CAUGHT IN THE WEB
Hello again Retro Gamer,
In 2014 I sent the email below about an unknown space shooter I remembered playing in the Eighties. You awarded it the Star Letter in (I think) Issue 134 back in October 2014 with the headline ‘Spider Stumper’. No one was able to identify it.
“The game had a space ship with four large missiles mounted on the sides which you could fire as well as the usual laser gun,” I wrote. “You flew over the typical mountain background and the main enemy were large spiders that span weblines across the screen which you had to shoot your way through.”
Back then people thought I was either making it up, insane or just completely wrong as the follow-up letters suggested in issue 135. As a result of that star letter I was forced into exile from society as a laughing stock, and had to live in shame by myself in the wilderness for over five years, having been shunned by friends, family and the retro gaming community. While playing MAME in my handmade wooden cabin deep in the woods, I finally found that space shooter, the fabled Spider Stumper itself. It’s called Scorpion – it’s actually still really good and obviously something of a forgotten gem.
Maybe you could do an article on it to bring it back to the attention of retro gamers everywhere? I might even be able to leave my cabin and return to modern society. Domino’s Pizza won’t deliver to me this far out…
Jim Macleod
Wow! We honestly never expected to see this mystery finally solved, so congratulations for finding your answer at long last. We had a quick go and we agree, it’s good fun – there’s a lot of variety there for a shooter of that vintage. We’ll look to cover it soon. Until then, please celebrate your societal reintegration with a bookazine.
»