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Centipede |
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Manufacturer:
Atari Year: 1980 Class: Wide Release Genre: Shooter Type: Videogame Monitor:
Number of Simultaneous Players: 1 Maximum number of Players: 2 Gameplay: Alternating Control Panel Layout: Single Player Controls:
Sound: Unamplified Mono (requires one-channel amp) |
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DescriptionThe player controls a gun that can only move in the bottom fifth of the screen. The object is to shoot a centipede that works its way down to the player area through a field of mushrooms. Other attacking enemies are fleas, spiders, and scorpions.Know anything more about this game? Cabinet InformationThe cabinet has detailed, colorful graphics of a large, viscious centipede. The artwork covers the entirety of both sides of the game. Cabaret (mini) cabinets and cocktail units were released with 19-inch monitors and there were also a limited number cocktails built with only 13-inch monitors. A minor note is the color of the outline around the side art design which can be in yellow, purple or blue.Cheats, Tricks and BugsOn 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. ConversionIt is possible, with some light work, to convert this to Millipede.Problems/RepairsThere were two different versions of side art made for this game, one with a yellow glow around the centipede and one with a pink glow. Compare the cabinet image with the side art image to see the difference.Game PlayThe 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. Hacks
MiscellaneousYou can play a Shockwave version of Centipede online here: ftp://internet.hasbrointeractive.com/anonftp/shockwave/centipede.htmlPlay a JAVA emulated version of the game by visiting http://web.utanet.at/nkehrer/JCentiped.html Scarcity in collections (VAPS.org)Very Common - There are 332 known instances of this game owned by one of our 900 members. Of these, 297 of them are original dedicated machines, 5 of them are conversions in which game circuit boards have been placed in another game cabinet, and 30 of them are only circuit boards which a collector could put into a generic case if desired.Of the 42,694 video games (3,154 unique) tracked by the Video Game Preservation Society, this game ranks a 96 on a scale out of 100 (100 = most commonly seen, 1=least common) in popularity based on ownership records. - There are 17 VAPS members currently looking for this game. Rarity is NOT necessarily an indication of value. Some common games show up as very rare here because collectors don't want them (they are common because arcade operatos might be sitting on tons of them in warehouses), while some fairly scarce games are grabbed by collectors every time they show up. Additionally, some games made in the last 5 years are still making money for operators and are thus not yet affordable to the typical collector. For a clue to value, compare how many people have this game vs. how many people want this game and then click on the eBay links to help determine an accurate price range. TechnicalThe game uses a 6502 microprocessor and one Atari Pokey sound chip.TriviaThis was the first arcade game to be designed by a woman: Dona Bailey.The side artwork features a grasshopper, while it is not present during gameplay, it can be seen in test mode. FixesThe rollers and bearings in the track ball wear out and after a while the movement of the gun/cannon becomes difficult. Replacement parts for trackballs are available from a number of parts retailers.eBay ListingsClick here to automatically search eBay's Arcade, Jukebox, and Pinball categories for the Centipede Videogame machine and items related to it.Click here to automatically search eBay's Arcade, Jukebox, and Pinball categories for machines and parts made by Atari. Alternatively, check out the IAM/KLOV custom report of the hottest coin-op machines on eBay, powered by Ace.com (updated throughoutthe day).
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