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BaD Bugs - Centipede


On 02/14/2019 at 09:50 PM by Matt Snee

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cent

My older brother is five years my senior, so by the time the NES came out, he was a teenager, and growing out of video games. While he did play Slalom and Castlevania a little, mostly that was it. But prior to that, he did play a lot of Atari games. 

One of his favorites was Q-Bert, and I used to watch him play that. He was quite good. But he also very much liked Centipede, an insane game that, for me, was quite hypnotic to watch. 

God knows the game probably has a story more complex, but basically you're fighting giant insects like the centipede (whicch split into smaller, faster parts as you shot it), a randomly jumping spider, and a others. 

My brother played this one a lot, and I can still remember being in our family room in Wilmington, Delaware, as I watched him play. I was never good at it, and I've played it since, and am still not good at it. But it was very exciting to watch my brother do battle with it. 

Atari games tend to get forgotten compared to the nostalgia of the NES days, but there was a whole other world before Nintendo. I remember it quite well. 


 

Comments

Super Step Contributing Writer

02/14/2019 at 11:48 PM

I ... Never grew up. 

Matt Snee Staff Writer

02/15/2019 at 11:55 AM

Me neither!

KnightDriver

02/15/2019 at 12:14 AM

I like the game in the arcades with the roller ball controller. Less so on consoles today, but I was forced to learn some strategy trying to get an achievement on Xbox last year. It was to clear the entire screen of mushrooms. It was really difficult and I didn't get it.

Matt Snee Staff Writer

02/15/2019 at 11:56 AM

ah, I forget about those roller ball controllers. Boy, try explaining THAT to a kid these days. 

KnightDriver

02/15/2019 at 08:46 PM

I would say, imagine having that ball in the mouse, but huge. 

Matt Snee Staff Writer

02/15/2019 at 09:06 PM

Yeah but mice don’t have balls in them either anymore! Tongue Out

KnightDriver

02/15/2019 at 09:09 PM

Darn. I'm even out of date on my mouse. I still use a logitech mouse on my laptop I scavenged from my leftover tower computer I had over ten years ago.  

Matt Snee Staff Writer

02/15/2019 at 09:29 PM

Damn man! There’s a whole world of laser mice out there! Smile

KnightDriver

02/16/2019 at 09:52 PM

I haven't bought a new computer since 2009. I wonder if I every will get another one. If my current laptop dies, I may be just get a keyboard for my phone and leave it at that. 

Matt Snee Staff Writer

02/17/2019 at 12:10 AM

I use my iPad for mostly everything now, but sometimes I do still need a computer to do some things. 

daftman

02/15/2019 at 08:47 AM

For whatever reason Centipede is, in my mind, the quintessential pre-smartphone phone game. Nothing really worked well back then but Centipede fared alright.

Matt Snee Staff Writer

02/15/2019 at 11:56 AM

Oh yeah, I forgot about that! I guess Centipede had a little more time in the spotlight!

Cary Woodham

02/15/2019 at 01:31 PM

Q*bert is awesome!  Did you know there was a Q*bert cartoon on Saturday Supercade?

One of my dad's favorite arcade games back then was Centipede.  When we'd go to arcades as a family, I'd run for the Pac-Man machine (of course), my mom would hop to Frogger, and my dad would make a beeline for Centipede.

Matt Snee Staff Writer

02/17/2019 at 12:10 AM

Ha ha, Frogger is pretty good too! 

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