The History of Centipede, Atari’s Trackball Classic

Centipede arrived in arcades in 1981, three years into the shoot-’em-up boom that Space Invaders had kicked off. Atari’s game took the descending-enemy template and rebuilt it around a trackball, a colorful mushroom field, and a serpentine centipede that broke into separate pieces when you shot it. Centipede history is also the story of one of the few high-profile arcade games of its era credited to a woman: Dona Bailey, who co-designed the game and helped make it one of Atari’s most beloved cabinets.

Dona Bailey and the design

Centipede was co-designed by Dona Bailey and Ed Logg at Atari. Bailey’s involvement is one of the most-cited facts in the game’s history because she was among the small number of women programming arcade games in the early 1980s — a period when the industry’s developer ranks were almost entirely male. Bailey had joined Atari after programming work at General Motors, and Centipede was her main project at the company.

Accounts of who contributed what vary in the details. Logg, already a veteran of Asteroids, is generally credited with the core shooting-bug concept and much of the game design, while Bailey did a large share of the programming and is credited with the game’s bright pastel look and less aggressive feel than the shooters dominating the arcade. The collaboration produced a game that was mechanically tight and visually distinct from anything else on the floor.

The trackball

Centipede’s defining hardware feature was the trackball. Instead of an eight-direction joystick, the player controlled the bottom-of-screen shooter with a freely rotating ball that allowed fast, precise diagonal movement. The trackball was already used in some arcade games (Atari’s own Missile Command had used one in 1980), but Centipede paired it with a single fire button in a way that made the controls feel uniquely responsive.

Trackball control matters because the game’s enemies don’t move in tidy patterns. The centipede winds down through the mushroom field, spiders skitter across the bottom of the screen in unpredictable arcs, and you need to dodge and shoot simultaneously. A joystick-based version would have felt sluggish. The trackball made the game work.

The mushroom field

The other crucial design element was the persistent mushroom field that filled most of the playfield. Mushrooms blocked the centipede’s path and forced it to descend; shooting mushrooms cleared lanes but also affected how the centipede would route through future waves. The field changed constantly: each mushroom takes several shots to destroy, every centipede segment you shoot turns into a new mushroom, and fleas drop fresh ones. When you lose a life, partially damaged mushrooms are restored to full health.

That persistent state distinguished Centipede from purely reactive shooters. The board you played on was shaped by your earlier shots, which gave the game a strategic layer most arcade games of the era lacked. Good Centipede players think about mushroom placement as well as immediate target priorities.

The cast of enemies

The headline enemy was the centipede itself — a long, segmented creature that descended through the mushroom field one row at a time. Shooting a body segment split the centipede into two shorter centipedes, each with its own head. By the end of a wave you might have several short, fast centipedes weaving toward you simultaneously.

Other enemies added variety. Spiders bounced across the bottom of the screen, eating some mushrooms and posing a direct threat to the player; killing them awarded bigger point bonuses the closer they were. Fleas dropped vertically when the bottom of the field got sparse, leaving trails of new mushrooms behind them, and took two hits to kill. Scorpions crossed the screen horizontally and poisoned any mushrooms they touched — a centipede that touches a poisoned mushroom plunges straight down toward the player instead of winding back and forth. Each enemy added a distinct tactical consideration.

The wider audience

One of Centipede’s most-cited cultural contributions is that it pulled a wider demographic into arcades. The game’s colorful presentation, slightly cuter aesthetic, and accessibility — the trackball was easier to learn than a joystick for first-time players — made it more inviting than the dominant shooters of the time. Centipede is often cited as one of the first arcade games with a large following among women players, a demographic the arcade industry had largely failed to attract.

That broadening of the audience was part of the same trend Pac-Man had started a year earlier and that the industry as a whole was beginning to figure out. Games that didn’t lean on violence or military aesthetics could reach larger markets. Centipede was a meaningful contribution to that lesson.

Sequels and re-releases

Atari followed Centipede with Millipede in 1982, a direct sequel with similar mechanics, additional enemy types, and visual variation. Millipede was well-received but never matched the original’s iconic status. Subsequent Centipede re-releases have appeared on essentially every Atari home console (2600, 5200, 7800), most subsequent platforms with retro support, and several mobile and modern updates.

The game has had occasional modern revivals — a 3D Centipede from Hasbro Interactive in 1998, the updated Centipede: Recharged in 2021, and various mobile ports. None of the modernizations have eclipsed the original. The 1981 trackball cabinet remains the canonical version. The Centipede Wikipedia article covers the lineage.

Centipede in arcade history

Centipede sits comfortably in the top tier of Atari’s arcade catalog, alongside Asteroids, Missile Command, and Tempest. It’s not as commercially mythic as Pac-Man or Space Invaders, but among arcade enthusiasts it’s widely regarded as one of the most refined games of the early 1980s. The combination of trackball controls, persistent playfield state, and varied enemy behavior gave it a mechanical depth that most contemporary games didn’t reach.

The game’s place in the broader history of women in game development has also kept Dona Bailey’s name in circulation. She’s been the subject of interviews and retrospectives across decades, and her work on Centipede is a frequently cited example of the kind of game design that early arcade audiences responded to when the industry let it happen.

How Centipede compares

Compared to Galaga, Centipede is more chaotic — there’s no formation, just a swarm of enemies behaving differently. Compared to Pac-Man, Centipede is more action-focused; you spend more time shooting than navigating. Compared to Space Invaders, Centipede uses the same descending-threat structure but adds the mushroom field as a persistent strategic element that Space Invaders’ destructible shelters only gestured at. For more in the genre family, see our roundup of classic arcade games.

Centipede in the browser

Without a trackball, browser versions have to approximate the controls. Our browser Centipede lets you steer the shooter with the mouse (the closest feel to a trackball) or the arrow keys within the bottom quarter of the screen, and fire with Space or a click; spiders, fleas and mushroom-poisoning scorpions all appear. Mouse control captures the precise positioning of the original but loses the tactile feel. For a simpler single-player browser distraction with the same minimalist spirit, the Chrome Dino game is one tab away.

Frequently asked questions

When was Centipede released?

Centipede was released by Atari in 1981 as an arcade cabinet with trackball controls. Home console ports followed across the next several years on the Atari 2600 and other platforms.

Who designed Centipede?

Centipede was co-designed by Dona Bailey and Ed Logg at Atari. Bailey is one of the few women credited as a lead designer on a major early-1980s arcade game, and her involvement is a frequently cited part of the game’s history.

Why did Centipede use a trackball?

The trackball provided precise, fast, multi-directional movement that a joystick couldn’t match. Because the player’s shooter needs to move both horizontally and diagonally to dodge spiders and fleas while aiming at the centipede, the trackball’s free rotation gave the game a level of control responsiveness essential to the design.

What’s the difference between Centipede and Millipede?

Millipede is the 1982 sequel. It uses the same core mechanics — trackball control, mushroom field, segmented descending enemy — but adds new enemy types and visual variations. Centipede remains the better-known of the two.

Where can I play Centipede today?

Centipede appears on Atari classic compilations across modern consoles and PC, including Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration. You can also play our free browser version, with mouse or keyboard controls.

The takeaway

Centipede pulled together a trackball, a mushroom field, and a segmented enemy into one of the most distinctive arcade games of its era. Dona Bailey’s design helped broaden who arcades were for, and the game’s mechanical depth gave it staying power across decades. For more from the same period, see our classic arcade roundup, or pivot to the offline dinosaur game when you want a different kind of single-player session.

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