ATARI REVIVAL
Missile Command: Revisited

By Roggie McFadden

Earth, 1980. The Soviets have had enough of American meddling in their attempts to conquer the world. Instead of continuing with a tiresome and unconclusive Cold War, the evil Russkies decide to turn up the heat and hurl nuclear hell upon your nation. You must now destroy the streaming projectiles that threaten to eradicate the American Dream, using rockets of your own.

Welcome to Missile Command.

Under your direction are the Alpha, Delta, and Omega Missile Centres. These anti-missile towers are the only things that stand between the six cities of your Homeland, and those blazing nuclear showers from the heavens that aim to wipe out the nation.

By monitoring reserves at the three Missile Centres, and by preventing your cities from being struck by the flaming nuclear barrage, it is possible to rack up lots of points, making this game of mortal stakes, this all-out war, a quite rewarding exploit.

If you sharpen up your skills, Missile Command can be quite the thrill. You defend the nation with ease in the early stages, bringing down the streaking shells with timing and calculation. The experienced Commander learns to destroy multiple targets that rain down upon the cities of the Homeland with a single missile.

Occasionally, for whatever reason, a city will happen to be annihilated by a stray atom bomb. But when a Commander gets 10,000 points in Missile Command, he gets a city re-built. This makes it possible for this war to be profitable if you are of that class of Commander who can amass 20-, 30-, 40,000 points, all the while knowing that you are only delaying the inevitable.

For every Commander, young or old, meek or proud, the sucky and the not-so-sucky, knows that final moment where all your cities are destroyed, your Missile Centres stand in ruins, and the nation lies in the shadows of Armageddon. That decisive point where all is lost, the score is tallied, and yet the brutal storm of nuclear hail continues, though there is nothing left to harm.

The display suddenly fills with red and the roar of nuclear holocaust reverberates in the background. A seven-sided circular opening emerges, and in this cavity, the ominous last words 'THE END' unravel in bold golden characters as a pool of blood red steadily swells across. The entire screen melts down into blinding crimson and, instinctively, without considering the gravity of the words, the defeated Commander blurts out, "I got nuked again!"

I still carry joyous memories of playing Atari 2600 during my younger days, and this game in particular. Missile Command was one of the most exciting games then available, and is a direct ancestor to the 64-bit fare now consumed by Gamers of the present day.

May the spirit of youthful realism embodied by Missile Command stay alive for future generations to enjoy.

From Wilshire Gazette (February 2003)

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