Missile Command VR - Software MAME

Atari Jaguar cart. published 29 years ago:

Missile Command 3D © 1995 Atari Corp.

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ORIGINAL
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The colonies are in trouble! Unkown aliens and foreign countries are trying to destroy your cities and take over the world. Your job is to protect your citizens from hostile enemy attacks. Firebreathing dragons, electric eels and menacing motherships will try to stop you. But you've got missiles, lasers and smart bombs to hold off the enemy and keep your cities from becoming alien neighborhoods. Original Missile Command, 3D Missile Command and Virtual Missile Command are all waiting for your help to keep their worlds safe.

The aim of Original Missile Command is to use your three missile bases to protect the six cities from waves of missile attacks. Each base has 10 missiles. Enemy missiles appear at the top of the screen and fall towards the cities at the bottom, leaving a trail as they go. Use the Joypad to position the cross hair in the path of a missile, and press the A, B or C button to launch a missile from the right, middle or left base, respectively. Your missiles take a little time to reach their destination, so aim slightly ahead of the attacking missile. Your missile will explode when it reaches its target, and anything that hits the resulting explosion (except one of your missiles) will explode, causing another explosion. Often a missile will split into several other missiles, each aimed at a different target. Other hazards include enemy planes and satellites, which will fly across the screen and fire missiles at your cities and bases.

If a city is hit during a wave, it is destroyed. If a base is hit it is out of action and all its ammo is lost until the next wave. With each new attack wave, your bases get all their ammo replaced. When all the enemy's missiles in a wave are destroyed, bonus points are awarded depending on how much ammo and how many cities you have left. At the end of a wave, bonus cities are awarded for every 10,000 points. The game is over when all your cities have been destroyed and you have no bonus cities left.

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3D MISSILE COMMAND
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You have led your ship of colonists to a distant solar system to begin life on a new planet. Unfortunately, just as your people completed construction and have begun settling into a daily routine, this new system is invaded by aliens. These aliens, also looking for a place to inhabit, decide that this system is theirs and you and your people need to be exterminated.

With the aliens intent on your destruction, you must lead your colonists in the defense of your new home. Fortunately, your technology is almost as advanced as theirs, and your scientists continue to develop breakthroughs. But even with new weapons becoming available, the alien onslaught continues. Their numbers seem endless, and they are driven to destroy your colony to the last human being.

In 3D Missile Command you must defend your cities and defense bases against aerial bombardment by the alien fleet. To destroy an alien ship or missile, you must position the cross hair in the path of the target and press the A, B or C button to launch a missile from the right, middle or left base. When the missile reaches the targeted space, it, and anything within range, will explode. You can set up chain reactions of explosions and destroy several targets with one defense missile.

Alien attacks happen in waves. At the end of each wave your efforts and damage are evaluated. The bad news is that any city that was hit is destroyed, and any base that has been hit is out of commission. The good news is that for every 10,000 points you get a bonus city to replace cities that have been destroyed. And destroyed bases are regenerated and fully-loaded with ammo at the beginning of each wave. The game is over when all cities have been destroyed and no bonus cities are awarded.

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VIRTUAL MISSILE COMMAND
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The year is 2157. With the invention of the superluminal drive in 2034, the door was opened to interstellar travel, and humankind reached across space to colonize other worlds. One such colony, formed just two years ago, is now under attack from an unknown alien force. These aliens are capable of controlling the gigantic natural creatures of this world and turning them against the colonies. It is your job to protect the three main colonies on this planet - the undersea base, the cloud cities and the orbiting space station - and, hopefully, repel the aliens.

The aim of Virtual Missile Command is to protect your six cities from enemy attacks with the three missile bases surrounding the play area. Each of the player's three bases has two forms of attack: a laser (which is weak but will automatically hit anything in the player's sights), and missiles (which take time to reach the target, but can be exploded early to make enemy attacks hit the explosion). The bases and the cities can each take three hits by enemy missile. The game is over when either the player has no cities or bases left. However, you can repair and replace cities and guns using powerups.

