The game Centipede has been ported on almost every system known to man. It has
appeared on the Arcade, for Colecovision, Intellivision, Atari systems, but the
Apple II computer, Amiga, but here I make a quick guide for the Commodore 64
which is basically the same as every other incarnation that this game has gone
through except maybe the Playstation and the Dreamcast which are basically just
upgrades that I may cover in 2009. Centipede would later spawn a sequel called
Millipede which even got ported to the Nintendo Entertainment System but yet
Centipede was never ported to the Nintendo Entertainment System itself.
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DISCLAIMER
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Centipede and its characters are trademarks of Midway n' all copyrights belong
to them.
This FAQ is the sole copyright of Andrea "Azul Fria" Castillo aka Ice Queen
Zero and cannot be put on other sites or posted without my given permission
nor can it be reproduced w/o proper consent.
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STORY
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You are a small spray gun in a garden full of multi-legged pests. Your goal is
to clear out all the critters in a given area. Your main nemesis is the big
centipede and the spider. The aliens, beetles, and flies occur on occassion as
you advance. You go through lots and lots of color changes everytime you
destroy a centipede whole.
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CONTROLS
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Up/Down/left/right = move the player along the screen.
Fire Button = Fire weapon
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GAMEPLAY
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Now the emulator of choice I prefer for Commodore64 is the Hosx64 which has
made loading this game easier than having to type a lof mumbo jumbo on the
BASIC screen.
The field is riddled with mushroom like objects and you need to shoot it four
or five times to get rid of them.
You can only move up to 1/4 quarter of the screen while the centipede trail is
coming down. As you shoot a segment of the centipede, it will branch off into a
new segment if you shot it in the middle or stay intact if you shot it in the
head. For each piece that you shoot, it will turn into a mushroom like object
and the remaining section will maneuver around the mushrooms. When the
centipede reaches the bottom, you are in danger as new segments appear at the
bottom and start climbing up so you have to jockey around the loose pieces to
stay alive.
Once you destroy all segements of the centipede, the color of the stage and the
remaining enemies will change color. There is no end to this game which is why
we cannot make a real guide for the game so basically the main object of this
game is to rack up as many points as you can without losing all of your lives.
Spiders occur often and move in random patterns. Take them out as quickly as
you can because their point values are random from 300, 600, to 900 points.
That and it is a total nuisance that can kill you if you are not careful.
In further levels, beetles will fall down the screen and walk sometimes walk
down the bottom of the screen till it leaves. Shoot them as they fall to rid of
them quick and if they reach the bottom, that's your clue to stay away from the
bottom of the screen till its safe.
Occasionaly, scorpions will fly across the screen. It's main purpose is
to give you 1000 bonus points for killing it. Added 2005: After talking to a
friend about GameFAQs being a jerk for rejecting the original file for calling
the aliens which are really scorpions harmless, he gave me some further info
on the scorpions. It turns out that they poison the mushrooms and in turn
causes a centipede to nosedive to the bottom directly if it is touched.
The bonus round consists on a gang of falling flies. Shoot as much as you can
until they are all gone or until you are killed.
Extra lives are given everytime you reach the score quota that is listed on the
screen. Once they are gone, the game is over.
.
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. . .
.
. .
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(player)
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SCORING
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Points are scored based on the enemy you shoot and below is the point values as
well as the depiction of each enemy you will face in Centipede.
Centipede = 10 points per segment
---. ---. ---.
| | | |
. . .
--- --- ---
Mushroom = 1 point each.
Poison Mushrooms = 5 points. (Kill these before the centipede touches it or the
centipede will come straight down ignoring any mushrooms in the way)
......
. .
......
..
..
Spider = varies (300, 600, 900 points) Yes I know the drawing is cheesy. So sue
me.
/\/\/\/\
/\ . . /\
/ v \
Bettle = 100 points
.....
.
.
.....
.
.
Scorpion = 1000 points (Get rid of them before they poison the mushrooms.
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MINI-REVIEW
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Graphics 5/10 - graphics are too bland but hey its an old game
Sound 10/10 - each sound is identifiable. Centipede has a marching sound,
spiders have an alarm sound, bettles have the falling sound, etc.
Gameplay 7/10 - fans of classics will love the game of shooting those annoying
pests dead.
Challenge 7/10 - starts off easy then gets challenging as you progress further
and further
