Posted July 16, 2005


Retro Gamer Magazine



Roy Shildt, Missile Commander with Paul Drury, Retro Gamer Reporter

Retro Magazine Writer, United Kingdom Paul Drury
with Roy Shildt, was the Missile Command Champion

Paul Dean - Spy Hunter Champion looks at Roy Shildt's Amazing Score 1 up High Score
Stories behind the scenes
Retro Gamer Magazine - Issue #16 (Roy Shildt - Missile Command Interview) July 1, 1985

The story behind the score



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Retro Magazine Retro Gamer
Issue 16
MAY ISSUE 2005
July 16, 2005


Retro Gamer Issue #16 Delivering high kicks to your head! Link Posted 04 July 2005 10:41 AM Martyn Carroll Live Publishing Staff Member Retro Gamer is the UK's first regular retro magazine. Published monthly, each issue delves into the glorious, ever-growing retro scene and covers all the classic games, computers and consoles from your misspent youth.
Coin-Op Guinness Book High Score Players By Paul Drury 1UP HIGH SCORE The stories behind the scores 1UP High Score The Stories Behind The Scores With a score of 1,695,256 on the ultra-difficult tournament setting, Roy Shildt has held the Missile Command world record for 20 years until Tony Temple from England beat him. Paul Drury spoke to the man himself about this incredible, and controversial, achievement. With a nod to Sigmund Freud, Roy Shildt explains: "Missile Command has a subconscious attraction due to its phallic association. It's a unique 'shoot and explode' type of game where you can really get your rockets off. It takes balls to play it, pure and simple." At Retro Gamer we know that to become a world champion on any arcade game requires years, sometimes decades, of dedicated practice, and for a player to devote so much of their life to a game means it must occupy a game means it must occupy a special place in their heart. But we weren't expecting the appeal to be in the loins. Roy confesses, though, that Missile Command became an obsession. Missile Command, Stand-up coin-operated Cabinet "I dedicated my life to the game. It was in the lobby of the student dorm at the University of California, Los Angeles, where I was studying, and I was playing it three of four hours a day for five years. I graduated college a year and a half later than I should have just so I could carry on playing it." Missile Command Control Panel with Track Ball Keeping score Roy's grueling regime and incredible trackball skills led to his fist world record in 1982, when after 38 hours and 24 minutes of solid play, he clocked up 60 million points. He is fairly dismissive of this feat, however, as it was achieved with the machine on the standard factory setting, which awards bonus cities. "Marathon game records are irrelevant. They're pretty easy to get if the machine is giving you a free city every 10,000 points. Then at around 800,000 there's a bug in the game that gives you a whole stack of extra cities, making those big scores basically worthless." Twin Galaxies, Scorekeeper In response to this, Twin Galaxies, the official guardian of world record videogame scores, declared a new "tournament" setting for Missile Command in 1983, which didn't award any bonus cities, just the six you begin with. Undeterred, Roy continued to hone his skills. He developed new strategies in response to this far harder setting, including protecting just the one city to the left of the central base against the relentless barrage of enemy fire. A tournament in 1984 saw him reach 1.4 million, an accomplishment which led to him becoming the first inductee to the Videogame Hall of Fame. So traveling up to Johnny Zee's Family Fun Centre in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, for the Videogame Masters Tournament in the summer of 1985, Roy felt understandably confident. "Yeah, I knew I could improve my score, but when I got there, there was no Missile Command machine! Once the owner saw I'd arrived, he went and got one, but it didn't come in till the second day of the tournament. Then there was a problem with the trackball. The mechanic was great, but didn't fix it until the day after, so I'd missed out on three days of play that the other contestants had had. But it was OK, as Walter Day [Twin Galaxies scoreboard] said I could have extra time. I didn't go round discussing that with the other players - most of them were teenagers - so when I did get 1.6 million on 3rd July, a lot of people thought it wasn't fair because I'd had extra time, but then they didn't know the circumstances." Howard Stern Position of power Not content with appearing on the Howard Stern show in 2000, Roy now harbors presidential ambitions and is seeking the Democratic Nomination for 2008. Indeed, as the role of the US President includes being Commander-in-Chief - the man in charge of the world's largest nuclear arsenal - having superhuman Missile Command skills should surely be an essential attribute for any serious candidate? In case his dexterous fingers should ever be called upon to save the Free World, Roy has recently bought a Missile Command cabinet and is back in practice. His scores are already exceeding 1 million, though he does acknowledge his record is breakable. "My score can definitely be beaten, but it's going to take a lot of work. You need someone with talent and intelligence. I have an IQ of 138, which is half a per cent less than a genius. I have a mathematical brain and good pool skills. I'm a talented guy." Well, even if that someone can be found it's unlikely they will be as colorful, entertaining and outspoken as Roy. For more on this remarkable man Roy Shildt and the Big Red Button Roy Shildt has some competition… Tony Temple, TT contender from England! Tony Temple - Missile Command

