For no discernable reason, Superman explodes from his own groin.
A few years back, Alan Moore expressed his disappointment at the fact that “Watchmen” is still considered by many to be the greatest comic book ever produced. He felt it reflected poorly on the entire industry that most comic readers truly believed that nothing better had been produced since he and Dave Gibbons finished “Watchmen” over twenty years ago. Granted, Alan Moore complains about a lot of things, but he's got a point. What then does it say about comic book video games that the best Superman game ever released celebrates its thirtieth anniversary this year?
Atari’s “Superman,” programmed by John Dunn was released in 1979, it was one of the first cartridges my sister and I got for our Sears Atari 2600 knockoff, and it’s a game we both fired up regularly over the next three decades. Coincidentally, it’s also the tenth anniversary of the worst Superman game ever made; a monstrosity that many gamers would actually declare the worst video game of any genre ever made. That’s a story for another column…
I’ve always had a tenuous affection for the Man of Steel. On the one hand, “DC Comics Presents” #10 is still my favorite comic cover of all time (hmm…I really just noticed for the first time the thematic similarity to my favorite album cover of all time). On the other hand, I’ve never read a Superman story that stuck with me much past the last page. I’ve got his famous “S-shield” permanently etched on my shoulder, but that’s more about my belief in truth, justice, and the American way than in any actual love of the character. I skipped “Superman Returns”, but did commit to seven seasons of “Smallville” before finally giving up. Outside of his supportingcast, one great villain, and the power to leap tall buildings in a single bound, there’s not that much about the character that resonates with me. What makes Atari’s “Superman” so great is that the limitations of the Atari 2600 forced the game to be boiled down to those core components that do make the character memorable.
Thanks to Mile High Comics for the scan!
The action begins with a blocky, but recognizable Superman (blocky, rectangular cape flapping in the breeze) diving into a phone booth and turning into a blocky, but recognizable Clark Kent (in his pixilated blue suit and press hat). Clark heads for work at the Daily Planet but, Great Krypton! Lex Luthor and his cronies blow up the Metropolis Bridge, so it’s back to the phone booth for a quick change into the blue tights. While the explosion was powerful enough to hurl chunks of bridge across the city (and even into the subway tunnels), at least it left the wreckage in three convenient pieces, easily put back together if Superman can get them all together. It’s not as easy a task as it sounds though, because it seems like every time Supes delivers a piece back where it belongs, that bald @#$%er, Lex Luthor flies along in his Inspector Gadget helicopter backpack and steals it back. Jailing Lex first is sound strategy, but if you do the Daily Planet news chopper will, in a fit of inassailable Atari logic, start stealing pieces of the bridge instead.
In the meantime, Superman fills his time tracking down Luthor’s goons and delivering them to jail. His x-ray vision allows him to check out the action on the screens above, below, and all around, which is helpful with kryptonite satellites filling the skies. One touch from these flying landmines grounds Superman and sends him scurrying on foot to get a power-restoring kiss from blocky, but recognizable Lois Lane. Eventually, with all the crooks in jail and the Metropolis Bridge reassembled (no doubt with heat vision), Superman gets the ultimate reward: he gets to change into Clark Kent and go to work!
The game could be frustrating, trying to navigate a city map with all the aesthetic charm of Boston’s City Hall Plaza (hurray, local joke for the Boston edition). It could also be absurdly addictive. This is the game that introduced me to the concept of going back to beat my best time, a practice I’m still addicted to thanks to “L4D’s” survival mode. It also introduced 70’s gamers to the concept of “Easter Eggs,” or as we called them back then, “mistakes.” The game contained glitches that could be exploited to stop the bridge from blowing up and allowing you to achieve a record time if Clark was standing in just the right place. Because we knew the characters going in, it was also a game the sparked the imagination. I remember making up names and extensive back stories for Luthor’s identical goons, like Murray the Hat (no wait, they all wore hats) and Johnny Machine Gun (no wait, they all had machine guns).
Atari’s “Superman” wasn’t the first licensed game (that honor went to the 1976 “Death Race” arcade game), but it was the first licensed game that you could bring home. With such a rich back story and built-in fan base, it was an easy sell and a monster hit for Atari. It was such a success that, in 1982 Atari staked their most of their operating budget on the guaranteed success of another beloved licensed character: E.T. Looking at the movies that came out that summer, maybe Atari would have been better off, and the video game industry might not have imploded, if they had put their money into “Superman II” instead.
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Great Caesar's Ghost! Atari's Superman is 30-years-old
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