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missile: MAME ROM Information.

History:

Missile Command (c) 1980 Atari.

Missile Command is a 1- or 2-player game with a color monitor. The game depicts an Armageddon-style war in which players defend their missile bases and cities with antiballistic missiles (ABMs). The enemy - the game computer - launches incoming waves of attack missiles. These weapons may be either individual missiles or multiple independently-targed re-entry vehicles (MIRV), which unleash branching attack missiles. In addition, the enemy occasionally launches missiles from a fast-moving 'killer' satellite or from bombers. The enemy also launches smart bombs that usually avoid explosions.

Players receive varying numbers of points for intercepting attack missiles, for having unused ABMs still in their bases' arsenals, and for having their cities undamaged after a missile wave.

The game begins when either Start pushbutton is pressed. The game ends when the player's last city is destroyed.

The 3 bases - Alpha, Delta and Omega - each have 10 ABMs ready to be fired. Players must be careful to fire the ABMs more or less evenly from among those bases, because no more ABMs are granted until the screen resets in preparation for a new wave of attack missiles. If an enemy missile strikes a city or base, the colorful buildings or base will change to the solid color of the landscape.

The game continues until all cities are destroyed. Missile Command has no operator-selectable fixed time length. Thus a highly skilled player can play longer than the novice.

During the second wave, a 'killer' satellite and/or bomber will appear on the screen, moving quickly and launching attack missiles at the bases and cities. Players get bonus points for shooting down the satellites or bombers.

The general approach for getting high point scores is fairly quickly discovered : try to launch your ABMs when the enemy missiles have just appeared at the top of the screen. Then they are clustered together, where one ABM can usually destroy several enemy missiles. In the later, more advanced waves, players can lay out a blanket of explosions.

You start the game with a certain number of cities depending on the 'Cities' dip switch (4, 5, 6, or 7 cities; the default is 6), and can have no more than 6 cities in play at one time. If the dip switch is set to starting with 7 cities, the 7th city will be treated as a bonus city after at least one city in play has been destroyed.

You earn a bonus city every time you score a certain number of points ('Bonus City' dip switch, the default is 10000). You don't see your bonus cities until they replace destroyed cities at the beginning of the next wave.

CAST OF ELEMENTS :

Targeting crosshair : Aim your missiles quickly but carefully. Use the trackball to move the targeting crosshair to where you want the next missile to go, then press any Launch Control button to fire the missile. The missile will explode where the crosshair was positioned when the Launch Control button was pressed.

Cities : There are 6 cities in total on the screen at one time, 3 on either side of the Delta Base. If one enemy missile or smart bomb manages to strike a city, that city will be wiped out. When all cities are destroyed, the game is over.

Alpha Base : The missile base on the left side of the screen. Press the leftmost Launch Control button to launch an ABM from the Alpha base.

Delta Base : The missile base in the center of the screen. Press the middle Launch Control button to launch an ABM from the Delta base.

Omega Base : The missile base on the right side of the screen. Press the rightmost Launch Control button to launch an ABM from the Omega base.

NOTE: The Alpha and Omega bases launch ABMs at a slower speed than the Delta base, so you must plan further ahead when launching missiles from those bases.

Defensive missiles : The ABMs you launch to protect your cities. Each missile base contains 10 ABMs per wave. If any missile base is struck by an attack missile or smart bomb, the remaining stock of missiles for that wave are destroyed, and the missile base is rendered useless until the next wave. You receive bonus points for every ABM you have remaining at the end of each wave.

Attack Missiles : Their only aim is to destroy your cities and missile bases. Every missile wave starts off with a hailstorm of attack missiles. They never deviate from their path. They may, however, turn into MIRVs.

MIRV : Surprise! There is no warning when an attack missile turns into an MIRV (with multiple warheads). Think fast. Each new missile that the MIRV unleashes is carefully targeted.

Killer Satellite : A mean-looking satellite that travels across the sky at a mid-level altitude and fires attack missiles. First appears in Wave 2.

Bomber : A big slow-moving target that flies across the sky at a mid-level altitude, but watch out! It fires attack missiles. First appears in Wave 2.

WARNING: If you destory a bomber or killer satellite before they deploy their missiles, you may see their missiles added to the downpour. An existing missile may also turn into an MIRV.

Smart Bomb : Smart enough to avoid most explosion clouds from your ABMs. Your ABM must explode next to one in order to destroy it. You can also squeen it between two explosions to destroy it. First appears in Wave 5.

'LOW' Warning : As soon as there are only 3 ABMs left in a missile base, the game displays the word 'LOW' underneath that base, and a warning signal sounds. Heed the warning.

