Our first Recon Decon Jam’s focus is Atari’s 1980 hit Missile Command. It saw a number of ports, remakes, remasters, and clones for various home systems, and you can find web versions playable in the browser.

For our purposes, Missile Command has the following characteristics:

• You’re defending targets from attack.
• The player controls a targeting cursor
• Player shots travel to the point of impact and then explode, making the game less about reflexes and more about anticipation and leading your target.

The game of course has other qualities, but these three will be the ones considered when games are ranked. Remember, we’re not recreating Missile Command, we’re creating new games using the characteristics of Missile Command. It does not in any way have to resemble the source game, or be recognizable as it, beyond the core characteristics above.