Talk:Impossible Mission

Release year

The in-game copyright date of the Commodore 64 version is 1984. I know I first encountered the game in 1984. Does anyone know when exactly (year and month) it came out? Mirror Vax 29 June 2005 02:29 (UTC)

MobyGames says the release date for the Commodore 64 version of Impossible Mission is 1983. They get their information from users who are requred to take it from actual game material. If your copy says 1984, it's possible the game went through more than one printing. I know that with SunDog, for example, FTL came out with two versions, though they looked nearly identical. The second version looked the same as the first, it just included some bug fixes. The same may be going on here... — Frecklefoot | Talk June 29, 2005 13:38 (UTC)

Yes, that's possible. I don't have my old 64 disks so my statement is based on what's on the 'net - and it could be that the 1984 date is only in the European version. BTW, the screenshot on Mobygames says 1984: [1] Mirror Vax 29 June 2005 17:29 (UTC)

Well, it is possible that MobyGames is wrong (the submitter could've hit a wrong button, made a typo). It's also possible that Epyx released it near the end of '83, but gave it an '84 copyright. I really have no idea why there's the discrepency. If it makes you feel better, go ahead and change the date—I won't revert it this time. :-) — Frecklefoot | Talk June 29, 2005 19:08 (UTC)

The point I would make is that MobyGames is hardly a definitive source. We don't know where the information came from. It might well be correct, but who knows? Mirror Vax 29 June 2005 19:56 (UTC)

No more than Wikipedia. Both project rely on user contributions. The only real difference is MobyGames does not allow for anonymous contributions, records on video game information and models the data in a relational format. I guess you would look up who contributed the 1993 release info on MobyGames and ask them. --Flipkin 19:04, 22 November 2005 (UTC)

The US Gold conversion of Impossible Mission to the Acorn Electron states "(c) 1983 Epyx Inc, (c) 1986 U.S.Gold". I've uploaded a screenshot to prove it. I guess this could also possibly be a typo by someone at U.S. Gold but otherwise Epyx seem to have claimed copyright for 1983. - ThomasHarte 13:27, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

Randomness

The page states that "game elements are randomly generated each game". As a longtime Impossible Mission fan, I thought the different rooms are randomly distributed in the various staircases and the puzzle pieces are randomly distributed on the various pieces of furniture and so on, but besides these, the game is not random. I believe all rooms have the same layout and furniture and also the robots (at least mostly) have the same behavior and placement in each game, so actually clearing a given room is the same every time you play. Can anyone confirm? --80.186.38.189 23:46, 28 November 2005 (UTC)

Cannot confirm.

The rooms, along with their furniture and the robot tracks, are static. The black ball also belongs to specific rooms.

The rooms are located randomly in the underground base.

The robots' behaviours are also randomized. While a specific room always has it's specific number of robots, it may be easier or harder from game to game because the robots show different behavior. The exception is the black ball, which always has teh same behaviour in the same room.

The placement of items (punch card fragments, snooze and lift reset passwords) is also random.

The punch cards are randomized. It's unclear if the punch crads are completely random, or randomly chosen from a set of punch cards. The password, which is encoded in the punch cards, may also differ from game to game. Currently I know of three different passwords.

The punch card fragments can also differ from game to game. There are more than 9 different sets of punch card fragments (already corrected for orientation, of course). It may be that the differt punch card puzzles correspond to the different passwords.

This is all for the C64 version. Other versions may differ. --11:19, 18 May 2008 (UTC)

Sequel

There's a new recently announced Impossible Mission game for the PS2 and DS (the main enemy is Dr. Atombender, so it's definitely from the same series), I added it to the Sequel section.

Wii version

I'm not sure about the best way to add what I found to this page, but this site has an advertisement for the Nintendo Wii version of Impossible Mission http://gonintendo.com/wp-content/photos/862c41337a.jpg Looks like it'll be a full-fledged, non-Virtual Console game. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.61.14.5 (talk) 23:54, 7 January 2007 (UTC).

I removed this from the main page " The updated Wii version is also one of the first non-virtual console downloadable game for Wii" because the article cited did not say it was downloadable and in fact mentioned the game "hitting store shelves" Ciper 19:41, 8 June 2007 (UTC)

Speech

The samples weren't made from SID waveforms, they were digitized syllable by syllable. This interview gives some more info:

"The speech was an impressive and, at the time, incredible addition to the game. Tell us some information about how it came to be added.

The speech in the game was real, digitized speech. The performances were provided by Electronic Speech Systems, who also provided the software for reproducing the speech on the Commodore 64. I told them what I wanted the game to say, and when they asked me what kind of voice I had in mind, I said I was imagining a fiftyish English guy, like a James Bond villain. I was told that they happened to have such a person on their staff, so, instead of hiring an actor, they let him take a whack at it, and I thought he was just fine. I never met the guy who provided the voice, but, to my knowledge, the recordings were not altered or processed, apart from being digitized. It is certainly possible, though, that Electronic Speech Systems could have tweaked them without my knowledge. There are no other digitized sounds in the game."

