HSC Season 7 Week 46 - Centipede

[Ze_ro]

Important Note: This weeks competition is over and no further scores will be accepted.

 

Once upon a time in a misty, enchanted forest, there lived a colony of good elves. These elves had a major problem, though. There prized mushroom garden was infested with pests--a giant Centipede, a poison-spreading scorpion, a mischief-making spider, and a pesky flea. The good elves tried everything they could to rid their garden of these bugs. But nothing worked.

 

One day, an elf named Oliver was hacking away at a poisoned mushroom in the garden. Suddenly, he saw an unusual stick gleaming in the dirt. Just as Oliver picked up the stick, a spider jumped out from behind a mushroom and rushed at him. When Oliver waved his hands wildly to try to scare the spider away, sparks flew from his stick and the spider disappeared!

 

"How did that happen?" Oliver wondered out load. "Could this be a magic wand?"

 

Soon Oliver had another chance to try the wand. When the scorpion scurried across a row of mushroom, poisoning every mushroom it touched, Oliver pointed the wand at the scorpion and shouted, "Be gone!"

 

Instantly, the scorpion disappeared and the poisoned mushrooms were transformed back into normal mushrooms.

 

"This is great! This is the tool we need to clean up our mushroom garden!" Oliver shouted ecstatically.

 

With his new found magic wand, Oliver hid behind a mushroom.

 

"OK, you great big Centipede," he said. "Come out whever you are. I'm ready for you now!"

 

 

Game Information

• Game Name: Centipede
• Released By: 1982, Atari
• Left Difficulty: N/A
• Right Difficulty: N/A
• Game Mode: Standard Difficulty (No Teddy Bear)

Post your scores right here in this thread, and I will add them to the list. Remember to play the game with the recommended game mode and difficulty settings as shown above so that your scores will be consistent with everyone elses. The deadline for posting scores is Wednesday July 7th at 1:00 AM (CST).

 

Current High Scores 444,174 (oyamafamily) [+11] 244,195 (Jifremok) [+10] 178,998 (SekOner) [+9] 176,686 (Scrabbler15) [+8] 157,102 (JacobZu7zu7) [+7] 149,856 (SeaGtGruff) [+6] 117,467 (Ravey) [+5] 79,240 (Zoyx) [+4] 66,062 (toymailman) [+3] 56,790 (SpiceWare) [+2] 52,142 (roadrunner) [+1] 43,744 (Mister VCS) [+1] 35,640 (zylon) [+1] Best Tips Scrabbler16 [+2] Challenges None TwinGalaxies Top 3 1,211,230 (Frankie Cardulla) 1,110,655 (Todd Rogers) 275,701 (Giovanni Flamand) (Emulator) (Game 4, Difficulty B)

Current Standings toymailman [445] Zoyx [321] oyamafamily [237] roadrunner [232] darthkur [218] shadow460 [184] LarcenTyler [124] JacobZu7zu7 [110] Cebus Capucinis [107] Deteacher [92] zylon [91] Atardi [84] vjames [71] aftermac [70] keilbaca [64] Mister VCS [62] Captain Beard [61] SpiceWare [60] godzillajoe [56] katana [51] 4Ks [40] brandondwright [30] Vectorman0 [29] Carey85 [29] NML32 [27] Tr3vor [27] homerwannabee [26] Impaler_26 [26] Hornpipe2 [25] Wickeycolumbus [22] devwebcl [21] Scrabbler15 [21] pis [19] chuckwalla [17] HatNJ [14] Pioneer4x4 [13] Nathan Strum [11] Chuck D. Head [10] LoneWolfSeth [10] LaserHawk [10] vintagegamecrazy [9] joeypsp [9] Lendorian [9] littleman jack [8] kote [8] Animan [6] Player 3 [6] Chris Leach [5] Jifremok [4] MIKE5200 [4] Skaarg [4] JayWI [3] Shannon [2] jeremysart [2] sloth713 [2] jjd [2] SpaceInvaders [2] ChrisKoopa [1] SekOner [1] SeaGtGruff [1] Nati [1] disjuakifa [1]

 

Scoring Points in Centipede

• Centipede Body Segment - 10 points
• Centipede Head - 100 points
• Spider - 300, 600, or 900 points (depending on range)
• Flea - 200 points
• Scorpion - 1000 points
• Mushroom (totally eliminated) - 1 points
• Mushroom (wounded or intact at end of turn) - 5 for every 2
• Bonus Wand every 10,000 points

 

Hints and Tips

The Manual

 

As always, you really should read the manual. In case you don't have the manual, AtariAge has a typed copy available online. Unfortunately, it doesn't provide any specific hints, but it's worth reading anyways so you know what you're doing.

