Spider Fighter is a fixed shooter game for the Atari 2600, in which the player’s goal is to protect three pieces of fruit in each level. The player controls a blaster that moves left and right along the bottom of the screen, firing shots upwards towards four types of attackers. Each level has a set number of “master nests” – enemies capable of grabbing a piece of fruit and dragging it off the left side of the screen. The nest will drop the fruit when it is shot. The game ends if all the fruit is stolen or all of the player’s blasters are destroyed.
The fruit types change with each level, including grapes, strawberries, oranges, and bananas. There is an option to have the shots move horizontally with the blaster after being fired, allowing players to steer them.
At the time of the game’s release, players who submitted a photo of their TV screen showing a score of 40,000 points or higher would be eligible to receive a patch from Activision for the “Spider Fighters.”