Atari Classic 'Centipede' Returns (axios.com) 29
A new version of the classic Atari game "Centipede" will be released for consoles and PC in late September under the name "Centipede: Recharged" and sporting a more futuristic look. From a report: The game's lead developer, Adam Nickerson, first partnered with Atari for last year's "Missile Command: Recharged," which revamped another classic in a similar style. Nickerson tells Axios he first connected with Atari after discovering an email in his spam folder from an Atari official who liked his work. Atari showed him a list of franchises they had the rights to. He went with "Missile Command" first because he used to be obsessed with it.
What is the recharge? (Score:5, Insightful)
I watched the trailer and don't really see the value add here beyond the original Centipede (which you can play for free).
I understand that updating the graphics and adding "powerups" may appeal to some class of gamers but to me the original's charm is directly related to the constraints under which it was developed. Adding bright colors and power ups to the Mona Lisa doesn't make it more relevant for a younger generation.
And, by the way, please get off my lawn.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
And achievements!
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Vis a vis "Adding bright colors..." (Score:5, Interesting)
A story that circulated in the industry back in the day involved how Centipede got its color palette.
Dona Bailey, the lead developer, wanted a different look than what the standard Atari hardware was offering her. A tech was mucking around inside a cabinet when he bumped a circuit. She said "That's it! Stop!" when she saw the effect it had on screen. The tech pulled his head out of the cabinet and saw the saturated colors and wondered if she was sure that's what she wanted. To his eye, the colors looked awful. It was and that's how the original Centipede color palette was chosen. By a tech's accident and a developer's eye.
Rob Fulop, another Atari developer who wrote several VCS titles, would have called that event a "Lucky Bug." A lot of the games at the time had features added because a mistake led to a desirable effect.
Re: (Score:2)
I watched both the Centipede and Missile Command trailers. Interestingly, both originally trackball games, but I think both would work really well with a mouse. In each case you're effectively just moving a cursor around the screen anyway, so a mouse is a natural input device.
I dig the music in the trailers, and I dig the pseudo-vector graphics. Missile Command is a whole $2.99 on Steam. I'll probably pick it up just for grins. I'd easily spend that much on it in quarters in a single afternoon back in
Re: (Score:2)
They both do work well with mice. The one thing the trackball really has going for it, and is hard to replicate with a mouse, is momentum. When we stop pushing on it, the ball itself still rolls for a bit before it stops.
I wrote a Missile Command clone for the Macintosh back in the late 80s. I tried for a long time to get a momentum effect with the mouse to work. Nothing ever really worked out well, it just never felt "right". I ended up abandoning the idea of adding momentum the way a trackball does.
Re: (Score:2)
I think that momentum came to its best use in Marble madness where it gave some sense of physical connection with the ball on the screen. And it was very satisfying to give the trackball a good spin to get moving.
It wasn't quite as satisfying to have to lift-and-move the mouse repeatedly and frantically in the Amiga conversion.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Can one *legally* play the original Centipede for free?
It was all about the trackball... (Score:5, Informative)
... without that trackball, the game is just not going to be anywhere near as fun or the same, no matter what the developers throw at it.
That was mostly the USP of Centipede - and it was an incredible USP, for sure.
I spent many a quarter (or 10 pence piece), on that game, but never really mastered it - and that trackball seemed to suffer more from "hand grease" than other arcade controls. Always so gross when people were playing after / during eating fries and burgers.
They were usually incredibly robust, but I encountered a few machines that were gummed up something nasty,
Those were the days - when arcade units were kitted out for specific games.
Re: (Score:1)
I will be very disappointed if this doesn't support the trackball properly.
Re: (Score:2)
I will be very disappointed if this doesn't support the trackball properly.
I can't see why it wouldn't.
Those input devices are really quite rare, thinking about it, although I've seem them in use on a desktop, I don't actually know anyone personally who uses one.
I may invest!
I do not a lot of designers who control everything via a wacom tablet - very efficient once you get used to it, although they tend to suck at FPS games :D
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
My concern is on how they read the movement--accelerating movement vs. constant velocity vs. direct positioning. I don't know what Centipede did, but I do know that playing in MAME with a mouse was never the right feel.
Re: (Score:2)
Centipede was my favorite game because of the trackball. I still love trackballs.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Marble madness was one of my all time favorites. Groundbreaking.
Re: (Score:1)
See also 'Marble Madness'. Did they ever do a cabinet that would do both games?
Finally... (Score:3)
A new game for the Atari VCS [atarivcs.com]!
How more many? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I used to play the arcade machine at Pizza Hut. I would play it again, one Quarter at a time.
Just the game? (Score:2)
I remember Centipede in arcades and this isn't it. (Score:2)
I remember Millipede too. it was okay, but I've got a Centipede cabinet in my living room that can also play Millipede or Missile Command. I rarely play anything but Centipede on it.
I think this guy is too young to remember playing it in arcades. I don't want Centipede "Recharged". I like it just the way it is now.
And it's frustrating to play without a proper arcade trackball. I've used a Logitech trackball for my mouse for as long as they've sold them and it works for me, but it's my thumb doing all the
This is... (Score:1)