- TECHNICAL -

Missile Command was available in four different cabinet models: upright, cabaret, cocktail, and cockpit. The cockpit model only supports 1 player, while all others support up to 2 players.

After every two attack waves, the color scheme changes. There are ten different color schemes in all. After Waves 19 and 20, the game returns to the first color scheme. Notice that the sky remains black for the first four color schemes, and starts changing its color with the fifth scheme.

Game ID : 035820-035825

Main CPU : M6502 (@ 1.25 Mhz)

Sound Chips : POKEY (@ 1.25 Mhz)

(Cockpit model)

Players : 1

(Upright, Cabaret, and Cocktail models)

Players : 2

Control : Trackball ('TARGET CONTROL' for moving and aiming the targeting crosshair)

On the Upright and Cockpit models, the trackball is 4.5 in. (11.43 cm.) in diameter

Buttons : 3 ('LAUNCH CONTROL') - for firing the ABMs from each base

= > [A] (leftmost button) - fires ABMs from Alpha Base

= > [B] (middle button) - fires ABMs from Delta Base

= > [C] (rightmost button) - fires ABMs from Omega Base

- TRIVIA -

Released in June 1980.

Licensed to Sega & Taito for the Japanese market.

Missile Command was an immensely popular arcade game that combined great game play with a rather chilling message about the dangers of war. Approximately 20000 units were produced.

Originally called 'Armaggedon', Missile Command was designed at a time that the United States and Russia were locked in a fierce 'cold war'. Missile Command was originally going to have a large status panel as part of its marquee which indicated the status of the bases and cities but it was eliminated when the designers learned that players lost track of on-screen gameplay when they looked up at the panel. There is a picture of a prototype cabinet with the status panel on page 60 of the book 'High Score : The Illustrated History of Electronics Games, 2nd Edition'.

* The Creation of Missile Command : The idea for Missile Command began with a magazine story about satellites that captured the attention of Atari's president, who passed the clipping to Lyle Rains. Rains asked Dave Theurer to lead the effort in creating the classic, action-packed arcade game.

* Remembrances from the Video Game Masters : Recalling the birth of Missile Command, Dave Theurer said : "The request was for a game where there are missiles attacking the California coast and the player is defending the coast. They said, take it from here and write up a game proposal. In the first proposal it was the California coast."

Part of creating a great game is knowing what to strip away. Some of the first baggage the developers dropped was geographic identifications because of the frightful scenario of the game. And then they stripped away more.

Dave Theurer : "The original suggestion was for there to be a scanning radar, but I immediately said, no way! It would be just too hard for the player because he wouldn't be able to see what was going on. We chucked that idea. And when we first developed the game, we added railroads to transport missiles from the cities to the missile bases. That got to be too complicated and people got confused... if you get too complicated, people won't play. We also had submarines for a while but that didn't work out so we ripped them out, too."

The smart bombs presented the most difficult challenge in writing the code for Missile Command.

Dave Theurer : "These little diamond-shape guys can evade your explosions. The only way you can kill them is if the explosion starts out right on top of them. Programming that was the hardest part. They had to be intelligent because the little guy had to look around on the screen to see what he had to avoid and he had to figure out the best path to go around what there was to avoid. Of course, if I made it too smart, then the player couldn't kill it and they'd be guaranteed instant death. So it had to be a fine line between smarter than the dumb missiles, yet not totally unkillable."

Nerves of steel is the way Rich Adam one of the Missile Command team members described his coworker : "Dave Theurer was extremely detail oriented, very thorough, very disciplined. He had nerves of steel, would never get rattled, and worked tirelessly. You need nerves of steel because if your code doesn't work it's your fault, something inside that code is not correct. There's really nowhere to hide. The real Achilles' heel with a lot of software people, I believe, is that they spin their wheels and they go through this denial phase : 'It can't be my code! How could anything possibly be wrong with it? My code is so straightforward!' Well, it's so straightforward you might not have thought of a nuance. So, that's why it takes nerves of steel, I think. The work requires sort of a cold, methodical approach to the software."

* Popular from the Start : Even before it shipped, Missile Command had intense fans.

Speaking of the play, the game got just within the labs of Atari. Ed Rotberg said : "There were guys there that would literally have to worship that game for hours at a time. Their hands were sweating, and it was a definite adrenaline rush."

Describing some of the dedicated players at Atari, Dave Theurer said : "We were in the same building as the consumer division and there were a couple of guys from that division who would come down and spend all day playing Missile Command. I don't know what they did upstairs, but they would spend the entire day playing the game."

