Impossible Mission

A voice from a 64-kilobyte computer told you to stay forever.

Dennis Caswell’s 1984 game sent a secret agent into Elvin Atombender’s underground complex. The layout changed between attempts, and the robots did not always behave the same way.

The agent carried no gun. Progress depended on searching rooms for hidden code pieces and using the terminals scattered through the complex. Robots had to be avoided or outmanoeuvred, often with the game’s distinctive somersault. Every death cost ten minutes from a six-hour countdown.

Impossible Mission became a showcase for what the Commodore 64 could do. Caswell gave its protagonist unusually fluid movement, while Electronic Speech Systems supplied Atombender’s digitized voice. The combination made the game feel strikingly expressive for a home computer of the period and helped set a new standard for presentation on the machine.