Tarantula Studios

Background
Rockstar Lincoln is a British video game developer and a studio of Rockstar Games. It was founded as "Spidersoft" by Steve Marsden and David Cooke in May 1992, and primarily developed Game Boy and Game Gear ports of various titles, including pinball video games. Take-Two Interactive Software acquired Spidersoft in June 1998, renaming it "Tarantula Studios". The studio continued working on Game Boy ports of Take-Two games, including DMA Design's Grand Theft Auto. In 2002, the development portion of Tarantula Studios was shut down, while the quality assurance portion was integrated into Take-Two's Rockstar Games label as "Rockstar Lincoln".

(June 1995)


Logo: The Spidersoft logo is revealed from a pixely transition, which has a symetrically designed spider with a sphere for a body, and the word "SPIDERSOFT" in a futuristic font. The spider and text each have a shaded outline of their color. The logo then fades out with the same pixely transition.

Technique: None, just the fading in/out.

Music/Sounds: The opening theme of the game.

Availability: Seen on Pinball Fantasies for Atari Jaguar.

1st Logo (December 1998-December 18, 2000)
Logo: On a white background, we see the game's title in a plain font. Below it is "Created by", "TARANTULA" in a horror-like font with and black outlines, and "STUDIOS" in white with a black outline, in spaced-out letters.

Variants:
 * The logo originally appeared in grayscale with white text and a black "STUDIOS" text. This was seen on the Game Boy versions of Cool Hand, Montezuma's Return and Reservoir Rat, plus various GBC games with GB compatibility, such as Space Station Silicon Valley, Grand Theft Auto, Evel Knievel, Hollywood Pinball, Three Lions and some European black cart cartridges of The Muppets.
 * On Space Station Silicon Valley, the Tarantula logo rises from the screen, and the text moves away to make way for the opening credits.
 * On The Muppets, Austin Powers: Oh, Behave!, Austin Powers: Welcome To My Underground Lair! and Grand Theft Auto 2, the game's logo replaces the plain title logo, and "Game Developed by" replaces "Created by".
 * On Austin Powers: Oh, Behave! and Austin Powers: Welcome To My Underground Lair!, the logo is on a pink background.
 * On Formula One 2000, the text above the Tarantula logo instead says "LICENSED BY PSYGNOSIS", "PUBLISHED BY TAKE 2" in a tall font, and "DEVELOPED BY" in a plain font.

Technique: None.

Music/Sounds: None, or the opening theme of the game.

Availability: Seen on Tarantula Studios games for Game Boy and Game Boy Color, like Rats!, Montezuma's Return, Cool Hand, Space Station Silicon Valley, Grand Theft Auto, Evel Knievel, Hollywood Pinball, Three Lions, The Muppets, Austin Powers: Oh, Behave!, Austin Powers: Welcome To My Underground Lair!, Grand Theft Auto 2, and Formula One 2000.

2nd Logo (April 28, 2000-November 23, 2001)


Logo: On a black background, we see a black frame with a white glow. We see silent film-like borders, and we see a glow containing the Tarantula Studios logo from before, except "STUDIOS" is in a different font.

Technique: None.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Seen on Lemmings Revolution for PC, KISS Pinball and Hidden & Dangerous for PlayStation.