How to play Spider-Man online
- Shoot a web line: hold Space and press up, left or right to shoot straight up or diagonally. Release Space when the line is long enough.
- Climb or swing up the web: up arrow
- Lengthen or shorten the line: up and down arrows
- Start a new game: F12 (the console’s Reset switch)
- Choose a game variation: F11 (the console’s Select switch)
- Save and load your progress: Ctrl + 0–9 saves to a slot, Alt + 0–9 loads it
Gameplay
Spider-Man doesn’t crawl up the wall. He shoots a web line and pulls himself up it. The line must stick to the wall itself: if it lands on a window or in the sky, he falls, and you have to shoot another web fast to catch him.
Criminals pop up in the windows. If your web line crosses one, he cuts it, but if you move Spider-Man over him, you capture him. Above the building is a high-voltage tower covered in the Goblin’s time bombs, which turn from black to red as they get close to exploding. Touch a bomb with your body to defuse it, but keep your web line clear of it.
Web fluid is your timer. The meter in the lower right corner drains steadily, and every captured criminal or defused bomb tops it up. If it runs dry, Spider-Man falls. Once you have captured enough criminals and bombs, the Goblin lights the fuse on the Super Bomb at the top, and a low tone tells you it is ticking. Get past the Goblin without him touching you or your web, and reach the bomb before it explodes.
| Action | Points |
|---|---|
| Capture a criminal | 30 |
| Defuse a black time bomb | 50 |
| Defuse a red time bomb | 80 |
| Defuse the Super Bomb | doubles the points scored on that building |
You start with three Spider-Men and earn another every 10,000 points. Each new building is harder: its size changes, web fluid runs out faster and the Goblin moves faster.
There are six game variations. Games 1, 3 and 5 are for one player, and 2, 4 and 6 are the same levels for two players taking turns. Games 1 and 2 are the easiest and 5 and 6 the hardest.
Tips
- Aim for the wall, not the windows. Short, careful lines land on solid wall more reliably than long ones.
- Capture criminals on purpose. They give you points and web fluid. Just keep your line away from them.
- Red bombs pay more. They are worth 80 points instead of 50, but a bomb exploding near you knocks you off.
- Listen for the low tone. Once you hear it, head straight for the top.
The story behind Spider-Man
Parker Brothers released the cartridge in November 1982. Laura Nikolich designed it without input from Marvel. The 2600’s limits pushed her toward vertical scrolling, and she picked the Green Goblin partly because he could reuse the flying code she had already written for Spider-Man. It was only the second superhero video game, after Atari’s Superman. A version for the Magnavox Odyssey² was made but never released.
Electronic Fun with Computers & Games gave it three stars out of four, praising the challenge while noting how much it resembled the arcade game Crazy Climber. In 2023, the game’s blocky Green Goblin made a cameo in the film Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.
