centipede - atari

Developer:  Atari

Year:  1980

Genre:  Shooter

Production:  55,988

Game Play

The object of the game is to destroy as  many enemies as possible. During every level, you must destroy all the  segments of a centipede. Once the centipede enters the bottom area of  the screen where the gun moves, the player is in danger of colliding  with the centipede. The centipede will break into pieces as its segments  are shot. Once it makes it to the bottom of the screen, it heads back  up until it reaches the top of the player zone. It then repeats the  process. Once the centipede has hit the bottom of the screen, new  segments are created that move within the player zone. When a centipede  segment hits a mushroom or another segment, it reverses direction.

Every level, the centipede configuration is different. On the first  level, all segments are attached. On the next level, one segment is  independent. On the next, two are independent, and so on until all  segments are independent.

The spider is another enemy that threatens the player. It bounces  around within the player zone, but when it hits a mushroom, the mushroom  disappears.

The flea will drop from the top of the screen and fall all of the way  to the bottom when there are less than a certain number of mushrooms in  the player zone. It leaves mushrooms behind.

The scorpion streaks across the screen periodically, changing any  mushrooms it hits into poisonous mushrooms. When a centipede segment  hits one of these, the centipede plummets to the bottom of the screen  and then heads back up.

Extra lives are awarded every 12000 points by default.

Tricks & Cheats

 On levels that have complete Centipedes, fleas will never appear.  To trap the centipede, allow the centipede to come near the bottom of the  screen. When it is close to the left or right side, shoot the centipede  once, causing a mushroom to appear and the centipede to come back under  and near the mushroom. Now, shoot and make another mushroom. Repeat this  process until you have a row of mushrooms almost vertically lined up  near the bottom of the screen. Then, by either dying or just allowing  the centipede to work his way back up, the centipede will be trapped  between the edge of the screen and the mushrooms allowing you to shoot  everything else.