How to play Missile Command online
The arcade machine used a trackball. The 2600 version uses a joystick.
- Move the target cursor: arrow keys (diagonals work too)
- Launch a counter-missile: Space bar
- Start a new game: F12 (the console’s Reset switch)
- Choose a game variation: F11 (the console’s Select switch)
- Difficulty: F4 toggles the Player 1 difficulty switch, F9 the Player 2 switch
- Player 2 (two-player games): T/F/G/H to move, A to fire
- Save and load your progress: Ctrl + 0–9 saves to a slot, Alt + 0–9 loads it
Gameplay
Enemy missiles streak down toward your six cities and your missile base in the middle of the ground. Move the blinking cursor to a spot and press fire. Your anti-ballistic missile (ABM) flies there and bursts into a fireball, and any enemy missile that touches the fireball is destroyed. You can have up to three ABMs in the air at once.
Each wave gives you 30 ABMs, but the base holds only 10 at a time and reloads from an underground store. If an enemy missile hits the base, the missiles loaded in it are lost. After the sixth wave, cruise missiles that look like satellites join the attack. Dumb ones fall in a straight line, while smart ones dodge your explosions. Each wave is faster than the last, and the game ends when every city is gone.
| Target or bonus | Points |
|---|---|
| Ballistic missile | 25 |
| Cruise missile | 125 |
| Unused ABM (end of wave) | 5 |
| Surviving city (end of wave) | 100 |
Points are multiplied as the waves speed up, from double for waves 3 and 4 up to six times from wave 11. You earn a bonus city every 10,000 points, which can keep you in the game even after your last city falls.
Variations and switches
There are 34 variations. Games 1–17 are for one player and 18–34 for two, with players taking turns wave by wave. The variations differ in cursor speed (fast or slow), whether cruise missiles are dumb or smart, and which wave you start on. Games 17 and 34 are slower versions for young children. Difficulty B is normal. On A your ABMs fly more slowly, which makes defending much harder.
Tips
- Fire ahead of the missile. Put the cursor in the path of its tip, since your ABM takes time to get there.
- Don’t wait for the blast. Fire, move straight to the next target and fire again.
- Let dead cities go. Once a city is destroyed, ignore missiles aimed at it and save your ABMs for what’s still standing.
- Sit right on smart cruise missiles. They can’t dodge an explosion placed directly on top of them.
The story behind Missile Command
Dave Theurer designed the arcade game, which Atari released in 1980. The home version gives it a science-fiction story instead: according to its manual, the peaceful planet Zardon is defending itself against missiles from the planet Krytol.
Rob Fulop’s 2600 version came out in 1981 and hides what is said to be only the second Easter egg Atari ever publicly acknowledged. If you use up all your missiles on wave 13 without scoring a point, the city on the right turns into his initials, “RF”, when the game ends. Fulop later said that Atari’s reward for his work was a supermarket coupon for a free turkey. That helped push him to leave and co-found Imagic in 1981.
Similar games to play next
- Atlantis – defend an underwater city from alien ships with three gun posts
- Demon Attack – a fast shooter from Imagic, the company Fulop co-founded
- Night Driver – another arcade conversion Fulop made for the 2600
- Space Invaders – another arcade shooter about holding off an attack from above
- Asteroids – Atari’s arcade shooter, converted to the 2600 in 1981