Impossible Mission - Ports and Sequels

Ports and Sequels

Though originally developed for the Commodore 64, Impossible Mission was ported to the Apple II, Atari 7800, ZX Spectrum, Acorn Electron, BBC Micro, Amstrad CPC and Sega Master System. Not all of the ports had the same features as the C64 edition, such as speech.

The NTSC Atari 7800 version has a confirmed bug that makes the game impossible to win; it places some of the code pieces underneath computer terminals, which the player cannot search (since attempting to do so will access the terminal). The bug was fixed in the PAL version. Rumors of a bug fix for the NTSC version were put to rest when Atari formally announced the retirement of the Atari 7800 on January 1, 1992.

The NTSC Atari 7800 version was converted from the Commodore 64 version by Computer Magic, Ltd. Contractors Brian Richter started the conversion, with Arthur Krewat finishing it. Krewat states that he was able to complete the game in the final version he gave to Atari, but that somehow either Atari used a previous development version for the cartridge, or they tried to shrink the memory footprint so that it would not require as much static RAM in the cartridge. Atari themselves tested the game and approved it, paying Computer Magic for the final product. Krewat is adamant in stating that the final version supplied to Atari was bug-free. Krewat is working on resurrecting his source code of Impossible Mission for the Atari 7800 as of December 2008 and has found that the code he supplied Atari is identical to the ROM image available on AtariAge.com. Work continues to determine how the bug came about.

The ZX Spectrum version also had this bug, although it only sometimes made the game unwinnable; not always.

The sequel, Impossible Mission II, followed in 1988. It further complicated the quest with new traps and items. Elvin's stronghold also grew in size, now divided into a number of towers which the player had to traverse, all the while picking up pieces of the password (an aural one this time around).

A 3D sequel was planned as a launch title for Epyx's "Handy" system which eventually became the Atari Lynx. The game was eventually renamed ElectroCop and the released version had no apparent connection to the original Impossible Mission, but appeared similar to earlier version of the game in which it still bore the name.

In 1994, Impossible Mission 2025, the final game in the series (so far), was released for the Amiga. It kept the same idea as the previous games, and mainly featured updated graphics and audio, as well as allowing the player to choose between three different characters. The game also contains the original Impossible Mission.

In 2004, Impossible Mission was one of the games featured on the C64 Direct-to-TV.

Impossible Mission was to be remade for the Nintendo Game Boy Advance by Oceanic Studios under license from Ironstone Partners in 2004. The development deal seems to have been put on hold.

Developers System 3 are revamping Impossible Mission for the Sony PSP, Nintendo DS and Wii (it is often mistakenly believed to be the first WiiWare game, but is a budget title released on the 31 August in the UK). In the US, the Nintendo DS version was released exclusively at Gamestop stores by Codemasters and the Wii version was released in March 2008.

There is also a Commodore 64 version on the Wii Virtual Console, that was released in Europe on April 11, 2008.