THIS BOOK WAS A CHALLENGE. IT ISN’T AN EASY FEAT TO LOOK back nearly forty years, find information that’s never been found before, and collect it in a coherent way—in fact, it’s nearly impossible. I spent five years researching this book, digging through forum archives, newspaper articles, and interviewing people who never thought they would be interviewed about Missile Command. There were times it seemed like everything would come together perfectly and times it felt like it was foolish to believe it was ever going to happen in the first place; yet, somehow, we’re here.
Thank you to my wonderful wife Sydnee for putting up with my endless late night writing sessions and ramblings about trackball settings. Your constant encouragement was invaluable. To my dad, Gary, for always believing in my wild video game dreams. Thank you to my saint of a literary agent, Eric Smith, without whom none of this would be possible. He took my proposal and fought through nearly all of publishing until he found the perfect person who wanted to help share our story. Adam O’Brien, my amazing editor and that perfect person, who took the project under his wing and helped push us through the finish line … even if we just barely made it in time. Huge thanks to Shelby Ozer and Chris Cappello at The Overlook Press for helping ensure that we did publicity and rights management just right, no matter how weird of requests I made.
Most importantly, I want to thank Dave Theurer, Nolan Bushnell, Rich Adam, Al Alcorn, Tony Temple, Rob Fulop, Phil Klemmer, and even Roy “Mr. Awesome” Shildt for entrusting me with this story. They were generous with their time, memories, and introductions. Without all of them, there wouldn’t be a book and I’d still be wishing I had found a way to tell this amazing story.
Tim Lapetino and Blake J. Harris: without their advice and mentorship throughout this process, this book would be much, much worse. They helped both my writing and authorship develop in a way that has me light-years ahead of where I was when I began this journey. I can’t thank them enough.
Finally, the book would not exist in one form or another without the additional help from the following people: Andrew Groen, Meggan Scavio, Ryan “Gootecks” Gutierrez, Harold Goldberg, Chris Melissinos, and Ryan Holiday.