Created by Larry Miller and released by Activision in 1982, Spider Fighter sounds like it could be a really exciting game, something on a web, or a heroic character fighting off hoards of spiders with a sword maybe? No. In this case it’s a fairly bog-standard Galaxian rip-off, although it is a very well-made one.

You control a small ship at the bottom of the screen and must move left and right, and fire upward to destroy various spiders and their eggs that are attacking your fruit orchard.

You seem to be able to fire three bullets in quick succession, before there’s a slight cooldown, but the fire rate in Spider Fighter is quite high. Higher than most other similar shooters. Which means that you can blow multiple enemies away quickly, if you’re positioned correctly. You can also ‘steer’ your bullets, by moving left or right, which seems a tad unfair on the opposition, but them’s the rules.

Enemies spit out a stream of bullets, which of course must be avoided, and you’ll occasionally get a special enemy that spits out spiders and eggs until you destroy it (which is not always easy).

Each time you complete a stage the colour of the cross bars change, which is a nice touch. The way the enemy waves spawn and move is also quite hypnotic.

Overall, Spider Fighter is a decent shooter with a variety of different play modes. IMHO it’s better than Space Invaders, but not quite as good as Phoenix.

More: Spider Fighter on Wikipedia