Millipede (video game)

• According to the game's arcade flyer and instruction manual, the game involves a storyline involving the supposed player character, the "Archer", to defend his mushroom forest from the onslaught of gigantic insect monsters using his "magic arrows".
• The millipede moves faster and its head segment is more difficult to hit.
• Earwigs replace scorpions from Centipede, making mushrooms poisonous so that the millipede will charge straight to the bottom of the screen after touching them.
• Bees replace fleas from Centipede, leaving mushrooms in a vertical line and requiring two shots to destroy.
• Spiders behave the same way as in Centipede, moving in zig-zag pattern across the player area and eating mushrooms. Multiple spiders can appear at the same time on higher levels.
• Inchworms move horizontally across the screen and slow all enemies for a short period of time when hit.
• Ladybugs crawl around the player area for a while, then climb up and leave the screen, turning any mushrooms they touch into indestructible flowers. When hit, all mushrooms on the screen scroll down one row.
• Dragonflies drop mushrooms while zig-zagging down.
• Mosquitoes bounce off the sides of the screen as they descend diagonally. When hit, all mushrooms on the screen scroll up one row.
• DDT bombs are triggered when shot, destroying all enemies and mushrooms within the resulting cloud. Whenever the mushrooms scroll down, a new bomb is added at the top of the screen, with up to four bombs in play at one time. Points are scored for shooting the bomb itself, and enemies destroyed in the blast are worth three times the normal points.

An upright cabinet

All flowers and poisoned or partially destroyed mushrooms revert to normal, whole mushrooms and score points during the process when the player loses a life.

At regular intervals, the player enters a bonus level with a swarm of enemies (bees, dragonflies, etc.) instead of the usual millipede. Each enemy awards increasing points, up to a maximum of 1,000 points per enemy. The attack ends when either the entire swarm has passed or the player loses a life. Also, at intervals new mushrooms will grow on the field while others disappear, in a pattern similar to Conway's Game of Life.

Players can whether to play at an advanced level, starting with a score that is a multiple of the number of points needed to earn an extra life (by default, 15,000). The gameplay is generally much more advanced than it would be had the player started with a score of 0 and worked their way up to that point level. The maximum advanced level allowed is a function of the preceding player's score, and games started at an advanced level where the player did not earn at least one extra life are not eligible for the high scoreboard.