its missiles are fired, or if the battery is destroyed by enemy fire. The missiles of the central battery fly to their targets at much greater speed; only these missiles can effectively kill a smart bomb at a distance.
The game is staged as a series of levels of increasing difficulty; each level contains a set number of incoming enemy weapons. The weapons attack the six cities, as well as the missile batteries; being struck by an enemy weapon results in destruction of the city or missile battery. Enemy weapons are only able to destroy 3 cities during one level. A level ends if all the cities are destroyed, or when all enemy weaponry is destroyed or reaches its target. A player who runs out of missiles no longer has control over the remainder of the level. At the conclusion of a level, the player receives bonus points for any remaining cities or unused missiles. Between levels missile batteries are rebuilt and replenished; destroyed cities are rebuilt only at set point levels (usually 10 or 12K).
The game inevitably ends when all six cities have been wiped out. Like most early arcade games, there is no way to "win" the game; the game just keeps going with ever faster and more prolific incoming missiles. The game, then, is just a contest in seeing how long the player can survive. On conclusion of the game, the screen displays "The End", perhaps a poke at oncoming Nuclear Holocaust
Nuclear holocaust
Nuclear holocaust refers to the possibility of the near complete annihilation of human civilization by nuclear warfare. Under such a scenario, all or most of the Earth is made uninhabitable by nuclear weapons in future world wars....
rather than the standard "Game Over" text (however, if the player is able to make the high score list, the game then prompts the player to enter his/her initials, with the "The End" sequence skipped).
The game features an interesting bug: once a score of 810,000 is reached, a large number of cities are awarded (150 cities plus the continuing accrual of bonus cities) and it is possible to carry on playing for several hours. At some later stage the speed of missiles increases greatly for a few screens. On the 255th and 256th yellow screens, known as the 0x stages, the scoring increases by 256 times the base value. For good players these two 0x stages could earn over a million points, this enabled them to reach a score of approximately 2,800,000 (although only 6 digit scores were shown, so it would display 800,000) and at this point the accelerated rate would suddenly cease and the game would restart at its original (slow) speed and return to the first stage, but with the score and any saved cities retained. In this way it was possible to play this game for hours on end.
Production
When the game was originally designed, the six cities were meant to represent six cities in CaliforniaCalifornia
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
: Eureka
Eureka, California
Eureka is the principal city and the county seat of Humboldt County, California, United States. Its population was 27,191 at the 2010 census, up from 26,128 at the 2000 census....
, San Francisco, San Luis Obispo
San Luis Obispo, California
San Luis Obispo is a city in California, located roughly midway between San Francisco and Los Angeles on the Central Coast. Founded in 1772 by Spanish Fr. Junipero Serra, San Luis Obispo is one of California’s oldest communities...
, Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara is the county seat of Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Situated on an east-west trending section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States, the city lies between the steeply-rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean...
, Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, and San Diego.
While programming Missile Command, the programmer, Dave Theurer
Dave Theurer
David "Dave" Theurer is a game designer. In 1980, he created Missile Command, considered one of the great classic video games from the Golden age of arcade games. Another pioneering achievement, also in 1980, was Tempest. Theurer also designed I, Robot, the first commercial video game with filled...
, suffered from nightmares of these cities being destroyed by a nuclear blast.
Reception
Missile Command was an immensely popular money-maker for Atari, with many units around the world still outperforming contemporary machines' revenue as late as the mid-1990s.Missile Command is considered one of the great classic video games from the Golden Age of Arcade Games
Golden Age of Arcade Games
The golden age of video arcade games was a peak era of video arcade game popularity, innovation, and earnings. Although there is no consensus as to its exact time period, most sources place it around the early 1980s.-Overview:...
