Play Centipede Online

Atari released Centipede in 1981 after Dona Bailey and Ed Logg co-designed the fixed shooter. Arcade players guided a cannon with a trackball while a segmented creature zigzagged through mushrooms. The Strong inducted the game into the World Video Game Hall of Fame in 2020. Every shot can reshape the field because broken segments and mushrooms change later routes, creating a rapid challenge in movement, aim, and threat priority. Our browser version uses keyboard and touch controls. Start free, guard the lower area, and clear the descending chain before it reaches you.

1. Start the game and locate your cannon in the lower section of the field. Use the displayed keyboard controls on desktop or the touch controls on a phone or tablet.
2. Move left and right to line up shots. Keep enough space around the cannon to dodge enemies that enter the lower area.
3. Fire upward at the centipede's head or body segments as it travels across the mushroom field. A surviving chain reverses horizontal direction when it meets an obstacle or edge and descends.
4. Watch the whole play area. Mushrooms redirect the centipede. A spider bounces through the lower zone eating mushrooms, a flea drops from the top to lay fresh mushrooms when the field runs thin, and a scorpion crawls across a row poisoning mushrooms it touches.
5. Treat poisoned mushrooms as a warning. A centipede head that reaches a poisoned mushroom dives straight down toward your cannon instead of zigzagging, so clear the poison or move before it arrives.
6. Destroy all centipede segments to clear the wave. The next attack returns with renewed pressure, so reset your position before tracking the new chain.
7. Avoid contact with hostile creatures. Losing a life interrupts your scoring run, and losing all available lives ends the game.
8. Use short taps rather than constant movement when lining up a narrow shot. On touch screens, keep your hand low so it covers as little of the action as possible.

• The player controls a cannon near the bottom and fires upward at a centipede moving through a mushroom field.
• The centipede travels horizontally, changes direction at field boundaries or mushrooms, and moves down the screen as its route changes.
• Shots remove centipede segments after the required hits in the active version. Dividing a chain can create separate moving sections that demand independent tracking.
• Mushrooms act as route obstacles. Their placement can steer the centipede into favorable firing lanes or push it toward the player sooner.
• A spider bounces through the lower zone and eats mushrooms. A flea falls from the top and lays new mushrooms when the lower field is sparse. A scorpion crosses a row and poisons any mushroom it touches.
• A centipede head that meets a poisoned mushroom dives straight down toward the player zone instead of zigzagging, raising the pressure until the poison is cleared or the head is destroyed.
• Contact with an enemy costs a life. The run ends after the player uses all lives.
• Clearing every segment completes the wave and starts another. Later waves may increase speed, enemy frequency, or the number of simultaneous threats.
• Our implementation replaces the original cabinet's trackball with keyboard and touch input while preserving the core task of shooting a descending segmented enemy.

• Keep a clean escape lane near the cannon. Avoid camping against an edge, where a spider or low segment can trap you. A central pocket usually offers two dodge directions, but move away when enemy routes converge there.
• Aim for controlled splits. Shooting a middle segment can divide the centipede and create another head, which may increase movement pressure. Early in a wave, focus fire near one end so fewer independent heads approach at once.
• Read mushrooms as route instructions. Each obstacle can force a reversal and a downward step. Clear mushrooms that funnel the chain rapidly toward your zone, while preserving those that hold it inside a predictable upper firing lane.
• Watch for poisoned mushrooms after a scorpion passes. A diving head reaches the cannon fast, so shoot the poison first or reposition before it arrives. Clearing the scorpion early stops the poison from spreading across a row.
• Prioritize the nearest threat rather than the highest possible score. A low centipede head deserves attention before a distant target. Track side enemies with peripheral vision, then return your aim to the route most likely to reach the cannon.
• Use rhythmic shots and small movements. Constant firing can hide the timing of an approaching segment, while long sweeps can carry you into danger. Fire along a predicted column, shift a short distance, reassess, and repeat.

• 1981 Arcade Cabinet: Atari's original uses a trackball and fire button, with a fixed shooter, mushrooms, centipede segments, spiders, scorpions, and fleas. Cabinet controls allow fast movement in the lower play zone.
• Home Console Editions: Official home releases adapted the visuals and controls to different hardware. Some use joysticks or directional pads and alter enemy counts, field proportions, or scoring to fit the system.
• Browser Keyboard and Touch: Our online edition accepts keyboard movement on desktop and touch input on mobile devices. It keeps the descending-wave goal and the spider, flea, and scorpion enemies while making play available without a trackball cabinet. Players can also defend against formations in Space Invaders or fly freely in Asteroids.

• A player can read the central objective immediately: shoot the segmented enemy before it reaches the bottom.
• Mushrooms turn the field into a changing route map, so aiming decisions affect future danger.
• Short waves create frequent goals and clear moments to reset position.
• Multiple enemy types force concrete priority choices rather than rewarding constant fire alone.
• Keyboard and touch controls make the movement-and-shooting loop available on current desktop and mobile browsers.
• The 2020 Hall of Fame induction gives the game's 1981 design a documented place in video game history.

Play Centipede online for free in your browser with no cabinet, coins, or download. Use the keyboard on desktop or touch controls on a phone or tablet, move the cannon through the lower field, and fire at each descending segment. Watch how mushrooms redirect the chain, protect an escape lane, and clear one wave at a time. Start a run and challenge your best score.

Centipede remains a direct arcade challenge built around prediction, movement, and changing routes. Bailey and Logg's 1981 design turns mushrooms into meaningful obstacles and every split segment into a new aiming problem. Keep room to dodge, remove the closest threat, and shape safer firing lanes. Use keyboard or touch controls to play free in your browser and see how many waves you can clear.

• Centipede - World Video Game Hall of Fame at The Strong