Interview from http://www.mayhem64.co.uk/interview/caswell.htm

85.228.202.42 15:12, 16 April 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the interesting info regarding the speech system. I wonder if anybody knows what the name of that staff member from ESS was? Did anyone interview him and get his thoughts on the game and what he thought of his contribution to it?

203.39.222.5 (talk) 01:01, 3 May 2013 (UTC)

It would be a significant improvement to the article if it included short audio file with a sample of the speech. -- 93.107.7.14 (talk) 15:04, 18 February 2014 (UTC)

I came here to reveal that the death yell sound in the game is a cropped recording of the Howie Scream stock sound effect. Once you hear it, it's immediately recognizable. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 47.13.212.202 (talk) 19:45, 28 November 2020 (UTC)

Ball

The ball definately disappeared on the C64 version. 128.114.57.91 23:03, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

Comment moved from article

This was inserted into the article. Shifting it here for posterity.

Added by Arthur Krewat, December 2, 2008: I converted it from the Commodore 64 version to the Atari 7800. The NTSC version WAS able to be finished, as tested by me, and Atari testing did pass it. Atari later introduced something to the game that created the bug, I suspect they tried to reduce the amount of static RAM in the cartridge to cut costs. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Krewat (talk • contribs) 15:48, 2 December 2008

Chris Cunningham (not at work) - talk 16:01, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

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Copy protection?

I've heard rumors that copied disks of the C64 version of the game often have one particular room made inaccessible (i.e. the player would mysteriously die when he tries to move past a certain point in the room). I've experienced this myself with the disk version of the game on an C64 emulator. An article I once read (I think it was one of the mailbag articles in classicgaming.com) cites that the game is copy-protected and all copied versions of the game has that defect. Anyone know if this is true? Or was the emulator I was using (or perhaps that disk image) flawed? RAM (talk) 13:39, 24 April 2009 (UTC)

"Mission: Impossible"?

The article Mission: Impossible (disambiguation) mentions the Impossible Mission series as being influenced by the TV show. Is this true? If so, I had never heard of it. I'd always thought the similar names were just a coincidence, after all, the concept of a mission being impossible is pretty easy to think of. JIP | Talk 17:23, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

I think the title of the game may have been influenced by the TV show, but nothing else. The game and the TV show aren't very similar. — Frecklefσσt | Talk 17:56, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

Similar game - Infiltrator?

The article lists Infiltrator as a similar game, but I can't understand why. They have a similar plot, infiltrating the base of a mad genius, but they are of completely different genres. IM is a platformer, while Infiltrator is a cross between a flight simulator and an action adventure. Kaivosukeltaja (talk) 06:56, 13 April 2011 (UTC)

Agreed. Also, the "See also" section is intended for subjects with a definite link to the article subject, not just whatever subjects we feel are "similar". I'll remove it.--NukeofEarl (talk) 17:20, 16 January 2014 (UTC)

I worked in a software store back when this game came out. Everyone who played it commented on how it was clearly an Impossible Mission rip-off. Of course I don't have a verifiable reference to back this up. No worries, I'll leave the See also out. — Frεcklεfσσt | Talk 19:08, 16 January 2014 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 29 April 2014 UK and European publisher

The game was licensed to US Gold from Epyx and published by that company in the UK and Europe. US Gold were responsible for the conversion to the Spectrum computer. It reached number one in the UK in the Spectrum and a Commodore 64 charts.

Written by Geoff Brown the CEO of US Gold at the time.

Geoffbrown123 (talk) 13:42, 29 April 2014 (UTC)

Not done: please provide reliable sources that support the change you want to be made. "I was there and know it to be true" is not acceptable as this is original research. —KuyaBriBri^Talk 14:16, 29 April 2014 (UTC) edited 14:20, 29 April 2014 (UTC)

Incorrect external link

External link to internet archive incorrect, change to: https://archive.org/details/a2_asimov_mission_impossible Bassetsoft (talk) 11:48, 6 May 2019 (UTC)

This doesn't appear to be this game, it appears to be "Mission Impossible" by Scott Adams from 1979. Could this be the right link? – Þjarkur (talk) 12:12, 6 May 2019 (UTC)

 Not done: I've removed the dead link for now. @Bassetsoft: if you provide the correct link please re-open the request by changing "|answered=yes" to "|answered=no" and provide the link here. Thanks, NiciVampireHeart 06:45, 10 May 2019 (UTC)

Reviews

• Jeux & Stratégie #45

207.229.139.154 (talk) 23:47, 8 April 2023 (UTC)

References