. The game is also interesting in its manifestation of the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
's effects on popular culture, in that the game features an implementation of National Missile Defense
National Missile Defense
National missile defense is a generic term for a type of missile defense intended to shield an entire country against incoming missiles, such as intercontinental ballistic missile or other ballistic missiles. Interception might be by anti-ballistic missiles or directed-energy weapons such as lasers...
and parallels real life nuclear war
Nuclear warfare
Nuclear warfare, or atomic warfare, is a military conflict or political strategy in which nuclear weaponry is detonated on an opponent. Compared to conventional warfare, nuclear warfare can be vastly more destructive in range and extent of damage...
. (See Culture during the Cold War
Culture during the Cold War
The Cold War was reflected in culture through music, movies, books, and other media. One element of the Cold War often seen relates directly or indirectly to the threat of a nuclear war. Another is the conflict between the superpowers in terms of espionage. Many works use the Cold War as a...
for more information on this.)
Ports
Atari 2600
The Atari 2600 is a video game console released in October 1977 by Atari, Inc. It is credited with popularizing the use of microprocessor-based hardware and cartridges containing game code, instead of having non-microprocessor dedicated hardware with all games built in...
. The game's instruction manual describes a war between two planets: Zardon (the defending player) and Krytol. The original arcade game contains no reference to these worlds. On level 13, if the player uses all of his or her missiles without scoring any points, at the end of the game the city on the right will turn into "RF" — the initials of the programmer Rob Fulop
Rob Fulop
Rob Fulop is a writer and game programmer who was chiefly responsible for some of the Atari 2600's biggest hits, such as 1982's enormously successful Demon Attack. He also worked on the Atari 2600 ports of Night Driver , Space Invaders , and Missile Command .Rob Fulop is the co-founder of Imagic...
. This Easter egg
Easter egg (media)
Image:Carl Oswald Rostosky - Zwei Kaninchen und ein Igel 1861.jpg|250px|thumb|right|Example of Easter egg hidden within imagerect 467 383 539 434 desc none...
is originally documented in Atari Age (Volume 1, Issue 2) in a letter to the editor by Joseph Nickischer, and is the second one publicly acknowledged by Atari
Atari
Atari is a corporate and brand name owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by Atari Interactive, a wholly owned subsidiary of the French publisher Atari, SA . The original Atari, Inc. was founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. It was a pioneer in...
.
Missile Command was also ported to Atari's line of 8-bit computers. That version was also used in the Atari XEGS
Atari XEGS
The Atari XE Video Game System is a video game console released by Atari Corporation in 1987. Based on the Atari 65XE computer, the XEGS is compatible with the existing Atari 8-bit computer software library. Additionally, it is able to operate as a stand alone console or full computer with the...
as a built-in game that boots up if there isn't a cartridge or keyboard in the console.
In the 1990s, Missile Command was ported to handheld systems such as the Atari Lynx and Game Boy
Game Boy
The , is an 8-bit handheld video game device developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on , in North America in , and in Europe on...
.
On the Atari Jaguar
Atari Jaguar
The Atari Jaguar is a video game console that was released by Atari Corporation in 1993. It was the last to be marketed under the Atari brand until the release of the Atari Flashback in 2004. It was designed to surpass the Mega Drive/Genesis, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and the Panasonic...
, there is also Missile Command 3D. It contains three versions of the game: Classic, 3D, and Virtual. The last version is the only game that works with the virtual reality helmet from Virtuality
Virtuality (gaming)
Virtuality is a line of virtual reality gaming machines produced by Virtuality Group, and found in video arcades in the late 1990s. The machines deliver real time gaming via a stereoscopic visor, joysticks, and networked units for multi-player gaming.Initially introduced in 1991, the systems were...
(only 2 pieces are known to exist).
Having just acquired the Atari
Atari
Atari is a corporate and brand name owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by Atari Interactive, a wholly owned subsidiary of the French publisher Atari, SA . The original Atari, Inc. was founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. It was a pioneer in...
label, Hasbro Interactive
Hasbro Interactive
Hasbro Interactive was an American video game production and publishing subsidiary of Hasbro, the large game and toy company.Hasbro Interactive was formed late in 1995 in order to compete in the computer and video game arena. Several Hasbro properties, such as Monopoly and Scrabble, had already...
released Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
and PlayStation versions in 1999, but they did not sell well. Hasbro Interactive released a series of Atari classic remakes around that time, most of which quickly found their way to the discount bin.
