Missile Command "Story"

[AtariLeaf]

Just reading through some of the game manuals and was reading the one for Missile Command and noticed this bizarre back story:

 

Aliens from the planet of Krytol have begun an attack on the

planet Zardon. The Krytolians are warriors out to destroy and

seize the planet of Zardon. Zardon is the last of the peaceful

planets. The Zardonians are skillful and hardworking people.

Their cities are built-up and rich in resources. It is truly a

planet void of crime and violence.

 

Zardon has built a powerful defense system. Several

antiballistic missile bases have been established within the

cities of Zardon. The Zardonians are ready for this attack,

and are prepared to fight to save their cities.

 

As base commander it is your responsibility to protect and

defend six cities on the planet of Zardon. The Krytolians have

begun firing interplanetary ballistic missiles. They are

aiming at your cities and missile bases. Your only defense is

to fire back with antiballistic missiles. But watch out, the

Krytolians are sly, they also have cruise missiles. Cruise

missiles look like satellites, but they are just as deadly as

the interplanetary ballistic missiles.

 

Use your antiballistic missiles (ABMs) to stop the enemy

before your happy and harmonious planet is destroyed.

 

What's with this bizarre story about aliens? The original game was meant

to take place on earth with the cities representing real US cities. Anyone know why it was changed for the 2600?

[Rex Dart]

Man, Atari's corporate policy in regard to game backstories seems to have been "who gives a ****, just shoot it".

 

Maybe they were hoping to make a kid's cartoon out of it?

[Godzilla]

guess atari didn't think nuclear winter was a family friendly scenario...

[raskar42]

coke is a hell of a drug

 

also so they can sell more of these:

[jaybird3rd]

also so they can sell more of these:

I have a version of that album with a different cover, but I'm sure it's the same recording (I scanned it and ripped it to MP3 some time ago; see my post below). Thirty minutes of cheesy 80s fun.

 

Atari might have changed the backstory for the 2600 version out of fear that, during the Cold War period, a video game about a missile attack on US cities would be too provocative. Changing the setting to an imaginary alien planet was an easy way of keeping the gameplay intact while making it less controversial.

[+Psionic]

guess atari didn't think nuclear winter was a family friendly scenario...

coke is a hell of a drug

Both of these seem equally plausible.

[Krytol]

Did someone say my name?

[jaybird3rd]

Did someone say my name?

Heh ... they also said Zardon, which always makes me think of that weird Sean Connery movie.

[raskar42]

I scanned it and ripped it to MP3 some time ago

 

 

i would like to hear that...

[Rex Dart]

Me too...

[diogoandrei]

coke is a hell of a drug

 

also so they can sell more of these:

 

 

also so they can sell more of these:

I have a version of that album with a different cover, but I'm sure it's the same recording (I scanned it and ripped it to MP3 some time ago). Thirty minutes of cheesy 80s fun.

 

 

 

Atari might have changed the backstory for the 2600 version out of fear that, during the Cold War period, a video game about a missile attack on US cities would be too provocative. Changing the setting to an imaginary alien planet was an easy way of keeping the gameplay intact while making it less controversial.

 

Wow, never saw those records before. How do they sound?

[jaybird3rd]

I uploaded the Missile Command album to my website for those who would like to give it a listen. Here is a direct link (the file size is about 30 megabytes). I tried to filter out most of the LP noise when I transferred it, but you might still hear an occasional "pop" here and there.

 

Also, here is my full-sized scan of the front cover, which is a larger and more detailed version of the artwork from the 2600 game. As I recall, there isn't much on the back cover except for credits and some descriptive text, which I included in the MP3 metadata.

 

[diogoandrei]

I uploaded the Missile Command album to my website for those who would like to give it a listen. Here is a direct link. I tried to filter out most of the LP noise when I transferred it, but you might still hear an occasional "pop" here and there.

 

Also, here is my full-sized scan of the front cover, which uses the same artwork as the 2600 game:

 

 

"Our weapons are by design and intention only defensive. Please, one at a time".

 

Sweet cheesy. Thanks for that!

 

...by the way, the soundtrack is quite funny

Edited January 19, 2011 by diogoandrei

[raskar42]

imagining theme song -

 

"Missile Command!" (sung to pokemon theme)

[tz101]

Just a guess:

 

Could Atari have changed the back story behind Missile Command in a marketing attempt to compete with Imagic Atlantis? I mean, Atlantis may have been killing Missile Command in cart sales, so they decided to make the story line more "exciting" and science fiction sounding.

[toptenmaterial]

Did someone say my name?

Heh ... they also said Zardon, which always makes me think of that weird Sean Connery movie.

 

that one that's like "on jupiter's moon, he's the only law!". that's right up there with Jaws: The Revenge "this time, it's personal!". Oh boy...

 

on a more personal note, MC is probibly my favorite 2600 game.

Edited January 20, 2011 by toptenmaterial

[zylon]

I think it'd sound better done to Armored Saint: At My Command.

[jaybird3rd]

Could Atari have changed the back story behind Missile Command in a marketing attempt to compete with Imagic Atlantis?

No, because Atlantis was released about a year later. 2600 Missile Command was a huge success for Atari, but they failed to follow up with any sort of reward for Rob Fulop besides the infamous "turkey certificate", and that was what prompted Fulop to get together with Dennis Koble and Bill Grubb (among others) to start Imagic. Demon Attack, Star Voyager, and Trick Shot were Imagic's first three games, and Atlantis came out after those.

[A.J. Franzman]

also so they can sell more of these:

I have a version of that album with a different cover, but I'm sure it's the same recording (I scanned it and ripped it to MP3 some time ago; see my post below). Thirty minutes of cheesy 80s fun.

