“In a ravine she lived, and took shape as a spider of monstrous form, weaving her black webs in a cleft of the mountains. There she sucked up all light that she could find, and spun it forth again in dark nets of strangling gloom, until no light more could come to her abode; and she was famished.” -J.R.R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion

Forget surly, gazelle-faced Scarlett Johansson for a moment because this is a real arachnid femme fatale. Put down those razor blades, you acarophobics, here comes Black Widow!

The year was 1982. It was a great year in gaming, though an inevitably flawed one, andblackwidow_ur_md.jpg the golden days of the arcades were still humming right along as the industry crash loomed dead ahead. Many titles that are now iconic legends were released that year from Dig Dug to Donkey Kong Jr., from Joust to Pitfall! and Q*bert, and yes, lest we forget, E.T.: the Extra-Terrestrial. The Atari 2600 saw the release of both E.T. and the home version of Pac-Man that year, two games which undoubtedly contributed to the coming recession. It was the calm before the storm. Everyone cried “Peace! Safety!” before sudden destruction that left companies reeling, gamers disinterested and the industry in ruins. Until Nintendo, but that’s another story.

In the midst of busy 1982 came Atari’s obscure title: Black Widow. On the surface, it looked like Robotron 2084, and indeed the gameplay seemed very similar. Others more familiar with Robotron 2084 have pointed out all the similarities but since I haven’t played it myself I’ll leave the comparisons to those writers. Besides, in the early 80’s gaming was all about making clones of what was popular. It’s a part of what led to a flooded market that in turn contributed to the crash. Now, maybe things haven’t changed much in 30 years. There are still some shameless clones being made. But we could talk about that brand of plagiarism until I’m blue in the face.

Speaking of clones, though, I found it interesting to learn that the Black Widow cabinets were conversions of Gravitar cabinets, which didn’t sell well because reasons. Apparently the Widow art was slapped right over the Gravitar art. Cost effective!

Black Widow may have been overshadowed by other arcade titles, or it may simply have been released too close to the crash, but whatever the explanation this is a game I don’t see talked about very often. I’m convinced it deserves more popularity than it enjoys. Why? This multi-directional, dual-joystick shooter put a plot twist on one of the most feared arthropods in existence, pitting the eponymous ebon predator against her own prey. In this bizarre paradox, the hunter became the hunted and the black widow had to defend her web against a siege of angry mosquitoes, hornets, and beetles. Shouldn’t have voted Trump!

The object of the game is destroy the insect invaders in waves of assault which steadily rise in intensity, a challenge considering the bugs rush at you from everywhere. Sounds like a nightmare. The black widow’s only defenses are her nimble legwork and the ability to shoot what looks like glowing webs from her face. These projectiles deflect and scatter when hitting a target, which makes the widow’s attacks erratic and sometimes randomly effective. The widow can also push eggs and larvae off the edge of her web, or through the web’s center, to get rid of them before they hatch. What kind of a spider is this?!

Kill enemy bugs and they’ll drop dollar signs for the black widow to pick up, which are apparently called “grubsteaks” (officially the grossest word I’ve written). These are your bonus points. They deteriorate in value over time (from 500, 250, 100 to 50) so picking up the $ as soon as possible is best. Did anyone stop to ask what a black widow would do with money?

Click here for the full review... https://thewellredmage.wordpress.com/2017/05/14/black-widow/