Centipede [Model CX2676]

Centipede © 1982 Atari, Incorporated.

CENTIPEDE offers 2 game variations: EASY PLAY for beginners and children, and STANDARD PLAY for skilled players.

In EASY games, you do not lose a magic wand when the flea or spider touches you, and the Centipede always starts the attack in a single formation, never with detached heads.

You start the game with three magic wands. Every time you score 10,000 points, you win a bonus wand. You can have a total of 7 magic wands at one time. Any wands won after that are not held in reserve. When you lose your last magic wand, the game ends.

If the Centipede, spider, or flea bites you, your wand is snatched away and you become temporarily paralyzed. The game will stop momentarily and all the mushrooms are counted for bonus points. Your points are added to your running score, and the rejuvenated Centipede attacks again from the top. You must replay the previous wave until the Centipede is totally destroyed.

Objective: Use your magic wands to score as many points as possible (see scoring). Use strategy and quick thinking to avoid the paralyzing insect bites. The Enchanted Forest is a challenging, but dangerous region. By learning about the dangers that lurk behind every mushroom, you can become a skilled and heroic wand wielder.

Inhabitants of the Enchanted Forest:
Centipede: Consisting of nine body segments, the Centipede attacks from the top of the screen and winds down toward you. Each time you hit a segment, it becomes a powerless mushroom and the body segment behind that mushroom becomes the head of a new Centipede. When you shoot every segment of a Centipede, the Centipede disappears briefly, then reappears at the top in a new and fiercer attack formation.

The Centipede attacks in 8 distinct waves. In Wave 1, the Centipede is composed of a head attached to 8 body parts. In Wave 2, it has a head attacked to 7 body parts, plus a detached head. The Wave 3 Centipede is composed of 6 body segments with 1 head attached and 2 detached heads. The Centipede continues to transform a body segment into a head until Wave 8, at which time it has 9 independently moving heads. You must eliminate the Wave 1 centipede only once. Then, until you score passes 40,000 points, you must destroy each subsequent Centipede wave twice--first as the Centipede moves slowly towards you, then as it moves fast. After you score over 40,000 points, each Centipede will only need to be destroyed once.

Mushrooms: Dotting the forest floor are mushrooms. The Centipede slides along horizontally in one direction. When it touches a mushroom or the edge of the screen, it drops down to the next row of mushrooms and reverses direction. It takes 3 consecutive hits to eliminate an entire mushroom.

Spider: In its attempt to distract you from shooting the Centipede, the spider jumps all over the battlefield, eliminating some of the mushrooms it touches. You score 300, 600, or 900 points when you zap the spider. The closer the spider is to your wand, the greater the score. When you hit it, the spider's score lights up on the screen.

Flea: The flea start bugging you after you shoot away most of the mushrooms near you. It drops straight down, creating mushrooms as it falls. You must hit the flea twice to make it disappear. Warning: After the first shot, the flea drops twice as fast!

Scorpion: Sometime after you clear 3 Centipede screens, the scorpion will scurry across the battlefield, poisoning every mushroom it touches. But if you zap the scorpion before it runs across an entire row of mushrooms, the spell of poison is broken and the mushrooms remain normal.

Poisoned Mushrooms: Poisoned mushrooms are created by the scorpion. These are a deadly white color. When the Centipede bumps into a poisoned mushroom, it goes wild and plunges straight through the field of mushrooms toward you. As with normal mushrooms, you must hit a poisoned mushroom 3 times in succession to destroy it. Each time you lose a wand, poisoned mushrooms transform back into normal mushrooms.