• Shoot away mushrooms in a straight line up the screen to create a "corridor." When the Centipede reaches this "gap," it will fall straight down the battlefield and can be easily picked off.
  
• Since the flea doesn't appear until you have eliminated most of the mushrooms near you, you can set up a shield to prevent this lightening-fast pest from striking. Simply leave at least 5 mushrooms on the lower third of the screen. After you score 120,000 points, you'll need to leave 10 mushrooms.
  
• Shoot Centipede heads to create new heads out of the body segments left behind. Since heads are worth 10 times the point value of body segments, you'll score lots of points.
  
• Each creature makes a distinct sound. By becoming familiar with these sounds, you will know without looking, what is attacking and where it is on the screen.

 

We have played this game before in the HSC, check it out here.

 

Scrabbler15

 

Start by building the corridor in the middle of the screen. Shoot any mushrooms that end up inside the corridor to keep it clear. At higher levels, this corridor could end up anywhere on the screen. Try to keep it clear and take the easy points by shooting the centipede in the corridor.

 

When the spider comes out, it will usually do it at a 45 degree angle and go all the way to the floor. The other thing it will do is start at 45 degrees and then go straight down, so watch out for that. Playing from the middle is safest, but anticipating the spider and shooting it before it gets started can be cheap points (if the wand doesn't get crushed in the process).

 

Shoot the spider when it's as far away as possible. Even doing that, there will be plenty of accidental 600's and 900's. Using this method allows the chasing of a spider that has already moved pass the wand (The spider moves either right-to-left or left-to-right, but not both on the same pass). Once the spider touches the floor, it becomes unpredictable. Wait for it to bounce high before trying to shoot it or move past it.

 

The wand is safest when it's on the floor. Don't move up the screen, except to jump out of the way of something.

 

I know some players like to shoot the flies, but I don't. So I leave enough mushrooms on the lower part of the screen that the flies stay away. Try to make sure to clear any mushrooms that accidentally form a corridor at the bottom of the screen. This corridor of death allows the centipede to be funneled all the way to the floor, which is not good.

 

When shooting pieces of the centipede on the lower part of the screen, try to use mushrooms to backstop the shots. Even when the shots miss, the reloading is faster than if the shot went all the way up the screen. This is also helpful for clearing multiple loose centipede pieces, because of the rapid reload.

 

Always go for the scorpion. The points are worth it and a hit will cancel any poison mushrooms that would have happened otherwise. When the screen starts to fill up with poison mushrooms, just survive as long as possible. When the wand is finally lost, the new screen for the next wand will have fresh (not poison) mushrooms. If possible, try to keep a clear path all the way up both sides of the screen. Then, when the scorpion comes out, there will be at least one clear shot at it before it disappears.

 

oyamafamily

 

If you have 7 Wands in reserve (which is the maximum number of lives) displayed at the bottom of the screen, here's my advice: DON'T score the next multiple of 10,000 points (including bonus points for mushrooms intact). For example: if your score is 68,500 points with 7 lives in reserve, let the spider, flea or Centipede bite your Wand.

 

--Zero

[Zoyx]

26878

36022

Edited June 30, 2010 by Zoyx

[JacobZu7zu7]

77,219

[Scrabbler15]

This is a game I've had a little bit of experience with. Here's some of my hints:

 

Start by building the corridor in the middle of the screen. Shoot any mushrooms that end up inside the corridor to keep it clear. At higher levels, this corridor could end up anywhere on the screen. Try to keep it clear and take the easy points by shooting the centipede in the corridor.

 

When the spider comes out, it will usually do it at a 45 degree angle and go all the way to the floor. The other thing it will do is start at 45 degrees and then go straight down, so watch out for that. Playing from the middle is safest, but anticipating the spider and shooting it before it gets started can be cheap points (if the wand doesn't get crushed in the process).

 

Shoot the spider when it's as far away as possible. Even doing that, there will be plenty of accidental 600's and 900's. Using this method allows the chasing of a spider that has already moved pass the wand (The spider moves either right-to-left or left-to-right, but not both on the same pass). Once the spider touches the floor, it becomes unpredictable. Wait for it to bounce high before trying to shoot it or move past it.

 

The wand is safest when it's on the floor. Don't move up the screen, except to jump out of the way of something.

