Missile Command Challenge

To celebrate the end of 2017 and beginning of 2018 we are making this a 2-month challenge. We also hope this gives late entrants enough time to submit entries.

Your challenge is to create a single player Missile Command clone. Create an exact replica or add your own modifications and improvements!

From Wikipedia:

Quote

Missile Command is a 1980 arcade game developed and published by Atari, Inc. and licensed to Sega for European release. It was designed by Dave Theurer, who also designed Atari's vector graphics game Tempest from the same year. The 1981 Atari 2600 port of Missile Command by Rob Fulop sold over 2.5 million copies and became the third most popular cartridge for the system.

Play the original Missile Command on IGN at http://my.ign.com/atari/missile-command.

Game Requirements

• The game must have:
  • Start screen
  • Key to return to the start screen
  • Score system
  • Graphics representative and capturing the spirit of a Missile Command clone
  • Sound effects
• While single player is the goal, a multiplayer mode is also acceptable
• Gameplay mechanics in the spirit of Missile Command - the game does not need to be an exact clone, but it does need to have Missile Command gameplay

Art Requirements

• The game may be in 2D or 3D

Duration

December 1, 2017 to January 31, 2018

Submission

Post your entries on this thread:

• Link to the executable (specify the platform)
• Screenshots: Create a GameDev.net Gallery Album for your Project and upload your screenshots there! Post the link in the thread and your screenshots will be automatically linked and embedded into the post. Same with YouTube or Vimeo trailers.
• A small post-mortem in a GameDev.net Blog, with a link posted in this thread, is encouraged, where you can share what went right, what went wrong, or just share a nifty trick
• Source-code link is encouraged for educational purposes

Award

Developers who complete the challenge in the specified time frame will receive the 2018 New Year Challenge: Missile Command medal, which will be visible in their profiles.

We are working on a new system on GameDev.net where you can submit your entries. It will be made public before this Challenge is complete. Details on how to submit them will be posted here when it is available.

2 hours ago, lilington said:

One question, do we have to just clone it or can we also modify or improve it?

Yes, absolutely modify or improve it. I'll update the challenge.

Oh wow, another of my favorite games from my childhood, I had that 2600 cartridge back in the day.

I'm going to do this, and I'm going to use voxel type or vector type graphics, I see that is allowed. I'm undecided as I write this. I enjoy making 80s arcade replicas as you can see from my remake of Atari Asteroids Deluxe I finished last week. I'll be doing this in MonoGame of course.

Count me in.

3 hours ago, lilington said:

One more question, how much can we change the gameplay? I mean I want to add more stuff, as I started yesterday and it is almost finished already, I have 2 months to make better image and music, so I think about adding things in the gameplay but I am afraid of changing it too much.

I think the key is to keep the spirit of the original gameplay, but that doesn't mean you can't add a new design twist or new gameplay elements - as long as it's designed in the spirit of "Missile Command". The ultimate goal with these is to learn, challenge yourself, and have fun, so if you want to experiment around the Missile Command game design then go for it!

I tried, but somethings wrong. Cant really play with my 2 browser. Mozilla and chrome.

This is what I have so far, been working on it in my free time.

Tools:

Visual Studio 2017, MonoGame, Bfxr, MagicaVoxel

Added Smart Bomb. Left to do, audio and UI.

Github

13 hours ago, LanceJZ said:

Have you guys thought of starting a Discord server for this contest?

We have our GameDev.net Discord, so I don't know that we need another server, but if there was enough interest we could create another channel for challenges. Right now the challenges are posted to #lounge when they come out.

Very cool replication of Missile Command, btw!

46 minutes ago, khawk said:

We have our GameDev.net Discord, so I don't know that we need another server, but if there was enough interest we could create another channel for challenges. Right now the challenges are posted to #lounge when they come out.

Very cool replication of Missile Command, btw!

Well, that would be a Discord server, thank you. LOL I'll go join it now.

Thank you! I'm a big fan of the original, I spent many quarters on that game in the 80s.