Missile Command

In Missile Command, six cities are being attacked by an endless hail of ballistic missiles, some of which split like multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles. New weapons are introduced in later levels: smart bombs that can evade a less-than-perfectly targeted missile, and bomber planes and satellites that fly across the screen launching missiles of their own. The player takes control three missile batteries in an effort to defend the cities for as long as possible.

The game is played by moving a crosshair 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 or craft that enter it. The three batteries provided are each armed with ten missiles; a battery becomes useless when all of its missiles have been launched or if it is destroyed by enemy fire. whichever occurs first. The missiles of the center battery fly to their targets at much greater speed than those fired from the other two; only these missiles can effectively destroy a smart bomb at a distance.

Having found a picture of a radar screen in a magazine, Gene Lipkin, then president of Atari's coin-op division, tasked department head Steve Calfee to "Make me a game like this". At this time, games were usually developed by a single programmer with a deadline of six months. If the project was high-profile, this programmer could be assigned a junior programmer as an extra resource. Dave Theurer, who was free after finishing Atari Soccer as a junior programmer, was offered the project, loosely defined as "radar screen showing missiles fired from the USSR toward the US, which is defended by the player". Because the project was requested by a boss, it was considered "high profile" and a junior programmer, Rich Adam, was assigned to Theurer.

Calfee, Theurer and Adam then worked on refining the game concept. In early iterations, the cities represented six cities in California: Eureka, San Francisco, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, and San Diego. While Theurer understood the assignment of making a patriotic game, the current political climate made Theurer hesitant about the possible violent incitations. While enthusiastic about his first project, Theurer put two conditions to his work: neither the attacking nor defending states would be named, and the game would be purely defensive and never put players in situations where they would be the aggressor.

Missile Command is considered one of the classic video games from the golden age of arcade games. It is also noted for its manifestation of the Cold War's effects on popular culture, in that it features an implementation of National Missile Defense and parallels real-life nuclear war.

The game was an instant hit, hailed for its uniqueness, color graphics and challenging, score-based gameplay, which were massive draws for arcade games at the time. The game sold nearly 20,000 arcade cabinets. Missile Command was a commercial success for Sega in Japan, where it was among the top ten highest-grossing arcade games of 1980.

Missile Command has seen many re-releases in many Atari compilation titles:

The game is included in Arcade Classics for the Sega Genesis and Game Gear and a similar Master System compilation titled Arcade Smash Hits.