Baffled by different versions of Centipede

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Zweihander
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Baffled by different versions of Centipede

Post by Zweihander »

Hokay, so--

I've had the Millipede/Centipede combo for Game Boy for quite a while now, and to my knowledge, Centipede differed from Millipede, in the way that you move left and right by 'spaces', whereas Millipede (famous for its roll-ball arcade controls) gave you quite a bit more freedom.

I just got the Centipede game for PSX. Haven't bothered to play the "adventure" mode yet, I just played the classic mode... and I was surprised to find the Millipede-esque freedom of movement-- it's as though the left analog stick was the equivalent of the roll-ball. O_O

I popped in my GB copy of Centipede/Millipede to confirm that I wasn't tripping, and sure enough, Centipede had that space-by-space movement.

Can anyone confirm what the fsck is going on? o_O Centipede (PSX, classic mode) seems to have Millipede's controls. Not that I mind, I always did prefer Millipede's freedom of movement, but just... what the fsck??!!1

Any info on this would be appreciated. ^^;


EDIT: okay, what the crap...

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Guess I shouldn't have based my knowledge of Centipede on a shoddy Game Boy port... My question now is, WHAT THE FUCK were they on, when they gave the GB game it's 'space-by-space' movement, whereas Millipede (on the same cart) was left enjoyably intact?!
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Post by Vexorg »

As you seem to have figured out, the GB port you're using just plain sucks. Both games used the trackball for movement. I don't think Centipede would even be remotely playable with the space-to-space movement.
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Post by Zweihander »

Vexorg wrote:As you seem to have figured out, the GB port you're using just plain sucks. Both games used the trackball for movement. I don't think Centipede would even be remotely playable with the space-to-space movement.
Yeah-- compared to Millipede, the GB port of Centipede felt... ...I dunno how to put it, other than "confined". Damn bad port.. they should have just left the Millipede-esque (well, both 'pede-esque) controls intact. Perhaps they changed the controls for the Centipede game to simply make the games look _that_ much different? So the gaming asses--I MEAN, masses, wouldn't say "what a gyp, these games are the exact goddamn same!" ?
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Post by Turrican »

The old GB cart Super Game Boy enhanced? It's by Digital Eclipse iirc.
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Post by dave4shmups »

How is PSX Centipede, BTW? I'm talking about the "Adventure" mode.

Really, unless you own the cab, the only way to play Centipede at home with a track-ball is on the 2600, which has a track-ball controller.

There is a 3rd-party track-ball controller for the PSX, but I dunno if it works with Centipede, or even with PSX Golden Tee Golf.
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Post by Damocles »

dave4shmups wrote:How is PSX Centipede, BTW? I'm talking about the "Adventure" mode.

Really, unless you own the cab, the only way to play Centipede at home with a track-ball is on the 2600, which has a track-ball controller.

There is a 3rd-party track-ball controller for the PSX, but I dunno if it works with Centipede, or even with PSX Golden Tee Golf.
....or use a trackball with Mame.
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Post by BrianC »

Turrican wrote:The old GB cart Super Game Boy enhanced? It's by Digital Eclipse iirc.
It's SGB Enhanced, but it's not by Digital Eclipse. It was lincensed by Accolade and designed by the same people that made the GB port of Turrican (Code Monkeys, I think). They also made ports of Asteroids and Missile Command. Out of all their ports, none of them are arcade perfect and Centipede is their worst. What is really painful is that the bad port of Centipede was re-released for GBC with odd colors and oddly changed graphics on GBC (though it's still the same port that is in Centipede/Millipede). Digital Eclipse did the excellent Atari Anniversary Advance for GBA which has an excellent port of Centipede, complete with tate.

Edit: Edited my post to prevent confusion.
Last edited by BrianC on Mon Oct 17, 2005 5:14 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Post by Zweihander »

dave4shmups wrote:How is PSX Centipede, BTW? I'm talking about the "Adventure" mode.

Really, unless you own the cab, the only way to play Centipede at home with a track-ball is on the 2600, which has a track-ball controller.

There is a 3rd-party track-ball controller for the PSX, but I dunno if it works with Centipede, or even with PSX Golden Tee Golf.
It's decent; if you can pick it up for under $10, I'd say it's worth it. The arcade mode is mainly why I got it, though. ^^; I doubt they went to the extent of making it compatible with the trackball controller, considering the game was released during the shitty 3D versions of classic games era.
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Post by Dice »

Atari 5200>>>Centipede>>>Trak-Ball>>>>My Idea Of Heaven.
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Nyko did release a Trak-Ball controller for the PSX...

Post by PC Engine Fan X! »

dave4shmups wrote:How is PSX Centipede, BTW? I'm talking about the "Adventure" mode.

Really, unless you own the cab, the only way to play Centipede at home with a track-ball is on the 2600, which has a track-ball controller.

There is a 3rd-party track-ball controller for the PSX, but I dunno if it works with Centipede, or even with PSX Golden Tee Golf.
In November of 1998, Nyko brought out it's Classic Trak-Ball controller for the PSX for use with Atari Arcade Classics Collection #1 & #2 at a retail price of $44.99. I bought one as soon as it came out. Eventually, it was reduced to $19.99. It even has built-in auto-fire functionality to boot.

Dan Kramer, the guy who created both the 2600 & 5200 versions of the Trak-Ball controller helped Nyko with their prototype PSX Trak-Ball controller (as Nyko had some problems getting it to work properly but fixed for the retail production versions).

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~
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Post by bVork »

Dice wrote:Atari 5200>>>Centipede>>>Trak-Ball>>>>My Idea Of Heaven.
The only thing better than that is tracking down a reproduction of the unreleased 5200 version of Millipede... which also supports the trakball.
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Post by raiden »

just wanted to mention that the Atari Anthology on Xbox also contains Centipede and Millipede with analog controls and tate, surprisingly, as those are the only 2 tate games on the collection.
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