Centipede

A crawling centipede descending down the screen, a field of mushrooms crossing its path, and your rapid barrel firing upward. Centipede is an arcade gem whose port to the Atari 5200 brought home players one of the most addictive shooting games of its time.

The gameplay is hectic and grabs you instantly. You control a shooter at the bottom of the screen and try to shoot apart the centipede, which zigzags down through a field of mushrooms. Each hit splits it into smaller pieces, and other creatures such as spiders or fleas join the action, changing the layout of the playing field. The game thus keeps accelerating and demands lightning reflexes and spatial judgment.

Centipede comes from the Atari studio and is famous, among other things, for the fact that Dona Bailey, one of the few female designers of the time, helped design its original arcade version. The arcade machine became very popular, and its port to home systems including the Atari 5200 was meant to convey this arcade energy to players at home. The 5200 console, with its analog controllers, could offer smoother aiming that suits this type of game.

Culturally, Centipede is one of the notable representatives of the golden era of arcades from the turn of the seventies and eighties. Together with other titles it defined the era when arcades glowed with neon and players competed for the highest score. Its visual style, with colorful mushrooms and fast movement, became unmistakable.

Even today Centipede works exactly as it should. It is a pure arcade experience based on ever-growing pressure and the chase for the highest possible score. Short, intense, and easy to return to.

Why play: Centipede offers pure, addictive arcade action with an increasing pace that pulls you into the hunt for a record score just as it did back in the arcades.