Missile Command 3D : Missiles Shooting And Controlling in Atari Jaguar

First Game that use Virtual Reality Helmet

 

Missile Command 3D for the Jaguar has a very interesting story behind it. Originally known as Missile Command 2000, it was decided that it would become the very first game to utilise the Jaguar’s ill-fated VR Helmet.

Unfortunately, Atari canned the actual helmet before it went into production, this due to problems with the cost and feedback that it made some people feel sick. Thankfully, Atari still shipped the game with a few minor tweaks, but left the VR mode in there. When a couple of prototype units of the VR Helmet were found around ten years ago, the inclusion of the mode in Missile Commandproved useful, as the rare peripherals soon made appearances at shows all over the world.

Developed by Virtuality, who created the helmet and all those popular Virtual Reality arcade games of the early Nineties, Missile Command features three different versions of the
game on a single cartridge. The first is Dave Theurer’s original 1980 arcade game in all its glory. It might lack the trackball control but it plays great with the Jaguar’s pad, and by pressing different numbers on the keypad you can manipulate the game in various clever ways. As well as being able to zoom in and out of the action, you can also transfer the game onto the screen of a virtual arcade machine or play it on

a 3D replication of the Atari Lynx. The second game included on the cartridge is ‘3D Mode’. This is just a slight update of the original game that features some fancy graphics and a zoomed-in view, meaning you need to watch the radar and scroll the screen around to take down the missiles attacking your city below. It’s a nice take on the classic game, but isn’t a patch on the excellent ‘Virtual Mode’, which is easily worth tracking this game down for. Virtual Mode is a completely new version of the game that features a first-person perspective, polygon graphics, a superb soundtrack, great power-ups and end-of-level bosses.
It’s been tailor made to get the best out of Atari’s machine and it does it exceptionally well. In Virtual Mode you need to look up to the sky to see the missiles coming and switch between the three bases to maximum effect. Levels also now take place in different settings, with you starting underwater (in an obvious homage to Imagic’s Missile Commandclone Atlantis) before progressing up to a level where you must protect your space station from both missiles and asteroids, paying tribute to another Atari classic. Missile Command 3Dis a worthy update of one of the greatest arcade games of all time. Even without the VR helmet it gives an impressive illusion of real 3D that really showcases what the Jaguar can do in skilled hands. When you see games like this, and the equally superb Tempest 2000, you really do wish that Atari had had the foresight to update a few more of its classic franchises for its machine