Arachnotron or Quadrotron?

Arachnotron has 4 legs! Its not an arachned its a quadroped!

They have two hands though, so that's six limbs. Perhaps the other two fuse together to form or operate the plasma cannon?

The words are arachnid and quadruped.

That said, the name is in reference to the shape of the legs rather than their number. Spider legs go up and then arc down. Compare with a lizard or crocodilian (legs go to the side and then angle down) or a mammalian quadruped (legs go straight down).

With eight legs, the model would have been harder to create, and the sprite would probably have been aesthetically too busy. Doom 4 might have eight-legged arachnotrons, since today's games are designed for a screen resolution large enough for such details not to get lost on a tiny sprite.

That said, Doom 64 had larger sprites and its arachnotron still had only six legs, rather than eight.

BTW, The robots/golems called "spider centurions" in TES games (Morrowind and Skyrim) also have only six legs. I guess when you're not talking about an actual animal but a mechanical construct, the amount of legs no longer really matters. It's not like they're actual spiders.

Also, Spiderman has only four limbs! WTF?

Gez said:

Also, Spiderman has only four limbs! WTF?

Well, there was this ONE time...

Cool. Another "Doom isn't like real life" thread. I'm keeping an eye on this one, though.

And I'm going to keep calling it Arachnotron.

You know, I'm sure these Arachnotrons don't like us calling them Arachnotron all the time. It's like calling every black man you meet Negro, even if you know his real name, but don't care because he's black, so he's Negro and everyone else is just Negro too. Just calling Arachnid is just as insulting, as is Quadruped. Clearly, at least one of them is named Steve.

Are they literal spider-demons? Because if they aren't literal spiders, than I think it's okay for them to have 4 legs.

Clonehunter said:

You know, I'm sure these Arachnotrons don't like us calling them Arachnotron all the time. It's like calling every black man you meet Negro, even if you know his real name, but don't care because he's black, so he's Negro and everyone else is just Negro too. Just calling Arachnid is just as insulting, as is Quadruped. Clearly, at least one of them is named Steve.

Or Gerard!

Gez said:

That said, the name is in reference to the shape of the legs rather than their number.

The resulting "Octotron" if the Arachnotron had 8 legs reminds me heavily of the final boss in the 2000 Spiderman PSX game, funnily enough.

The creature itself is just a brain with arms. Bereft of the mechanical device, I imagine they'd be relegated to dragging themselves along the ground, probably leaving a slug-like slime trail.

And that Cyberdemon you kill in E2M8? Bob.

Arachnotron is still more badass than quadroped and everything ending with -tron is gold

Waffenak said:

everything ending with -tron is gold

Sorry, I don't agree.

Point for me: The freedoom spiderdemon has 8 legs.

I guess for the same reason they don't call it the "Quadrupedal Mastermind" or "Fourspiderlegodemon" or whatever. Or why I call pinkie demons "piggies" even though they're only vaguely piglike. Sometimes the most accurate name is the least cool. (Though to be fair the "spider/arachno" designation has long secretly bothered me for that reason too)

Gez said:

That said, Doom 64 had larger sprites and its arachnotron still had only six legs, rather than eight.

And have 2 arms for machine guns, thus making them arachnids ;)

How about Quadraxis?

Argh, I still need to finish the MP trilogy on the Wii U.

I always wondered how arachnotrons supposed to be arachnid. They seem to be more like brains on crab-walking tanks. Even so, I like to call them "spider-bots." In the case of the Spider Mastermind as the final boss of Ultimate Doom, id must have been inspired by Mother Brain of the Metroid games.

T-Rex said:

In the case of the Spider Mastermind as the final boss of Ultimate Doom, id must have been inspired by Mother Brain of the Metroid games.

I always viewed them as darker and edgier versions of Krang from the TMNT:

They're arachnotrons. No explanation needed.