* The Great 25-Cent Escape : The escape from reality could sometimes have frightful consequences. The horrifying subject matter of Missile Command had an impact on the developers.

Dave Theurer : "It was pretty scary. During the project and for 6 months after the project, I'd wake up in a cold sweat because I'd have these dreams where I'd see the missile streak coming in and I'd see the impact. I would be up on top of a mountain and I'd see the missiles coming in, and I'd know it would be about 30 seconds until the blast hit and fried me to a crisp."

Steve Calfee : "Everybody I know who really got into the game had nightmares about nuclear war."

The game was nearly shipped with a name that carried the message of the end of the world... Armageddon.

Steve Calfee : "We had this big thing about the name of the game. From the beginning, it was called Armageddon. The management, themselves, didn't know what the word meant and they thought none of the kids would. Then we went through this big thing of naming it. Engineering loved the name Armageddon, and we always wanted to call it that. From the very top came the message, 'We can't use that name, nobody'll know what it means, and nobody can spell it.'"

Placing the game in the context of the previous decade, Ed Rotberg said : "The thing about Missile Command is that the world was not nearly as stable politically as it is now. There is a little bit of a spooky message in that whole game when you have that final cloud at the end."

Victor Ali holds the official record for this game on 'Marathon' settings with 80364995 points.

Roy Shildt holds the official record for this game on 'Tournament' settings with 1695265 points.

Hacks of this game are known as "Super Missile Attack" and "Missile Combat".

A Missile Command unit appears in the 1982 movie 'Fast Times at Ridgemont High', in the 1991 movie 'Terminator 2 - Judgment Day' and in the 1995 movie 'Species'.

A Missile Command upright cabinet appears in the Judas Priest music video 'Freewheel Burning'. The game's THE END screen appears at the end of the video.

In 1982, a multi-player sequel was planned but never released. This game would have have been identical to the first except with twice as many cities and batteries and the players cooperating to save each other cities from the onslaught.

In 1982, Atari released a set of 12 collector pins including : "Missile Command", "Battle Zone", "Tempest", "Asteroids Deluxe", "Space Duel", "Centipede", "Gravitar", "Dig Dug", "Kangaroo", "Xevious", "Millipede" and "Food Fight".

- SCORING -

Points are awarded for destroying enemy missiles, ships and planes :

Missile : 25 points

Killer Satellite : 100 points

Bomber : 100 points

Smart Bomb : 125 points

Bonus points are awarded at the end of each missile wave for any cities and missiles remaining :

Unused missiles : 5 points each

Saved Cities : 100 points each

A scoring multiplier based on the missile wave being played is displayed at the start of each wave :

Waves 1 and 2 have 1x scoring.

Waves 3 and 4 have 2x scoring.

Waves 5 and 6 have 3x scoring.

Waves 7 and 8 have 4x scoring.

Waves 9 and 10 have 5x scoring.

Waves 11 and above have 6x scoring.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Anticipate. Place the crosshair ahead of enemy missiles so the explosion cloud expands toward the enemy's shots. If the leading edge of an enemy's missile touches any part of the explosion cloud, it is destroyed.

* A well-placed ABM can destroy 2 or more enemy missiles converging into the same explosion cloud.

* Aim just in front of missiles, satellites, and bombers, and let them travel into your explosion clouds. As soon as you've launced an ABM and marked the target for destination, move the crosshair to another target. Don't wait for the explosion.

* Hit bombers and killer satellites before they can drop attack missiles. Also, the sooner you destroy them, the sooner they'll reappear and the more points you can score. You may want to launch "insurance" ABM's at the left and right sides of the screen even before a bomber or killer satellite appears, in the chance that one will travel into the explosion cloud.

* A sound tactic used by many expert players is the spread. Fire a sweeping barrage of ABMs across the screen just below the attack missiles at the start of a wave, creating a solid line of explosion clouds to trap and destory as many of the first shots fired by the enemy as possible. If possible, create the spread in the path of a bomber or killer satellite.

* When creating a spread, fire all your ABMs the same base. Once all 10 ABMs are launched (or the base has been destroyed by the enemy), you no longer need to worry about defending it.

* When creating a spread, don't use the Delta Base. It is in a strategic position and its missiles fly faster than ABMs from the side bases. Save the Delta Base's ABMs for more precise shots.

* Destroy attack missiles while they are high on the screen. You don't want them to turn into MIRVs. If you notice that a missile has become an MIRV, try to destroy as many of the split missiles with a single explosion cloud as possible.

* Hit targets before they cross the radar line. The radar line is an invisible line marking the crosshair's lower limit. Since you can't position the crosshair below this line, any attack missile that crosses it is beyond range of your ABMs.

