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Centipede
Developer	Atari Inc.
Designer	Ed Logg and Dona Bailey
Released	1980
Genre	Fixed shooter
Mode(s)	Up to 2 players, alternating turns
Platform(s)	Arcade
Input methods	Trackball; 1 button
Arcade cabinet	Upright
Arcade CPU	1x MOS Technology 6502 @ 1.512 MHz
Arcade sound system	1x Atari POKEY @ 1.512 MHz
Arcade display	RGB raster, vertical orientation (19-inch diagonal)

Centipede is a vertically-oriented shoot 'em up arcade game produced by Atari Inc. in 1980. It is regarded as the first arcade game created by a woman, Dona Bailey, who programmed the game along with Ed Logg. It was also the first arcade coin-operated game to have a significant female player base. The player defends against swarms of insects, completing a round after eliminating the centipede that winds down the playing field.

Contents 1 Gameplay 2 Legacy 3 Strategies 4 World record scores 5 Ports 5.1 Other Consoles of the Time of Game Release 5.2 PC, and PlayStation 5.3 Xbox and Playstation 2 5.4 TV Games 5.5 Mobile 5.6 Centipede Shockwave Version 6 Clones 6.1 Arcade 6.2 Console/Home Computer 7 Centipede in popular culture 8 Board game 9 References 10 See also 11 External links

The player is represented by a small, "somewhat humanoid head"^[1] at the bottom of the screen. The player moves the character about the bottom area of the screen with a trackball and fires laser shots at a centipede advancing from the top of the screen down through a field of mushrooms. Shooting any section of the centipede creates a mushroom; shooting one of the middle segments splits the centipede into two pieces at that point. Each continues independently on its way down the board.

The centipede starts at the top of the screen, traveling either left or right. When it hits a mushroom or the edge of the screen, it drops one level and switches direction. Thus, more mushrooms on the screen cause the centipede to descend more rapidly. The player can destroy mushrooms by shooting, but each mushroom takes four hits to destroy.

If the centipede reaches the bottom of the screen, it moves back and forth within the player area and one-segment "head" centipedes are periodically added. This continues until the player has eliminated both the original centipede and all heads. When all the centipede's segments are destroyed, a new centipede forms at the top of the screen. Every time a centipede is eliminated, however, the next one is one segment shorter and is accompanied by one additional, fast-moving, one-segment "head" centipede. A player loses a life when hit by a centipede or another enemy, such as a spider, or a flea. A flea leaves mushrooms behind when fewer than five are in the player area, though the required number within the player area increases with levels of difficulty.

There are also scorpions, which poison all the mushrooms they touch, but these never appear in the player's movement region. A centipede touching a poisoned mushroom hurtles straight toward the player's area. Upon reaching it, it returns to normal behavior.

Centipede was followed by Millipede in 1982, a somewhat less successful, though respectable, game.

In 1992, Atari Games developed a prototype of an arcade game called Arcade Classics for their 20th anniversary. The game included Missile Command 2 and Super Centipede. ^[2]

Main article: Centipede (1998 version)

In 1998, Hasbro owned Atari Interactive released a new version of the game for the PC, PlayStation and Dreamcast. This version looks and plays very differently to the original game. The main difference in gameplay is the free movement around the map and it includes different types of views, 3D graphics and a campaign which can be played in single player or multiplayer mode. The original version of Centipede is available in this version, albeit with slightly updated graphics.

Several strategies were subsequently developed to circumvent the normal play of the game, leading to scores in excess of one million points and games lasting several hours.

One popular strategy, the "blob," involves deliberately filling the rows immediately above the shooter with a field of mushrooms, thereby neutralizing the disruptive effect of the fleas. Clearing the screen of mushrooms above the blob greatly slows the descent of the centipede, allowing the player to amass points by hunting spiders.

A second successful strategy is the "trap," whereby the player creates a mushroom trap one column from the edge of the screen and strategically deposits mushrooms at the second, fourth, and sixth rows, creating a trap for the centipede. The player can then rack up points indefinitely by defending the trap from spiders.

This article does not cite any references or sources. (September 2007) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

Eric Ginner of Mountain View, CA, was the first Centipede champion, winning the 1981 Atari National Championships, held in Chicago, October 18, 1981. By the end of 1982, both Darren Olsen of Calgary, Alberta, Canada and Billy Mitchell, of Hollywood, FL, had attained over 25 million points on Centipede, primarily using the "trap" technique of play.

To verify differences in gameplay, the Twin Galaxies Intergalactic Scoreboard divided Centipede gameplay into two categories: "Marathon" (using the trap, the blob and other tricks) and "Tournament" (using no tricks, just constantly firing — commonly called the "shoot-em-up" method.)

