ColecoVision Cartridge Instructions for Centipede ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. NOTE: Always turn the console POWER switch OFF before inserting or removing the cartridge. To your amazement, the squirrel speaks! "Help us and we'll show you the way" promises the squirrel. "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. Will you help?" "I guess so. But how?" Suddenly 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 Centi- pede. 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!" GAME PLAY You start the game with three, four, or five magic wands, depending on the game variation. You can win bonus wands for reaching a high score. You can have an unlimit- ed amount of magic wands, but a maximum of five wands will be dis- played 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 tempo- rarily paralyzed. The game will stop momentar ily and all the mushrooms you partially destroyed during the battle are restored. Your points are added to your running score, and the rejuvenate Centipede attacks again from the top. You must replay the previous wave until the Centipede is totally destroyed. OBJECTIVE Use your magic wands to score as many points as possible. (See SCORING. Use strategy and quick thinking to avoid the paralyzing insect bites. The Enchanted Forest is a challenging, but danger ous region. By learning about the dangers that lurk behind every mushroom, you can become a skilled and heroic wand wielder. You score when you zap it. 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 seg- ments 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. 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 elim- inate 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 battle- field, eliminating some of the mushrooms it touches. The closer the spider comes, the more points you score when you zap it. FLEA The flea starts bugging you after you shoot away most of the mush- rooms 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 scur- ries 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 scor- pion. These are always magenta in color. 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 the wave, all whole and partially destroyed poisoned mushrooms are trans- formed back into magic mushrooms. USING THE HAND CONTROLLER Use your hand controller with this cartridge. For one-player games, plug the controller into 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 con- trols game selection and starts the game. PLAYER/GAME SELECTION Use your hand con- troller to select the type of game you want to play Press the number on your hand controller that corresponds with the desired game on the game select display START The game starts auto- matically after you make a game selection. RESET Press * to return to a display of your current game selection. You can then restart that game or select a new variation. PAUSE TO suspend a turn in progress, press the # key The action immediately freezes in its present position on the screen. To continue play press # again. CONTROLLER ACTION Move your controller 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 fire buttons on the right and left sides of the controller. You can fire sparks as long as you depress the fire button. Your supply of sparks is unlimited. SCORING You can score a total of 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 Scorpian 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 10,000 points, EASY every 12,000 points, STANDARD every 14,000 points, HARD GAME VARIATIONS CENTIPEDE offers three game variations: EASY PLAY for beginners and children, STANDARD PLAY for intermediate players, and HARD PLAY for advanced players. The EASY variation starts with 5 wands and earns a bonus wand every 10,000 points; STANDARD PLAY starts with 4 wands and earns a bonus every 12,000 points. The HARD variation starts with 3 wands and earns a bonus wand every 14,000 points. 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 lightning-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. You can use an ATARI joystick controller in controller jack 1 and make your game selec- tions on the Coleco con- troller in jack 2.