Before radar games — vector arcade origins (1977–1980)
Atari's Lunar Lander (1979) and Asteroids (1979) used vector monitors instead of raster. The phosphor glow of a vector beam was the same green-on-black aesthetic as a military radar. When designer Dave Theurer started prototyping a missile-defence game in 1980, he reached for that same look — and Missile Command was born.
Missile Command (1980) — the first radar game
Players defended six cities from a rain of ICBMs using three anti-missile batteries. The trackball gave precise targeting. The countdown clocks, the city-by-city loss, and the famous final 'THE END' instead of 'GAME OVER' made it feel like an unwinnable Cold War simulation — because it was. Theurer reportedly had nightmares while developing it.
Tempest, Star Wars, Battlezone (1981–1983)
Atari's vector hardware enabled a wave of radar-adjacent games: Tempest (1981), Star Wars: The Arcade Game (1983, with its famous 'Stay on target' targeting reticle), and Battlezone (1980) — the latter actually used by the US Army as a tank gunner trainer.
The 90s pause and the browser revival
Vector hardware died in the mid-80s as raster graphics improved. Radar games migrated into sub-modes inside larger titles — the minimap in Doom, the radar HUD in Command & Conquer. The genre only returned as a primary mechanic in the 2010s, first in mobile (Missile Command remakes) and then in HTML5 browser titles. Signal//Lock is part of that revival — pure radar play, no install, modern feel, ancient aesthetic.