* There are usually two main attack waves per stage. Just when it looks like things have calmed down, another assault commences. Repeating the strategy above is a good idea.

* Smart bombs are usually fooled by a couple of quick ABMs being fired on opposite sides of the bomb, but overlapping. Then the smart bomb cannot escape.

* Don't let smart bombs distract you. Sometimes you can try so hard to hit smart bombs you forget to defend your planet. Remember that a smart bomb can only hit one target.

* Don't defend depleted missile bases or destroyed cities. Concentrate your efforts defending cities and missile bases that still show signs of life. If all your cities are destroyed or you are on the verge of earning a bonus city, then it is good strategy to go for the high-score targets like smart bombs, even if they are heading for dirt.

* As waves become more difficult, you may be forced to sacrifice some cities. Choose the left or the right, and give up the cities on the other side. When waves become really tough, you may want to defend only one city and go for as many high score targets as possible.

- SERIES -

1. Missile Command (1980)

2. Missile Command 3D (1995, Atari Jaguar)

- STAFF -

From hiscore table : Dave Theurer (DFT), (DLS), Steve Calfee (SRC), Rich Adam (RDA), (MJP), (JED), (DEW), (GJL)

- PORTS -

* Consoles :

Atari 2600 (1981)

Atari 5200 (1982)

Emerson Arcadia (1982, "Missile War")

Atari XEGS

DynaVision [BR] (198?, Missile Command)

Nintendo Game Boy (1991)

Sega Master System (1992, "Arcade Smash Hits")

Atari Lynx (1994)

Nintendo Game Boy (1995, "Asteroids / Missile Command")

Sega Game Gear (1996, "Arcade Classics")

Sega Mega Drive (1996, "Arcade Classics")

Sony PlayStation (1996, "Arcade's Greatest Hits - The Atari Collection 1")

Nintendo Super Famicom (1997, "Arcade's Greatest Hits - The Atari Collection 1")

Sega Saturn (1997, "Arcade's Greatest Hits - The Atari Collection 1")

Nintendo Game Boy Colors (1999)

Sony PlayStation (1999) : features updated graphics and 'Classic' and 'Ultimate' game variations.

Sony PlayStation (2001, "Atari Anniversary Edition Redux")

Sega Dreamcast (2001, "Atari Anniversary Edition")

Nintendo Game Boy Advance (2002, "Atari Anniversary Advance")

Sony PlayStation 2 (2004, "Atari Anthology") : appears in both arcade and Atari 2600 forms.

Microsoft XBOX (2004, "Atari Anthology") : appears in both arcade and Atari 2600 forms.

Nintendo DS (2005, "Retro Atari Classics")

Microsoft XBOX 360 (2007, "Xbox live arcade")

* Computers :

Atari 800 (1981)

Tandy Color Computer (1981, "Polaris")

Tandy Color Computer (1982, "Defense")

Tandy Color Computer (1982, "Missile Attack")

Commodore C64 (1983)

ZX-Spectrum (1983, "Missile Defence" - Anirog Software)

Acorn Electron (1983, "Missile Control" - Gemini)

BBC B (1983, "Missile Control" - Gemini)

ZX-Spectrum (1983, "Missile Command" - Anirog Software)

VTech Laser-VZ ("Missile Attack")

BBC B ("Missile Strike" - Superior)

Atari ST (1986)

X68000 (1988)

PC [MS Windows, 3.5''] (1993, "Microsoft Arcade")

PC [MS Windows 95] (1995, "Patriot Command", part of "Windows Arcade Pack")

PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (1999) : features updated graphics and 'Classic' and 'Ultimate' game variations. This port was re-released in 2002 as part of "Atari Revival".

PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (1999, "Atari Arcade hits 1")

PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (2001, "Atari Anniversary Edition")

PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (2003, "Atari - 80 Classic Games in One!")

* Others :

Atari 10 in 1 TV Game (2002 - Jakk's Pacific)

Mobile phone [Motorola T720] (2002)

Nokia N-Gage (2005, "Atari Masterpieces Volume 1")

Atari Flashback 2 (2005)

Apple Store (2011, "Atari Greatest Hits")

Google Play (2011, "Atari Greatest Hits")

- SOURCES -

Game's rom.

Machine's picture.

Missile Command Help file from Microsoft Arcade.

