Spider Fighter (video Game) on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
''Spider Fighter'' is a
In each level, the player protects three pieces of fruit using a blaster that moves horizontally along the bottom of the screen. The joystick button fires a shot upward toward four types of attackers. Each level contains a set number of "master nests": enemies which can grab a piece of fruit and drag it off the left side of the screen. A nest drops the fruit when shot. The game ends if all fruit has been stolen or all of the blasters are destroyed. The type of fruit varies per level: grapes, strawberries, oranges, and bananas.
There is an option to have the shots move horizontally with the blaster after being fired, allowing them to be steered.
At the time of release, anyone who sent a photo showing a score of 40,000 or more points received a patch for the Activision "Spider Fighters".
1983 TV commercial
1982 video games Activision games Atari 2600 games Atari 2600-only games Fixed shooters Video games about food and drink Video games about insects Video games developed in the United States Video games about spiders Single-player video games
fixed shooter
Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs) are a Video game genre, subgenre of action games. There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certain typ ...
designed by Larry Miller for the Atari 2600
The Atari 2600 is a home video game console developed and produced by Atari, Inc. Released in September 1977 as the Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS), it popularized microprocessor-based hardware and games stored on swappable ROM cartridg ...
and published by Activision
Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one o ...
in 1982. The game is a re-themed version of the arcade video game '' Stratovox''. The object of ''Spider Fighter'' is to protect fruit
In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants (angiosperms) that is formed from the ovary after flowering.
Fruits are the means by which angiosperms disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particular have long propaga ...
—grape
A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus ''Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters.
The cultivation of grapes began approximately 8,0 ...
s, strawberries
The garden strawberry (or simply strawberry; ''Fragaria × ananassa'') is a widely grown hybrid plant cultivated worldwide for its fruit. The genus ''Fragaria'', the strawberries, is in the rose family, Rosaceae. The fruit is appreciated f ...
, oranges
The orange, also called sweet orange to distinguish it from the bitter orange (''Citrus × aurantium''), is the fruit of a tree in the family Rutaceae. Botanically, this is the hybrid ''Citrus'' × ''sinensis'', between the pomelo (''Citrus m ...
, and banana
A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large treelike herbaceous flowering plants in the genus '' Musa''. In some countries, cooking bananas are called plantains, distinguishing the ...
s—from four kinds of bugs.
According to the manual, Miller was "the newest addition to the Activision design team." He went on to create the Atari 2600 racing game ''Enduro
Enduro is a form of motorcycle sport run on extended cross-country, off-road courses. Enduro consists of many different obstacles and challenges. The main type of enduro event, and the format to which the World Enduro Championship is run, is ...
'' for Activision, released in 1983.
Gameplay
In each level, the player protects three pieces of fruit using a blaster that moves horizontally along the bottom of the screen. The joystick button fires a shot upward toward four types of attackers. Each level contains a set number of "master nests": enemies which can grab a piece of fruit and drag it off the left side of the screen. A nest drops the fruit when shot. The game ends if all fruit has been stolen or all of the blasters are destroyed. The type of fruit varies per level: grapes, strawberries, oranges, and bananas.
There is an option to have the shots move horizontally with the blaster after being fired, allowing them to be steered.
At the time of release, anyone who sent a photo showing a score of 40,000 or more points received a patch for the Activision "Spider Fighters".
Reception
''Spider Fighter'' was not as successful as Activision's other fixed shooter released earlier the same year, '' Megamania''. ''Electronic Fun with Computers & Games
''Electronic Fun with Computers & Games'' was a video game magazine published in the United States from November 1982 to May 1984. For the last two issues it was renamed ''ComputerFun''.
Content
The magazine was split up into the following sec ...
'' gave the game 3 out 4 joysticks in the May 1983 issue. A June 1983 ''Electronic Games
''Electronic Games'' was the first dedicated video game magazine published in the United States and ran from October 15, 1981, to 1997 under different titles. It was co-founded by Bill Kunkel, Joyce Worley, and Arnie Katz.
History
The h ...
'' review was more critical, claiming it a "keen disappointment" and a "mediocre title from a superior game company." ''Joystik'' took the middle road, calling it "a better than average bottom-shoot game that somehow looks like it should be more difficult than it is."
In a retrospective look, ''Digital Press'' described it as "much like the coin-op game '' Stratovox'' but w/o the voice". Writing for ''AtariHQ'', Keita Iida said "2600 players who are familiar with Activision's usual efforts (which are exceptional overall) might feel a bit let down by ''Spider Fighter''." See also
*''Bandits
Banditry is a type of organized crime committed by outlaws typically involving the threat or use of violence. A person who engages in banditry is known as a bandit and primarily commits crimes such as extortion, robbery, kidnapping, and murder, e ...
''
References
External links
* *{{internet archive game, atari_2600_spider_fighter_1982_activision_larry_miller_ax-0211983 TV commercial
1982 video games Activision games Atari 2600 games Atari 2600-only games Fixed shooters Video games about food and drink Video games about insects Video games developed in the United States Video games about spiders Single-player video games