
 CENTIPEDE

 BY ATARI, INC.

 To insert your 5200 game cartridge, hold the cartridge so the name on
 the label faces you and reads right-side-up.  Then carefully insert
 the cartridge into the slot in the center of the console.  Be sure
 the cartridge is firmly seated, but do not force it in.  The POWER
 ON/OFF switch is located on the lower right side of the 5200 console
 unit.  Press this switch to turn the power on AFTER inserting your
 game cartridge.  See your Owner' Manual for further information.

 TABLE OF CONTENTS

 1. The Enchanted Forest
 2. Game Play
 3. Using the 5200 Controllers
 4. TRAK-BALL Option
 5. Scoring
 6. Game Variations
 7. Helpful Hints
 8. Score Ledger

 1. THE ENCHANTED FOREST

 One glorious spring day you hike into a dense forest that you've
 never before explored.  As you push deeper into the woods, the trees
 close up behind you and the forest grows increasingly dark and
 ominous.  You get a creepy feeling and decide to go back.  A chill
 plays up and down your spine when you turn and realize you're lost.
 You collapse onto a flat rock beneath an enormous spreading tree and
 try to regain your sense of direction.  A grey squirrel chatters at
 you.

 "How do I get out of here?" you sigh out loud.  To your amazement,
 the squirrel speaks!

 "Help us and we'll show you the way home," promises the squirrel.

 "What?"

 "This is an enchanted forest," explains the squirrel. "We
 peace-loving animals must suffer the hostile attacks of an evil
 centipede, a deadly spider, a venomous flea, and a poisonous
 scorpion.  We've waited a long time for a heroic human to enter our
 realm and release us from the centipede's cruel dominion.  Will you
 help?"

 "I guess so.  But how?"

 The forest rustles as dozens of small animals rally around you.
 Rabbits, birds, deer, raccoons, muskrats, butterflies--and more
 creatures than you can name--appear.  A bird flies over, releasing
 three white feathers.

 "Catch those," the squirrel instructs.

 As you catch the feathers, they transform into three glowing wands.
 "Now you can go to battle for us," says the squirrel.  "With those
 magic wands, you can shoot sparks at the centipede.  When any section
 of the centipede is hit, it turns into a powerless mushroom.  You can
 also stun the spider, flea, and scorpion with sparks, and they will
 disappear for a short time.  But, if one of them bites you before you
 spark it, you lose consciousness and your magic wand is snatched
 away."

 Suddenly, you hear a leaf-shaking shriek and the animals scurry about
 in a frenzy of terror.

 "Look out!" cries the squirrel, "Here comes the centipede!"

 2. GAME PLAY

 You start the game with three magic wands.  Every time you score
 12,000 points, you win a bonus wand and musical fanfare exalts your
 bravery.  You can have a total of six magic wands at one time.  When
 you lose your last magic wand, the game ends.

 If the centipede, spider, or flea bites you, your wand is snatched
 away and you become temporarily paralyzed.  The game will stop
 momentarily and all the mushrooms you partially destroyed during the
 battle are restored.  Your points are added to your running score,
 and the rejuvenated centipede attacks again from the top.  You must
 replay the previous wave until the centipede is totally destroyed.
 Figure 1 shows a typical CENTIPEDE battlefield and Figure 2 shows a
 two-player game in progress.

 OBJECTIVE

 Use your magic wands to score as many points as possible.  (See
 Section 5 for information on SCORING.)  Use strategy and quick
 thinking to avoid the paralyzing insect bites.  The Enchanted Forest
 is a challenging, but dangerous region.  By learning about the
 dangers that lurk behind every mushroom, you can become a skilled and
 heroic wand wielder.

           Figure 1 - CENTIPEDE Attack Wave

           Figure 2 - Two-Player Game

 INHABITANTS OF THE ENCHANTED FOREST

 CENTIPEDE
 Consisting of 12 body segments, the centipede attacks from the top of
 the screen and winds down toward you.  Each time you hit a segment,
 it becomes a powerless mushroom and the body segment behind that
 mushroom becomes the head of a new centipede.  When you shoot every
 segment of a centipede, the centipede disappears briefly, then
 reappears at the top in a new and fiercer attack formation.

