Aliens from the planet of Krytol have begun an attack on Zardon, a planet with a powerful defense system. Several antiballistic missile bases have been established on Zardon. The Zardonians are ready for this attack, and are prepared to fight to save their cities.

The object of the game is to defend your cities and missile base. The enemy fires interplanetary ballistic and cruise missiles, both of which are aimed to destroy your cities and missile base.

There are two types of cruise missiles; smart cruise missiles, which try to evade your antiballistic missiles (ABMs). and dumb cruise missiles, which fall in a straight path.

The enemy attacks in a series of waves that may vary in the number of attacking interplanetary ballistic missiles. Each consecutive wave moves faster. The faster the wave, the more difficult it is to defend the cities. So. the faster the wave, the higher the scoring.

Your launching missile base contains only 10 ABMs at a time. As each set of 10 ABMs is fired, you automatically receive 10 more from your underground missile dump. Once you have fired 30 ABMs you are defenseless until a new wave begins.

You must protect your launching missile base from enemy fire. Once it is hit, all ot its contents are destroyed. However, you still have the remaining missiles in the underground dump. The game ends when all of the cities are destroyed.

Use the Joystick Controller as a target control for your ABMs. Move the Joystick up, down, right, left, or diagonally to move the cursor (blinking light) to the target where you wish your antiballistic missile to explode. Push the controller button to launch your ABM's.

Consider the Joystick as a target control for your missiles. Wherever the target control is on the screen when the button is pressed will be the exact location that your ABM explodes. Once you have launched an ABM, you can move to a new target and launch again while the first ABM is in flight. The best way to destroy the enemy is to place the target control directly in the path of the interplanetary ballistic missile. The ABM must make contact with the tip of the enemy's interplanetary ballistic missile.

You score points when you destroy interplanetary ballistic missiles and cruise missiles. You also score points for unused antiballistic missiles and saved cities. Because each wave of interplanetary ballistic missiles moves faster, the points for the higher numbered waves are multiplied. For example, waves 9 and 10 are worth 5 times their original point value.

MISSILE COMMAND has 34 game variations. GAMES 1 through 17 are one-player, and GAMES 18 through 34 are two-player games.

GAME SELECT
To select a MISSILE COMMAND game, press down the game select switch. To quickly change the game number, hold down the game select and the game reset switches at the same time.

GAME RESET
The game number and the number of players appear in the middle of the screen. The game number is to the left of the number of players. When you have selected the game you wish to play, press down the game reset switch to start the action. Each time game reset is pressed down the game starts over. When gameplay starts the score appears at the top of the screen.