Superman, published by Atari in 1979 for the Atari 2600, was one of the first licensed superhero video games and also one of the first to offer an open exploration world: the player must roam Metropolis rebuilding a bridge out of scattered pieces, catch Lex Luthor, and rescue Lois Lane, all while evading kryptonite and the police, who mistake Superman for a criminal if he's seen flying too fast. Its multiple-objective structure and freely navigable map made it far more ambitious than most of its contemporaries, though also more confusing for much of the era's audience. Today it's recognized as an early precursor, underappreciated in its time, of what would later become open-world design.
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