That is an amazing price. Hope the condition is great..? When did you purchase it? Question coming four years later now than your original post...😳😁. Here in 2019.
I was the Centipede champ in this area from 80 thru 83 or so. They gave 4 tokens every time you broke the high score at the next towns arcade and the high was only 100,000 or so. So when i saw the prize every time I went there I broke the high by only a few thousand so I could keep getting free tokens. Did this all the way up to 1000000 which was my high score
Congrats on the Centipede! Looks pretty nice! One of my favorites in my collection. Personally, I prefer keeping the CRTs in the machines, it looks better with them.
They offered the machine with a CRT for less money? I'm surprised. You should have gotten the CRT, even though they can be frustrating and need more TLC over the years.
As a electronic tech with 20 years experience, AND a game collector I tell people to keep CRT's in their games. A used, working CRT arcade monitor is widely available in the US from for around $75-$125. Broken ones can often be found for cheap (or free) and are easily fixed with the DIY info on youtube for those that aren't technicians. The Happ arcade monitor in this video retails for about $350, and I rarely see LCD monitors and LCD televisions last more than 5 years in my business. Compare this to a 30 year old CRT monitor that is still kicking. You also have to factor in that the CRTs were used 24 hours a day for these games, while most LCD TVs are home use and don't get nearly the amount of playtime, but die much sooner. CRT's do get burn-in, but it can't be seen when the game is in play - it is mostly noticeable when the game is off. And if the game is going in your home, you won't be running it 24 hours a day and causing more burn-in. LCD displays also have mercury in them, so they are not environmentally friendly by any means. Buuut...most counties in the US require that all displays (CRT or LCD) be recycled anyway, so neither of these should be ending up in landfills and hurting the environment. CRTs are more reliable, longer lasting, easier to acquire, cheaper to fix, and equally bad for the environment. I recommend collectors and my customers to keep CRTs in arcades, at least until the LCDs drop in price and become more reliable. The only pros (currently) are that they are about 25lbs lighter and most (depending on model) are more energy efficient.
While I agree, it probably isn't wise to recommend others to use DIY a method for CRT repair - if you don't know what you're doing, it can be incredibly dangerous to attempt.
"Incredibly dangerous" is greatly exaggerated. As long as one has the common sense to unplug the machine, the worst that one can get is a very unpleasant shock that would be fatal to only those with heart conditions. Additionally, all DIY videos are all going to start with a warning of the dangers of working with electronics and going to inform the user of these dangers.
mbizzlesnizz Discharging a CRT? That's not in even the intermediate hobbyist's range, the "very unpleasant shock" one would receive coming from a lack of experience as well as inappropriate tools for a dangerous job - high voltages aren't deadly (and I don't think I ever said they were), but even after a long time, CRT's can still act as a capacitor with enough charge that can arc out and shock you, and this isn't even when taking implosion into consideration. Not that it isn't impossible to do by yourself, but handling an old CRT is certainly on another level than your usual soldering/wiring hobby jobs. If someone is interested in a project that involves dismantling one, I would, for the first time at least, consult a professional in your area.
I grew up in the arcades, playing every game you can think of. I also owned the arcade games on several different consoles over previous decades and I think the Centipede arcade game with the lcd looks awesome. Kudos CGR I wish every day I went to work I could slave over a sweet arcade classic like that.
If I had a choice, I wouldn't want a LCD screen. Give me the old tube monitors with the pixels any day. The 1980s graphics look too "boxy" on a LCD screen. The old school pixels actually round off the edges of everything. For example, Pac Man looks more round when pixelated. Plus, I like the curve of the older screens.
It's his money so if he wants LCD then it's up to him. But personally, I feel like it's the equivalent of buying a classic sports car and fitting modern spinning rims on it. And those graphics don't! look better without the old school rasta scan lines.
I've heard that LCD monitors are nothing like CRT and different resoultion and colors kill the "spirit" of the 80's. But I want to try using it in the one I've been working on. So do you happen know what kind of LCD monitor can be used or at least what is the diagonal size of the standard LCD-screen for the aracade machines like Centipede? Thank you in advance!
Wicked choice for an arcade cabinet. Both excellent artwork and really good fun game. Closest I can get to it is playing with a Wico track ball on the 2600, Atari 8-bit, 7800 or Coleco :( Excellent review as always, thanks.
Oh, one more thing. If you're going to pay a bunch of money for an individual, original, retro arcade game, you gotta keep the crt monitor. The one upside to having an original machine is that it's a collector's item, so you should keep it with as much of the original parts as possible.
Maaan I wish I had a Centipede machine in my house. All I have is MAME. I just scored 31386 on my PS Vita and that was super difficult. Can't get far without a trackball. At least the colors looked extremely vivid. It's pleasing to see on an OLED. The game is fine on a mobile device, but it would be freakin' wonderful to have the real deal in my living room.
Excellent. Spent many quarters on Centipede. I hope you plan to add a Millipede arcade game as it would look great right next to your Centipede machine.