 

I know some players like to shoot the flies, but I don't. So I leave enough mushrooms on the lower part of the screen that the flies stay away. Try to make sure to clear any mushrooms that accidentally form a corridor at the bottom of the screen. This corridor of death allows the centipede to be funneled all the way to the floor, which is not good.

 

When shooting pieces of the centipede on the lower part of the screen, try to use mushrooms to backstop the shots. Even when the shots miss, the reloading is faster than if the shot went all the way up the screen. This is also helpful for clearing multiple loose centipede pieces, because of the rapid reload.

 

Always go for the scorpion. The points are worth it and a hit will cancel any poison mushrooms that would have happened otherwise. When the screen starts to fill up with poison mushrooms, just survive as long as possible. When the wand is finally lost, the new screen for the next wand will have fresh (not poison) mushrooms. If possible, try to keep a clear path all the way up both sides of the screen. Then, when the scorpion comes out, there will be at least one clear shot at it before it disappears.

 

 

 

I'll try later to see what kind of a score I can put up these days. (I'm not as young as I used to be )

[Zoyx]

@Scrabbler15 - Wow, you are old. Three years older than me.

 

Thanks for the tips.

[oyamafamily]

Here are my first tries - 118,338 and 193,459

 

 

I scored 17,805 (1st try) and 22,074 (2nd try) with the First Life.

Edited July 1, 2010 by oyamafamily

[Scrabbler15]

@Scrabbler15 - Wow, you are old. Three years older than me.

 

Thanks for the tips.

 

yw

[+SpiceWare]

56,790

[roadrunner]

52,142

 

 

 

[SeaGtGruff]

First try, 88476. I'll have to switch to a joystick. Centipede actually seems kind of boring to me, compared to Millipede.

 

Michael

[SeaGtGruff]

Switched to Stelladaptor. 136525

 

Michael

[JacobZu7zu7]

109,353 ... worn me down after a while. but its pretty fun.

 

i take my thumb off the fire button now when there's only 3 or less centipedes on the screen, and just fire when i have a direct shot at them, works a lot better. it also give you a break from the firing and endless shooting noise.

 

 

New score... 157,102

Edited July 3, 2010 by JacobZu7zu7

[SekOner]

52621

112845

178998

Edited July 4, 2010 by SekOner

[zylon]

This is like going back to B&W tv after having experienced Millipede.

35,640

[oyamafamily]

New attempt - 268,498

 

Here's my high score after the loss of my First Life:

Edited July 3, 2010 by oyamafamily

[oyamafamily]

TIPS ABOUT BONUS LIVES:

 

If you have 7 Wands in reserve (which is the maximum number of lives) displayed at the bottom of the screen, here's my advice: DON'T score the next multiple of 10,000 points (including bonus points for mushrooms intact). For example: if your score is 68,500 points with 7 lives in reserve, let the spider, flea or Centipede bite your Wand.

[Zoyx]

44646

54646

79240

Edited July 3, 2010 by Zoyx

[SeaGtGruff]

It might not be as interesting (i.e., varied) as Millipede, but it's certainly difficult enough.

 

149856

 

Michael

[toymailman]

First try for me.

 

56,352

[JacobZu7zu7]

New attempt - 268,498

 

Here's my high score after the loss of my First Life:

 

That's very good! I also, only lost my first life after 30,000 mark.

But to get near 300,000 nice! I dunno if I can, I get tired of playing after 100,000 lol.

[Zoyx]

What controllers are people using for this game. I usually use a Wico for joystick games... but it doesn't seem to be very precise for this game.

[Scrabbler15]

166984

 

I haven't really played Centipede since the 1983 Atari World Championships, so this week has been especially fun, frustrating, and enlightening for me. I've come to the realization that I'm not gonna be able to play this like I did when I was 22. It's kinda like an aging baseball pitcher who's been to the World Series and knows how to pitch, but he just doesn't have that 98 mph fastball, anymore. (Yes, Zoyx, that does mean I'm old )

[SekOner]

New attempt - 268,498

 

Here's my high score after the loss of my First Life:

 

Holy crap!! I'm not even going to come close to that! good job :thumbsup:

[oyamafamily]

New attempt - 268,498

 

Here's my high score after the loss of my First Life:

 

Holy crap!! I'm not even going to come close to that! good job :thumbsup:

 

Thank you very much!

[oyamafamily]

What controllers are people using for this game. I usually use a Wico for joystick games... but it doesn't seem to be very precise for this game.

 

I always use the KEYBOARD for this game, because I'm playing with Stella emulator (3.1.2 version).