German PAL Impossible Mission II for NES?!?

[Speedy_NES]

For starters, most NES collectors know of the 6 different Impossible Mission II versions out there (AVE, SEI b&w, SEI color, HES normal cart, HES piggyback, and Milmar). What only some people know is that HES released a few games with US boxes instead of their own cases, and with a HES sticker on those boxes.

This had not yet been documented for Impossible Mission II, so when I saw a HES version with SEI box + sticker on the German eBay, I just had to win the auction. Surprisingly, it turns out that the box has a German SEI/Epyx sticker on it (with copyright info etc), and the manual inside is also partially in German!? I don't own any of the two previously known HES versions of the game so I can't compare them to the one I found, but could it be that this is a German / European release of the game? Does anyone know if the Australian HES Impossible Mission II also has a multilingual manual? Anybody come across any other HES games like this inside or outside of Germany?

Thanks in advance for any info! :)

-Speedy

[Emily]

Hmm. I only new of 2 variations. Are the rest PAL?

[Qixmaster]

wow, that's very interesting. I haven't gotten into collecting PAL format much so I don't have an answer for ya, but it's always nice to hear about different NES variations along the way. Nice snag :D

-Josh

[jajaja]

Is the manual only in german? You wont suppose to have a unmodified NES? If so, just try the game and if it works its european. If it was from australia (which uses PAL-A) it wont work, you will get blinking screen. Europe use PAL-B, except for UK which also uses PAL-A.

[NESaholic]

Great find,congrats dude, always cool to hear about these things,just when you think you know it all.Have you got some pics by any chance?

[Speedy_NES]

Hmm. I only new of 2 variations. Are the rest PAL?
3 of the variations are from the US (NTSC): the AVE release, and both of the SEI releases (one black and white label, one color label).

The HES normal cart & piggyback releases that were known to exist are Australian PAL-A releases, and the Milmar release is from Brazil.


Is the manual only in german? You wont suppose to have a unmodified NES? If so, just try the game and if it works its european. If it was from australia (which uses PAL-A) it wont work, you will get blinking screen. Europe use PAL-B, except for UK which also uses PAL-A.
And Italy also uses PAL-A ;) That's a good point, though - I didn't think of that yet. I don't have any European NES but I do have a bunch of clones and I remember at least one clone running only my PAL-B games, so I'll try it on one of those. I'm out of the country at the moment so it may take several weeks before I have an answer.

The manual is not completely in German. It consists of English, French, and German sections. The front of the manual also has the "Australian Made" logo to the left of the HES logo. The cartridge also has the normal Australian HES label on the front (pretty sure at least), but is missing a label on the back. Not sure if the other HES versions are missing a back label as well.


wow, that's very interesting. I haven't gotten into collecting PAL format much so I don't have an answer for ya, but it's always nice to hear about different NES variations along the way. Nice snag :D

-Josh

Great find,congrats dude, always cool to hear about these things,just when you think you know it all.Have you got some pics by any chance?
Thanks, definitely nice to come across a new variation ;) I'll scan the stuff when I get back home, but that'll still be a matter of weeks from now.


Again, if anyone has any info on this other than the obvious, let me know :)

-Speedy

[Speedy_NES]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=54957&item=8203136963

I should have posted this link earlier, the auction contains a pic of the game :)

-Speedy

[hydr0x]

mhhh weird, pitty i'm not at home so i can't check out the HES games i own... :/

[Ruudos]

I should check out my copy.

[Speedy_NES]

I should check out my copy.

Did you check out your copy yet?

-Speedy

[Ruudos]

I have the AVE version. It has an English manual, but it also contains a German manual, which consist just of 2 pieces of paper.

[jbholio]

I do have a HES normal cart (with a big plastic HES box) but I don't have the manual. I think jhd7 web site (nestral.topcities.com - not working anymore) had a pic of a IM2 HES cart with a manual. Maybe you can ask him, he is a DP member. I have the manual for the SEI version but it's in english only. One other thing, the sticker on my HES cart is not uspide down like yours.

[Speedy_NES]

I have the AVE version. It has an English manual, but it also contains a German manual, which consist just of 2 pieces of paper.

I think that's just the US version imported in Europe. I have a couple of unlicensed US games that were imported in Europe and have extra French & Dutch manuals on simple pieces of paper. I take it your AVE version is NTSC despite the German manual?


I do have a HES normal cart (with a big plastic HES box) but I don't have the manual. I think jhd7 web site (nestral.topcities.com - not working anymore) had a pic of a IM2 HES cart with a manual. Maybe you can ask him, he is a DP member. I have the manual for the SEI version but it's in english only. One other thing, the sticker on my HES cart is not uspide down like yours.

That's interesting, I'm going to see if I can find more cartridge pics to check whether my upside down label is the exception here. I'll contact jhd7 about the manual later today as well - thanks for the lead!


Well, thanks for the input so far guys! I'm back from vacation now - I'll have scans of the game as soon as my computer is working properly again (in the process of replacing a crashed hard disk at the moment). I'll try and find one of my storaged PAL-B NES clones in the next couple of days to check whether the cartridge is PAL-B instead of PAL-A.

-Speedy

[Speedy_NES]

Short update:

I contacted jhd7, and he provided me with a new link for the image that jbholio mentioned earlier in this thread. Here is the link:

http://mysite.verizon.net/jhd7/misc/IM2HES.JPG

As can be seen from the picture, the cartridge label is also upside down like mine, so perhaps this means that there is another HES variation out there (label placement). ;)

The manual is also identical to the one I have, so now we just need to find out if the Australian manual also includes other languages like mine.

-Speedy

[Speedy_NES]

Ok, I finally managed to fix my computer and scan the game. Here are the scans:

Box front w/German sticker:
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y203/Speedy_NES/ImpossibleMissionII-Germanversion-B.jpg

Box back:
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y203/Speedy_NES/ImpossibleMissionII-Germanversion-3.jpg

Manual:
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y203/Speedy_NES/ImpossibleMissionII-Germanversion-M.jpg

Cartridge front:
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y203/Speedy_NES/ImpossibleMissionII-Germanversion-C.jpg

Cartridge back (missing label; no sign of any past glue residue):
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y203/Speedy_NES/ImpossibleMissionII-Germanversion-2.jpg

I still need to check if the game is PAL-A or PAL-B. I'll try to get that done by the end of the week. ;)

-Speedy

[jajaja]

Cool pics. The front cover is hilarious haha LOL