The Game: Once more unto the breach, your garden of mushrooms is now under attack by a millipede, and the big bug’s even nastier insect entourage has come along too. The spiders, scorpions and fleas are now joined by mosquitoes and inchworms, among others. The only advantage you have? Occasional containers of DDT (can you tell this was the 80’s?) will allow you to wipe out all targets within a given radius…but use them wisely! (Atari, 1982)
Memories: Another rare Atari sequel – from a company that tended to at least try to stay away from repetition – Millipede of course picks up where Centipede left off – in the same garden, with lots of bugs. A major ad campaign kicked this one off, with Atari using the then-world-champion of Centipede as a spokesperson to verify that this game was, indeed, fun and challenging.
I did appreciate the innovation of a color zone to indicate the limits of your icon’s onscreen movement. The payoff? That color actually interfered with your ability to see yourself sometimes. Go figure.
Atari did make a home version of Millipede for the 2600, and it was above par for that system (but also came after the crash of the video game industry, so not everyone was able to get their hands on it). Millipede has also been resurrected more recently, thanks to Infogrames’ Atari compilations.