Today, Twin Galaxies only accepts submissions on Tournament play. The world record for Tournament play now stands at 7,111,111 points, achieved by Donald Hayes of Salem, NH, on November 5, 2000 at the Funspot Family Fun Center in Weirs Beach, NH. The feat took approximately 9 hours of non-stop play on one quarter. On February 5, 2001, Hayes was honored by his local City Hall for his accomplishment.

This game, like many other Atari arcade games, was ported to Atari's own systems such as the Atari 2600, Atari 5200, and Atari 7800 (a prototype was created for the Atari Lynx but never released). Atari's Atarisoft also created versions for other consoles as well as many home computer systems of the era (for example, Apple II, Commodore 64, etc.).

In addition to this new version, the game was also released for the PC in 1993 as part of the original Microsoft Arcade, in 1999 as part of Atari Arcade Hits 1 (which would become one half of Atari Anniversary Edition in 2001), and in 2003 as part of Atari: 80 Classic Games in One (the PC version of Atari Anthology, see below). The PlayStation saw the game appear as part of Atari Anniversary Edition Redux in 2001

Centipede has also been made available for Xbox and PlayStation 2 (in both arcade and Atari 2600 versions) as part of Atari Anthology in 2004. The Xbox Live Arcade version was bundled with the sequel Millipede, which included an "evolution mode", featuring high-definition graphics and special effects like motion blur, trails and particle-based explosions. ^[3] Centipede was released via Xbox Live Arcade for the Xbox 360 on May 2, 2007.

Centipede is also often included in the TV Games-style series that have become popular in recent years.

Glu mobile released a licensed cellular phone version that includes the original game as well as updated game play, skins, and modes. ^[4]

An official shockwave version was also released.^[5]

Like most other popular arcade games of the era, Centipede was widely imitated by third-party software vendors for home computers and video game consoles. These clones included the following:

• Caterpillar, released as an Arcade machine by Olympia in 1980 [1][2]
• Mill Pac, released as an Arcade machine by Valadon Automation in 1980 in France [3] [4]
• Magic Worm, released as an Arcade machine by Sidam in 1981 in Italy [5]
• Magic Maggot, released as an Arcade machine by Digimatic Italia in 1980 [6]
• Jackler, released as an Arcade machine by Konami in 1982 [7]
• Slither, released as an arcade machine by GDI in 1982.
• War of Bugs or Monsterous Manouvers in a Mushroom Maze, released as an Arcade machine by Food and Fun Corp./Armenia Ltd in 1981 [8] [9]

• Apeiron, released for Mac OS in 1995 by Ambrosia Software
• Aqua Attack, released for the BBC Micro as part of the Welcome disk/tape with the BBC Master.
• Bug Blaster, released for Commodore 64, BBC Micro and Acorn Electron in 1983 by Alligata (and re-issued in 1990 by Blue Ribbon)
• Caterpillar by Aardvark Software for the TRS-80 Color Computer [10][11]
• Centi-Bug, released for the ZX Spectrum in 1983 by dk'tronics (titled Centipede on screen)[12]
• Champ Centiped-em, released for MS-DOS in 1997 by ChamProgramming Corporation [13]
• Decipede, a type-in version for the Commodore 64 published by COMPUTE!'s Gazette in January 1987 [14]
• Katerpillar Attack (or Katerpillar or Kater-Pillar or Katerpillar II) Tom Mix Software TRS-80 Color Computer, Dragon 32 [15] [16] [17]
• Megapede, released for the TRS-80 Color Computer in 1983 by Computerware [18]
• Mushroom Alley, released for the Commodore 64 in 1983 by Victory Software
• Nemesis, released for the BBC Micro by Micro Power
• Spectipede, released for the ZX Spectrum in 1983 by R&R Software and reissued and ported to the Commodore 64, Commodore 16, BBC Micro and Acorn Electron between 1984 and 1987 by Mastertronic
• Video Vermin, released for the VIC-20 in 1982 by UMI [19]

• In 1982, Buckner and Garcia recorded a song called "Ode to a Centipede", using sound effects from the game, and released it on the album Pac-Man Fever.

In 1983, Milton Bradley released a board game based on the video game. The board game pitted two players against each other in a race to be the first person to the opponent's home base with a centipede. Each player could also utilize a blaster as well as a scorpion and spider to slow the opposing centipede's advance.

• Atari
• Ed Logg
• Dona Bailey
• Centipede (1998 version)

• Atari's official online version of Centipede
• Centipede at the Killer List of Videogames
• Centipede at MobyGames
• Centipede guide at StrategyWiki