Centipede

Centipede is regarded as the first arcade game designed by a woman, Dona Bailey. It arrived in the arcades in 1980 from Atari and became an instant hit with men and women alike for a number of reasons. It used bright attractive colors throughout the game that alternated between stages. Additionally, it had a simple and intuitive control interface, the trackball (wikipedia). Along with a single fire button, it was a game that just about anyone could approach and immediately know what to do. Even the side art was very impressive and inviting.

The object of every stage is simply to eliminate all of the centipede's body segments by shooting up at them, through a multitude of mushrooms. What made the game novel was that if the centipede was shot in the middle, it split up in to two separate body segments, each with it's own head, that moved independently of one another. The centipedes would eventually break down to a single segment containing only a head that made for a very difficult target at high speeds.

The Centipede is not alone in this mushroom forest. He is surrounded by fellow insects, each of which have their own behaviors. There's the spider who likes to bounce around the area that your blaster can occupy, making a nuisance of himself and eating mushrooms that he passes. There's the flea who dive bombs down from the top of the screen, depositing mushrooms as he falls. And there's the Scorpion who can poison mushrooms. If a centipede head touches a poison mushroom, he is driven mad and drills down to the bottom of the screen instead of taking his usual lazy approach.

Centipede was quite popular at home as well, thanks to Atari porting it, not only to it's own home systems, but to just about every other popular platform through their Atarisoft label. Although, the truth is you can't quite capture the play experience with a joystick, you really need a trackball, which Atari released for their systems.

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  Title screen.

Story

Typical of many classic arcade games, there is no proper story for Centipede. Some people claim that you are a garden gnome with a magic bug-zapping wand charged with eliminating the pests. Others claim that these bugs are not ordinary bugs, but Godzilla sized insects that threaten to trample your home town and it's up to you to stop them.

How to play

At a glance

• You control the bug blaster at the bottom of the screen with the trackball.
• You must fire up into the mushroom forest, attempting to hit the centipede.
• When the centipede's body is hit, it splits in to two smaller centipedes.
• You must destroy every segment of the centipede in order to advance to the next stage.
• You must avoid contact with the centipede, as well as other insects like the spider and the flea.
• The scorpion poisons mushrooms that drive the centipedes mad if they touch one.

In depth

• Controls & Characters
• Strategy
• Home Version Comparisons

Box artwork

Throughout its many releases, Centipede has accumulated a large collection of different pieces of artwork for the game boxes. Some are shown below:

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  Atari 2600

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  Atari 5200

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  Atari 7800

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  Atari 400/800/XL/XE

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  Intellivision

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  Colecovision

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  Apple II

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  IBM PC

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  Commodore 64

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  Commodore VIC-20

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  TI-99/4a

• File:Centipede GB box.gif

  Game Boy

• File:Centipede Millipede GB.jpg

  Game Boy Arcade Classics 2

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  Game Boy Color

Pac-Man Fever Lyrics

Just for fun, here are the lyrics from the "Ode to Centipede" track from the 1982 Pac-Man Fever Album:

The Centipede multiplies and divides,
And comes after you from every side;
Faster and faster, row by row,
He slides through the rocks to get you from below!

Chorus:
Oh, Centipede, you can't run away;
You can't run away.

Spoken:
You can't run.
You can't hide.
I'm coming to get you.
Here I come!

The centipede twists and bends;
The spiders are his only friends.
If you can get them before they get you,
They go back to the top, and they start on rack two.

Chorus

Spoken:
You can't get away little Centipede.
I'm right behind you.
Don't try hiding behind the mushrooms.
I see you!

Guitar solo
Chorus

Spoken:
The spiders can't help you now.
I'm gonna get'cha!
Go ahead and run your little legs off.
Do ya' have Nikes for all of 'em?

The Centipede multiplies and divides,
And comes after you from every side;
Faster and faster, row by row,
He slides through the rocks to get you from below!

Chorus

Spoken:
I understand now.
You wanna play hide and seek don'cha?
I'll play with you.
Come out, come out where ever you are!

Chorus

Spoken:
Come here little Centipede.
I'm gonna chase you down now.
You can't fool me by changing colors.
Here I come.