Impossible Mission III was a freeware fangame we saw as the true crowning of the series composed by the original two Epyx masterpieces from the old, glorious times of Commodore 64, taking the place of Impossible Mission 2025 (which we discard as apocryphal) as the third and final installment. Needless to say, we do not own the commercial rights, which are owned by System 3 / Bridgestone Multimedia Group, as far as we know.
The game has been developed with ClickTeam Fusion 2.5+ Developer for Windows and has low system requirements, like many other indie games: it was meant to be faithful to the old classic games in terms of 2D graphics and gameplay, though taking advantage of some modern effects, shaders, higher number of colors, etc. The legendary sprite of agent 4125 has been used to keep perfect continuity between the original games and IM3, just like the equally famous and iconic initial synthetized phrase "Another visitor... stay a while, stay forever!" provided by Electronic Speech Systems.
Impossible Mission II (Epyx, 1988) ended with the apparent death of Professor Elvin Atombender (depicted in the image above is the C64 version). That final image is the starting point of this new chapter. What happens next is literally showed in the opening cutscene of IM3, with the robots saving the brains of Elvin to preserve his consciousness in order to fulfill his future deadly plans (see other pages for more information on the backstory of the game).
The goal was to create a worthy sequel balancing tradition and innovation. The game mechanics are strictly based on the first two games but, at the same time, new features are introduced, such as the ability to roll on the floor. The puzzles, a trademark of the series (IM has never been just a mere platformer!), are increased in number and complexity, with the introduction of many sub-games. New types of robots have been created and the randomized behavior of the "sentrybots" from the original Impossible Mission in 1984 has been reintroduced just to add variety and unpredictability to the game: not knowing in advance how each robot will behave was a design priority to enrich the gameplay and the whole experience.
Graphics are mainly based upon the style of the second installment from 1988 (designed by Sultan of the Hungarian team Novotrade), so the platforms show a perspective and a variable depth; this time, thanks to the fact of being developed on a modern PC, IM3 uses many more colors, but a crucial choice was to avoid too vivid colors in favor of desaturated pastel shades recalling the stylish and soft palette of the Commodore 64. A CRT filter, set on by default, completes the nostalgic feeling of the graphics.
In the image above you can see the evolution of the graphic style from the flat platforms of the first game. Impossible Mission 2025 (a 1994 Amiga only game, never ported to C64) broke the IM tradition in far too many ways and ultimately barely seemed to be a third chapter of the same series. Our game is (was / is / will be in a parallel universe, who knows) meant to be totally consistent with the original two installments even with its many innovations. That's a key objective.
The game is set in a future in which Professor Elvin Atombender has been presumed dead for 30 years after the events of the second game, when he committed suicide falling from one of his towers. Unbeknownst to anyone, his robots removed his brain from his still warm corpse to preserve his consciousness. The hive-mind of his artificial intelligences merged with him and started an enterprise bigger than the previous ones, the construction of an orbital space station hidden from radars and satellites for decades. The final plan is to use a powerful gamma ray cannon to totally obliterate any lifeform on Earth and finally vent the ancient hatred of Elvin against humanity.
This time the player - a young clone of the now old Agent 4125/Bravo 29 - has got 12 hours in the desperate effort to stop the automated space station of Elvin from unleashing the gamma ray armageddon on the surface of the planet. To do that, the agent has only his agility and his intelligence in finding clues, codes and puzzle pieces hidden in the furniture and inside other objects throughout the space station, then solving wicked puzzles to unlock access to the next station module.
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