TECHNICAL
Model J9097E

TRIVIA
This game was the only working Jaguar game with V.R. capabilities. It was originally designed for use with the aborted V.R. headset project.

The programmer took six months to write the game, from start to finish. According to him, it takes about half an hour of constant blasting to beat the game.

SCORING
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ORIGINAL
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For each shot left after a wave: 5
Destroying a missile: 25
Destroying a plane: 100
Destroying a satellite: 100
For each city left after a wave: 100
Destroying a smart bomb: 125

The points awarded depend on the score multiplier that multiplies your points as follows:
Wave Nos.1 & 2: 1x
Wave Nos.3 & 4: 2x
Wave Nos.5 & 6: 3x
Wave Nos.7 & 8: 4x
Wave Nos.9 & 10: 5x
Wave Nos.11 onwards: 6x

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3D MISSILE COMMAND
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Same as Missile Command 3D except these adds:
Destroying a bomber: 100
Destroying an asteroid: 100
Destroying a kamikaze: 125
Destroying a robot: 125
Splitting an asteroid: 200

TIPS AND TRICKS
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ORIGINAL
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• Conserve ammo by getting multiple missiles with one shot.
• When things get hectic, try a spread. Simply move the cross hair across the screen, and fire all the missiles from one base. You'll have an impassable curtain of explosions (and a base with little ammo left)!
• The missiles from the middle base are twice as fast as those from the left and right bases, so keep them handy for emergencies.
• Destroy smart bombs by holding them off with an explosion and then targeting them while the explosion keeps them at bay.
• The longer you leave a smart bomb, the lower it gets and the faster your missiles will reach it, making it easier to judge when to fire!
• Look out for the smart bombs on Wave 6 onwards. These will actively avoid explosions, so you need to have a direct hit to destroy them.

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3D MISSILE COMMAND
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• Since you have a limited field of view, be sure to check your radar often.
• Save up your special weapons and use them to help you get out of sticky situations.
• The cascade special is excellent for taking out a group of enemies. The smart bomb will eliminate all enemies on the playfield.
• Learn the strength and weaknesses of each type of defense missile.
• Watch out for the big asteroids - they do twice as much damage as small ones.
• Enemy bombers like to launch missiles just as they get in to range of your cities.

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VIRTUAL MISSILE COMMAND
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• Save your missiles for use against the Bosses; they do more than 10 times the damage of the basic laser. Remember that Bosses can fly through explosions, so you must actually hit the Boss with the missile to damage it.
• Change bases to get better shots at enemies and conserve ammo.
• Before shooting a powerup, make sure that you are in the base that will get the most benefit from it.
• Don't follow an enemy craft around and forget everything else - remember that the missiles are always falling, and that the craft will usually find its way in front of you again!
• Try to save your smart bombs for the stage Bosses, but don't be afraid to use them if things get really hectic (especially on Stage 3!).
• If you shoot a MIRV soon after it splits, the resulting explosion usually takes out all the missiles that came from it (scoring more points).
• Try to get two laser powerups on one base as soon as possible on Stage 3; it makes the SWIRVs much easier to destroy.
• Stage Select:

Stage 1: Pause, 1+9+C+Pause
Stage 2: Pause, 2+9+C+Pause
Stage 3: Pause, 3+9+C+Pause
Ending: Pause, 4+9+C+Pause

STAFF
VIRTUALITY
Producer: Jim Tripp
Programmer: Martin Brownlow
Artists: Scot Jone, Mark Brown
Musician:: Dale Robins
Game Design (Virtual Missile Command): Martin Brownlow, Scot Jones, Mark Brown, Jim Tripp
Additional Software: Terry Rowley, Matthew Wilkinson

ATARI
Producer: John Skruch
Associate Producer: Robert Powers
Game Design (3D Missile Command): Robert Powers
Game Testers: Jennifer Vernon, Nick Katakis, Jason Lane, Lance Lewis, Nicole Tatem
Marketing Project Manager: Kristine Chambers
Creative Services: Greg LaBrec, Trish Ward, Beeline Group Inc.

CONTRIBUTE
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