I played Missile Command over here in the UK and first discovered the game in a local run-down cafe. "Rita's Cafe" was owned by a big Greek guy called Peter. Huge cups of sugary English tea, dirty cutlery and all-day full greasy English breakfasts were the order of the day, along with an atmosphere thick with cigarette smoke. it won no prizes for fine cuisine or atmosphere. But it did have arcade games, which was good enough for me. I got to know Pete quite well even though I was only 13 or so. He was hilarious and the place was full of characters. Lots of tales from that place which I won't go into here, but suffice to say, it was pretty instrumental in my induction to the world of arcade games back in 1981.
Of course, it is now long gone after a deep fat fryer set the place on fire in the mid-eighties. In researching Rita's, I drove past the building a couple of years back and it's now a barbershop. I tried to track down Peter but to no avail. So then I tried to find a photograph of the place, with absolutely zero expectations - I mean what are the chances of a photo existing of this random tin-pot cafe in the middle of a nondescript city in England?
Well after lots of dead ends, as luck would have it, I eventually found one. Not only of the cafe itself, but also complete with non-other than Pete the Greek himself leaning out of the door, with a look of puzzlement on his face, clearly wondering why the hell some amateur photographer was taking a photo of his fine establishment:

But it gets better. Zoom in on the window to the left of the door.
That is the Irish built Atari Missile Command cabinet I played way back in 1981/1982, which dates the picture exactly around the time I played there. Not only was I lucky to find this, but the fact that it shows the café, the owner and the cab I played on blew me away.
You can read about the café and my journey with Missile Command, as well as the history of the game in my book
which you can order here.