Missile Command was released via Xbox Live Arcade
Xbox Live Arcade
Xbox Live Arcade is a type of video game download distribution available primarily in a section of the Xbox Live Marketplace, Microsoft's digital distribution network for the Xbox 360, that focuses on smaller downloadable games from both major publishers and independent game developers...
for the Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
on July 4, 2007 for 400 Microsoft Points
Microsoft Points
Microsoft Points are the currency of the Xbox Live Marketplace, Games for Windows - Live Marketplace, Windows Live Gallery, and Zune online stores. The points allow users to purchase content without a credit card and to reduce the number of small credit card transaction fees, which Microsoft would...
(US$
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
5). It features updated, high-definition graphics.
On September 23, 2008, Missile Command was released for the iPhone
IPhone
The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...
and iPod touch
IPod touch
The iPod Touch is a portable media player, personal digital assistant, handheld game console, and Wi-Fi mobile device designed and marketed by Apple Inc. The iPod Touch adds the multi-touch graphical user interface to the iPod line...
though the App Store for US$5. Features include two gameplay modes ("Ultra" and "Classic"), online high score rankings, variable difficulty, and the option to use the iPod
IPod
iPod is a line of portable media players created and marketed by Apple Inc. The product line-up currently consists of the hard drive-based iPod Classic, the touchscreen iPod Touch, the compact iPod Nano, and the ultra-compact iPod Shuffle...
function to play music instead of using the included game soundtrack.
Missile Command was made available on Microsoft's
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
Game Room
Game Room
Game Room is a gaming service for the Xbox 360 video game system, Microsoft Windows PCs, and Windows Phone 7. Launched on March 24, 2010, Game Room lets players download classic video games and compete against each other for high scores...
service for its Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
console and for Windows-based
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
PC
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
s in June 2010.
Legacy
In 1981, an enhancement kit was made by General Computer Corp.General Computer Corp.
The General Computer Corporation is a printer company today, but was started in 1981 by Doug Macrae, John Tylko and Kevin Curran as a video game company....
to convert Missile Command into Super Missile Attack. This made the game even harder, and added a UFO to the player's enemies.
In 1982, a multi-player sequel was planned but never released although at least one prototype appeared in an arcade in santa clara, California. This game would have been identical to the first except with twice as many cities and batteries and the players cooperating to save each other's cities from the onslaught.
In 1984, Atari released a game called Liberator
Liberator (arcade game)
Atari Force Liberator is an arcade game based on the Atari Force comic book series. Atari Force was published by DC Comics from 1982 to 1986. The story "Code Name: Liberator" describes the premise of the arcade game in detail and was included as a special insert in two comic books cover dated...
, which was seen by some as being a sequel to Missile Command with the situation essentially reversed; in Liberator, the player is the one attacking planetary bases from orbit.
In 1992, Atari developed a prototype of an arcade game called Arcade Classics for their 20th anniversary. The game included Missile Command 2 and Super Centipede (an updated version of the original Centipede
Centipede (video game)
Centipede is a vertically-oriented shoot 'em up arcade game produced by Atari, Inc. in 1980. The game was designed by Ed Logg along with Dona Bailey, one of the few female game programmers in the industry at this time. It was also the first arcade coin-operated game to have a significant female...
).
