yes, this is the topic about centipede(bootleg2) (compliant)

[dbh]

if i play conservatively (slow) at first, i can extend the game for awhile, until about 100k, but this is a rather painstaking, and time consuming way to play..however, it usually ends up deteroriating as the spider speeds up, and the fleas keep falling.

..but if i play fast (let the fleas come out)...the game picks up, and i get better practice on the full screen method, but i end up with a lower score, and die faster..

Yes, playing "slow" will generally take longer. As you're discovering, the ultimate result of playing slow leads to the blob strategy. This means that you have to have a detailed understanding of how many mushrooms to keep in the lower 12 rows of the screen to prevent the fleas from falling.

this brings up another point..

i'll admit, having a screen of poisoned mushrooms can make it a lot easier to clear off the centipede/heads at times...at other times it makes it worse..

i think dying at the appropriate time, can help, by resetting the poisoned mushrooms..

any thoughts on that?

In general the poisoned mushrooms make it easier, especially when you start getting into the higher scores (past 200K-250K). The reason is that if you're lettng fleas fall, eventually the top part of the screen gets nearly completely filled with mushrooms, and that will caused the heads to drop through the screen quickly. The problem is the once they start getting close to the bottom, you have the danger of the side feed starting. With poisoned mushrooms, they drop from the top of the screen just as fast, but they continue all the way to the bottom and then start travelling UP. This usually gives you a few extra seconds to clear them out before they start travelling back down to activate the side feed.

Early on in the game, then it's slightly different because there will be relatively few mushrooms in the top part of the screen and it will take the centipede a long time to weave its way down. It may occasionally help to have a strategic death here or there, but after a certain point it probably won't work that well.

but i still haven't figured out the 'sweet' spot for the mushrooms....even if i manage to keep the fleas away for awhile, they always end up winning.. (not to mention the spider nailing me)..

To properly do these flea-prevention strategies, you have to learn how many mushrooms to keep in the bottom 12 rows, and also what scores things change at. It starts at 5, then I think at 60K it jumps to 9 (or maybe 12), and at 120K it jumps to something like 20. You should be able to figure it out by using "pause" when watching a recording. At some point, it increases by 1 for every 10K of score. In my 560K game, I checked (using pause) at 460K and I needed 50 mushrooms to keep the fleas from falling. At 540K, I needed 58.

The other part of this is the spider. He travels through the bottom 12 rows to start, but by 160K he only travels through the bottom 7 rows. At 860K, he goes back to 12.

anyways. you should try some of the other clones, especially the 'super-centipede' from the arcade classics, it might give you more of a challenge...

i've put up other high scores on the other revisions, and bootlegs (like 'magic worm')..hope to see you there also..

Yes, I'll get to those soon

[negative1]

Yes, playing "slow" will generally take longer. As you're discovering, the ultimate result of playing slow leads to the blob strategy. This means that you have to have a detailed understanding of how many mushrooms to keep in the lower 12 rows of the screen to prevent the fleas from falling.

i'm starting to get better at it, in most of my 300k
games, i'm leaving a row of mushrooms just under
the scorpion so i don't have to worry about those
any more..

however, after that, the fleas seem to take over,
no matter what i do...so i just abandon the
'blob' strategy after that...

In general the poisoned mushrooms make it easier, especially when you start getting into the higher scores (past 200K-250K).

ok, i agree about the poisoned mushrooms..

and i've modified the 'blob' strategy to leave
1 poisoned to help speed up going through some
screens..

To properly do these flea-prevention strategies, you have to learn how many mushrooms to keep in the bottom 12 rows, and also what scores things change at. It starts at 5, then I think at 60K it jumps to 9 (or maybe 12), and at 120K it jumps to something like 20. You should be able to figure it out by using "pause" when watching a recording. At some point, it increases by 1 for every 10K of score. In my 560K game, I checked (using pause) at 460K and I needed 50 mushrooms to keep the fleas from falling. At 540K, I needed 58.

The other part of this is the spider. He travels through the bottom 12 rows to start, but by 160K he only travels through the bottom 7 rows. At 860K, he goes back to 12.

i haven't checked...(mainly because i've never gotten that high)..

but there must be a limit to the number of mushrooms on the bottom
part...and it must turn over at some point (i would think)..

otherwise there would be no room to move, and the fleas would
keep coming?

i'll try to come up with some mushroom counts..length of
the screen X height of the screen,
lower area , etc..

anyways. you should try some of the other clones, especially the 'super-centipede' from the arcade classics, it might give you more of a challenge...

i've put up other high scores on the other revisions, and bootlegs (like 'magic worm')..hope to see you there also..

Yes, I'll get to those soon

i broke 700k on the arcade classics,
its difficulty maxes out after awhile.

1) there's a lot less scorpions
2) the side feeds never go ridiculously fast
3) the sprites are bigger, and easier to hit

hopefully i'll get to a million soon..

later

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[dbh]

i haven't checked...(mainly because i've never gotten that high)..

but there must be a limit to the number of mushrooms on the bottom part...and it must turn over at some point (i would think)..

otherwise there would be no room to move, and the fleas would keep coming?

i'll try to come up with some mushroom counts..length of the screen X height of the screen, lower area , etc.