United Kingdom UK 2005 Link Tony Temple, Missile Command Contender, England Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a new contender. Retro Gamer reader Tony 'TT' Temple from Derbyshire, England, has come a long way since first playing Missile Command in Rita's Café in Bristol in 1981. Having survived years of passive smoking and greasy breakfasts, he spent nine hours in 1984 racking up a marathon score of 14 million. Last September, after two decades apart, he acquired his own machine, beautifully restored by Archer MacLean to mint condition, and tries to play a few hours every day. "No two games are the same," says Tony. "That's what keeps me coming back for more. I've been playing on tournament setting for three months now. Tournament is about as hard as it gets on any machine - It's just relentless. I'm up to 1,315,000 points, verified on videotape, which is pretty close. Playing the machine, I realize just how phenomenal Roy's record is - the game is so unforgiving after 500,000 points. But just give me a few more weeks…" Tony "TT" Temple: UPDATE: Tony 'TT' Temple High Score Results at the CGEUK Event: August 9, 2005: Link ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Christopher (CGEUK) Jun 10 2005, 11:36 PM Post #1 link ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Tony is coming VERY close to taking the World Record at Missile Command. Tony will try to beat this at CGEUK... Link ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Press release supplied by Games Press 12:15 06/05/2005 Link Way of the Rodent Tony Temple and Missile Command, United Kingdom ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ May 6th 2005 Press release supplied by Games Press 12:15 06/05/2005 New too is the latest installment of Tony Temple's historic mission to bring the Missile Command record to England where he and Gary (Galaxians) Whelan plan to bare their British arses to the former record-holding Americans. As is traditional. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Missile Command, and Steven Spielberg Missile Command Manufacturer: Atari Year: 1980 Class: Wide Release Genre: Shooter Type: Videogame Monitor: Orientation: Horizontal Type: Raster: Standard Resolution CRT: Color Conversion Class: unique Number of Simultaneous Players: 1 Maximum number of Players: 2 Gameplay: Alternating Control Panel Layout: Single Player Controls: Buttons: 3 Trackball: Optical Sound: Amplified Mono (one channel) Description Using three atomic missile launching bases you defend your cities against incoming missiles. Enemy missiles may seperate into several missiles so shoot them down early because you only have a limited number of missiles. Cabinet Information The game was released as a table model, a standard up-right cabinet, a cabaret-style mini cabinet and even a giant sit-down cockpit cabinet. Conversion A conversion kit by GCC Technologies called Super Missile Attack was made to convert this game. Miscellaneous SPINOFF: Super Missile Attack BOOTLEG: Missile Defend MOVIE APPEARANCES: "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" (1991), "Fast Times At Ridgemont High" (ending credits) You can play a Shockwave version of this game online here: ftp://internet.hasbrointeractive.com/anonftp/shockwave/missilecommand.html Technical The game uses a 6502 microprocessor and one Atari Pokey sound chip. Trivia This game was also licensed to Sega for release in certain European countries. This game was included in the Arcade's Greatest Hits Collection, which also includes Super Breakout, Centipede, Tempest, Asteroids, and Battlezone. Roy Shildt Competing at California Extreme on August 7, 2005 August 7, 2005 - California Extreme Results: Link Missile Command, The End ---



Thank you,
Paul Dean, www.spyhunter007.com, Spy Hunter Champion, June 28, 1985

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Paul Dean, www.spyhunter007.com, Spy Hunter Champion, June 28, 1985

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