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PRE- 1990S promotional flyer.]] The Marvel Comics superhero ''Spider-Man'' was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko and first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15 (August, 1962 ). By the late 1970s , Spider-Man had become a successful Franchise . At this time the Fictional Character had already starred in two Animated Series ('' Spider-Man (1967) '', '' Spidey Super Stories '' ( 1974 )) and a Live Action series '' The Amazing Spider-Man (1978) ''. As a result of his success Marvel Comics began licensing the character into a stream of electronic games that still perpetuates itself today. In 1978 D. Gottlieb & Co. released '' The Amazing Spider-Man '' the Pinball Machine designed by Ed Krinski as part of their '' Star Series 80 '' line. The first came off the assembly line in March 1978 and the line continued well into the early 1980s . In 1979 , Scott Adams released the second in a series of text adventure games titled, '' Questprobe '' for the Commodore 16 . The second in the series was titled, ''Questprobe featuring Spider-Man'', and involved Spider-Man trying to track down the Incredible Hulk . The game was updated with graphics in 1985 and released on the Commodore 64/128 , ZX Spectrum , PC and the Apple II . In 1982 the Parker Brothers published a game for the Atari 2600 (and released on the clone Sears Video Game System ) titled simply, '' Spider-Man ''. The game was an action game that involved climbing a sky scraper rescuing hostages and defusing bombs set by the Green Goblin , it supported two players. Fours years after the remake of the ''Questprobe'' game in , ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64. The game was written by Paragon Software Corporation , and published by Medallist (a subsidiary of MicroProse ). The story of the game was told in a series of comic panels, with the game play similar to that of '' Street Fighter '' with your character (either Captain America or ''Spider-Man'') battling various villains one on one, until finally reaching Doctor Doom . In December 1989 '' Revenge Of Shinobi '' was released on the Sega Genesis . The game had various boss battles that featured comic book characters including Spider-Man and Batman . Initially Spider-Man was included without consentment from Marvel, but later revisions credited them. 1990S In the ''. The first game of the decade released was ''. The title was published by Paragon Software Corporation and featured over 250 screens. The next game released was a trilogy for the newly introduced Nintendo Game Boy . The first developed was released in 1991 by Rare titled, '' The Amazing Spider-Man ''. The game was published by LJN (A Subsidiary of Acclaim ) the first of a series of games published based on licensed Marvel characters. The game play involves running across New York chasing varies super villains in an attempt to locate those responsible for the kidnap of Spider-Man's partner, Mary Jane Watson . The second Game Boy game simply titled, '''' with slightly improved game play, controls and graphics over its predecessor. In 1990, ''Spider-Man'' was released for the first time on to the Sega family of consoles. The game - developed by a team that would later start Technopop - was titled '' The Amazing Spider-Man Vs. The Kingpin '' and premiered on the Master System , then later ported to the Genesis in 1991 , the Sega Game Gear in 1992 and then the Sega CD in 1993 . Fundamentally the game on each platform remained the same with each iteration including new levels, enhanced graphics and a few incremental improvements to the game play. The story involved Spider-Man trying to collect six keys from six villains to defuse a bomb in New York planted by the Kingpin who in the process framed Spider-Man for it. Spider-Man must traverse New York City fighting both villains and the police to collect the six keys. A unique game element is that Spider-Man has a finite supply of webfluid and the only way to replenish is to take photos, most profitably of the supervillains, to sell to the Daily Bugle . In '' developed by Sega on the Sega System 32 hardware. The game is a four player, platform beat-'em up similar to Data East 's '' Captain America And The Avengers '' released earlier that year. The game allowed you the user to play as either Spider-Man, Black Cat , Namor The Sub-Mariner or Hawkeye , with the game divided into four acts, meeting various villains including, Venom , Kingpin, Doctor Octopus , Electro , Lizard , Scorpion , Green Goblin , Hobgoblin , and Doctor Doom . In 1991, '' for the Game Boy that featured Spider-Man. The pairing of the Punisher and Spider-Man was unlikely, however Spider-Man's involvement was negligible. The game operated much like '' Operation Wolf '' with the Punisher shooting villains while protecting the innocent. Spider-Man would appear between the action to offer advice on how to beat upcoming levels, or swing in to rescue hostages once their captors had been