The screen has 30 rows and 30 columns. A flea will fall based on the number of mushrooms in the lower 12 rows. Obviously, there are never mushrooms in the very bottom row, so that leaves 11 rows of 30 columns (330 mushrooms max). Since the spider eats mushrooms, you really should only be using 5 rows (rows 8-12) (after 160K the spider doesn't travel above row 7, except for where he actually enters the screen. However, at 860K he goes back to travelling all 12 lower levels). The 5 rows gives you a maximum of 150 mushrooms if you were to perfectly fill in every space with a mushroom. For a properly constructed blob, you should leave a space of 4 or 5 columns on one side of the screen (to shoot up and kill individual heads further up the screen, and to shoot scorpions).

Using my game as a reference, at 460K you need 50 mushrooms. Working back (one mushroom for every 10K...I think that's right, but I'm not positive), at 300K you would need 34 mushrooms, at 200K you would need 24, at 160K you would need 20. Working the other direction, for 600K you would need 64 mushrooms, 800K would be 84, and at 860K you would need 90. I've never successfully played the blob to that high (I think the highest I ever got was maybe 600K), but obviously it takes a great deal of precision and planning to actually construct a proper blob with enough mushrooms.

[negative1]

The screen has 30 rows and 30 columns. A flea will fall based on the number of mushrooms in the lower 12 rows. Obviously, there are never mushrooms in the very bottom row, so that leaves 11 rows of 30 columns (330 mushrooms max).

hmm..i never thought of the screen being 'square',
i guess the aspect ratio of the mushrooms makes the screen
look taller than the width..

yes, i went back and counted them..so those numbers are
indeed correct...

Since the spider eats mushrooms, you really should only be using 5 rows (rows 8-12) (after 160K the spider doesn't travel above row 7, except for where he actually enters the screen. However, at 860K he goes back to travelling all 12 lower levels). The 5 rows gives you a maximum of 150 mushrooms if you were to perfectly fill in every space with a mushroom. For a properly constructed blob, you should leave a space of 4 or 5 columns on one side of the screen (to shoot up and kill individual heads further up the screen, and to shoot scorpions).

i might have to tape some plastic or something over the screen
as an overlay to help see where the lines are, i guess a lot of the
time, and its pretty imprecise...however, i think that's a little
drastic...maybe i'll do it just to practice..

also my skill in placing shots isn't the best either, so i still have
to work on that...the spider really messes things up on my blobs
most of the time...

i think the key is getting to the 180k point and going from there,

Using my game as a reference, at 460K you need 50 mushrooms. Working back (one mushroom for every 10K...I think that's right, but I'm not positive), at 300K you would need 34 mushrooms, at 200K you would need 24, at 160K you would need 20. Working the other direction, for 600K you would need 64 mushrooms, 800K would be 84, and at 860K you would need 90. I've never successfully played the blob to that high (I think the highest I ever got was maybe 600K), but obviously it takes a great deal of precision and planning to actually construct a proper blob with enough mushrooms.

i've gotten to 300k once with it...but also i think the key is to
erasing the entire field once in awhile when there's a whole
centipede on the screen, but i think it was referring only
to the turnover point....i think its kind of a risky strategy,
because you lose most of your men, when you try to do it..

anyways, thanks again for all the information,

have you written a FAQ about it?

if not, maybe we can collobarate, i would
like to post it on a website for centipede
that i'm making...(it might be awhile though
before i get it up)..

later

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[negative1]

heres's a screen from dons game,
with all the mushroom rows/columns:



and heres one showing the 'hot' area, to
keep mushrooms in, to avoid fleas:



later

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[dbh]

i've gotten to 300k once with it...but also i think the key is to erasing the entire field once in awhile when there's a whole centipede on the screen, but i think it was referring only to the turnover point....i think its kind of a risky strategy, because you lose most of your men, when you try to do it..

The erasing-the-screen part comes at 860K. After 860K, the spider reverts to travelling all 12 lower levels of the screen so he will eat your blob and you won't be able to keep enough mushrooms to keep the fleas from falling.

Once you've cleared the screen, it will take the long centipede almost a minute to travel all the way down the screen. One trick to keep him "whole" is to plant a mushroom on the second row one space away from the edge. Depending on which way he is moving, if he hits the edge on row 3 just above your mushroom, he will zigzag to the bottom but then immediately continue zigzagging upwards. The tail segment won't break off because he is never completely on the bottom row. From here, it just takes patience to kill the spider enough times to get to 996K.

You could actually play the entire game like this...it would just take a long time. The natural extension to this turns into the side feed trap (by planting a couple more mushrooms).

have you written a FAQ about it?

Nope. Most of the strategies are already documented in various places. I also have a book from the early 80's called "The Video Master's Guide to Centipede". It contains quite a bit of information (although some of it I've found to be inaccurate). There are also some web pages that have some information on them as well (you posted some links before from a magazine).

if not, maybe we can collobarate, i would like to post it on a website for centipede that i'm making...(it might be awhile though before i get it up)..

Sounds interesting....

[negative1]

new high score for bootleg2:

game : centipb2 (bootleg2)
score 711685

version : win61

notes: 3men+extras at 12k.../best game ever, finally got the 'blob' to work until 500k with no fleas, and then fast game after that .../ delete .nvram and no sound to playback ../ mouse for movement + keyboard to shoot

this was a really good game up until 500k,
i hadn't seen 1 flea up until this point..

and after that, back to the usual at 600k..

once again, i'm having trouble uploading it,
replay here:

http://www.negative1.net/games/replay/r ... _win61.zip

later

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