Silk Worm
A 1988 arcade shooter featuring cooperative helicopter and jeep gameplay.
Silk Worm is a 1988 horizontally scrolling shooter video game developed and published by Tecmo for arcades. It was ported to several home computer systems in 1989 by The Sales Curve as Silkworm and released by Virgin Mastertronic, with a Nintendo Entertainment System version by Sammy in 1990. The game inspired the 1991 title SWIV, which is considered a spiritual successor.
Quick Facts
- Composer
- Amiga; Barry Leitch
- Platforms
- Arcade
- Amiga
- Amstrad CPC
- Atari ST
- Commodore 64
- ZX Spectrum
- NES
- Genre
- Scrolling shooter
- Modes
- Single-player, multiplayer
Facts from the source article.
Gameplay
The player controls either a jeep with a machine gun or a helicopter with forward and downward firing guns. Two players can work cooperatively, one controlling each vehicle. Enemies include armored AA guns that can only be harmed when their shields are down, and the "Goose" helicopter, a heavily armored mini-boss composed of several smaller vehicles. Players collect shields, which can be shot to destroy all on-screen enemies, and power cells that increase firepower. The game becomes more difficult with each level, featuring destructible environmental elements such as buildings and ancient ruins. The speed of the game was a defining aspect, preserved in home conversions through various programming techniques. The background music was composed by Barry Leitch.
Release
Silk Worm arrived on the market when scrolling shooters were a dominant genre, competing with games like Forgotten Worlds and Battle Chopper. The ZX Spectrum port, a conversion from the nearly arcade-identical Amiga version, was built in three months. It climbed to third place on the UK Spectrum sales charts, trailing only RoboCop and Dragon Ninja. Virgin Mastertronic later bundled it in the Edition 1 compilation during November 1990, alongside Double Dragon, Gemini Wing, and Xenon. Decades later, in February 2024, Hamster Corporation brought the original arcade version to the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 through its Arcade Archives series.
Legacy
The 1991 game SWIV is considered a spiritual successor to Silk Worm, developed by The Sales Curve, which had previously converted the game to home computer formats. SWIV features the same core design of one player piloting a helicopter and the other an armored jeep, though it is a vertically scrolling shooter. Ex-Sales Curve producer Dan Marchant noted that SWIV was not an official sequel but was inspired by Silk Worm and other shoot-'em-ups. The game's manual describes SWIV as meaning both "Special Weapons Intercept Vehicles" and "Silkworm IV".
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