Posted By
Csabo
on 2022-07-25
11:17:06
|  Impossible Mission +4
 Rub your eyes and do a double-take: this time it's real, the legendary C64 game Impossible Mission is here, available on your Commodore Plus/4.
Anyone thinking that TCFS maestro returning in 2022 with Bruce Lee Anniversary Edition was a one-off miracle is in for a (pleasant) surprise. Cue all the "Impossible!" jokes... Forget all the fakes, don't worry about how the Plus/4 doesn't have hardware sprites, and believe your eyes: the main character is running, somersaulting and hacking computers in all it's glory. The influence of this classic is undeniable as it spawned many knock-offs (A-07 or Rózsaszín Párduc, anyone?), but this is the real thing.
Go play it now!
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Posted By
gerliczer
on 2022-07-25
11:17:06
| Re: Impossible Mission +4
Crazy!
TCFS, nagy vagy! Talán a legnagyobb is! És neked is köszi Csabo!
For English speakers: You are great TCFS. Maybe even the greatest. And thanks to you too, Csabo.
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Posted By
Chronos
on 2022-07-25
12:02:33
 | Re: Impossible Mission +4
I love you man  Great stuff again!
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Posted By
Csabo
on 2022-07-25
12:29:09
| Re: Impossible Mission +4
This is an absolute holy grail for +4 gamers  Huge thank you from me as well. It plays lovely, never stop somersaulting
(Who knows what's next? Maybe we should gently nudge Ati to finish Last Ninja?)
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Posted By
gerliczer
on 2022-07-25
13:29:46
| Re: Impossible Mission +4
You can't help wondering what may come next. Usagi Yojimbo? International Karate? Archon?
Any guess or wishes, people? 
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Posted By
retroscener
on 2022-07-25
13:38:05
 | Re: Impossible Mission +4
As if Bruce Lee Anniversary Edition wasn't enough this year, now he goes and totally knocks it out of the park. Spectacular return after nearly 30 years away.
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Posted By
javierglez
on 2022-07-25
15:20:36
| Re: Impossible Mission +4
If he's doing GB64's Top 10, Ghostbuster or Bubble Bobble.
Bruce Lee was my favourite C64 game.
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Posted By
zzarko
on 2022-07-25
16:24:27
| Re: Impossible Mission +4
This was almost impossible mission, but TCFS did it! Fantastic conversion!
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Posted By
Chronos
on 2022-07-25
17:02:46
| Re: Impossible Mission +4
+1 for Bubble Bobble
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Posted By
Lavina
on 2022-07-25
17:17:45
 | Re: Impossible Mission +4
I can't freaking believe it!
As for the next project.., Lemmings?
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Posted By
Harry Potter
on 2022-07-25
17:22:29
| Re: Impossible Mission +4
I agree for Bubble Bobble. When I was young, my mother and I used to play it all the time.
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Posted By
retroscener
on 2022-07-25
18:29:48
| Re: Impossible Mission +4
@Lavina
I too vote for Lemmings. which he did code this preview years ago, which is sadly now a GTW. Apparently he stated that finishing it is an impossibility. Maybe it seemed so back then. Perhaps he'll give it another shot.
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Posted By
Mad
on 2022-07-26
05:16:04
| Re: Impossible Mission +4
Wow incredible stuff! And the TED sfx are almost 1:1 the same as the ones from the "original".
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Posted By
seff
on 2022-07-26
08:31:58
 | Re: Impossible Mission +4
Great! Both Bruce Lee Anniversary Edition and Impossible Mission demonstrate the potential of the C264 series.
@TCFS, how many idle/free CPU cycles per a video refresh cycle are available with Bruce Lee Anniversary Edition and Impossible Mission? Are these games based on the same "software-sprite engine" of yours?
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Posted By
Csabo
on 2022-07-26
08:33:58
| Re: Impossible Mission +4
@Mad thanks, I tried to make them as close to the original as possible I'm glad I could contribute in a small way, otherwise all the glory goes to TCFS.
Also, don't just ask for new games, vote with your High Scores. TCFS said that if 30 people submit scores to the HOF, he will definitely make one more game. (Disclaimer: the previous sentence is a blatant lie. But seriously people, send in your scores.)
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Posted By
Ramokromok
on 2022-07-27
18:02:11
| Re: Impossible Mission +4
Wow! Some great +4 stuff this year - nice one TCFS!
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Posted By
Lavina
on 2022-07-28
15:30:57
| Re: Impossible Mission +4
Could we get a detailed description of the development process, pretty please??
This is credited as "coded by". I guess lots of things had been reused/recycled from the C64 version, including gfx (obviously redrawn where needed) and also the main game code itself. So I feel it's more like a port (conversion). With most conversions from C64 it's anyway lots of code rewriting, that is what conversion is about as far as I understand... So please explain why it's coded, not converted
Oh, and why now, if it was soooo possible, why nobody cared in the golden days of conversions during the early 90's? This was clearly an epic title back then, so clearly a target for conversion...
Anyways, huge thanks... I've been playing for a while, I must say I suck at these jump games, but still, it's loads of fun remembering this from my childhood, playing it at friends who had C64 in mid 80's. (mainly kids of doctors, haha).
