I used to get 999999 if the machines high score wasn't already that. I used to play in the San Francisco Bay area and a whole bunch of people with EDG (Eric Ginner) all knew how to do it. Of course the spider jumping higher again once you get around 850,000 makes it really hard because it takes away all the mushrooms and then the flea falls non-stop. These two guys at UC Berkeley used to compete with one another, they knew it took having a certain number of mushrooms below a certain level on the screen to keep the flea from falling. So they would have just the tube and then deliberately add a whole bunch of mushrooms to its side, while the top was entirely empty. And then they would save the cycle of the centipedes coming out from.the sides once they hit bottom by just dying whenever it was before 800,000, so they could still clear a few waves when the centipedes hit the bottom at that advanced level. (You probably noticed the speed.at.which they come.out.from.the sides hits.a.frenzy and then recycles.back.to a much slower pace, so there's a chance there,.too.) But anyways, one of the guys, named LEE, which was the way he always left his high score initials, read a book by EDGs group on the secret to how they were able to.get.999999 and then improved on it. It's called a sidetrap, I was actually there watching when LEE invented it, along with his rival JA (Jorge Ancheta). I'm sure there's some demonstrations.on the Internet. This normal way of playing it is more fun though.
Great insight to how scores were improved on back in the day. Three of us competed against each other in the local arcade (in the UK) and pushed each other to the 900k mark. Looking back knowing what I know now, all of us playing straight shoot em up, no trapping, blob techniques etc, the 860k high spider which we didn't notice was the key to not getting higher. There's a book available to download nowadays on Centipede techniques, very basic for high level players but shows how folk manipulated the game. Since I made this video I went out and bought a cabinet, 6 weeks later, plus reading forums that Don Hayes posted on with advice I reached the magical 999,999. Some other videos of that on this channel 😀
I used to play this game in a Spaghetti Factory arcade over 20 years ago when I was a little kid. I wasn't very good at all, but my grandpa would keep feeding me quarters anyway to see how far I could get. He passed away a long time ago, but I'll always have those happy memories with him. It's absolutely insane to me how fast the game gets in its end stages. I could never comprehend what was happening past 100,000 points, yet alone 400,000+ points! Thank you for uploading this :)
so many of these arcade games I was able to play hours per game, but I could never figure this game out. high score maybe 30-40k. you gave me a lesson. thanks, brother.
I remember playing these games as a kid and one time my parents almost left me because I was doing too well on a Ms. Pacman game. I used to spend tons of Hours in arcade after High school. I been a gamer ever since then. I don't think my parents even realized it was an addiction at the time. I enjoyed it though. I didn't get into trouble too much I just loved those games from the 80s. I used to borrow money from my younger brother then offer to pay him back 2 dollars for every dollar I borrowed. I usually went to bed not too late but I overslept a few times into first period at school. I never really tried to skip school to go to arcade. I was a good kid most the time. I think my grades slipped a little my Junior and Senior year but I still graduated.
My highest score was 838,000. I had the high score at the mall for over twelve years until they closed the arcade. I run into one of these now and then but the ball and buttons never work correctly and it is beyond frustrating.
838k very decent! Got my own cab now... just need to sort out a decent way of capturing it... ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-YdPkHjAexcM.html
I flipped this once. Worked at a pizza joint for a few months, played it every break. Got on a roll and couldn't stop; finally just quit playing around 1,200,000 pts. Extremely intense, could not have done it w/out a really good trac-ball.
Superb work, completing a rollover without trapping, playing straight shoot `em up, puts you at a small elite level. Very few managed to bridge the gap between 860k and 996k where the intensity maxes out! Here`s a near 1.2m on a full cabinet streamed a few years back ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-81Gz0nbEmlU.html
@@dinktyke Thank you! I watched the video and it's the exact opposite of how I played. My strategy was to eliminate all mushrooms, from the start, and provide as much space as possible so the segments could not hit them. I would never have considered another way. Mind blown!
The way you play is quite interesting. There a lot of confidence, definitely, and just overall, you understand the game extremely well. I might return to this video a couple times so that way I can get more out of it. I built my own arcade cabinet and installed a trackball, and this is the game I play the most.
Thanks, suppose it`s reckless to a point. Back in the 80s there were 3 of us as good as each other and all played it a similar way, never really had a strategy as never really ventured outside our local arcades to play it. Confidence and a decent read of the game is key for me and one of the few games i`ve retained any sort of ability on, no routes to remember etc.
There are two videos on youtube I watch, and take a note from. Yours is one, and another is this guy who scores over 500,000. He is more technical, and requires a lot of practice to master. I took some note from yours and it greatly improved my game. If I can master a similar technique to this other guy, I can really make a difference in my game. My score is still nothing compared to both of you. Right now my highscore is 57K. Reaching to hit 60K, which according to the manual, is when the game takes a massive change in difficulty.
