Play Centipede Online

Summary

Centipede, the 1980 Atari shoot‑em‑up, stands out not just for its frantic action but for the story behind its creation. Designed by Ed Logg and Dona Bailey—one of the very few women programmers in the early arcade era—it quickly became a magnet for female gamers, a rarity at the time.

You steer the tiny Bug Blaster with a trackball, firing darts at a winding centipede that slithers down a field of mushrooms. Each shot turns a segment into a mushroom and can split the creature, spawning independent heads that race toward the bottom. Fleas, spiders and scorpions add extra chaos, while poisonous mushrooms force the centipede into a straight‑down plunge that can be both a blessing and a nightmare.

Points stack quickly: heads are worth 100, body segments 10, and the various critters range from 200 to 1,000 points. An extra life appears every 12,000 points, and high‑score legends like Jim Schneider (16,389,547 in 1984) still echo in arcade lore. The game even featured a final round at the 1981 Atari World Championships.

Its success spawned the sequel Millipede and inspired several clones, cementing Centipede’s place as a golden‑age classic that still feels fresh when you hear that familiar trackball whir.

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.