Impossible Mission Longplay (C64) [QHD]

Developed by Dennis Caswell and published by Epyx in 1984

Despite being released in 1984, Impossible Mission was one of the few C64 titles whose appeal largely persisted throughout the entire commercial lifespan of the machine.

The player is despatched to the lair of Elvin Atombender, evil genius at large, and assigned the task of defeating him and his army of robots. The dastardly prof is tucked safe and sound in his panic room, and you'll need to search the lair for pieces of the code that will eventually unlock the door.

The base is is organised into a series of elevators and link corridors, each leading to rooms in which to search. Your secret agent must rifle through cupboards, desks and even refrigerators in search of code pieces, as well passwords that let you disable the robotic sentries patrolling the area. It's pretty nail-biting stuff, requiring precision jumping skills and a good sense of timing to navigate about the place, and staying out of range of droids and there zapper beams is a real challenge.

Once you've collected all 36 puzzle pieces, it's time to set about cracking the code that will ultimately unlock the door to Atombender's lair.

Solving the puzzle involves assembling a series of punch cards, overlaying pieces on top of each other to form a valid piece. Only pieces of the same colour can be overlayed, and you'll need to rotate them to find the correct orientation. This whole process is arguably as difficult, if not more so than collecting the damned pieces to begin with, thanks to the fact the punch cards and pieces are chosen at random at the start of each game.

Should you actually succeed in solving the puzzle, you'll need to retrace your steps to the vault room and accost the dastardly Atombender before time runs out.

Impossible Mission is a difficult game, but the gameplay is compelling, and it's one of the most technically accomplished for the time. A lot of folks coo over the character in Prince of Persia, but the running and somersaulting routines in IM are remarkably life-like, as was the synthesised speech.

All these elements helped create a game that was pretty darn innovative at the time, and helped establish IM as something of a classic to this day.

Credits
Coding: Dennis Caswell

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