 The centipede attacks in 12 distinct waves.  In Wave 1, the centipede
 is composed of a head attached to 11 body parts.  In Wave 2. it has
 a head attached to 10 body parts plus a detached head.  The Wave 3
 centipede is composed of 9 body segments with one head attached and
 2 detached heads. The centipede continues to transform a body segment
 into a head until Wave 12 when it has 12 independently moving heads.
 (See Figure 3.)

           Figure 3 - Centipede Attack Formations, Waves 1-3

 MAGIC MUSHROOMS
 Dotting the forest floor are magic mushrooms.  These act like shields
 for you and can speed the centipede in its attack.  The centipede
 slides along horizontally in one direction.  When it gets to a
 mushroom or the edge of the screen, it turns down to the next row of
 mushrooms and continues in the opposite direction.  It takes four
 hits to eliminate an entire mushroom.  At the end of each wave, all
 partially destroyed mushrooms are magically restored to the forest.

 SPIDER
 In its attempt to distract you from shooting the centipede, the
 spider jumps all over the battlefield, eliminating some of the
 mushrooms it touches.  The closer the spider comes, the more points
 you score when you zap it.  (See Section 5 for more information on
 SCORING.)

 FLEA
 The flea starts bugging you after you shoot away most of the
 mushrooms near you.  It drops straight down, creating mushrooms as it
 falls.  You must hit the flea twice to make it disappear.

 Warning:  After the first shot, the flea drops more than twice as
 fast!

 SCORPION
 By the third wave, the scorpion scurries across the middle of the
 battlefield, poisoning every mushroom it touches.  At first it moves
 slowly, then it moves faster and appears more frequently as the game
 progresses.

 POISONED MUSHROOMS
 Poisoned mushrooms are created by the scorpion.  These are the same
 color as the attacking centipede.  When the centipede bumps into a
 poisoned mushroom, it goes crazy and plunges straight through the
 field of mushrooms toward you.  At the end of a wave, all whole and
 partially destroyed poisoned mushrooms are transformed back into
 magic mushrooms.

 3. USING THE 5200 CONTROLLERS

 Use your 5200 controller (Figure 4) with this ATARI game cartridge.
 For one-player games, plug the controller into controller jack 1 on
 your console.  For a two-player game, plug a second controller into
 jack 2.  In two-player games, the player using jack 1 controls game
 selection and starts the game.

           Figure 4 - 5200 Controller

 KEYPAD OVERLAYS

 For your convenience, two keypad overlays are included with this game
 (Figure 5).  Slip the tabs into the slots above and below the keypad
 on your controller.

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      |        |  |        |  |        |
      |        |  |        |  |        |
       --------    --------    --------

       --------    --------    --------
      |        |  |        |  |        |
      |        |  |        |  |        |
       --------    --------    --------

       --------    --------    --------
      |        |  |        |  |        |
      |        |  |        |  |        |
       --------    --------    --------
      1-2 PLAYER              GAME SELECT
       --------    --------    --------
      |        |  |        |  |        |
      |        |  |        |  |        |
       --------    --------    --------

           Figure 5 - Keypad Overlay

 PLAYER SELECTION

 Press the left * key (or, on your overlay, the square marked 1-2
 PLAYERS) to choose a one or two-player game.  The screen display will
 alternate between 1 PLAYER and 2 PLAYERS.  Stop at your choice.  (See
 Figure 6.)

 GAME SELECTION

 Press the right # key (or, on your overlay, the square marked GAME
 SELECT) to cycle through EASY PLAY, STANDARD PLAY, and HARD PLAY.
 Stop at the variation you want to play.  (See Figure 6.)

