Guardian Missile Commander

Guardian Missile Commander is a game that I released in December 2008 on the App Store. It was inspired by an even earlier game that I wrote during the first Gulf War, called Patriot. And that was obviously inspired by Atari's Missile Command. Because I had written a similar game on the PC years before I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to accomplish. I ended up writing it in about two weeks during a work furlough brought on by the failing economy. It didn't make enough money to quit my day job bit it did ok for what it was. After a while I made it free, which increased its popularity for a while. After a few years I removed it from the App Store when I received a "Cease and Desist" letter from Atari. It apparently took them a few years to decide that a free app was somehow a threat to their bottom line. But I certainly wasn't going to go to war over it.

Here are a couple of prototype icons that my son designed for me. He also designed the icon that was used for the game. Good times. The music is by The Fat Man, and came (with permission) from a game called Azaria by Singularity, run by friends of mine that I have sadly lost track of over the years.

The only review of it still apparently surviving on the web:

Guardian Missile Commander, Trenton Henry (free): Intended for our funds, the no cost Guardian lifts the initial ante on Atari’s $4. 99 Missile Command line. Guardian simply slightly updates the 2-D graphics from the original, whereas Atari does a full reload (but also offers a “classic function. “) Guard re-interprets the original’s common sense, building its features level by level. Where the idea shines is the plot gadget that places each level’s different features into context via Associated Press and Intelligence reports. I observed myself believing–and knowing how my classic Missile Command line games a full new method. Oh, the humanity….

https://topiphoneappsnews.wordpress.com/tag/best-iphone-apps/

I may someday decide to resurrect it as a non-mobile game, just ... because. Not sure how it would scale to a giant screen though. If you care, email me and encourage me to do it.