ScuzzBlog: Diaries February 2026 Entry 5th February 2026: Post 1: Atari Game - Missile Command. Atari Game - Missile Command. As promised that final salvo in respect of Missile Command. Before launching into the blog I did do some research on why Atari were somewhat relaxed regarding clones of the game. To put into context Atari were selling something like 20000 arcade machines of the game and that is where their focus was. There was never any attempt in truth to clone the arcade machines cus those in the business were not minded to take on Atari. Seems Atari didn't consider the actual video game worth fighting over. Anyway .. that distinction between arcade game and video computer system is important. The game Missile Command was initially created for the cabinets. The guy in charge at Atari Gene Lipkin had always been keen to create a game based around the 1974 Missile Radar idea. He charged Steve Calfe to make this happen. Consequently Dave Theurer was assigned the game and he in turn brought onboard Rich Adams. The arcade version which features trackball control was lunched in 1980. It was a purely defense based game with no attacking response beyond downing all incoming missiles. The original was based on a nuclear attack on cities and became what is called a time based game. High scoring being the key before all your cities are destroyed. When asked of his proudest moment Dave Theurer said he enjoyed seeing his game featured in Terminator 2. He was relatively insistent that the game be a defense based game. And so the original game was an arcade based trackball game. Moving on to the video game, Missile Command was released for the Atari 2600 (VCS) in 1981. The idea based on the concept of defending six cities from incoming ballistic missiles. This version was designed by Rob Fulop and simplified the controls given there was no trackball. The game went on to become one of the console's most popular, high scoring games. Hopefully I only referred to Missile Command in all of that. The game also provided special features designed for young children on the VCS version. This is signified by an icon of a small teddy bear. Amazing isn't it after all these years I was able to acquire a very good quality version of the game complete with all packaging. Whilst I am not a great Atari fan it is certainly rewarding having one of the very first classic computer games lodged into the collection. Well that was that. Time for something else. What to do? What to do? I know !! Atari Game - Missile Command.

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Last updated 5th February 2026

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