So What, It’s Vague.
One of the more curious licensing phenomenons of the 80s was the home-exclusive sequel to an arcade game.
However, as the 90s dawned, a general tightening of licensing laws meant fewer home-exclusive sequels appeared.
Developer-publisher The Sales Curve was formed in 1988 by ex-Telecomsoft employee Jane Cavanagh.
“Within the first year, however, we started developing our own titles and self-publishing.”
One of Cavanagh’s contacts was a coin-op producer named Tecmo.
As a result, Silkworm was top of Cavanagh’s list of potential arcade games to license.
Under the banner of Random Access, The Sales Curve’s team focused on the 16-bit games first.
Part of that creative team was programmer Ron Pieket.
“Silkworm was a surprise hit,” he tells me.
Partnering with Pieket on the 16-bit games was artist Ned Langman.
Jane was so pleased that she wanted to use the same team to work on something new.
In honour of its inspiration, the working title for The Sales Curve’s next game became Silkworm 2.
“It is still a mystery as to what it exactly means!”
According to the game’s intro, it stands for the slightly clumsy Special Weapons Interdiction Vehicles.
But there had to be a decent game behind the hype and name.
“The design was a collaboration between Ned and myself,” remembers Pieket.
“And the first thing I did was develop the level editor.”
Pieket and his colleagues were keen to give SWIV a special look and create a shoot-‘em-up that felt fresh.
“Whereas practically all the games back then used tile-mapped backgrounds, the SWIV editor was sprite-based.
It gave the game a very unique look.”
That way, we could make a single map that still had colour variation as the game progressed."
“It was a real feat of technical skill,” says Cavanagh.
Says Langman, “The ‘Goose Copter’ was basically a copy of the Silkworm boss.
Various little copters join together to form one big craft.
The look was different, but the idea was the same.”
“Oh yeah, I’m very proud of those!”
“I think the opening credits of Terrahawks influenced me, and it’s a cheap trick, really.
Each layer of the vehicle is drawn in one colour of the palette.
All the colours were then turned to black, then green one at a time.
Simple but effective!”
Released in the spring of 1991, SWIV received a glowing reception in the 16-bit press.
The only dissenting voices usually cited SWIV’s high level of difficulty.
“These titles and the creative team behind them really launched the company.”
Five years later, The Sales Curve became SCI Entertainment Group and floated on the London Stock Exchange.
Those little jeeps and helicopters of Silkworm and SWIV forged its success.
“I have extremely fond memories of that time,” says Cavanagh.
“It was very early days for the company and very exciting.
The success of SWIV also defined the career of its developers, as Pieket tells.
And finally, for Ned Langman, it’s a love that’s never entirely gone away.
“Maybe one day I’ll get around to that unofficial follow-up…”