shot. The '' developed by B.I.T.S., (responsible for the previous Nintendo Game Boy titles) was an action platform game that involved Spider-Man swinging across various levels to defeat each one of the Sinister Six; Eletro, Sandman , Mysterio , Hobgoblin, Vulture and Doctor Octopus. The game in 1993 was ported to Game Gear and sported enhanced graphics and sound. '''' the first Spider-Man cross platform game released on both Nintendo’s and Sega's hardware. Despite the title, it isn't an arcade title - as that was merely the name of the game's villain. It was first developed for Super Nintendo in 1992 by Software Creations (who went on to produce several games for Marvel) and published by LJN . The game was later ported to the Genesis in 1993. The game involves rescuing four of the Mutant superhero X-Men ( Wolverine , Cyclops , Storm , Gambit ) from an Assassin named Arcade . The player must navigate Spider-Man in search of the captured heroes (who join Spider-Man when found), fighting a variety of super villains. Software Creations later adapted the game to the Game Boy in 1993 and to Game Gear in 1994 . During the mid 1990s, Marvel had two major comic book story lines adapted to a video game by Software Creations the first being, '''' for Super Nintendo, Genesis and PC the following year. Maximum Carnage was released to much hype with the Super Nintendo cartridge sporting a blood red color and achieved a high level of critical and commercial success. The sequel was released to less fanfare but still managed to succeed to a certain degree. Both games were side scrolling beat-'em up action games where you played as either Spider-Man or Venom fighting various villains from the comic book plotlines. 1994 saw the beginning of a range of software incorporating elements form the critically acclaimed '', Mysterio , Beetle , Jack O'Lantern , Shocker , Chameleon , Venom, Vulture , Rhino , the Lizard, Alien Spiderslayer , Tri-Spider Slayer, Alistair Smythe, Scorpion, Hammerhead, Doctor Octopus, Hydro Man, the Tinkerer, and the Green Goblin. The game also features the Fantastic Four . In who played Spider-Man in the series. That same year Marvel attempted to release classic comic books onto CD-ROM . Only four were every produced, based on Spider-Man, the X-Men, Iron Man and the Fantastic Four . The Spider-Man one titled, '' Marvel CD-ROM Comics Featuring Spider-Man '' included animation from the series, trivia games, and four complete issues of the comic narrated by Christopher Daniel Barnes. In '' which was later ported to the SNES . The game involved utilising each of the Marvel superheroes through each of their levels to collect one of the Gems needed to complete the game. The game featured Iron Man, Captain America , Hulk , Wolverine and Spider-Man. As a result of the success of Capcom's '' in 2000 . Venom also appeared as a playable character in the latter two games. '''' was developed by BlueSky Software in 1996 and more notably published by Sega for the Sega 32X , as one the final titles for the add-on. This game marks the first console game not published by Acclaim, possibly representing a fallout between Marvel and Acclaim as no later product were published by them. The game is a platform action game similar to the previous Sega title, ''Spider-Man vs. The Kingpin'' but this time teams up with Daredevil to prevent the invading forces of HYDRA from taking over New York City. The game is broken into six levels with featuring bosses; Dragonman, Thermite, Blitz, The Vanisher, Eel, Tangle, and the Super-adaptoid. Even though the game itself can be regarded as flawed - due to excessive difficulty, poor controls, and bland visuals - it nonetheless usually reaches well over U$100 on eBay, for being one of the rarest 32X titles. Developer ''. The game was released in 1996 and published by Byron Preiss Multimedia . The game allowed the user to choose their own path the narrative to go and allowed the user to interact with characters as Peter Parker, collect items, and included various puzzles and a range of boss battles in the form of mini games. The game was considered easy, unless understood it was targeted for young children. '' Marvel Creativity Centre '' released in 1997 for both PC and Apple Mac by Cloud 9 Interactive teaches the user how to create comics, the 'Marvel Way' with Stan Lee and Spider-Man acting as guides. The "story" involves Marvel studios being infiltrated by a mystery villain whose broken contact with all the regular Marvel artists and writers so it’s up to the user to plot, script, illustrate and letter a comic. 