Centipede

Once upon a time in a misty, enchanted forest, there lived a colony of good elves. These elves had a major problem, though. Their prized mushroom garden was infested with pests—a giant Centipede, a poison-spreading scorpion, a mischief-making spider, and a pesky flea. The good elves tried everything they could to rid their garden of these bugs, but nothing worked.

One day, an elf named Oliver was hacking away at a poisoned mushroom in the garden. Suddenly, he saw an unusual stick gleaming in the dirt. Just as Oliver picked up the stick, a spider jumped out from behind a mushroom and rushed at him. When Oliver waved his hands wildly to try to scare the spider away, sparks flew from his stick and the spider disappeared!

“How did that happen?” Oliver wondered out load. “Could this be a magic wand?”

Soon Oliver had another chance to try the wand. When the scorpion scurried across a row of mushrooms, poisoning every mushroom it touched, Oliver pointed the wand at the scorpion and shouted, “Be gone!” Instantly, the scorpion disappeared and the poisoned mushrooms were transformed back into normal mushrooms.

“This is great! This is the tool we need to clean up our mushroom garden!” Oliver shouted ecstatically. With his newfound magic wand, Oliver hid behind a mushroom.

“OK, you great big Centipede,” he said. “Come out wherever you are. I’m ready for you now!

About the Game

Centipede is a game that most people are familiar with. Not only did it become an instant classic, it also became a game that was created and recreated several times throughout the ages. However, this version of Centipede on the Atari 2600 was the first of its kind outside of the arcade, although it is the same version. As one of the few games to come to the 2600 that was meant for a single player to enjoy, the game proved incredibly successful.

Ed Logg and Dona Bailey developed Centipede and, since Bailey was one of the few game programmers in the industry at the time, this game holds a very special place in development history. Centipede was also one of the first arcade, coin-operated games to have a significant female player base. Centipede may have changed the world of gaming demographics forever.

Not only was this game recreated multiple times throughout the years, it was also re-released on the Atari consoles that released after the 2600. Centipede isn’t easy to master, but it keep your adrenaline pumping as the difficulty increases rather quickly and only gets harder the longer you play.

Object of the Game

Use your magic wand to score as many points as possible. Use strategy and quick thinking to avoid the paralyzing insect bites. The Enchanted Forest is a challenging but dangerous region. By learning about the dangers that lurk behind every mushroom, you can become a skilled and heroic wand wielder.

How to Play

The Centipede consists of nine body segments. It attacks from the top of the screen and winds down toward the bottom. Each time you hit a segment, it becomes a powerless mushroom and the body segment behind that mushroom becomes the head of a new centipede.

When you shoot every segment of the insect, the centipede briefly disappears and then reappears at the top in a new and fiercer attack formation.

The centipede has eight different attacks. In wave 1, the Centipede is composed of a head attached to eight body parts. In wave 2, it has a head attached to seven body parts, plus a detached head. Wave 3’s centipede is composed of six body segments with one attached head and two detached heads. The centipede continues to transform a body segment into a head until wave 8, at which time it has nine independently moving heads.

You must eliminate the wave 1 centipede just once. Until your score passes 40,000 points, you must destroy each subsequent centipede wave twice. First as the centipede moves slowly toward you and then as it moves quickly. After you score over 40,000 points, you must defeat each centipede only once.

Mushrooms

Dotting the forest floor are mushrooms. The Centipede slides horizontally in one direction. When it touches a mushroom or the edge of the screen, it drops down to the next row of mushrooms and reverses direction. It takes three consecutive hits to eliminate an entire mushroom.

Spider

The spider jumps all over the battlefield, eliminating some of the mushrooms it touches. You score 300, 600, or 900 points when you zap the spider. The closer the spider is to your wand, the greater the score. When you hit it, the spider’s score lights up on-screen.

Flea

The flea appears after you shoot away most of the nearby mushrooms. It drops straight down, creating mushrooms as it falls. You must hit the flea twice to make it disappear. Warning: After the first shot, the flea drops twice as fast!

Scorpion

Sometime after you clear three Centipede screens, the scorpion will scurry across the battlefield, poisoning every mushroom it touches. If you zap the scorpion before it runs across an entire row of mushrooms, however, the spell of poison is broken and the mushrooms remain normal.

Poisoned Mushrooms

The scorpion creates the poisoned mushrooms of a deadly white color. When the centipede bumps into a poisoned mushroom, it goes wild and plunges straight through the field of mushrooms toward you. As is the case with normal mushrooms, you must hit a poisoned mushroom three times in succession to destroy it. Each time you lose a wand, poisoned mushrooms transform back into normal mushrooms.

Game Difficulty

Centipede offers two game variations: Easy Play for beginners and children and Standard Play for skilled players. In Easy games, you do not lose a magic wand when the flea or spider touches you. The centipede always starts the attack in a single formation, never with detached heads.

Number of Players

Centipede is a one-player game with the goal of obtaining the highest score possible. You can track your score and use it to compete against other players, however, the game itself does not include a multiplayer function.

Scoring

In a standard Centipede game, you can score a total of 999,999 points before the score rolls back to zero. In the Easy game variation, you can score a total of 99,999 points