Centipede (Atari 7800) Review – The new Atari VCS – Mockduck Plays Games

I never played the Atari 7800 back in the
day; no one I know owned one and similar to
a lot of the gaming public of the time our
focus was on Nintendo and then quickly other
consoles instead.
The 7800 is an example of a console after
its time; who knows what might have happened
if the 7800 had been released in 1984 rather
than two years later after a lengthy legal
fight and only after the debut of the Nintendo
Entertainment System and with Atari seeing
its future slowly eroding.
It’s a shame, because many of us missed out
on what I think are some of the best if not
the best console ports of the classic Atari
arcade games.
Centipede is a great example of the evolution
of the arcade console port.
The original arcade classic was clearly more
than consoles of 1981 could handle, but programmers
found that the game’s rollerball gameplay
generally fit well when converted to a generation
of joysticks.
The original 2600 release is one of the best
games for the VCS.
While the graphics and sound are rudimentary
and a bit harsh, the gameplay is great, and
it’s one of the best selling games for the
console.
The 5200 version was also missed by many and
isn’t bad.
You can see the graphics and sound improve
a bit, although the infamously poor 5200 joystick
made actually playing the game fairly difficult.
The 7800 port is in some ways the best of
everything: great gameplay, good speed,

tight
controls, improved graphics, rudimentary classic
Atari console sound, and the exciting introduction
of two player simultaneous co-op and competitive
play.
The 7800 version is simply great, and if you
are lucky to have someone to play co-op with
you it’s even better.
I personally find the spiders to be slightly
harder to hit in this version of the game
for some reason, but otherwise it plays very
much like the classic Centipede.
Both the Classic and Modern controllers are
supported.
I personally love playing 2600, 5200, and
7800 games on the VCS with the Classic, so
I’m happy to report it plays great.
Of course, since this is the original 7800
ROM there are no saved high scores or leaderboards.
You have to wonder if Atari’s investment into
Antstream couldn’t make something like online
leaderboards for classic ROMs possible someday.
As with the other 7800 releases Atari is not
offering a manual, so if you need to you’ll
have to find it online.
Thankfully, Centipede does not need a manual.
You can play the game for free on the cloud-based
Antstream Arcade.
Centipede 7800 was released for the VCS at
$2.99.
Thanks for watching!
I’m currently playing through the new Breakout:
Recharged, so expect that to most likely be
my next review.
There are also several other 7800 and DOS
games to get to, and other games on the horizon.
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Have fun!