John Braden
John Braden
John Braden was a writer, producer, and director of motion pictures and television programs, as well as a public advocate against drugs in the movie industry....
recorded two different stories for Kid Stuff Records
Kid Stuff Records
Kid Stuff Records was a record label of the 1980s devoted to children's music. The label's albums were mostly tie-ins for franchises such as Care Bears, The Pink Panther Show, Strawberry Shortcake, Fat Albert, Garfield, E.T...
detailing the peaceful world of Zardon and the invasion of the Krytolians. The 12" album tells the broader story, beginning with an emergency meeting in which the Zardonian public learns of the threat for the first time. It has two songs, a title track and "Zardon Commanders". The 7" tells a smaller, more specific story.
OMGPOP
Omgpop
Omgpop is a casual online multiplayer gaming website built entirely in Flash. Omgpop states on its homepage that it is "a place to hang out, play free online multiplayer games, and make friends....
released an online multi-player game inspired by the original version, in 2010.
Clones
The game has been widely clonedClone (computer and video games)
A video game clone is a video game or game series which is very similar to or heavily inspired by a previous popular game or game series. Some video game genres are founded by such archetypal games that all subsequent similar games are thought of as derivatives.The term is sometimes derogatory,...
. For example, there is an open source
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
SDL
Simple DirectMedia Layer
Simple DirectMedia Layer is a cross-platform, free and open source multimedia library written in C that presents a simple interface to various platforms' graphics, sound, and input devices....
game with the same rules as Missile Command called Penguin Command
Record-breaking gameplay
Two types of world record are monitored for the arcade version of Missile Command: Marathon settings and Tournament settings. Both settings allow the player to start with a full complement of six cities. Marathon settings give the player additional bonus cities, typically at every 10,000 points scored. Because of this, seasoned players can play the game, in theory, indefinitely. Marathon players will play until their game ends – either due to the game ending, fatigue or mechanical breakdown. In tournament mode, no bonus cities are awarded at any point in the game – the game will end when all six cities are destroyed.Marathon settings:
In 1981, Floridan Jody Bowles played a Missile Command arcade game for 30 hours at The Filling Station Eatery in Pensacola. Bowles racked up 41,399,845 points with only one quarter using regular "Marathon Settings", besting the previous known record, according to Atari spokesman Mike Fournell. The official world marathon record is recorded as 80,364,995 points and is credited to Victor Ali of the USA, this score set in 1982. It is believed Ali played the game continuously for 56 hours. The only current challenger to the marathon world record is William Carlton of Portland, Oregon. Despite numerous attempts in recent years, Carlton has yet to top Ali's score.
Tournament settings:
On March 9, 2006, Tony Temple, a UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
based gamer, set a new world record
World record
A world record is usually the best global performance ever recorded and verified in a specific skill or sport. The book Guinness World Records collates and publishes notable records of all types, from first and best to worst human achievements, to extremes in the natural world and beyond...
for Missile Command in Tournament mode on tournament settings confirmed by Twin Galaxies
Twin Galaxies
Twin Galaxies is an American organization that tracks video game world records and conducts a program of electronic-gaming promotions. It operates the Twin Galaxies website and publishes the Twin Galaxies' Official Video Game & Pinball Book of World Records, with the Arcade Volume released on June...
. Because tournament settings give the player no bonus cities, it is considered to be one of the most difficult video games of the Golden Era. His score of 1,967,830 points beat the record previously held by US gamer Roy Shildt for more than 20 years. Shildt maintains that he played using slightly different settings to Temple, even though the particular setting he refers to would not have been monitored at the time he set his record; this according to the official Guinness manuals from that era. Temple's record was recognized by the Official Video Game & Pinball Book of World Records and was listed in the 2007 Guinness Book of Records, as well as the Guinness Gamers Edition Book 2008. Tony Temple has subsequently increased his world record on two occasions, culminating in a score of 4,472,570 verified on 9 September 2010. This score took 2 hours 57 minutes, and represents the first officially verified time that a player has passed the killscreen at wave 256 on Missile Command under tournament settings. His nearest rival, Jeffrey Blair, posted a score of 1,874,925 also in 2010. Shildt now sits in third place. Temple, Shildt and Blair remain the three most prominent Missile Command players using tournament settings, and a live match-up is eagerly anticipated by the classic arcade community.
