Missile Commander: A Journey to the Top of an Arcade Classic

by Tony Temple

One player. Three fire buttons. One Trak-Ball. A world that needs saving - one coin at a time.Missile Commander is a memoir of one player's forty-year journey with Atari's legendary arcade title, Missile Command, which takes him from a run-down café as a teenager weighed down with fears of nuclear Armageddon, to finally being crowned the best player in the world by Guinness World Records. Along the way, he encounters game-changing bugs, paranoid rivals, private detectives, endless controversy and finally, a meeting with the very man who created the game. Read the story of how this iconic game was developed, from initial concept to its domination of the arcades in the early 80s, through the eyes of the team at Atari who made it happen. Released on the fortieth anniversary of the game's release, Missile Commander is filled with many unseen pictures and previously unreleased detail about this arcade classic. This was a game that would haunt its programmer and the people who played it, setting the scene for what is now a multi-billion-dollar industry.Missile A Journey to the Top of an Arcade Classic is a detailed celebration of one of Atari's best known video games.

278 pages, Paperback

Published March 7, 2021

Reviews

[James Alston · Rating 5 out of 5]

A real page turner! Missile Command was my favourite arcade game growing up. I never knew its history until reading this book. It's a terrific read. You can tell a lot of research and conversations with "those who were there" (including Missile Command's creator) went into writing this book. The development of Missile Command makes for very interesting reading.

The second half of the book is about the history of World records on Missile Command, along with Tony's own jourmey to the top of the leader board. This section is so hard to put down, thanks to the colourful characters involved and the sometimes crazy events that occurred.

Some video games history books can be rather dry in places. This book, on the other hand, is informative and entertaining from start to finish, even when going into the intracies of such things as DIP switch settings! ;) Fantastic book.

[Matt Bryant · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Personal, Thoughtful Memoir of the 80's Coin-Op Craze

Temple gives us a front row seat in the way back machine, setting the destination to early 80's Great Britain. Coin-ops are king, and high scores are teenage status symbols. His love for gaming becomes a lifelong romance, and leads to a world record or two on Atari's raster blasting blockbuster, Missile Command.

A taut balance of gaming history and autobiography, this is a great read to reminisce on the era. It's also a great firsthand account of the world before internet-connected super consoles, when a quarter (or 10p) bought a window into a whole different world.

[Eric Anschuetz · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a pretty decent player of missile command, I was hoping for some technical insight from the world's best player, and this book did not disappoint. It's a perfect mix of history of the game, technical details, anecdotes related to all time high scores, and Tony Temple's personal history with the game. I loved this book!

[Frederic Heath-Renn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly-readable, half-history of the game (with plenty of original research), half-memoir (gratifyingly un 'My Journey'-like).

[Will Cowen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A difficult book to rate. About 70% of the content is a fantastic history of Atari, Missile Command, and the early arcade gaming scene though the author's childhood experiences with the game. The final 30% is shenanigans that sound and feel like a grade-school playground fight with bullies tinged with mental illness (on the part of the antagonist). Loved the history part, but the personal musings and the childish battles in an insular community diminished the book.