Raskar42's version in post #4 is not an LP, it's a "storybook" read-along record, probably playing at 45 RPM. It's definitely a 7 inch record with large spindle hole, anyway. Didn't you ever have any of those as a kid? I can remember having at least three: Robinson Crusoe, Moby Dick, and Star Wars. I wish I still had that last one! I think they came in several styles, as I'm fairly sure the classic novel ones I had were on LPs and the books had more pages than the Star Wars one. Star Wars might have been on an EP (7 inch diameter but usually with small hole and running at 33 RPM for up to about double the playing time of a 45).

Edited January 20, 2011 by A.J. Franzman

[jaybird3rd]

Raskar42's version in post #4 is not an LP, it's a "storybook" read-along record, probably playing at 45 RPM. It's definitely a 7 inch record with large spindle hole, anyway. Didn't you ever have any of those as a kid? I can remember having at least three: Robinson Crusoe, Moby Dick, and Star Wars. I wish I still had that last one! I think they came in several styles, as I'm fairly sure the classic novel ones I had were on LPs and had more pages than the Star Wars one. Star Wars might have been on an EP (7 inch diameter but usually with small hole and running at 33 RPM for about double the playing time as a 45).

You're right; I should have looked at that picture more closely. I certainly had several of those read-along "storybook albums" when I was a kid, and I remember spending a lot of time with them: I think I had a Goonies one, an Indiana Jones one, a Hobbit one (based on the Rankin-Bass animated movie), along with several others that I'm forgetting right now. They were usually 7" LP discs that came in the back of a booklet, which you would read while the record was playing: "when you hear the chimes ring like this ... turn the page." Fun stuff. I also had several dramatizations of classic novels which were also published by Kid Stuff (the publisher of the Missile Command album I linked to); I think they even used much of the same cast.

 

From what I've read on Wikipedia, more modern equivalents have been made more recently (books with CDs in them, for example), but they don't seem to be as popular as they used to be. Perhaps there isn't as much of a market for them anymore, now that we have DVDs and other media available on demand, which is a shame. I also miss narrated "audio books" derived from popular movies, such as The Story of Star Wars (another one I spent a lot of time with years ago).

 

I'd be curious to hear the record in raskar42's picture, now that I know it's different from mine.

[diogoandrei]

I think it'd sound better done to Armored Saint: At My Command.

 

You mean the band?

[raskar42]

Raskar42's version in post #4 is not an LP, it's a "storybook" read-along record, probably playing at 45 RPM. It's definitely a 7 inch record with large spindle hole, anyway. Didn't you ever have any of those as a kid? I can remember having at least three: Robinson Crusoe, Moby Dick, and Star Wars. I wish I still had that last one! I think they came in several styles, as I'm fairly sure the classic novel ones I had were on LPs and had more pages than the Star Wars one. Star Wars might have been on an EP (7 inch diameter but usually with small hole and running at 33 RPM for about double the playing time as a 45).

You're right; I should have looked at that picture more closely. I certainly had several of those read-along "storybook albums" when I was a kid, and I remember spending a lot of time with them: I think I had a Goonies one, an Indiana Jones one, a Hobbit one (based on the Rankin-Bass animated movie), along with several others that I'm forgetting right now. They were usually 7" LP discs that came in the back of a booklet, which you would read while the record was playing: "when you hear the chimes ring like this ... turn the page." Fun stuff. I also had several dramatizations of classic novels which were also published by Kid Stuff (the publisher of the Missile Command album I linked to); I think they even used much of the same cast.

 

From what I've read on Wikipedia, more modern equivalents have been made more recently (books with CDs in them, for example), but they don't seem to be as popular as they used to be. Perhaps there isn't as much of a market for them anymore, now that we have DVDs and other media available on demand, which is a shame. I also miss narrated "audio books" derived from popular movies, such as The Story of Star Wars (another one I spent a lot of time with years ago).

 

I'd be curious to hear the record in raskar42's picture, now that I know it's different from mine.

 

 

I actually have a small collection of 33rpm read along books - i'll get around to posting them someday (i'm missing 2 of the 9 starwars read along books and currently trying to complete my collection of gobots readalong books.)

 

I do not have any of the atari books yet (picture was from google).

 

i know they made missle command, asteroids and star raiders into read along books. I'm not sure about any others.

Edited January 20, 2011 by raskar42

[tz101]

Could Atari have changed the back story behind Missile Command in a marketing attempt to compete with Imagic Atlantis?

No, because Atlantis was released about a year later. 2600 Missile Command was a huge success for Atari, but they failed to follow up with any sort of reward for Rob Fulop besides the infamous "turkey certificate", and that was what prompted Fulop to get together with Dennis Koble and Bill Grubb (among others) to start Imagic. Demon Attack, Star Voyager, and Trick Shot were Imagic's first three games, and Atlantis came out after those.

 

Still doesn't mean that Atari could not have changed their "story" at a later time, you know like after Atlantis came on the scene.

[SoulBlazer]

I've read in several places that the fictional story was made due to the Cold War. The original plan was for a simulated missle attack on American ciites, with one base on the Atlantic and another on the Pacific with the third one in the center. There were concerns though that a game that struck that 'close to home' like that would hurt sales, cause a panic, and give a lot of bad negative media attention. This was in the early 80's, mind you, when the Cold War was heating up again and Regan was in office. Even the creator of the game said he woke up several times from nightmares of a nuclear attack when programing the game. So the back story was changed to a more generic fictional sci-fi one.

[jaybird3rd]

Still doesn't mean that Atari could not have changed their "story" at a later time, you know like after Atlantis came on the scene.

The revised story was also used in the original manual for 2600 Missile Command, which has a 1981 copyright date and would have had to have been written months before the game came out. Nothing was changed after the fact.