Tips, Cheats, and Easter Eggs

Easy mode

Hold Fire and power on the Atari 2600. Release the button after approximately two seconds. In this mode, Superman will not transform into Clark Kent, and the bridge will not explode, although its pieces will still appear in the subway. Simply capture Lex Luthor and his men and return to the Daily Planet to complete the game. Note: This trick will not work on later versions of the cartridge.

On later versions of the cartridge, when you drop to the phone booth press Fire when you are at the same level of elevation as a subway entrance and press Select. Wait for the screens to cycle to a subway entrance and move the Joystick to put you in the subway. Note: If you press Up it will look like Superman is trying to fly but keeps getting yanked down by gravity. In this state you can walk left or right or fly downward until you get to the bridge screen where you will automatically regain your powers without the bridge exploding.

Non-Violent Plot

In older releases of the cartridge -- usually those with no picture on the front (although NOT all of these) -- starting the game by first holding the fire button down and then simultaneously pushing the joystick to one direction for two seconds (i.e. starting the clock by using your X-Ray Vision for a bit) will cause the bridge to not explode, Superman to not change into Clark Kent and three extra (and insignificant) bridge pieces to be piled on top of one another in the subway. In my opinion, high scores (i.e. shortest times) should not count if this bug has been invoked.

Quick win

Begin game play and move to the center of the screen to the approximate location of the Daily Planet entrance. Press Select and wait until the Daily Planet. If your character is aligned correctly, move to enter the Daily Planet and win the game.

Stop And Smell The Bad Guys

A spin-off of the above X-Ray Vision tip: If you leave the button held down while rotating the joystick, you can quickly glance at all four surrounding areas while you hover. This works really well when you're searching for crooks. If you're in the subway (or Daily Planet) and you spot someone while you're already carrying a bridge piece or baddie, just make a mental note of the color of the screen in which your future target lurks, and the direction in which he seems to be headed. You can quickly return and grab him, or follow him from the screen on which you saw him.

The Magic Blink

Here's an extremely useful habit into which you can fall after just a little conditioning: Use your X-Ray Vision to glimpse the next screen for just a fraction of a second, tapping the button so quickly that a blink would cause a spectator to miss it. Do this while you're flying; don't stop pushing the joystick in the direction you're headed, but just quickly hit and release the button as if you were firing a bullet. This allows you to peep at the position of any upcoming Kryptonite Satellite and still have time to adjust your own altitude to miss it. It also works great for adjusting your course to meet an imminent bad guy. After a few tries, you'll develop the visual sensitivity necessary to pick out the Kryptonite or crook with a micro-second screen-peek.

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