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Codename: ICEMAN is one of the Sierra adventures made with the SCI engine in 1990. The main designer is Jim Walls, the designer of the Police Quest games. This game was meant to be the first part of a Codename series but the sales were disappointing.
The main attraction of the game was that a large port of it was on a control of a submarine, becoming hence some kind of simulator. However, it quite frustrated the players and it was one of the reasons the game was not so popular.
Another reason for its low popularity may be because of the puzzle design. Most puzzles in the game revolve around procedures, be they first aid, military or bureaucratic, that are usually outlined in the manual. Generally, if the player fails to follow a strict procedure (such as checking if a guard returned the player's ID card, rather than someone else's), he will not notice until later in the game, at which point he will be unable to finish the game and has to restore an earlier game to make up for his unnoticed mistake. This kind of puzzle is called a 'dead end', 'walking dead' or 'zombie', and is generally considered poor game design.
A final reason may be that this was a game with EGA graphics in the time were VGA graphics were the new hype.
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