Centipede is a trackball shooter developed and published by Atari, Inc. It reached North American arcades in August 1981, and Sanritsu and Kiwako released it in Japan in March 1983. It was created by Dona Bailey and Ed Logg; Bailey, one of the few women programming games at the time, wrote about half of the code.
The game drew an unusually broad audience. It was one of the first coin-op games with a large female following: the 1982 book How to Win Video Games estimated that half of its players were women. Centipede was also the game played in the final round of the 1981 Atari World Championships, and Jim Schneider set the arcade record of 16,389,547 points on 1 August 1984.
Atari followed it with Millipede (1982). Much later, in 1998, Hasbro Interactive released a remake with 3D graphics and free movement that has little in common with the original.1
Names and releases
| Region | Title on the box | Platform | Date | Publisher | Src |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NA | Centipede | Arcade | August 1981 | Atari, Inc. | 1 |
| NA | CentipedeAtari 8-bit computers | Other | 1982 | Atari, Inc. | 1 |
| NA | CentipedeAtari 5200 | Other | February 1983 | Atari, Inc. | 1 |
| NA | CentipedeAtari 2600 | Other | March 1983 | Atari, Inc. | 1 |
| NA | CentipedeColecoVision and TI-99/4A versions the same month | Commodore 64 | November 1983 | Atarisoft | 1 |
| NA | CentipedeIBM PC self-booting disk | MS-DOS | July 1984 | Atarisoft | 1 |
| NA | CentipedeAtari 7800 | Other | May 15, 1986 | Atari Corporation | 1 |
| NA | CentipedeDeveloped by The Code Monkeys; also released in Europe in 1992. Nintendo re-released it in 1995 in the Arcade Classic series with Super Game Boy support | Game Boy | December 1992 | Accolade | 1 |
| NA | Atari AnthologyCompilation with the arcade and 2600 versions; also on PS2 | Xbox | 2004 | Atari | 1 |
| EU | CentipedeDate marked as needing a better citation on English Wikipedia | Arcade | 1981 | Atari, Inc. | 1 |
| JP | Centipede | Arcade | March 1983 | Sanritsu / Kiwako | 1 |
| WW | Microsoft ArcadeCompilation for Windows and Mac | Windows | 1993 | Microsoft | 1 |
| WW | CentipedeXbox Live Arcade | Xbox 360 | May 2, 2007 | Atari | 1 |
| WW | Atari 50: The Anniversary CelebrationCompilation by Digital Eclipse with the arcade, 2600 and 7800 versions; Steam release date | Windows | Nov 11, 2022 | Atari | 2 |
Box art by region
NA Centipede
Box art © its publishers, shown to identify each release. Scans: Wikipedia.
Version differences
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ContentArcade
The arcade test mode's graphics viewer holds an unused Grasshopper enemy; the developers said it was meant to play the role the Spider has in the final game.3
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GameplayAtari 5200
A 1982 review called the Atari 5200 port faithful but noted that it has fewer mushrooms and no trackball support.1
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AudioGame Boy (1992)Game Boy (1995)
Nintendo's 1995 Game Boy re-release adds title-screen music and uses different sound effects than Accolade's 1992 cartridge.1
Where to play legally today
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Steam Purchase
Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration
arcade, Atari 2600 and Atari 7800 versions (contents per Wikipedia)
Checked: 2026-10-132store.steampowered.com
Reception
Centipede tied with Donkey Kong as the third highest-grossing US arcade game of 1982. The Atari 2600 port sold 1,475,240 cartridges in 1982–1983, the computer versions won Best Computer Action Game at the 5th Arkie Awards, and the game entered the World Video Game Hall of Fame in 2020.1
Sources
Checked: 2026-10-13Text reviewed: 2026-10-13
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