Lost In Translation/Black Widow

About The Game
Black Widow has you moving around a web using two joysticks to control the action. The left joystick moves, while the right joystick fires. "Robotron - 2084" players will feel right at home playing this game, as the controls are identical. You have to defend your little vector spider around her vector web in order to keep out all the deadly bugs. Shoot down bugs and they turn into bonuses. Watch out for eggs, if you see any eggs, then you should quickly push them off the web before they hatch. Other enemies include mosquitos, beetles, and hornets.

Trivia
Released in December 1982.

James Vollandt holds the official record for this game with 930,100 points on May 1, 1984.

Approximately 1,550 units were produced. All Black Widow games were conversions of other Atari vector titles. Even the brand new ones were actually "Gravitar" games that Atari converted at the factory. In general this title shared a lot of common components with "Gravitar" and "Space Duel", and Black Widow machines are often used to repair those titles.

Scoring
Mosquito - If shot, becomes '$'.

Beetle - Eats '$', but if shot, becomes '$'.

Hornet - Lays an egg on '$', but if shot, becomes '$'.

Egg - Grows to become hornet or spoiler. Must be pushed off the web to score 500, 1000, 1500, 2000, or even 2500 points.

Grub Steak - Tag for 500, 250, 100, or 50 points -- the sooner the better.

Spoiler - Invulnerable. Can only be destroyed by a grenade bug, bug slayer or rocket bug.

Grenade Bug - Explodes if shot. Bugs and eggs within the kill zone score 500 points each.

Rocket Bug - Invulnerable. Launches "rockettes" at black widow from the other bugs it tags. Shoot rockettes to score 100 points each.

Thunderbug - If shot, it breaks formation and attacks. If shot again, it explodes all other T-bugs for 5000 points. Keep away from all T-bugs to earn 10000 points. The resulting chain reaction from multiple thunderbugs is very dangerous and can encompass over 80% of the level at some times, depending on how many T-bugs are involved.

Bug Slayer - Harmless to the player and invulnerable. The Bug Slayer competes with the Black Widow for food. Beat it to its flashing prey for points

Staff

 * Designed And Programmed By:
 * Bruce Merritt

Ports

 * Consoles :
 * Sony PlayStation (2001, "Atari Anniversary Edition Redux")
 * Sony PlayStation 2 (2004, "Atari Anthology")
 * Microsoft XBOX (2004, "Atari Anthology")


 * Computers :
 * PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (2003, "Atari - 80 Classic Games in One!")


 * Others :
 * Nokia N-Gage (2005, "Atari Masterpieces Volume 1")