Think I've watched that one. Best tip i could give you then is really get a feel of the track ball, practice blasting all the fleas for a few games, blast away the mushroons for them to constantly drop, think 60k is when the fleas speed up btw. Once you get that feel and the precision of pointing it exactly where you want your scores will fly up. This guy is really good, shame about the quality... ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-IypKvo_rFBQ.html
I have a feel for my trackball since I play the game about an hour a day, and afterall, I did assemble everything myself. It is all a matter of me making proper moves, I guess. Or maybe like you suggested, getting to know my trackball a bit better. Maybe my technique is pretty sore. The spider will just sweep me away. It seems to be mostly the spider. I will check out that video. I appreciate your help and humbleness. It means a lot to me.
Wow, this game player is just superb! As a relatively decent fan of this game, it really just doesn’t get any better than this. Just unbelievable game play. Oh, Man 😻
Thanks, D Scott! It does get better than this...here's me playing for a live video at Arcade Club, Bury, in 2019 😁 facebook.com/arcadeclubuk/videos/444609919648212/
My favorite game of all time. I never got above 230K or so, but it was nice to be good enough that a quarter lasted for awhile! More than once, I'd be playing at the local pizza parlor and my mom would yell "We are LEAVING!" It was the only game I played where I occasionally had to walk away with lives left. Good times!
I’ve not got a trackball,only joystick. This is how I’ve always played it. Clear low mushroom’s. Having joystick I’m lucky if i get 100,00+ on a good day. Fantastic performance 🙌❤️ it’s been an honour to watch you work
Yooooo, that's some amazing gameplay right there! I was born in '90, but I played a computerized version of this and other Atari hits on Windows 95/98. Even as an "old game" in that time, I thought it was ridiculously entertaining, and had so much fun playing!!! My strategy was identical to yours, but I never made it nearly as far. I struggled not to get trampled by the spider whenever the little heads hit the bottom and started cycling back up. Always lost sight of the spider or flea and ate it hard🤷🏾♀️ 🤣🤣🤣. Anyway, thanks so much for posting. It brought back some fantastic memories!!!!! 🤝🏾👏🏾🤗
Nice score. I like your style. Now-a-days my best score is 77k. Average around 30-40k (mame cabinet with trakball) Tough game. I usually fall apart once the centipede enters the screen all fragmented. I need to do a better job controlling the fleas and mushrooms too. If they start dropping when the centipede parts are around the bottom, it really throws a wrench into my game. Good stuff. Hope you post some more vids!
Just seen this, posted on your video/channel... an addition to what i posted there, take care of the mushrooms at every instance in bottom 5 rows or so, they are a menace.
Thanks! I hit 95k earlier today. I have been working on the low mushrooms. I kind of abandoned the tunnel in the middle strategy. It's a pain to maintain, get back to at the center at the start of every round, and focus on keeping it clear along with lower mushrooms. I like having some extra time to clean up the bottom after a round instead of rushing to the center. I'll try playing around with the trackball settings too. A big part of it for me is just keeping a priority of targets/actions. I am prone to tunnel vision and then I forget about something (e.g. spider).
@stevenhoog1 You should check out the games I've uploaded on my original machine with a trackball. Played conservatively it really is easy up to around the 550k mark for a highly skilled player.
Back in the early 80s I think I got into aroujnd 600,000. Not sure exactly. I was pretty good at the time. Can not remember how high I got. What I do remember was that I could play an entire evening on about $2.00 playing various arcade games. Generally preferred Atari games. I still own an original Tempest game bought in 1983. IMHO, best arcade game ever created.
Neal Noble 600k, still a great score. Each of 3 of us pushed each other on and all finishing around the 900k mark. We'd all had a spell lingering around 700k for a while. Bit of competitiveness pushed us on. Got my own cab now and reached the grail in 6 weeks, 999999.. few newer vids on my channel :)
i love playing this at 2am when my roommates are trying to sleep. i turn up the sound as high as i can and will play it for 8 hours straight. I also have a recording of it so when i am on vacation i can log in to my pc and play it when i am not at home. Just in case i can't log in I also have the task manager start it at a certain time. I get great pleasure out of driving people insane.
@@vernhill-wv7pp Yes, my family moved to the U.S. then, and it was one of our favorite activities to go to the arcades and play. Centipede was the game I most liked to play.
Wow, tnx for posting... not for fun this play, though my friends and I got the score of 800000. Tnx again, bring back memories, faces, friends. Only difference is that we had extra life after 20.000 points, i think
You're an awesome player. I remember playing it in high school for my 1st class period and not dying . I came back at the end of the day and someone was still playing off of the lives I had built up for 2 hours without dying . I cant remember the score . I wonder what 8 hours of play would equal lol.
Nice score! Get yourself your own machine like i did! If you can move the trackball like it`s an extension of your arm 1 million points is within reach if you learn the details of the game in depth via online forums!
Wish I could have watched this play style back in the early 80s, would have saved me some of my paper route quarters. Our little arcade crew had the asteroids machine locked down.
I remember me and my brother as 90's Kids during the turn of the Century having a small Atari Collection on our dads Gateway PC which included Centipede, Break Out, Astroids, Pong, and Tempest. Now I do wonder like Pac-Man, do all of the Classics when played long enough have a Game Breaking Bug or Glitch at some point?
