How Atari Captured Cold War Fear

Missile Command asks you to defend six cities from nuclear destruction while knowing that sooner or later, you will fail. That bleak idea made Atari’s 1980 arcade hit one of the most revealing video game artifacts of the Cold War. There is no final victory in Missile Command. Your cities are eventually destroyed, your defenses fail, and instead of congratulating you, the game simply tells you: THE END. In this episode of Game Artifact, we examine Missile Command as more than an old arcade game. By looking at its gameplay, cabinet artwork, instruction manuals, Atari 2600 adaptation, and the historical world in which it was created, we can see how a video game became an artifact of Cold War anxiety. Along the way, we'll explore the nuclear arms race, mutually assured destruction (MAD), the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, détente, the renewed Cold War tensions of the late 1970s and early 1980s, and the experiences that influenced Missile Command’s designer, Dave Theurer. Teachers: Want to use Missile Command in the classroom? Check the links below for the teacher guide, student materials, source packet, and assessment resources I developed to accompany the game and this video. Game Artifact explores video games as historical artifacts — pieces of the past that can reveal something about the cultures, fears, values, politics, and technology of the people who created them. History is playable. Chapters: 0:00 Introduction 0:20 Missile Command Arcade 2:24 Cold War and Détente 4:25 Development of Missile Command 5:26 Arms Race Heats Up 6:09 Determining Usefulness to Historians 6:49 Analyzing Atari 2600 Port 10:45 What Missile Command Reveals About the Cold War 11:41 Teaching Students Using Missile Command 12:38 Conclusion ——— See pinned comment below to get access to my teaching materials! #MissileCommand #Atari #VideoGameHistory