Warrior's ROM Game of the Week: Centipede

Warrior's ROM of the Week:
Centipede

Atari 1980

There are several reasons why I have started this ROM of the Week feature. I must admit right off the bat that the idea was somewhat Borrowed from ClassicGaming.com, who has been doing his ROM of the week feature for quite some time now, but I plan for now to focus only on MAME games (I may move into other arcade emulators eventually, but as anyone who is famiailr with my site knows, I do not do console emus... The console emu scene is far too flooded with lamers to bother with. Anyone who doesn't agree with me on this point needs only to take a look at Zophar's Message Board and see how much of the content of the board is comprised of flame wars, ROM begging and other stuff like that.) The other primary reason that I am beginning this section of my site is so I can provide a good head start, as well as something of a preview of what I would like to do with the MAMEBase project that I am planning (which explains why the design and layout of this page looks somewhat rough, and some of the images are borrowed from various sources.) Before I start putting people to sleep, I will move on.

How to Play: Centipede Screen Shot

I have chosen Centipede as the first ROM of the Week since Centipede seems to be the game I find myself playing most often these days. The idea behind this game is fairly simple (at least if I remember correctly from the little comic book I had with the 2600 version I had years ago) There's this garden, and you're being invaded by bugs. you have this neat little magic wand thingy that you use to blast all the bugs to kingdom come. Among your enemies are the centipede (of course,) the spider (the annoying bouncy thing that just happens to be where you are at the most inconvenient times), the fleas (which drop down from the top of the screen, again at the most inconvenient times) and the scorpions, which just walk across the screen and poison mushrooms, causing the centipedes to go berzerk and drop quickly to the bottom of the screen. You start the game with three lives, and naturally, when these are depleted, the game is over. An extra life is awarded at every 12,000 points.

Scorpion
Scoring:
Normal Mushroom Poisoned Mushroom 1 point (5 at end of life for each damaged or poisoned mushroom)
Spider 300-900 points, depending on where it's shot
Flea 200 points
1000 points

**Scoring:**
	1 point (5 at end of life for each damaged or poisoned mushroom)
	300-900 points, depending on where it's shot
	200 points
1000 points

Information:

Released in 1980 by Atari, Centipede was designed by Ed Logg and Donna Bailey, and therefore became the first arcade game to be programmed by a woman. Donna Bailey, programmer for Centipede had this to say about the game:

"My main focus is graphics. For instance, I really like pastels, which is why there are so many pinks and greens and violets in Centipede. I really think the visuals should be arresting."
It is because of this that Centipede was also the first game in the arcade that was as popular with female players as it was with male players.
There was supposed to be a grasshopper character in Centipede, that apparently did not make the final cut. The sprite remained in the graphics ROM, however, and in MAME, the F4 key can be used to see this grasshopper.

Pictures

Centipede Cabinet (borrowed from Atari Gaming Headquarters)
Centipede Flyer (borrowed from www.atari.nu

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