Not sure about all, there`ll be a lot more than .. Centipede 996k extra life bug... Defender 995k?extra life bug... Missile Command 810k extra life bug... Donkey Kong level 22 kill screen bug.. Galaga has a level 255 bug and the none firing enemies is down to 8 bit i think. Those are just some big titles i can reel off.
Played this in 2022 at that Stranger Things Store in Aventura, Florida. It was easier to play with the trackball compared to playing it on a laptop emulator a few years ago, allowed me to better move around and dodge the spiders easier. Had to LOCK IN with this one because of the spiders jumping around.
Thanks. I'd be 2nd on TG settings with about 530k mame, easily go higher and about 6th on upright cab with 1.78 million. Getting the stuff uploaded and verified is more trouble than it's worth!
It was a bitch to keep track of bonus levels while the game was this intense. When I got down to my last player I'd be counting "408, 420, 432, 444", etc. But I suppose it doesn't change anything to know what the next bonus is: you still have to get there. My max was 705k. There was some luck involved at that point and I got a lot of centipede heads clumping up and coming down on one side. The fleas can also drop mushrooms at inopportune points and screw you that way. The worst was when the flea didn't even drop a mushroom but it would be perfectly timed so a centipede head would hit it and turn around very close to the edge of the screen. Then you'd get the impossible, infinitely-multiplying heads.
Great job! I am curious though as to why you shoot the mushrooms when they appear on the extreme left or right hand rows. (Example: 38:02) Those mushrooms can only help you, because the centipede heads can't get behind them and come down faster. And if you have more mushrooms on the bottom five rows you'll have less of a problem with fleas. The spiders will take out those mushrooms from time to time, and you can't help that, but I think it's better to leave the mushrooms on the end rows in the long run.
Thanks for the tip, i`ll give it a try sometime, just something i`ve always done. I`ve always tried to keep the bottom 5 rows as tidy as possible cautious not to unleash the fleas. I`ve read somewhere since about 5 mushrooms below that line is sufficient?
@@dinktyke push the shooter as high as it can go...Count six vertical mushrooms beyond that above...The total number of mushrooms from that height to the bottom of the screen is what determines whether or not the flea will fall...In the beginning, the number is six mushrooms...The number needed to keep the flea from falling keeps increasing, the higher the score...I learned this from a guy named Jorge Ancheta, in the SF Bay area...He and the guy who invented the sidetrap used to compete with each other a lot, back in 1982.
@@musicfan1517 Great story and the mushroom numbers confirmed in this manual I downloaded... archive.org/details/book_vmg_centipede Back in the day 3 of us scoring around 900k each, straight shoot em up style keeping the fleas away just by feel. I still play that way now on my 80s Cabinet knowing of the numbers without counting, just feel. That book has certainly helped me, and historical forum threads. Up to 1.7million now. 👍🏻
@@dinktyke Yep. And some arcades did a cruddy job of keeping the trackball clean. It would jump all over. Sometimes, you could get the pad of your palm pinched. Oh, and don't get me started on wonky firing buttons!
ALG_ Elclipse I was thinking of buying on of those arcade1up machines for centipede but heard mixed reviews of the track ball. What has your experience been like?
No. Just a logitech trackball.... And for top gameplay nothing has been reproduced yet. Even the Arcade1up machines get nowhere near the precision needed to compete with a real cab.
that would be great if you actually played on the atari and not the computer with a mouse... it makes your movements way faster and way easier to dodge everything...
Yes, a Logitech trackball, but in all honesty, no better than a mouse. Nothing out there even comes close to original hardware for the speed and accuracy needed for a high level game.
Meh - some consider exploiting a known weakness in the game as cheating to a high score. Getting a high score on this game is easy if you build those channels, but it also takes all the fun out of it.
I don't know how it could be considered "cheating"; it's the behavior of the game. If you build that channel and don't hit the group right, it's at the bottom in seconds. Once you've got more than 6-odd heads coming down, separate from the body, the channel isn't nearly as effective, anyway. The real skill is in navigating up and down in the bottom rows while the game pumps out head after head. What's more of a cheat is keeping the whole screen empty, except for a block down near the bottom that stops the fleas from dropping.
I think it's considered cheating because it's not the intended behaviour of the game, it's just that in this situation you can exploit the fact that the game doesn't "fix" things, are goes on a kind of repeat, rinse, recycle mode. This method is mentioned in the Mame history tab. When I clicked on this video I was hoping for something more than what most people would have read in the game history tab, that's all. :)
I used to see this guy and his brother play centipede for an hour or so, and they would clear the screen of mushrooms except for the bottom right side. The centipede would get trapped and the guy would shoot the spider over and over again getting 900 points at a time til reaching 999,999 or something close to that. I wish I knew how to time the shooting of the centipede to get the mushrooms to trap the centipede. The centipede was shot down to be a bit shorter than the full length, as well.
Here is an example of that "blocked side" technique. The player has no skill or ability, but it turns Centipede into "avoid the Spider". ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-8Cn7XRvVk-0.html
Nah, mate. It's real enough, MAME, ... as close as you can get to my own upright arcade Centipede..... ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-YdPkHjAexcM.html
