When we boot up a superhero game today, we have certain expectations. We want a sprawling, beautifully rendered city to explore, like in Insomniac’s Spider-Man. We want a deep combat system and a compelling story, like in the Batman: Arkham series. We want to feel like the hero. Now, I want you to strip all of that away. Ditch the 4K textures, the physics engines, and the cinematic cutscenes. Go back to a time when a superhero was a handful of colored squares, and the sprawling city of Metropolis was a series of confusing, nearly identical screens.

Welcome to Superman for the Atari 2600.

Released in 1979, this game is a fascinating, glorious, and often baffling piece of gaming history. As someone who appreciates the ambition of retro developers, Superman isn't just an old game; it's a blueprint for a genre that wouldn't truly exist for another two decades.

So, What’s the Mission, Supes?

Dropping into Superman for the first time is an experience. You are a blue-and-red sprite that vaguely resembles a person. You can fly. That much is clear. But where do you go? What do you do? There's no tutorial, no waypoint, no quest log. There is only the mission, as described in the paper manual you hopefully didn't lose.

Lex Luthor and his gang of "underworld henchmen" (represented by purple sprites) have blown up the Metropolis bridge. Your job is three-fold:

1. Capture Lex Luthor and all of his goons and toss them in jail.

2. Find the three pieces of the destroyed bridge and put them back together.

3. Once the city is safe, find a phone booth, change back into Clark Kent, and head to the Daily Planet to file your story.

That’s right. This 1979 game has a multi-part quest with a definitive end-state. You aren't just chasing a high score; you are completing a narrative. Flying around the multi-screen map, you have to contend with Kryptonite satellites that sap your powers and even a kiss from Lois Lane, which renders you temporarily unable to capture villains. It's surprisingly complex for the era.

The Man Behind the Man of Steel

The game was designed by John Dunn, a programmer tasked with translating the epic scope of the 1978 blockbuster Superman movie onto a cartridge with just 128 bytes of RAM. To say this was a challenge is a massive understatement. Creating a game world that scrolled in four directions, had multiple objectives, and tracked different items and characters was practically unheard of.

The game's most infamous feature is a direct result of these limitations: the X-ray vision. Pressing the fire button doesn't shoot heat rays; it's supposed to let you see the next screen over. But the Atari 2600 couldn't actually render that. So, Dunn came up with a wild solution. Activating X-ray vision throws the entire game map's data onto the screen in a chaotic, flickering mess. It looks like a glitch, a total system crash. But it's not. It was Dunn’s ingenious, if jarring, workaround to give the player a "see everything" power. It’s a perfect example of the game’s whole vibe: a glorious, janky mess born from incredible ambition. You have to respect the hustle.

Is It... Good?

Let’s be honest: by modern standards, Superman is tough to play. Navigating Metropolis can feel like being lost in a hall of mirrors, and the controls are slippery. It's very easy to fly right past a villain or a piece of the bridge on one of the fast-scrolling screens.

But its importance vastly outweighs its quirks. This wasn't just Space Invaders with a cape. It broke the mold of the single-screen arcade game. It gave players a character, a world to explore, and a purpose beyond just survival. In its multi-part quest and non-linear map, you can see the faint glimmers of The Legend of Zelda, of Metroid, and eventually of the massive open-world adventures we take for granted today. It tried to make you be Superman, not just control a ship shaped like him.

The Collector's Nook: Value & Rarity

Thinking of adding this piece of history to your shelf? You're in luck. As a major title connected to a huge movie, Superman sold a ton of copies and is one of the most common games for the system.

• Loose Cartridge: You can easily find a loose cartridge for $5 to $10. It's a must-own for any 2600 collector due to its historical significance.

• Complete-In-Box (CIB): A boxed copy with the manual is also very affordable, usually running between $20 and $35. The box art alone is a fantastic retro artifact.

Kryptonian Fun Facts (The TL;DR)

• Proto Open-World: It's considered one of the very first console games to feature a multi-screen, explorable world.

• A Real Ending: Unlike most games of its time, it has a defined set of objectives and an actual "win" condition.

• Feature, Not a Bug: That crazy, screen-melting X-ray vision effect was 100% intentional.

• Hidden Pause Button: The game has no official pause, but designer John Dunn built in a secret one: flipping the console's "TV Type" switch from Color to B&W freezes the action!

• Lois Lane, The Debuff: Getting kissed by Lois Lane is a game mechanic that prevents you from flying for a short time.

Superman for the Atari 2600 is a time capsule. It’s a testament to a period when the rules of game design were still being written, and developers like John Dunn were throwing everything at the wall to see what stuck. It may not be the most polished gem in the Atari library, but its ambition was sky-high, and it flew further than almost any game before it.

Sources:

• AtariAge. (n.d.). Superman - Atari 2600. Retrieved from https://atariage.com/software_page.php?software_id=1334

• Montfort, Nick, & Bogost, Ian. (2009). Racing the Beam: The Atari Video Computer System. The MIT Press. (This book contains an excellent chapter analyzing the design and technical achievements of Superman).

• The Digital Antiquarian. (2011). The Right Man for the Job. (An article discussing John Dunn and the development of Superman). Retrieved from https://www.filfre.net/2011/10/the-right-man-for-the-job/