Centipede is a fixed-shooter arcade game where you defend the bottom of the screen against a segmented centipede descending through a mushroom field. You control a small shooter that moves along the bottom portion of the playfield, firing upward at the centipede as it winds down toward you. Each segment you hit splits the centipede into separate pieces that move independently. Spiders, fleas, and scorpions complicate things—fleas drop more mushrooms, scorpions poison them (making the centipede drop faster when it hits one), and spiders bounce unpredictably across your zone. Mushrooms take four shots to clear and block your movement. The centipede speeds up as you destroy segments, and a new one appears once you've cleared the current wave. Quick reflexes and spatial awareness matter more than pattern memorization since enemy behavior shifts constantly.
