Impossible Mission

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Description

You play a secret agent on a quest to stop the evil Professor Elvin Atombender, who is believed to be tampering with national security computers. You must penetrate Atombender's stronghold, avoid his deadly robot creations, and acquire various pieces of a password to use in the main control room. You have 6 hours to complete the game; 10 minutes are lost each time you die and 2 minutes are expended if you use the help function on your portable computer.

The robots, rooms, and puzzle pieces will be switched around when starting over which provides replay value.

Screenshots

Promo Images

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Part of the Following Groups

• Gameplay feature: "Simon says"
• Impossible Mission series

User Reviews

Made before "they don't make em like they used to" became true

Commodore 64

carl brennan (2)

Critic Reviews

Eurogamer.net (UK)	Commodore 64	Oct 26, 2007	10 out of 10	100
Computer and Video Games (CVG)	Commodore 64	Apr, 1985	38 out of 40	95
Info	Commodore 64	Sep, 1984		90
Commodore User	Commodore 64	Apr, 1985		90
Tilt	Commodore 64	Jul, 1985		83
Eurogamer.net (UK)	Wii	Apr 11, 2008	8 out of 10	80
Joystick (French)	SEGA Master System	Apr, 1991	80 out of 100	80
Digital Press - Classic Video Games	Atari 7800	Dec 10, 2003	8 out of 10	80
Nintendo Life	Wii	Apr 11, 2008		80
The Video Game Critic	Atari 7800	Jul 27, 2012	D-	16

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Trivia

Atari 7800 version

On the Atari 7800, the name of the game can be taken literally. Due to a bug in the program the NTSC release cannot not be completed. Some of the items you need are hidden under terminals that cannot be searched. This was fixed for the PAL release.

References to the game

The title of the German computer games podcast Stay Forever by former gaming journalists Christian Schmidt and Gunnar Lott is inspired by the synthesized speech "Stay a while...stay forever!" from this game. The voice is also used in the podcast's intro.

Speech

On the Commodore 64 version. The game is well known for the use of synthesized speech. Electronic Speech Synthesis (the company that developed the sampled speech for the game) used this game as a test sample.

When this sample was a successful game, Electronic Speech Synthesis (ESS) significantly raised their prices. This caused Epyx to never use their services again (although Impossible Mission II uses ESS, Novotrade developed the game, and they were the same sampled speech tracks used in this game).

Awards

• ACE (Advanced Computer Entertainment)
  • February 1991 (issue #41) - Included in the list Greatest Games of all Time, section Platform-based Games (editorial staff choice)
• Commodore Force
  • December 1993 (Issue 13) – #50 “Readers' Top 100”
• FLUX
  • Issue #4 - #92 in the "Top 100 Video Games of All-Time" list
• GameStar (Germany)
  • Issue 03/2013 – Issue 03/2013 – One of the "Ten Best C64 Games"
• Happy Computer
  • Issue 02/1986 - #7 Best Game in 1985 (Readers' Vote)
• Retro Gamer
  • October 2004 (Issue #9) – #45 Best Game Of All Time (Readers' Vote)
  • Issue 37 - #12 in the "Top 25 Platformers of All Time" poll
• Zzap!
  • May 1985 (Issue 1) - #2 'It's the Zzap! 64 Top 64!'

Information also contributed by Big John WV, PCGamer77 and Scott G

Related Web Sites

• Cambridge Centre for Computing History (C64) (For Commodore 64, Cassette: exhibit reference ID CH14491; additional material.)
• Cambridge Centre for Computing History (Epyx, Amstrad CPC) (For Amstrad CPC464, Cassette: exhibit reference ID CH41484; additional material.)
• Cambridge Centre for Computing History (Epyx Computer Software, BBC Micro) (For BBC Micro, 5.25" Floppy Disk: exhibit reference ID CH21360; additional material.)
• Cambridge Centre for Computing History (Epyx Computer Software, BBC Micro) (For BBC Micro, Cassette: exhibit reference ID CH4357; additional material.)
• Cambridge Centre for Computing History (Ricochet, Amstrad CPC/Spectrum) (Dual Amstrad/Spectrum cassette. Ricochet re release.
  For Amstrad CPC464/Spectrum, Cassette: exhibit reference ID CH30858; additional material.)
• Commodore 64 Boxed Sets (For C64: game packaging digitalisations. Include box, manual, brochure, additional material.)
• CPC-Power (in French) (For Amstrad CPC: game database entry; game packaging; manual digitalizations; goodies; advertisement; magazine reviews; downloadable releases; additional material.)
• CPCRrulez (in French) (For Amstrad CPC: game database entry; advertisement; game packaging; downloadable releases; additional material.)
• Impossible Mission (Site with screenshots of each version, trivia, tips, and the original manual.)
• Kio's home (For ZX Spectrum: additional material including – photographed cassette inlay; snapshots; downloadable releases.)
• Lemon 64 (For C64: game entry database; advertisement; magazine reviews; music; documentation; cover art; additional material.)
• Replacementdocs (Sega Master System, Manual) (Documentation for Sega Master System.)
• Replacementdocs (ZX Spectrum, UK Manual) (Documentation for ZX Spectrum.)
• SMS Power! (Sega Master System) (For Sega Master System: releases info; credits; box text; additional material.)
• The End Zone (Dedicated to end of game sequences with the objective of providing the most definitive and complete 'end of game' information ever assembled for the games featured.)
• The Tipshop (For ZX Spectrum/SAM: a central archive for all Spectrum and SAM games hints, tips, cheats, maps, hacks and pokes. )
• Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (video game) (Encyclopaedic entry for combined platforms.)
• World of Spectrum (For ZX Spectrum: downloadable releases; additional material including – cassette inlay, advertisement, instructions; remakes links; player reviews; magazine references; magazine adverts.)
• ZX Spectrum Reviews (For ZX Spectrum: magazine game reviews in HTML.)