by Mark Nobes, chief editor
First up, you really need to see this very amusing review of the Atari 2600 console and the Missile Command Rom game by Rob the Robot - there is a little bad language so please be warned!
Missile Command turned out to be a huge money-maker for Atari. It was originally released into the arcades in 1980 by Atari inc., but also licensed to Sega for the European versions of the game.
The basic idea of the game is to defend six cities from incoming ballistic missiles using anti-missile batteries. The player moves a crosshair across the screen and must fire ahead of each missile just at the right moment.
The game becomes more difficult with each new level, with an increasing number of missiles that also become faster.
One thing's for sure, Missile Command exemplified the constant threat during the 80s that we were all going
to die in a nuclear missile attack, as did Frankie Goes To Hollywood's "Two Tribes" single.
Screenshot from Atari 2600 version
Overall, the original Missile Command game is considered a classic from the 1980s, and received positive reviews from the critics upon its release.
This conversion was decent enough, but even with the improved graphics on the 16-bit ST version (released in 1987), personally, I found that it lacked the excitement of the earlier versions on the Atari 2600 and 8-bit computers, proving that graphics aren't the most important factor in a game. This version was designed and programmed by Rob Zdybel, with the graphics and animation by Gary Johnson.
ST Action magazine gave the game a score of just 55/100 in its August 1988 issue.
