Play Centipede Online

Summary

Centipede, the classic Atari shoot‑em‑up, still feels fresh thanks to its quirky blend of insects and trackball control. I love that the game was co‑designed by Dona Bailey, one of the very few women programming arcade titles in the early ’80s, and that it became a magnet for female gamers – half of its players were women according to a 1982 survey. The playfield is a vertical arena where a tiny “Bug Blaster” darts across the bottom fifth, firing at a segmented centipede that slithers down through a mushroom forest, splitting into independent heads whenever you hit a middle segment.

Beyond the centipede, fleas drop mushrooms, spiders bounce and eat them, and scorpions poison any mushroom they touch, turning a centipede’s descent into a frantic sprint. The cabinet art is a riot of color, showing a massive centipede and even a hidden grasshopper that only appears in test mode, while the side panels came in yellow, purple or blue glows. Under the hood, the machine runs on a 6502 CPU and an Atari Pokey sound chip, and the trackball’s rollers can wear out, but replacement parts are still available for collectors.

Storyline

In the Atari 2600 version of Centipede, the story unfolds in a misty, enchanted forest where a colony of good elves tends a prized mushroom garden. The garden has been overrun by a giant centipede, a poison‑spreading scorpion, a mischief‑making spider, and a pesky flea.

One elf, Oliver, discovers a gleaming stick while hacking at a poisoned mushroom. When a spider lunges at him, the stick sparks and the spider vanishes, leading Oliver to suspect it is a magic wand.

Oliver then points the wand at the scorpion, shouting “Be gone!” The scorpion disappears and the poisoned mushrooms revert to normal. Armed with the wand, Oliver hides behind a mushroom and calls out to the centipede, ready for the final showdown.