Arcade Retro Lounge; //tips.retrogames.com/

MAME Info:

0.143u1 [Joe Barbara]

0.26 [Ray Giarratana]

Artwork available

WIP:

- 0.146: Couriersud improved sound emulation for POKEY chip. Changed audio emulation to emulate borrow 3 clock delay and proper channel reset. New frequency only becomes effective after the counter hits 0. Emulation also treats counters as 8 bit counters which are linked now instead of monolytic 16 bit counters. Fixed high pass filters for POKEY. Added POKEYN device based on modern device. Fixed random lfsr generation. Consolidated polynom code. Removed legacy left overs from pokey code. Added a internal pokey_channel class. This fixed imperfect sound play in Missile Command for UFO and bomber attack. Convert all remaining drivers to use the modern pokey device.

- 0.145u7: hap changed manufacturer of clone Super Missile Attack to 'Atari / General Computer Corporation'.

- 0.143u4: f205v and robotype added clone Missile Combat (Sidam bootleg), not working.

- 0.143u1: Joe Barbara added Missile Command (rev 3). Changed 'Missile Command (set 1)' to clone '(rev 2)' and clones '(set 2)' to '(rev 1)' and 'Super Missile Attack (for set 2)' to '(for rev 1)'. Renamed (missile2) to (missile1) and (missile) to (missile2).

- 0.140u3: Kevin Eshbach corrected Missile Command and clones ROM locations and added proms ($0, 100) to clone Super Missile Attack (for set 2).

- 17th December 2010: Smitdogg - Kevin Eshbach dumped the proms from Super Missile Attack.

- 0.133u1: Renamed (sprmatkd) to (suprmatkd).

- 0.128u4: Derived clocks from crystals in Missile Command [Luigi30].

- 9th July 2008: Mr. Do - Added cocktail artwork to Missile Command, vectored by Zorg.

- 0.116u3: David Haywood added clones Missile Combat (Videotron bootleg, set 1) and (Videotron bootleg, set 2).

- 13th June 2007: f205v dumped Missile Combat (Videotron bootleg, set 1). PCB is marked: "VIDEOTRON BOLOGNA 002".

- 0.115u1: Aaron Giles fixed corrupt graphics in Missile Command.

- 21st January 2007: Mr. Do - Thanks to the loan by Vintage Arcade Superstore and vectorization by Jcroach, we finally have a completely accurate Missile Command bezel. I put two views in this one: Actual arcade and a second to maximize the artwork to the screen.

- 20th August 2006: Mr. Do - Fixed the font in Missile Command bezel.

- 15th August 2006: Mr. Do - I re-did Missile Command from scratch (the bezel is text only).

- 0.107: Rewrote Missile Command driver from schematics [Aaron Giles]: CPU speed now correct (slows down for lower 32 scanlines), proper frame rate and IRQ signal timing, service mode works on some sets, fails on others due to 6502 bug, accurate bitmap mapping and cycle counts for 3-bit accesses and using bitmap access PROM for bit mode writes. Changed M6502 CPU1 clock speed to 1250000 Hz and VSync to 61.035156 Hz. Added 'Service Mode' dipswitch.

- 0.104u3: Aaron Giles fixed save state support in Missile Command.

- 15th January 2006: f205v dumped Missile Combat (Videotron bootleg, set 2).

- 0.101u4: Aaron Giles fixed Missile Command stays at black screen.

- 0.101u3: Buddabing added preliminary save state support to Missile Command.

- 0.92u1: Mowerman and Dave Widel added clone 'Super Missile Attack (for set 2)'. Changed description of clone 'Super Missile Attack' to 'Super Missile Attack (not encrypted)'. Renamed (suprmatk) to (sprmatkd).

- 0.92: Highwayman added prom ($0 - sync).

- 0.34b3: Nicola Salmoria added clone Missile Command (set 2). Changed parent description to 'Missile Command (set 1)'.

- 0.31: Mike Balfou added clone Super Missile Attack (Atari + Gencomp 1981).

- 0.30: Fixes to Missile Command [Eric Anschuetz].

- 0.29: Marco Cassili fixed dipswitches in Missile Command.

- 0.27: Ray Giarratana included trackball support to Missile Command.

- 0.26: Ray Giarratana added support for Missile Command (Atari 1980). Game is playable with accurate colors and sound. Mirko Buffoni didn't include modifications for trackball for now. The code needs to be cleaned a bit, but the game is still playable. Control: A,S,D = Left, Central, Right shot.

- 18th December 1992: Dumped Missile Command (set 1).

Other Emulators:

* Retrocade

Recommended Games (Defence):

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Pleiads

Satan's Hollow

Space Tactics

War of the Worlds

Liberator

Orbitron

Tactician

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Senjyo

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D-Con

Alligator Hunt

Romset: 13 kb / 7 files / 10.3 zip

MAME XML Output:

<description>Missile Command (rev 3)</description>

<manufacturer>Atari</manufacturer>