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Posted By
Csabo
on 2022-07-28
15:56:31
| Re: Impossible Mission +4
It was a well-known fact among Plus/4 sceners even back in the day, and it was spelled out in detail in Checkpoint 6x16 (which we painstakingly translated, check it out y'all!) that TCFS never converted games, he wrote games using C64 graphics and music. That is exactly how we ended up with games that are really quite different from the originals in terms of gameplay (major examples: Grand Prix Circuit, Wizard of Wor, Commando (Plus4)).
Where are you getting "soooo possible" from? Ask anyone (and I do mean it, C=64 or Plus/4 coders) if the original C=64 Impossible Mission can be converted to Plus/4, the answer will be a resounding no.
I took someone like TCFS who - let's face it - is in another class of programmer compared to us, in terms of technical skill, knowledge of sprite engines, and (perhaps most importantly) work ethic. I do hope he gives us a more definitive answer though.
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Posted By
TCFS
on 2022-07-28
16:22:16
 | Re: Impossible Mission +4
Just to be clear. Nothing was reused from the original code. Nothing from the memory dump of the original game. Even the graphical elements were "grabbed" using my rotoscopy tool from screenshots and not converted from original charsets. (Mainly using screenshots downloaded from the "Rooms" section of this page: https://www.c64-wiki.com/wiki/Impossible_Mission)
The code is totally rewritten, because it is easier to program the same functionality/narrative from scratch around my sprite engine, than to continuously reverse engineer the logic of the original byte code, and relocating functions from unusable memory areas. (I am already too old for that huge effort.)
Due to preserving acceptable framerate, my sprite routine uses lot of optimization which requires several changes in the game rules and narrative. I tried to find the balance between playability and similarity and sometimes this effort remain hidden. This makes the direct conversion also impossible. (For example the lightnings from the robots are shifted a few pixels down and dont't come out from the proper location of the robot head. That position is suitable for a 6*1 characters sprite, because it matches the character boundary. If I would have stick to the original placement of flashes, that would have required to use a 6*2 characters sprite, that notably would have affected the CPU cycles and the framerate.)
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Posted By
Lavina
on 2022-07-29
03:45:29
| Re: Impossible Mission +4
Nice, thanks! I cannot imagine how anyone can rewrite such complex games, the narrative, etc... Well, luckily as stated before here, we don’t just have "someone", we have TCFS maestro to do the impooooosible. Nice to have you back here as well, I'm as happy to read stuff from you here as for the fact that we have new stuff from you. Huge respect!
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Posted By
Mad
on 2022-07-28
18:43:57
| Re: Impossible Mission +4
Impressive.. Rewriting that complete game!! I knew TCFS is a maniac (literally 10s-100s of converted games and other marvel), but rewriting Impossible Mission really is a great feat.!!
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Posted By
TCFS
on 2022-07-29
03:17:52
| Re: Impossible Mission +4
@seff, yes, my latest 2 games were based on my new sprite engine. That engine is capable of being independent from screen sync anomalies, for example flickering. It drops temporarily the framerate instead.
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Posted By
Lavina
on 2022-07-29
03:46:57
| Re: Impossible Mission +4
Haha it’s really fun reading MAD commenting on TCFS being a maniac
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Posted By
TCFS
on 2022-07-29
04:01:12
| Re: Impossible Mission +4
@Lavina, There is no difference between writing a game and rewriting a game. The original IM was written from scratch. That means that this is achievable. Why don't you assume that the same thing is possible on  ?
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Posted By
Lavina
on 2022-07-29
06:56:56
| Re: Impossible Mission +4
Hmm I understand that, but somehow I thought that achieving (almost) the same gameplay, room design, mechanics, etc. of an existing game is more difficult than writing a new one from scratch (from the design phase). I just think that recreating something existing is more work as you need to study the original and follow those rules set in it by the original authors… But you’re the expert. I would not be able to do it in a 100 years.
Btw, could we take a peek at the tool you mentioned for gfx? It sounds rather interesting and I’m very curious about the development process of masterworks.
Also, what tools did you use? I suspect that you left the habit of the good old days with bytecoding in Monitor. :)
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Posted By
Lavina
on 2022-07-29
10:19:13
| Re: Impossible Mission +4
Thanks Csabo, I was trying to find it among TCFS’s releases, I did not realize that crossplatform tools are not listed on the author’s page in the conventional releases section but in a different one :) My bad. And sorry for my excitement, I'm still rubbing my eyes :)
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Posted By
seff
on 2022-07-30
07:29:17
| Re: Impossible Mission +4
@TCFS I wish we had your sprite engine back in the 80s... Any chance to open source it? Thank you so much for all the hard work!
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Posted By
blinddarm
on 2022-07-31
09:30:47
| Re: Impossible Mission +4
this is really Kick-Ass !
@TCFS
Hats down for your outstanding work !
After being absent for a long time to the classic computing scene, now its time to resurrect my beloved Commodore 16 from its hibernation.
