If a Centipede reaches the bottom of the screen without being shot, it releases its tail. When a Centipede reach the bottom of the screen, it starts back up, but remains within the area of the Bug Blaster (the bottom fifth of the screen). When shot, the Centipede breaks into two smaller centipedes, each with its own head. When a segment of the Centipede is shot, it is destroyed and a mushroom appears where that segment was shot. The Centipede changes direction when it runs into a mushroom or either the left or right boundaries of the playfield. A Centipede starts snaking its way across from the center top of the screen. Game play begins with a playfield of randomly placed mushrooms. Pressing the FIRE button causes the Bug Blaster to fire individual shots upward, either singly or in rapid-fire mode, if held down constantly (Only one shot appears on the screen at a time). However, the Bug Blaster must move around mushrooms, since these are fixed, not 'transparent', objects. The Bug Blaster can be moved in all directions, but only within the bottom 5th of the screen. The Bug Blaster is moved by rotating the Mini-Trak Ball control. Player control consists of a Mini-Trak Ball control and a FIRE button. The object of the game is to shoot at and destroy as many of these insects and mushrooms as possible for a high point score, before the player's lives are all used up. The Bug Blaster is represented on the screen by a somewhat humanoid head. The fast-moving game action takes place on a play-field filled with mushrooms and includes a variety of insects that drop down from the top of the screen or enter from the sides of the screen, most of them to attack the Bug Blaster, controlled by the player.

Centipede TV Commercial (Atari 5200 Version)Ĭentipede is a 1- or 2-player game with a color raster-scan monitor.

The game centipede