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Overview
Port of the exceedingly rare coin-op by Sigma Enterprises, Spiders was one of six different games UA Ltd. was planning on releasing for the 2600 based on their offerings for the Arcadia 2001. For those not in the know, the Arcadia 2001 was an obscure home game system released in 1982. To say that the Arcadia 2001 didn't take the market by storm would be an understatement, but it was much more popular overseas where dozens of different clones were marketed. However due to the video game crash UA decided not release any of their games, either in the US or in Europe. At it's heart, Spiders is a variation of Centipede. However instead of mushrooms and centipedes, Spiders has cocoons, webs, and well, spiders! The player controls a space ship at the bottom of the screen which must destroy all the pulsating cocoons scattered across the screen. Of course these cocoons aren't defenseless, each on will release an unrelenting horde of spiders which will stream down towards the bottom of the screen. If a spider manages to reach the bottom (and they will!) a bar will appear on either side of the screen. This bar will grow as more spiders reach the bottom until the two sides meet (after 16 spiders). When this happens the player will lose a life. In addition to avoiding the never ending stream of spiders, the player must also watch out for energy blasts coming from the cocoon themselves. These energy blasts are random, extremely fast, and hard avoid. If the player manages to destroy all the cocoons they must then defeat a bonus spider which moves around the screen. If the player hits the spider they score 50 points instead of the usual 5. Every few screens the color of the spiders change and they get faster. The energy blasts from the cocoons also become more numerous and faster. Spiders is an interesting twist on Centipede, but it doesn't have the same long term appeal. The Atari 2600 port is fair, but is missing the spreading webs between the cocoons and some of the extra enemy attacks. However the biggest issue with the 2600 version is the massive amount of flicker due to all the cocoons on the screen. While this doesn't necessarily ruin the game, it does make it hard to look at sometimes. Spiders doesn't offer any game variations but it does allow the player to enable infinite lives with the right difficulty switch. The player can also pause and resume the game with the Color/B&W switch. Spiders was never the most original game, but it offered a more 'creepy' twist on Centipede. Much of this creepiness is lost in the watered down 2600 port, to the point where its just another bland shooter in the vast 2600 library. While UA Ltd. made some nice ports of their Arcadia titles, Spiders isn't one of the better ones. Then again you can only do so much with a below average arcade game.
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