Gravitar / Black Widow Multigame

Manufactured by Atari (c)1982

Black Widow wasn't a game on my radar when it came up for sale locally.  All I really knew about the game was the typical "its a vector knock off of Robotron" description of the gameplay.  What attracted me to the game however was the fact that it was an Atari vector game and at the time I was collecting vector machines,  so I picked it up.

 The cabinet I picked up had seen better days.  It had seen water at some point so there were areas that had "texture"… mostly toward the bottom back but it was there. There were some slight expansion from moisture along the edges allowing the T-Molding to come loose in a few spots and the left side control panel had a nice sized chunk missing.  Aside from that the game was fully functional with a working monitor and proper Wico joysticks. The marquee looked great as well.  The tinted monitor glass,  however,  had quite a few scratches and a name etched in it.  Why in the hell someone would take time to edge a name in to glass is beyond me.  The game also was missing the coin door.  But like I said,  it worked.  I wasn't sure what I was going to do with the game initially so I just cleaned it up and dropped it in to the collection between the wall and another game where it sat for probably a year or more being played from time to time until I came across a 10-Yard Fight being advertised on the local Craigslist.  What interested me most abou the 10-Yard Fight wasn't the game itself but rather the cabinet it came in.

The 10-Yard Fight was housed in a pretty damn good looking Gravitar cabinet.  Having seen that Vector Labs was just about to release a Black Widow multigame kit that played Gravitar and Lunar Battle (the prototype version of Gravitar),  I knew I had to pick this game up.  What made it an absolute no brainer for me was the fact that the game was less than 3 miles from my house AND the price was already pretty cheap.  When I got there to pick it up the guy attempted to demonstrate the game working and it,  well,  didn't… means that I even got it cheaper.  I couldn't care less if the game worked or not because I had plans … and those plans had nothing to do with the game.  It was a bonus that the game came with a Black Widow control panel with Wico sticks! 

After ordering the multikit from Vector Labs I immediately set out to strip and clean my newly acquired Gravitar cabinet.  I pulled all the parts from the cabinet and cleaned it up nicely.  There were a few areas where the artwork was missing… I used my talents with a Sharpe to fix these areas (which came out pretty good I might add (see photos below)).  I ended up selling the 10-Yard Fight quickly and the non-working monitor went in to the shed along with the extra control panel.  After I was done I swapped the parts from the Black Widow cabinet in to the Gravitar cabinet.  By the time I was completed the Vector Labs kit had arrived and I installed in on to my Black Widow boardset.  Now I needed to come up with a control panel layout to play both games in the cabinet.  I tried to keep the general feel of the original Gravitar layout while maintaining the stock locations for the Black Widow sticks. I didn't have any leaf switch buttons on hand so I used what I had at first knowing I would be revisiting the control panel at a later date.  I also managed to acquire a Gravitar marquee at some point (it's been a while so my memory is a little foggy as to when).  After I was finished the swap and updated the control panel with Gravitar buttons I installed the Vector Labs kit and played my VERY FIRST game of Gravitar.  I then moved the cabinet back to it's old home where it sat for a few month months before I was able to design a new control panel overlay for it.

I really wanted to incorporate both Black Widow and Gravitar in to the custom control panel overlay and I think I succeeded.  I used the Black Widow "web" look for the back ground and the Gravitar colored "boxes" for the buttons.  I decided to incorporate Black Widow instructions in one of the boxes that are oriented on the top/back of the control panel,  Gravitar instructions in the other and instrucitons on how to use the Multi Kit in the center.  I also matched button colors with the boxes as well.  Overall I think the look works and is quite functional.  I had to work the art around the holes I'd already cut in to the panel.  If I were to do it again I probably would have worked on the art first then cut the holes but such is life.  I am quite happy with the end result regardless.

As for the games themselves,  Black Widow is a fun addicting game that gets compared to Robotron mostly because of the controls (two sticks).  The gameplay itself is much different not to mention the fact that it's a vector game vs a raster. The game is quite addicting and has that "just one more game" feel.  When you get in to playing it you just don't want to stop.  The difficulty,  however,  ramps up pretty quickly… at least for a novice like myself.  Gravitar and it's prototype Lunar Battle are exceptionally fun to play.  Well,  Gravitar is… I don't play Lunar Battle much as Gravitar is already hard enough and Lunar Battle ramps that difficulty up even more… plus Gravitar has a more polished look about it.  Now,  I do think Lunar Battle is a better name for the game as it ties in with Lunar Lander,  it's "semi" predecessor… I am not sure why they chose to change the name from Lunar Battle to Gravitar.  They even had marquees created with the Lunar Battle name.   The game is difficult… to say the least… but addicting.  Probably even more addicting than Black Widow.  When I fire the cabinet up,  I usually play Gravitar first.

As for the multikit… it works great… mostly.  It's easy to add credits from the control panel… and it's easy to change games from the control panel as well.  Where it fails is in high score keeping.  Each game DOES keep high scores… as long as you don't reach a high score on the other game.  As soon as you reach a high score on the other game it over writes the high scores from the first.  For example,  lets say I get a high score on Black Widow.  That score will remain as long as I play Black Widow… or even if I play Gravitar but don't hit a high score.  As soon as I do,  it over writes the Black Widow high score and the shoe is then on the other foot.  I've been asking the folks at Vector Labs if this will be corrected and I've gotten positive responses from them over the years but noting ever turns up.  I'd happily pay some dough for a fix for this issue as I love to keep my high scores.  Such is life.  Thanks for reading.

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