Trace the history of video games back to its roots and, near the beginning, you’ll find Atari’s Centipede and Missile Command. The shoot-em-up games were early pioneers of the genre, and now they’re catching up with modern games by getting their very own movies.
Deadline reports that Atari has teamed up with Emmett/Furla/Oasis Films to produce movies based on both Centipede and Missile Command. No writers or directors have been attached yet, which means no one actually has any idea of how these largely non-story based games will make compelling movies. But that’s not important, right? It’s only important that people know the name!
Sure, there’s someone out there who can take the very rudimentary mechanics and basic story beats of these games and weave them through a narrative. But if you look at the track record not just of video games that get turned into movies, but board games and any other games, how many have actually been good? A handful? And have any of those been based on games without a story? Unlikely. Atari could be the exception but, if these movies ever get made, I will be incredibly surprised. And if those movies are good, I’d go bonkers.
[Deadline]
Top: The Centipede scene from Pixels, which totally worked, right? Image: Sony Pictures
Originally posted on Gizmodo.
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One response to “Someone Is Trying To Make Movies Out Of Centipede And Missile Command”
Centipede, trapped on an alien world a group of crash survivors try to hold off terrifying alien creatures that when severed in half become two. Will they survive? Will rescue make it in time? Was it really an accident that bought them here?
The type of ship could change the movie. Prisoner Transport could see factions break out amoungst the Prisoners and Surviving Guards, or the now damaged Robots tasked with keeping the discipline. A Luxary liner could be Comedy. A Colony/Research vessel would be a tense thriller.
Even Battleship had the possibility to be a great movie if they wrote it correctly.
Actually, there’s quite a lot of potential in a Missile Command movie. That game was all about the futility of defence after the start of WWIII. Eventually, no matter how good you are, or how well you perform, you are going to run out of defencive missiles and die.
Imagine an old cold-war era missile Defence post. Nothing works. The post is staffed by has-beens and wanna-bes. It’s a dumping ground for people with the “wrong stuff”.
Now imagine some kind of systems failure in a Russian launch facility. The control systems explore violently and the Russian crews are killed at their post and there is no one left to stop the computers from launching the missiles.
The only warning our “heroes” get is when their own antique radar systems detect the missiles bearing down on them and the nearby cities. Will they hold out? Will they fail and doom millions?