Retrospective: Batman

So Batman: Arkham City is out to waves of rapturous reviews. Christian awarded it 9/10 last week and its Metacritic averages are currently in the mid-90s, singling it out as the best reviewed Batman game ever.

Well, that's not strictly true. If Metacritic and the like has been around in 1986 when Ocean Software released its first Batman game for the Sinclair Spectrum and other 8-bit computers, its average review score would sit at 94%, right up there with Arkham City.

If you can't remember the game then perhaps the screenshots on this page will jog your memory. Borrowing liberally from Ultimate's 'Filmation' games, it drops Batman into a dizzying, isometric maze of rooms and corridors. Screens flip rather than scroll and the graphics are mainly monochrome (or at least they are in the original Spectrum version - Amstrad CPC and Elan Enterprise owners were treated to multiple colours in their versions).

What's intriguing is that it's not really a Batman game at all. Yes you play as the Caped Crusader, but there are no gun-toting crooks to duff up and no sign of arch enemies like the Joker or the Riddler. In fact, Batman can't punch or kick and doesn't even carry any weapons.

There's no Gotham City, no Alfred, no Robin the Boy Wonder, no Batmobile. There is a Batcraft, but you don't get to pilot it.

Your first challenge. Grab the Batboots while avoiding the wolf-faced thing.

Instead, Batman's goal is to locate the seven pieces of the Batcraft that have been scattered around the Batcave (Alfred has presumably been busy excavating, as the vast cave is spread over more than 140 screens). Co-inhabiting the cave are an odd bunch of random baddies that appear to have wondered in from some other game. There are smoke monsters, dogs with oversized heads and roller-skating demons. You just need to avoid them or push an object into their paths to block them.

There's not much action to speak of. This is an adventure game with an emphasis on puzzle solving. The first problem involves getting Batman kitted out with special Bat gadgets. At the beginning of the game he can't even jump, but after some brief exploring you'll find some Batboots which are essential for scaling platforms. You'll also find a magic bag for carrying large objects from one area of a screen to another. With these and other gizmos in your possession you can begin to forge through the game.

The screens containing the bits of Batcraft are mini spatial puzzles in themselves. And they're pretty devious, with you often having to manipulate objects and enemies to reach the piece. I must admit that when I played the game back in the day as a nine-year-old, I don't think I managed to grab more than one or two pieces. Yet I was more than happy just to explore the cave, discover new locations and be a bit baffled by it all.

It's hardly surprising to discover that the game didn't start out as a Batman vehicle. Programmer Jon Ritman has revealed that he admired Ultimate's Knight Lore and set out to clone it. Once he'd cracked the tech, he and graphic artist Bernie Drummond looked for a suitable hero and Batman seemed to fit the bill. Ocean agreed to license the property from DC Comics and the game began to take shape. You can imagine that Ocean didn't pay a great deal for it, with it being several years before Tim Burton's monster movie took flight.

However, it would appear that not everyone involved was reading from the same page. Bob Wakelin's cover art features a square-jawed, muscle-bound Batman that's clearly based on Neal Adams' take on the character from the 70s comics. The striking loading screen by F. David Thorpe references the same Batman era, but here the character adopts a more menacing, shadowy appearance.

Yet brilliantly, the game itself borrows the version of Batman from the camp 60s TV series. After a quick snippet of the show's theme tune, Batman begins the game by sliding down the Batpole and is revealed as a tiny, perfectly drawn version of Adam West. Holy digital doppelganger Batman!

The decision to use the TV Batman infuses the game with a real sense of fun - something that's often missing from Ultimate's rather po-faced adventure games. And 25 years on, the game still retains all of its original charm.

Following the success of the game, Ocean would go on to create two more Batman games. 1988's The Caped Crusader was a more traditional tie-in with Batman going up against the Joker and the Riddler in two separate adventures. The game cleverly depicted locations as comic-style panels that appeared on top of each other.

Overcome this early difficulty spike by crossing the bridge that disappears beneath your feet.

The following year, Ocean released Batman: The Movie to tie in with the hit film. Like most of Ocean's licenses from this period, it was a formulaic affair that mixed platform, puzzle and action segments, but at least you got take control of the Batmobile and Batwing this time around.

Since then there've been loads of Batman games and most of them belong in that barrel of toxic waste that Jack Nicholson fell into in the first move. The few noticeable exceptions are Batman: The Video Game on Game Boy, Batman Returns on Mega-CD, The Adventures of Batman & Robin on SNES, and of course the recent Rocksteady brace.

As for Jon Ritman and Bernie Drummond's game, its true legacy has little to do with Batman. Instead, it served as the dry run for the pair's next game, the delightful, nigh-on perfect follow-up Head over Heels. But don't get me started on that game as we could be here all day, and I'm guessing that right now you've got pressing issues in Arkham City to take care of.