Centipede

Centipede for the Atari 7800 brings Atari's 1981 arcade fixed shooter to the ProSystem in a 1987 cartridge release. Published by Atari, it places the player in the Enchanted Forest, where a centipede crawls through a shifting field of mushrooms toward the bottom of the screen. The home version retains the arcade game's quick, score-driven premise while adding selectable difficulty settings and several ways for one or two players to take part.

The player steers a Bug Blaster around the lower portion of the playfield and fires sparks upward with the controller button. A centipede enters near the top, travelling across the screen and dropping down a row whenever it reaches an edge or encounters a mushroom. Shooting a middle segment divides it into separate threats: the rear portion gains a new head and continues moving. Destroyed segments turn into mushrooms, so successful shooting also changes the routes available to later enemies.

Mushrooms make Centipede's simple controls increasingly tactical. They interrupt a centipede's horizontal course, while repeated shots can clear them away. A scorpion can poison mushrooms; a centipede that touches one descends straight toward the player before resuming its normal path. Fleas replenish the field with mushrooms when too few remain, and fast spiders weave across the player's territory, eating mushrooms and demanding close-range reactions. The score rewards different targets, with centipede heads and dangerous scorpions worth notably more than ordinary segments.

The Atari 7800 release starts the player with three magic wands, represented by lives, and awards another at score intervals. Losing a life also restores damaged and poisoned mushrooms, resetting part of the playfield for the next attempt. Each successive wave breaks the advancing centipede into more independent heads, increasing the pressure in the lower screen. Four difficulty selections—Novice, Standard, Advanced, and Expert—let players change the challenge before starting a game.

Beyond the standard solo game, Centipede on Atari 7800 supports two-player alternating play and two simultaneous variations. Dual Player Competition gives each player a separate score and lets one player's shot temporarily paralyze the other. Team Play instead combines the score and removes that friendly-fire effect, making the same screen a cooperative survival exercise. These modes distinguish the 7800 cartridge from simpler home versions of the arcade game and make a second controller meaningful even in a score-chasing shooter.

Centipede originated during Atari's arcade-era breakthrough, designed by Dona Bailey and Ed Logg, and became one of the company's best-known games. Its clear objective, constantly changing mushroom maze, and escalating split-centipede pattern made it well suited to home conversion. The Atari 7800 version preserves the core mix of movement, target priority, and mounting chaos, while its difficulty and multiplayer choices give the classic formula a platform-specific identity.