Missile Command has a small set of messages that appear at fixed positions. In a few cases a text string must appear in one more than one place, so a particular string may be referenced by more than one message entry.
Messages $00-1b are localized to English, Spanish, French, and German. Messages $1c-27, used for the title screen, copyright notice, and self-test output, only appear in English.
In the table below, "Horz" and "Vert" are the horizontal and vertical pixel position of the center of the first character of the message. Line zero is at the bottom of the screen, not the top. The horz/vert values are offset by 4 to get the top-left pixel position, so when the table says col 96 row 144, the top-left pixel is actually at col 92 row 148. Some of the messages are used in the scrolling text, for which the position values are ignored.
"Scale" is the multiplier for the horizontal and vertical glyph sizes, applied per pixel, so "3x10" means every pixel is 3 wide by 10 high. The scale does not affect the position.
Each character glyph is 8x8, with a 1-pixel blank space on the top and right, so they can be rendered without needing to add additional space. The screen can fit 32 characters across and 28 down.
| Num | Text | Horz | Vert | Scale |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $00 | PLAYER | 96 | 144 | 1x1 |
| $01 | HIGH SCORES | 84 | 208 | 1x1 |
| $02 | GAME OVER | 6 | 3 | 1x1 |
| $03 | PRESS START | 144 | 3 | 1x1 |
| $04 | INSERT COINS | 120 | 3 | 1x1 |
| $05 | BONUS CITY | 92 | 64 | 1x1 |
| $06 | X POINTS | 104 | 112 | 1x1 |
| $07 | BONUS POINTS | 80 | 160 | 1x1 |
| $08 | THE END | 54 | 160 | 3x10 |
| $09 | GREAT SCORE | 44 | 128 | 2x1 |
| $0a | 1 COIN 2 PLAYS | 64 | 64 | 1x1 |
| $0b | 1 COIN 1 PLAY | 64 | 64 | 1x1 |
| $0c | 2 COINS 1 PLAY | 64 | 64 | 1x1 |
| $0d | CREDITS: | 176 | 3 | 1x1 |
| $0e | GAME OVER | 92 | 160 | 1x1 |
| $0f | OUT | 12 | 3 | 1x1 |
| $10 | OUT | 116 | 3 | 1x1 |
| $11 | OUT | 232 | 3 | 1x1 |
| $12 | ENTER YOUR INITIALS | 56 | 112 | 1x1 |
| $13 | SPIN BALL TO CHANGE LETTERS | 4 | 96 | 1x1 |
| $14 | PRESS ANY FIRE SWITCH TO SELECT | 4 | 80 | 1x1 |
| $15 | DEFEND CITIES | 56 | 56 | 1x1 |
| $16 | LOW | 12 | 3 | 1x1 |
| $17 | LOW | 116 | 3 | 1x1 |
| $18 | LOW | 232 | 3 | 1x1 |
| $19 | EVERY | 104 | 88 | 1x1 |
| $1a | POINTS | 200 | 88 | 1x1 |
| $1b | BONUS CITY | 16 | 88 | 1x1 |
| $1c | MISSILE | 32 | 160 | 4x4 |
| $1d | COMMAND | 32 | 112 | 4x4 |
| $1e | ATARI (C)(P) 1980 | 80 | 3 | 1x1 |
| $1f | RAM OK | 92 | 112 | 1x1 |
| $20 | ROM OK | 92 | 144 | 1x1 |
| $21 | BAD RAM | 92 | 112 | 1x1 |
| $22 | BAD ROM | 92 | 144 | 1x1 |
| $23 | BAD MAP | 92 | 128 | 1x1 |
| $24 | MAP OK | 92 | 128 | 1x1 |
| $25 | FREE PLAY | 64 | 64 | 1x1 |
| $26 | CITIES | 80 | 52 | 1x1 |
| $27 | BAD CHIP | 16 | 128 | 1x1 |