Spider-Man[1] is out now for the PS4[2]. For many it will probably be their first experience of playing a superhero game on current generation consoles since the Batman Arkham series[3]. And though the Spider-Man games have existed on every platform since the Atari 2600 — developed by companies such as Call of Duty[4] hitmaker Activision and Street Fighter[5] creator Capcom — the web-slinger's mobile debut has its origins in India.
The very first Spider-Man game on mobiles phones was developed by Mumbai-based Indiagames. The game — also titled Spider-Man — was made in little less than a month by a team of four and it nearly shipped with assets cribbed from Spider-Man: Mysterio's Menace for the GameBoy Advance. Intrigued? Gadgets 360 caught up with Indiagames alumni Hrishi Oberoi, Srinivasan Veeraraghavan, and Vishal Gondal to find out what it took to bring Spider-Man to Java and Brew feature phones exactly fifteen years ago[6].
At the time, Indiagames was a relatively unknown games company that had created 11 mobile phone games that were generic, arcade fare such as Zapper, Chopper Rescue, and Tank Attack. This was prior to the days of iOS and Android when telco operators ruled feature phone stores and dictated what was available for sale to consumers. These games were moderately successful and the company was ready to look extend its reach beyond India and parts of South East Asia.
Photo Credit: Shelfshock/YouTube
“We were at E3 2003 when the idea struck that if we can get a certain amount of revenue on non-branded titles what if can get a big brand? Maybe that could make us a lot of money. On a...