Is Missile Command on Steam?

No. Missile Command is not distributed on Steam, so there is no Steam Charts or SteamDB player count for it. Its live popularity is tracked here via Twitch viewership instead.

When did Missile Command release?

Missile Command was first released on July 1, 1980.

Missile Command

Jul 1, 1980ShooterArcadeArcadeCommodore C64/128/MAXAtari ST/STEAtari 2600Atari 8-bit

Missile Command — frequently asked questions

Is Missile Command on Steam?: No. Missile Command is not distributed on Steam, so there is no Steam Charts or SteamDB player count for it. Its live popularity is tracked here via Twitch viewership instead.
What platforms is Missile Command on?: Missile Command is available on Arcade, Commodore C64/128/MAX, Atari ST/STE, Atari 2600, Atari 8-bit, Atari 5200, Atari ST, Game Boy, Game Boy Color.
When did Missile Command release?: Missile Command was first released on July 1, 1980.

About Missile Command

As a regional commander of three anti-missile batteries, the player must defend six cities in their zone from being destroyed. The player's six cities are being attacked by an endless hail of ballistic missiles, some of them even splitting like multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRVs). New weapons are introduced in later levels: smart bombs that can evade a less than perfectly targeted missile, and bomber planes and satellites that fly across the screen and launch missiles of their own.

Summary via IGDB.

Missile Command on Wikipedia

Missile Command is a 1980 shoot 'em up video game developed and published by Atari, Inc. for arcades. It was released by Taito and Sega in Japan. The game was designed by Dave Theurer, who would also design Tempest for Atari the following year. The player uses a trackball to defend six cities from intercontinental ballistic missiles by launching anti-ballistic missiles from three bases.

Source: Wikipedia (text under CC BY-SA 4.0).

Game details

Platforms: Arcade, Commodore C64/128/MAX, Atari ST/STE, Atari 2600, Atari 8-bit, Atari 5200, Atari ST, Game Boy, Game Boy Color
Developer: Atari
Publisher: Sega
Game modes: Single player, Multiplayer
Themes: Action, Science fiction, Warfare

Details via IGDB.

Reception

IGDB rating

74/100

from 51 ratings

Every version compared

Prices, contemporary reception and the studio credited for each release

Platform	Year	Loose	Complete	Sealed	Built by
Atari 2600	1981	$7	$15	$36	Atari (designed by Rob Fulop)

Also released on: Arcade · Commodore C64/128/MAX · Atari ST/STE · Atari 8-bit · Atari 5200 · Atari ST · Game Boy · Game Boy Color. We haven’t priced or authenticated those versions yet.

Collector value & authenticity

Atari 2600 · PriceCharting sold data · Verified 2026-10-06

Loose

Complete

$15

Sealed

$36

Label variants

Release	Loose	Complete	Sealed
Tele-Games	$3	$16	—
50th Anniversary Edition	—	$167	—

Release record

Territory	Label	Catalog #	Rarity
North America Atari	Picture - Upper Case end label	CX2638	Common
North America Sears	Picture	49-75166	Rare
North America Sears	Text	49-75166	Common+
North America Unknown	Beagle Brothers	—	—
Asia Atari	—	—	—

Also released in South America by Cosmovision, Dynacom, Dactar, Polyvox.

Source: Catalog numbers, label types, rarity, controllers and player counts: AtariAge 2600 software database

Region: NA+EU
Released: 1981
Controller: Atari Joystick
Players: 1 - 2
Authenticity: Low

On Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration since Nov 11, 2022 — the cartridge is now a collectibleLow counterfeit risk

Atari 2600 prices, all games & how to spot a fake

Rob Fulop's 2600 Missile Command, a well-known home conversion that is cheap and on Atari 50.

Missile Command was Dave Theurer's 1980 Atari arcade game, in which you use a trackball to defend six cities from intercontinental ballistic missiles. It was a widespread critical and commercial success.

Atari's home ports began with the 2600 conversion by Rob Fulop in 1981. It is a common cartridge, and it is on Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration.

How it was made

Converted to the 2600 by Rob Fulop and released by Atari in April 1981. Sears also sold it.

What the press said at the time

“represents the most successful conversion of a commercial arcade supergame to the more limited confines of a home programmable system. … Altogether, it's a great package— with an even greater game inside.”
— Electronic Games, December 1981

“Atari's Missile Command is a true home-video classic and perhaps the ultimate test of your bottom-shooter de- fense mechanisms.”
— JoyStik, December 1982

“Its vast library of software includes Asteroids, Space Invaders, Defender, Missile Command (which, incidentally, is one of the better translations) and Pac- Man, which, on the VCS, is just awful.”
— Video Games Player, Fall 1982

“This cartridge gets many votes as the best coin-op translation ever done for the VCS.”
— VIDEO (Arcade Alley), November 1982

Cartridge & preservation record

Program size 4 KB, measured from the preserved dump.

Catalogue number as recorded for the physical release.

How the Atari 2600 version differs

The 2600 manual recasts the game as a war between two planets, Zardon (the player) and Krytol, a story the arcade original never mentions.

The 2600 cartridge hides an Easter egg: on level thirteen, a player who runs out of missiles without scoring sees the right-hand city turn into "RF", the initials of programmer Rob Fulop.

Also on other platforms

Arcade · Atari 8-bit · Atari 5200 · Atari ST · Game Boy · Game Boy Color

Atari 2600	Atari (designed by Rob Fulop)
Arcade	Atari, Inc.
Game Boy	Accolade (publisher)
Game Boy Color	Hasbro Interactive

Atari 5200. The 5200 version, released in 1982, is identical to the 1981 Atari 8-bit computer version, which was later built into the XEGS.
Game Boy. Accolade's 1992 Game Boy version was later reissued by Nintendo in a double pack with Asteroids.

Worth knowing

The vanishing initials. Atari Age revealed in July/August 1982 that "The MISSILE COMMAND programmer 'signed' the cartridge by hiding his initials", shown as "RF" on game 13, and that "the initials were removed from MISSILE COMMAND cartridges manufactured more recently."
1982 Arkie Award. Missile Command won Best Solitaire Game in the 1982 Arkie Awards and took an honorable mention for Videogame of the Year.

Before you buy

Low risk for the original carts. Three listings are priced: the standard Atari cart, a Tele-Games cart from Sears, and a 50th Anniversary Edition. Loose 1981 carts are cheap. The 50th Anniversary Edition is a modern official Atari cartridge, not a 1981 release, and it is priced far above the originals as a complete copy. Make sure a listing describes which one it is, and do not pay vintage prices for a modern reissue or the reverse.