Impossible Mission

"Stay awhile... stay forever!" This digitised, devilishly laughing line greeted players right after launch and in 1984 felt like a revelation from the future. To hear intelligible human speech coming from a Commodore 64 cabinet was a small miracle back then — and Impossible Mission immediately made clear that this would be no ordinary game.

You take on the role of a secret agent who must infiltrate the underground complex of the mad professor Elvin Atombender and stop him from destroying the world. The complex is made up of dozens of rooms full of acrobatic jumps, lifts and patrolling robots that kill you on touch or with an electric discharge. Your task is to search all the furniture — armchairs, computers, shelves — and look for fragments of codes. These you must then assemble to obtain the password to Elvin's study. The game knows no weapons; your only equipment is agility, timing and logic.

Behind the title stands the studio Epyx, one of the pillars of the American eight-bit scene. The combination of fluid running and somersault animation, digitised speech and a puzzle core was exceptional for its time and the game quickly became one of the flagships of the C64. For many players it was Impossible Mission that became a synonym for what the Commodore 64 could squeeze out of eight-bit hardware.

Critics and players alike celebrated the title and over the years it earned a number of ports to other platforms and later remakes. The cultural footprint of that opening line is so strong that the retro community still cites it as one of the most iconic sound moments of the eight-bit era.

What makes Impossible Mission so unforgettable is its atmosphere of tension and loneliness — you are alone in an inhospitable complex, time is running out and every mistimed jump can cost you your life. The assembling of codes at the same time adds a layer of puzzle that elevates the game above a mere platformer.

Why play: For the iconic digitised line and the gripping combination of acrobatics and searching that defined the possibilities of the Commodore 64.