I found the mystery of the different titles and cover art extremely interesting with this one. This is another Scott Adams adventure and it is clearly a reference to Mission Impossible. I do not believe that Scott Adams had the license to use the franchise because of these conflicting titles and covers. Perhaps there was a bit of a hand slap or concern over copyright infringement.
This Apple version clearly used Mission Impossible as the title. The game begins with a recording of the mission objective which then self-destructs just like in the television show. There is also a reference to Mr. Phelps who was the main character in the series.
Now in the Atari version the title is changed to Secret Mission however if you look closely look at the cover you can see an IMF printed there which stands for Impossible Missions Force. This is also another reference to the television show Mission Impossible. I was very curious about this disparity because as I was creating my list of games which I wanted to play from 1979; different sources had this adventure listed as Secret Mission while others called it Mission Impossible. I had wondered for a moment if they were two different games. I scoured the internet but I could not find an interview or a reason for the title changes.
This the third text adventure from Scott Adams. It is a significant departure from his Adventureland and Pirate Adventure games. You will find no maze in this offering nor will you have to endure another treasure hunt. There is an actual plot here that involves you having to stop a spy from blowing up a nuclear reactor. Secret Mission is historically important here because it is the first time that Adams moves away from the current text adventure tropes. While others had already done this (Gary Bedrosian) there were a lot of eyes on Adams’ products and multiple conversions of his games for different systems. In the subsequent games which would follow Secret Mission; Adams would continue to play with the text adventure as an art form.
The game plays like an espionage thriller as you have to obtain key cards to access different colored doors and then ultimately defuse a bomb. There is a lot of button pushing and color combination puzzles in this game. In one room you’ll find a chair bolted to the floor with four different colored buttons on the chair. I am not going to walk you through every step of this game because I don’t want to spoil it for you but if you sit in the chair and then PRESS RED the bomb detector starts buzzing. When you then PRESS WHITE something will drop to the floor and you’ll need to pick it up and see what that is. I believe you’ll be able to figure out the mysteries of the chair from here.
There is another complicated sequence in the game involving a window in the white visitor’s room. You’re going to end up smashing that window with a heavy object in order to obtain something on the other side. The only way you can stop the alarm from going off is to wave a badge in front of the monitoring camera in that room. It took me some time to puzzle my way through that one.
There are not a lot of locations in this game. You’re dealing with a lot of button and color coded combinations and then you have to diffuse the bomb. You’ll find the items that you need to diffuse the bomb scattered throughout the game. The hardest part of this game is that you are on a time limit. You have a number of moves to diffuse the bomb before it goes off. You will find that you will have to experiment with the different button sequences so my advice would be to save often. Once you’re used to the color coded buttons and using your different badges with the security cameras and doors you’ll be fine.
I am not a big fan of the espionage genre but I certainly appreciated and approved the departure away from mazes and treasure hunts. This is the first time that Scott Adams makes greater use of a plot and story to drive the narrative. The game locations and puzzles were very tight and realistic compared to past solutions that were borderline absurd or humorous.
If you are a historical computer game enthusiast then take note that this was another example of a game that did away with the maze and treasure hunt tropes in favor of plot and story. This game would influence other interactive fiction that would come after it and we’ll find Mr. Adams continue to play with the interactive fiction medium as we move forward. This message that you’re reading will self-destruct in 60 seconds…