2000S Throughout the late 1990s Marvel Comics suffered an industry slump with Marvel filing for Bankruptcy , which explains the lack of ''Spider-Man'' games towards the end of the late 1990s. However by 2000 , Marvel was profitable again and was gearing up to drop the Comics Code Authority and established its own rating system and began seriously licensing its characters for major feature film adaptations (with the commercially successful '' X-Men '' Film premiering on July 14 , 2000 ). By the late 2000s new Spider-Man games were in the works all being published by Activision to this day. As a symbolic gesture of Marvel's return they announced the development of three separate '''' (not related to the NES game of the same name) was released in 2001, and developed by Treyach. The PlayStation Spider-Man utilized the same engine as '' Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 '' (released September 2000 ) which was also published by Activision. As an Easter Egg , developer Neversoft Entertainment included the ability to play as ''Spider-Man'' if the player achieved a high level of success in 'career mode'. Furthermore, the method to unlock him in the GBA version of the game doubles as an inclusion of the Konami Code . When the '' developed and published by Activision in 2001. In '' for Sony PlayStation. As the '''' was developed for PC, PlayStation 2 , Xbox and Nintendo GameCube with a separate title developed by Digital Eclipse Software for Game Boy Advance. The game play was similar to that of Treyarch's previous Spider-Man game, except it featured for the first time aerial combat, and to an extent allowed the user to 'web sling' over New York openly, although not being able to land on the ground below. The game sported the Voice of the actors from the film, including Tobey Maguire and cult icon Bruce Campbell . After the critical success of both the first Spider-Man film and the video game releases, Marvel ordered a wider selection of titles to coincide with the release of '''' for PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube, which extended the open environment concept started by their previous title (pioneered by the '' Grand Theft Auto '' series). Unlike the previous generation of games based on the film, Treyarch's game was not released for the PC, and in its stead was an original game developed by Fizz Factor . The reasons for this remain unclear, and Fizz Factors game did not include the open environment game play as seen in Treyarch's game and appeared to be targeted towards a younger audience, despite the game being marketed the same as the console release. Later, in 2005 , another version of ''Spider-Man 2'', this time for Sony's new handheld, the PlayStation Portable ; which debuted in the first quarter of the year along with the system, was released. A game was also released along side the Fizz Factor PC game titled, '' Spider-Man 2 Activity Centre '', featuring puzzles and mini games clearly targeted at young children. and Game Boy Advance by Vicarious Visions and Nokia N-Gage by Backbone Entertainment . In November 2004 , in time for Christmas JakksTVGames released an all inclusive controller that includes an ATV input jack, to operate as a console plugged straight into a TV. It was titled '' Spider-Man Controller With 5 TV Games '', and as the name suggests includes five original video games each with a different goal; ''Streets of the City'', ''Doc Ock Horror'', ''Green Goblin's Escape'', ''Venom's Vindication'' and ''Rogues Gallery''. Additionally Micro Games Of America towards the end of 2004 released a portable LCD game, titled ''Spider-Man 2''. Sony Pictures has also released, their own LCD game, titled ''Spider-Man 2 Hand Held Game'' and a virtual reality head set portable game titled, ''Spider-Man 2 VR 3D''. As 2005 began Activision released '' Spider-Man & Friends '' for PC, developed by their internal company, Activision Value targeted towards young children featuring action game based game play with various puzzles used as a learning tool. In March , Activison Value released their second title based on the Spider-Man franchise, '' Spider-Man Print Studio ''. The software allows the user to print various Calendars , Poster s, Bookmarks , Flyers , door hangers, and masks from a library of pre-existing Spider-Man themed art, with Spider-Man as a guide to show the user the software. '' Ultimate Spider-Man '' based on the Marvel Comics' Ultimate Spider-Man was released on September 22, 2005 for GameCube, Xbox, PlayStation 2, Nintendo DS, PC, Mobile Phones, and Game Boy Advance. In this game, players get to play both hero Spider-Man and fan-favorite villain Venom in their own storylines. The game also introduces the new Comic Inking Animation technology, Cel Shading that makes the entire game appear as if it were a living comic-book. The writing and art design for Ultimate Spider-Man were done by Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley, respectively, who both have worked on the comic book series of the same name since it was launched. Additionally, the game's plot line also fits into the USM chronology, with issues 86 - 88 dealing with the aftermath of the events of the game. Also in '' was released, which includes both Spider-Man and Venom as playable characters. The game was released for GameCube , PlayStation 2 , Xbox , PlayStation Portable and Nintendo DS . REFERENCES SEE ALSO |
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