In popular culture
- Missile Command was referenced in a 1981 episode of the TV sitcom Barney MillerBarney MillerBarney Miller is a situation comedy television series set in a New York City police station in Greenwich Village. The series originally was broadcast from January 23, 1975 to May 20, 1982 on ABC. It was created by Danny Arnold and Theodore J. Flicker...
, which featured a young detective who was hooked on the game. - The award winning documentary High Score follows William Carlton, a Portland, OregonPortland, OregonPortland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
gamer, on his quest to beat the Missile Command high score record for Marathon settings.(2006) - In the 2008 episode "Chuck Versus Tom SawyerChuck Versus Tom Sawyer"Chuck Versus Tom Sawyer" is the fifth episode of the second season of Chuck. It originally aired on October 27, 2008. Life in espionage takes its toll on Chuck Bartowski and everyone is taking notice. Chuck tries to explain his unusual behavior to Ellie Bartowski and to the quirky Buy More...
" of the NBCNBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
show ChuckChuck (TV series)Chuck is an action-comedy/spy-drama television program from the United States created by Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak. The series is about an "average computer-whiz-next-door" named Chuck, played by Zachary Levi, who receives an encoded e-mail from an old college friend now working for the Central...
, a weapons satellite access code is hidden in the (fictitious) kill screenKill screenA kill screen is a stage or level in a video game that stops the player's progress due to a programming error or design oversight. Rather than "ending" in a traditional sense, the game will crash, freeze, or behave so erratically that further play is impossible.Video games, like any other computer...
of Missile Command by its programmer. The show's title characterChuck BartowskiCharles Irving "Chuck" Bartowski is the main and titular character of the American fiction television show Chuck on NBC. He is portrayed by Zachary Levi.-Character profile:...
retrieves the code by achieving a score of 2,000,000 points after realizing that "the mathematical pattern underlying the game is the same" as RushRush (band)Rush is a Canadian rock band formed in August 1968, in the Willowdale neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario. The band is composed of bassist, keyboardist, and lead vocalist Geddy Lee, guitarist Alex Lifeson, and drummer and lyricist Neil Peart...
's 1981 hit "Tom SawyerTom Sawyer (song)"Tom Sawyer" is a song by Canadian rock band Rush, named after Mark Twain's literary character. The song was released on Mercury Records and PolyGram in 1981 on the Moving Pictures album and numerous compilations thereafter, such as 1990's Chronicles. It has also appeared on several live albums and...
". - In the 1982 movie Fast Times at Ridgemont HighFast Times at Ridgemont HighFast Times at Ridgemont High is a 1982 American coming-of-age teen comedy film written by Cameron Crowe and adapted from his 1981 book of the same name...
, Missile Command's "The End" screen is used to help illustrate the film's ending. - Missile Command was played by John Connor in the 1991 movie Terminator 2: Judgement Day.
- Talk show host Ellen DegeneresEllen DeGeneresEllen Lee DeGeneres is an American stand-up comedienne, television host and actress. She hosts the syndicated talk show The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and was also a judge on American Idol for one year, having joined the show in its ninth season....
gave actor Seth RogenSeth RogenSeth Rogen is a Canadian stand-up comedian, actor, producer, screenwriter, and voice artist. Rogen began his career doing stand-up comedy during his teen years, winning the Vancouver Amateur Comedy Contest in 1998. While still living in his native Vancouver, he landed a small part in Freaks and...
an arcade version of Missile Command as a wedding gift on her talk show "The Ellen Degeneres ShowThe Ellen DeGeneres ShowThe Ellen DeGeneres Show, often shortened to Ellen, is an American television talk show hosted by comedian/actress Ellen DeGeneres. Debuting on September 8, 2003, it is produced by Telepictures and airs in syndication, including stations owned by NBC Universal. For its first five seasons, the show...
".