If you appreciate the work done within the wiki, please consider supporting The Cutting Room Floor on Patreon. Thanks for all your support!
This article has a talk page!

Centipede (Arcade)

From The Cutting Room Floor
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Title Screen

Centipede

Developer: Atari, Inc.
Publisher: Atari, Inc.
Platform: Arcade (Atari Centipede hardware)
Released in JP: 1981
Released in US: June 1981
Released in EU: 1981


DevMessageIcon.png This game has a hidden developer message.
GraphicsIcon.png This game has unused graphics.


That darn arthropod!

Unused Graphics

Centipede grasshopper.gif

In the test mode of the game, viewing the graphics, an unused Grasshopper enemy can be found. According to the developers, it was to serve the same role as the Spider does in the final game.


(Source: Arcade's Greatest Hits: The Atari Collection 1)

Hidden Message

Sitting at 0x0000018D in the 136001-407.d1 ROM is eight or so seemingly innocent nonsense bytes with a clever secret - if you convert them to binary, then replace the 0s with a dot and the 1s with a dash, you get the sentence "COPYRIGHT 1980 ATARI" in International Morse Code! According to programmer Ed Logg, this was used as a "code trap" with which to catch bootleggers in the act of ripping off Atari's code, and it was cited as such in at least one court affidavit.

(Source: Arcade Blogger: Atari Centipede's Hidden Code Trap)
(Source: Atari Compendium)
        hex 02      bb      5a      30      5f      ee      7d      a8
     binary 0000001010111011010110100011000001011111111011100111110110101000
dots+dashes ......-.-.---.--.-.--.-...--.....-.--------.---..-----.--.-.-...
with spaces ...... -.-. --- .--. -.-- .-. .. --. .... - .---- ----. ---.. ----- .- - .- .-. .
    decoded        C    O   P    Y    R   I  G   H    T 1     9     8     0     A  T A  R   I