           Figure 6 - Player and Game Select Display (Menu)

 START

 Press START to begin the battle.  The START key is deactivated while
 a game is in progress and is reactivated after all wands are lost.

 RESET

 Press RESET to return to a display of your current game selection
 (Figure 6).  You can then restart that game or select a new
 variation.

 PAUSE

 To suspend a turn in progress, press the PAUSE key.  The action
 immediately freezes in its present position on the screen.  To
 continue play, press PAUSE again.

 CONTROLLER ACTION

 Move your joystick in the same direction you want to move your magic
 wand.  You can move a short distance up the screen as well as to the
 left and right edges of the screen.

 To shoot sparks, press the bottom red buttons on the front right and
 left sides of the 5200 Controller (see Figure 4).  You can fire
 sparks as long as you depress the fire button.  Your supply of sparks
 is unlimited.

 4. TRAK-BALL OPTION (Future Accessory)

 CENTIPEDE offers a TRAK-BALL option.  A TRAK-BALL may be purchased
 separately.  To play any of the game variations with a TRAK-BALL,
 plug the TRAK-BALL into jack 1 on the front of your 5200 console.
 Follow the instructions in Section 3, USING THE 5200 CONTROLLERS, for
 game, and player selection.  You do not need a separate TRAK-BALL for
 each player. Simply trade off using the TRAK-BALL as each turn comes
 up.  The computer switches between players and keeps score
 automatically.

 NOTE:  You cannot use a TRAK-BALL and a 5200 controller together.  If
 you want to switch from one type of controller to the other, plug in
 the new controller and press START.  You will restart the game option
 you last played.

 TRAK-BALL ACTION

 Move your TRAK-BALL in any direction to move your magic wand in the
 same direction across the bottom of the screen, or about one-quarter
 of the way up the screen.  To shoot sparks, press the fire button on
 the TRAK-BALL.  (See your TRAK-BALL Owner's Manual for further
 details.)

 5. SCORING

 You can score a total of 99,999,999 points before the score rolls
 back to zero.  Point values are listed below.

 Centipede body segment.........................   10 points
 Centipede head.................................  100 points
 Spider (distant range).........................  300 points
 Spider (medium range)..........................  600 points
 Spider (close-range--look out!)................  900 points
 Flea...........................................  200 points
 Scorpion....................................... 1000 points
 Magic Mushroom (totally eliminated)............    1 point
 Magic Mushroom (shot 1 to 3 times).............    5 points
 Poison Mushroom (totally eliminated)...........    1 point
 Poison Mushroom (shot 1 to 3 times)............    5 points
 Poison Mushroom (not shot at all)..............    5 points
 Bonus Wand............................. every 12,000 points

 6. GAME VARIATIONS

 CENTIPEDE offers three game variations:  EASY PLAY for beginners and
 children, STANDARD PLAY for intermediate players, and HARD PLAY for
 advanced players.  (See Section 3 for information on how to select
 the difficulty level of your choice.)

 7. HELPFUL HINTS

 1. Shoot away mushrooms in a straight line up the screen to create
    a "corridor."  When the centipede reaches this "gap," it will fall
    straight down the battlefield and can be easily picked off.

 2. Since the flea doesn't appear until you have eliminated most of
    the mushrooms near you, you can set up a shield to prevent this
    lightening-fast pest from striking.  Simply refrain from shooting
    away mushrooms near your magic wand.

 3. Shoot centipede heads to create new heads out of the body segment
    left behind.  Since heads are worth 10 times the point value of
    body segments, you'll score lots of points.

 4. Each creature makes a distinctive sound.  By becoming familiar
    with these sounds, you will know without looking, what is
    attacking and where it is on the screen.

 8. SCORE LEDGER

 Name:             Date:    Score:
 _______________   ______   ________
 _______________   ______   ________
 _______________   ______   ________
 _______________   ______   ________
 [etc.]

 END

 Typed by Jay Tilton (tiltonj@erols.com)

 for Atari Gaming Headquarters
