Monday MAME Club [3/07/06] - Black Widow

[Flack]

http://members.cox.net/flack/mameclub1.jpg

Scooterb23 has selected Black Widow (Atari, 1982). Download (http://www.robohara.com/mameclub/bwidow.zip), play, and discuss! (KLOV Info (http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?letter=&game_id=7139))

http://www.jmpc.com/Starcade/Starimages/BlackWidow/screen.jpg

Club Rules

01. You do not need to sign up for the club. If you want to participate, simply download the game of the week and post about it!

02. At the end of the week, I will randomly select someone who participated this week to select next week's game.

03. The current MAME Club Pick of the Week can be found Mondays stickied at the top of the main forum, and after that stickied at the top of the Arcade Alley forum.

Previously Picked Games: Black Widow, Blood Bros, Boogie Wings, Bubbles, Donkey Kong 3, Great 1000 Mile Rally, Gunforce 2, Haunted Castle, Liquid Kids, Mad Planets, Ninja Clowns, Rescue, Top Hunter, Yie-Ar Kung-Fu, 19xx: The War Against Destiny, Alligator Hunt, APB - All Points Bulletin, Armed Police Batrider, Ataxx, Battle Bakraid, Battle Bakraid, Battle Circuit, Berzerk, Biomechanical Toy, Blazing Star, Block Out, Bomb Jack, Bronze Adventure, Burgertime, Caliber 50, Chuka Taisen/Cloud Master, City Bomber, Combatribes, Crossbow, D&D: Shadow Over Mystara, Daisu-Kiss, Darius Gaiden, Dr. Micro, Dynasty Wars, Elevator Action, Elevator Action Returns, Escape From The Planet Of The Robot Monsters, ESP Ra.De., Fairyland Story (The), G.I. Joe, Go! Go! Mile Smile, Gunbarich, Gyruss, I'm Sorry, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Lady Bug, League Bowling, Mega Twins, Metal Slug 2, Mighty! Pang, Mr. Do!'s Wild Ride, Mysterious Stones, NARC, Pandora's Palace, Pang, Penguin-Kun Wars, Portman, Prehistoric Isle in 1930, Pu-Li-Ru-La, Raiden II, Rainbow Islands, Rampart!, Rastan, Rollergames, Satan's Hollow, Shinobi, Skull & Crossbones, Solomon's Key, Splatterhouse, Strike Force, Super Burgertime, Tempest, The Punisher, The Simpsons, Vs. Excitebike, Vendetta, Waku Waku 7, Withdrew, WWF Superstars.

Now, MAME ON!

** Note -- want to be notified when a new Monday Morning MAME Club pick is posted? Send an e-mail to flack@cox.net asking me to add me to the mailing list, and when a new game is posted I'll e-mail you the URL! You can get removed from the list by e-mailing me and asking to be removed. **

[Flack]

I thought I'd throw this out after the original post. Black Widow is often called "the vector version of Robotron". Anyone who likes Robotron should definitely give Black Widow a spin this week. That being said, like Robotron, Black Widow requires two 8-way joysticks to play. Hopefully that won't leave too many people out this week.

[scooterb23]

I fell in love with this game at the last Cinciclassic (what was it now 2002?) They had a Black Widow tournament, and I ended up 3rd (just over 90,000 if you want something to shoot for). This game is pretty much the reason I still have a gamepad for my computer. It rocks, hard.

Hope you all enjoy, and even if you don't happen to have a stick...the WASD in the left hand, arrow keys in the right (may have to set it up in game options) isn't that bad for this game.

:)

[Arcade Antics]

Black Widow is often called "the vector version of Robotron".
It is, but it isn't. :) That is, it is often called the vector version of Robotron, but despite the similar controls, they're very different games.

Black Widow is fun in its own right, but it's way too easy. I do love the theme, the graphics and the entire game, but it's no Robotron. ;)

[NeoZeedeater]

Robotron is more hectic but I never thought of Black Widow as too easy. It's a great game and I'm glad it has showed up in retro compilations as I was afraid it wouldn't.

[Ed Oscuro]

I gotta say, SCOOTER I LOVE YOU

I was recently lamenting that QB-3 (Rock-O-La) never got a proper arcade release, and BAM! this gem shows up. It's QB-3, with arguably even more personable graphics! Yeah, the cool 3D-cube format is gone, but in its place the graphics are notably more detailed. Cool!

[diskoboy]

Dual joystick games are truly the best. No gameplay experience can compare to ANY dual-joystick game.

Ask most gamers around during the 80's golden age, the second you mention the word 'Robotron : 2084', they get this gleeful look in their eyes, and will fondly proceed in telling you their all their Robotron stories.

[Cryomancer]

Not too bad. Vectors will always be magical and cool to me, but it's still not the same in MAME on a normal monitor obviously. Twin stick games are indeed very cool and are a very natural control sceme. There really should be more of them.

The game itself couldn't really hold my attention too terribly long though.

[Ze_ro]

Fun game, although aside from the vector graphics and spider theme, I never really felt there was anything really special about this one. It seems like almost everything about this game was either ripped off from other games, or ripped off BY later games that were at least as good (Did this come out before or after Robotron? Apparently they were both 1982 releases?). Maybe it's just me, but all these dual-stick games sort of feel the same most of the time, with just minor differences in themes. I'm not sure I'd ever really describe the game as being particularly easy... although at times it certainly feels a little more forgiving than games like Robotron or Smash TV.

Anyone know where the term "grubsteak" came from?

--Zero

[Quickclaw]

My favorite vector offering. I'll be grubbing for your 90 thou, 23. Not too far from it, actually.