Centipede was developed by Atari way back in 1980.   If you would like to read a bit more about the history and details of Centipede, check out it’s entry in the Killer List Of Video Games.  As is customary with all of my dedicated machines, here are scans of the original Centipede marketing flyers:

One nice thing about the Atari cabinets, while different, they all share a very similar design and shape. From my experience with my Dig Dug cabinet, I have a pretty good idea what repairs need to be done on the cabinet and how long each will take. Unlike Dig Dug, reproduction side art is available, so if I decide to redo the sides, I have that as an option, verses printing my own.

As you look at the cabinet pictures, I’ll point a few thing out ahead of time. The cabinet is very unstable side to side. I’m going to guess that this is caused by the damaged and missing bottom board on the rear of the cabinet (where the power switch is located). There is really not an easy way to piece this board back together so I will cut a new piece and secure it in place, hopefully stabilizing the cabinet.

The top has separated slightly from the cabinet in the back. Again, I should be able to secure that back in place which should help with the stabilization. There is a chunk of wood out of the right front corner of the cabinet, which should be fairly easy to repair using techniques similar to the corner repair performed on Dig Dug. The question of preserving the side art comes into play. The big test will be to see how clean it comes. If it stays as dirty as it is now, I won’t worry about it and will simply replace it. The control panel will get replaced as will the trackball. The bezel and cardboard underneath are both in excellent shape.

Here’s where my little friends, the mice, apparently tried to make their escape. The marquee will have to be replaced.

Before you mention it, I know there is not a monitor in the cabinet. It was removed for testing purposes. Initially, when I powered on the game (after reconnecting half of the wires), all I got was a display with a blue screen. My voltages were good at the game PCB and I had another PCB that was reportedly tested and working. After swapping that PCB in, I had a similar screen, only white, instead of blue. I took the monitor out to test in my Dig Dug machine. Fortunately, the monitor works great.

I think I’ve pinned the monitor problem down to the power supply. I was only getting about 58 volts to various test points in the cabinet, where I should have been receiving 120. I have another power supply on the way, which will hopefully correct the issue. At least the monitor works, so my money spent on the cabinet was worth it. This one will probably move to the top of my restoration list due to it’s poor cosmetic appearance. Removing the mouse urine stench will be my ultimate priority.

Stay tuned over the next few days for pictures of my latest acquisition, Operation Wolf. I’ve been on a roll lately!

When I picked the Centipede cabinet up, I noticed a few mouse droppings in the bottom of the cabinet.  Not uncommon and surely something that would clean up fairly easily.  Today, as I was taking the monitor bezel off, mouse droppings started pouring out of the newly formed opening between the bezel and the marquee.  The marquee on this cabinet was pretty beat up and I really couldn’t figure out why.   I decided to take the marquee off to see what was behind it.  I was greeted with this lovely picture:

You can see little bits of the nest in the upper left hand corner of the picture.  I decided to remove the entire marquee and speaker tray to get a better look behind it, as this is the area that the droppings were coming from.  Here’s what I discovered:

So, I spent an hour cleaning the dead mice out of the cabinet along with their accompanying nest. The marquee/speaker tray smelled so bad that I measured it and threw it in the garbage. I’ll recreate a new one that doesn’t smell like mouse piss. My first order of business with this cabinet is going to be multiple cleanings with some bleach. Hopefully that’s the last of the rodents I find in the cabinet, but this thing is beat to hell and will be my biggest restoration challenge yet. I’ll try to grab some pictures of the entire cabinet in the next few days.  Sorry for the quality of these pictures but all I had with me was my cell phone.  Really, did we need high quality pictures anyway?

Yesterday, I picked up a non-working Centipede.  This one is in very rough shape and needs a lot of cosmetic repair.  It’s going to get a full restoration eventually, similar to Dig Dug.  I’d like to get the game working first before committing a lot of time to the restoration.  Pictures will be forthcoming.

I also made an offer last week on a non-working Operation Wolf.  I just got a call that they accepted the offer.  I will probably pick it up sometime this weekend.  Again, pictures will be forthcoming.  In summary, I owe you pictures of three new cabinets.  Stay tuned.