Missile Command
1980 · Fixed Shooter · Arcade
Overview
Missile Command (1980) is Dave Theurer's Atari arcade game about defending six cities from nuclear attack — a battle the player is designed to lose.
Deep Dive
Missile Command gives the player three missile bases and a trackball to defend six cities against waves of incoming warheads, detonating counter-missiles in the sky to catch them. The attack always grows until the defences are overwhelmed, and the game ends not with 'Game Over' but with 'The End'. Designer Dave Theurer had nightmares about nuclear war while making it, and that unwinnable design was deliberate. It was one of the biggest earners of the golden age of arcades.
Developer Story
Missile Command was designed by Dave Theurer at Atari and released in 1980. Theurer had nightmares about nuclear war during development — the game's design, in which the missiles always eventually overwhelm the defences, was intentionally unwinnable. The trackball controller allowed precise targeting but also caused severe wrist strain in heavy players, who coined the term "Missile Wrist." The game grossed over $100 million in its first year.
Did You Know?
- Designer Dave Theurer suffered recurring nightmares about nuclear war during development — the impossible-to-win design was entirely intentional.
- "Missile Wrist" was the name given to the repetitive strain injury suffered by players who spent hours on the trackball.
- The game had six cities to defend; the loss of all six ended the game with the text "THE END" — there was no "GAME OVER" message.
- A perfect score of 999,999 was achieved in 1981 — by deliberately losing cities at specific intervals to keep the game at a fixed difficulty level.
- The game grossed over $100 million in revenue in its first year, making it one of the highest-grossing arcade games of the golden age.
Sources & further reading
- Missile Command — Wikipedia