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Posted By
orion70
on 2022-08-01
07:26:26
| Re: Impossible Mission +4
Great, immense, spectacular work 8)
CHAPEAU @TCFS and @Csabo (for sfx) and happy Impossibile Mission to every Plus/4 user on planet Earth! Many many many thanks for that. God bless you and all the people thriving to bring those classics on the TED series.
@blindarm - your beloved EXPANDED Commodore 16, isn't it?
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Posted By
blinddarm
on 2022-08-02
23:56:38
| Re: Impossible Mission +4
@orion70 Jaaa
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Posted By
dLst
on 2022-08-03
15:41:08
| Re: Impossible Mission +4
!Off!
I am very lucky to be among those who have known TCFS since the begining ... (1989-90-91). It wasn't a very close friendship, but at that time the text message was via post which took 1-2 weeks. TCFS has always been one of my favorites! He sent me his masterpieces on cassette. These years and feelings are very, very deep and good memories. But in addition to the works, I remember for his kindly and selfless help and mankind.
Thanks TCFS for these and of course for your works!
And this game... I love it
Respect for TCFS ... and those who keep plus4 alive!
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Posted By
Degauss
on 2022-08-04
08:05:37
| Re: Impossible Mission +4
Awesome work guys! Feels just like the original.
@Csabo: The sound-effects are amazing. You really excelled yourself here.
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Posted By
Csabo
on 2022-08-04
08:24:17
| Re: Impossible Mission +4
Thanks man... You know, when TCFS asks you to be part of a project, who can say no
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Posted By
aNdy/Cosine
on 2022-08-04
15:48:11
 | Re: Impossible Mission +4
Only just saw this. Like WOW! Awesome work!
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Posted By
Luca
on 2022-08-08
18:25:26
 | Re: Impossible Mission +4
I am totally blown away by the incredible fidelity of this version built literally from scratch. Even the sure steps between two close platforms, the relationship between sprite position and platforms distance, the whole game mechanics... Everything has been respectfully ported from zero.
TCFS is the real Maestro in the Plus/4 scene, 30 years ago and still nowadays. Gaining not one but two releases by him after all this time is a blessing from heaven.
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Posted By
Litwr
on 2022-08-10
10:37:03
| Re: Impossible Mission +4
What a great game! It is like Saboteur which I like very much. I hope to find several days to play it.
However IMHO the recreating allows us to miss some rare Easter eggs.
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Posted By
bubis
on 2022-08-11
05:32:15
| Re: Impossible Mission +4
Incredible stuff! Well done!
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Posted By
orion70
on 2022-08-12
10:17:20
| Re: Impossible Mission +4
I really can't get how the 23 minutes trick in the video works... Looks like it's waiting, dying several times, and when the time reaches the limit, game over, and that's all... Can you please elaborate? Thanks!
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Posted By
gerliczer
on 2022-08-12
12:23:56
| Re: Impossible Mission +4
I think, you should have used your sarcasm detector. Csabo wrote nothing about completing the game.
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Posted By
Csabo
on 2022-08-12
13:34:23
| Re: Impossible Mission +4
Yeah, I thought the sarcasm would have been as obvious as the comment I left under that video (which says "The first 23 minutes were riveting gameplay.").
That channel puts up bad videos in general. If someone sees the video's title, and the fact that it's 32 minutes long, they probably get their hopes up!... But instead if just took them 23 minutes to figure out how to control the game... and the end result is boring garbage. They should have done another take and play properly. This video is probably their worst - they attempt to load up a C64 game and press random keys :-/
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Posted By
orion70
on 2022-08-17
05:20:35
| Re: Impossible Mission +4
Ah OK - I was at the seaside, beach water and sun, my sarcasm detector was really off then
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Posted By
SVS
on 2022-08-22
04:21:41
 | Re: Impossible Mission +4
WOW after 40 years, it's fantastic!
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Posted By
Fraser
on 2022-08-26
15:15:10
| Re: Impossible Mission +4
Does anyone know what loading scheme does IM2 for the C64 use? Is the NES version of that official since Wikipedia doesn't mention it and there is a site that calls it "unlicensed" ?
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Posted By
gerliczer
on 2022-08-26
15:32:11
| Re: Impossible Mission +4
Wouldn't those questions better be asked in C64 and NES forums or facebook groups or whatever else relevant places? Especially since you are asking about Impossible Mission 2 and this topic is about an unlicensed conversion of Impossible Mission.
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Posted By
Luca
on 2022-09-05
11:47:05
| Re: Impossible Mission +4
Since its release day, Impossible Mission +4 has been updated in order to fix little flaws here and there. The last updates fixed the quit option, and the game pausing (which basically didn't actually pause the game).
Nonetheless, in the very last update TCFS has taken the opportunity to better arrange the robots' frequency of lasering, cutting off the shortest times between two laser shots from the whole range of possibilities. This means that now the game actually plays slightly less difficult, hence download the game again and delete any older version from Othersi.de's and Plus/4 World's download links. This should resulkt to be the definitive one. Oh and yes, I'm the guilty one who reported all the last flaws
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Posted By
orion70
on 2022-09-06
02:54:47
| Re: Impossible Mission +4
Thanks Luca for reporting and TCFS for improvements, now it's simply PERFECT!
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