With just about every popular video game, new or old, getting developed as a film, the turn of Missile Command has come around at last.

Aiming to combine nostalgia-fed fandom with sci-fi action, Atari is negotiating with 20th Century Fox the likely home for an adaptation of the game, a staple of the old 2600 machine and beloved of classic game fans everywhere.

While the visual look of the game – basic, to say the least, with lines representing the missiles and a cursor as your line of defence – the storyline of a conflict in a far off galaxy between the forces of Krytol and Zardon could conceivably be updated for a new action premise, though we’d guess any film-making team might choose to have the death-from-above threat relocate our own blue marble.

No talent is attached yet, and it might still get lost in the Development loading screen, but given the current hunger for game titles as movies, we wouldn't be surprised if it makes it to our cinemas.

That sound you hear is Atari getting ready to offer Dig Dug around the big Hollywood studios...