Got myself a original dragons lair machine and would give my left hand for a spaceharrier but we dont have that many good companys in the uk selling , great vid m8 keeo em comming :)
I have Centipede cocktail cabinet I inherited from my grandfather's Holiday Inn lounge, but the picture tube is broken and the trackballs are stuck. I'd love to resurrect it -- best arcade game in history, imo.
when I was little I had the ps1, the n64, gameboy, and a whole other collection of other systems but all I ever wanted was a true arcade machine in my room. I always dreamed of having one and thought to myself, I would be the coolest kid in school if I had an arcade machine in my room
have fun with your machine...i got jealous now..:) Review a Pheenix machine, if you find one, that was my all time favourite game! But Centipede, Dig Dig, Pac Man, Vanguard..etc..never will die.
Installing an LCD monitor for low rez retro games is just plain wrong Mark. The sprites were made at a certain resolution by the artists to be displayed on the correct amount of phosphour lines. When you output to a fixed pixel display, the image has to be stretched to fit every available pixel, otherwise the image would be in a small window in the centre. Also it removes the gorgeous black unused scanlines that were present and correct for the intended look of the art/gfx.
Arcade monitors in most classic arcade games have the same resolution as typical CRT TVs (~15 KHz, AKA: "standard resolution"). The reason for arcade monitors' higher quality image is the pure RGB connection and [usually] non-interlaced video signal from the gameboard (~240p). TVs from the same era were normally fed an interlaced NTSC signal via an RF connection, which results in vastly inferior image quality.
I've been a fan of the show for years, and I generally love all your reviews. That being said, I will have to agree with some of the previous comments that a CRT is the best way to go (provided it is in good shape, of course). It seems to be the trend to put LCD's in arcade machines now, but the bottom line is that the game was designed for a CRT. You wouldn't replace the trackball with an analog stick, would you?
You should easily be able to change settings like the number of credits required and difficulty with the dip switches. No arcade repair experience necessary. Beautiful machine by the way.
What's a good price for one of these used? Working condition but used... They're asking $950.00. What do you look for in a used machine? I don't want to get ripped off. Thanks
It isn't a matter of input lag; LCDs are ugly, especially when displaying the simple graphics of classic arcade games. Centipede is 256 x 240 (240p) resolution, and 19" LCDs start at 1024 x 768 resolution, so it has to be stretched/scaled to fill the screen, which has inevitable artifacts. Also, LCDs are designed to show fine details. This makes e.g. the Pac-Man sprite look blocky/jagged instead of round. Try 8liners for a new chassis mounted on a burn-free tube.
Pretty cool. I would've gone with a Millipede arcade machine myself. Centipede was a great game but Millipede was quite a bit better. The arcade version of Millipede was an absolute joy to play (If you were any good and I was!) because the precision of the rollerball was significantly improved from Centipede. This meant you could often snatch victory from the jaws of certain defeat with some deft maneuvers. Centipede was a great earlier game. Millipede was how I mispent my youth.
... or look for a classic original monitor that is burn-free (such as a G07 or K4900). Or you can do a tube swap on one that has screen burn. Or you can look for new examples of a Happ Vision Pro CRT monitors (they stopped making them a couple of years ago, but new and like-new examples are still out there). I have a Missile Command, Ikari Warriors, and a Street Fighter II that all have new Vision Pro CRT monitors in them, and they are beautiful.
NOOOOO I thought I escaped from its retched clutches in the 80's, but centipede haunts me still. Like an angry pirate ghost, it demands quarter and wont go away!
Continued..which also adds depth, making the overall image more 3-D. Also CRT's have much faster response times, resulting in very minor smearing..if the phosphours/tube is good, not to mention the coulur fidelity is much more natural to the human eye. Lastly CRT's have a shadow mask grille over the phosphours, which aren't perfectly square, this makes the sprites less jagged/square, giving the sprites/tiles a much more shaded cartoon finish.. CRT ftw!
Incredibly cool, no doubt. But the best value is to make a MAME cabinet yourself or buy an old empty cabinet and go from there. I put one together for less than $700 and it has hundreds of games. It's not the flashiest, but it works for me.
Millipede is essentially the same game but adds some new features and enemies. The coolest thing added was the DDT bomb that explodes a large portion of the mushrooms surrounding it. The artwork and cab design was also refreshed and strangely psychedelic.
i picked one of these things up at a thrift shop for $150. It now lives in my living room.
That is an amazing price. Hope the condition is great..? When did you purchase it? Question coming four years later now than your original post...😳😁. Here in 2019.
Killer deal for sure
Dude, that’s a steal! I thought I did good, got mine for $400. Works perfect, marquee light works, side art is beautiful.
I just got one last night for 50 bucks fully working beautiful crt.
I was the Centipede champ in this area from 80 thru 83 or so. They gave 4 tokens every time you broke the high score at the next towns arcade and the high was only 100,000 or so. So when i saw the prize every time I went there I broke the high by only a few thousand so I could keep getting free tokens. Did this all the way up to 1000000 which was my high score
At 1,000,000 the game resets to zero.
Scan-lines, and even the ghosting on black backgrounds was the best part about playing on a CRT, LCD is OK, but nothing will top CRT's.
Congrats on the Centipede! Looks pretty nice! One of my favorites in my collection. Personally, I prefer keeping the CRTs in the machines, it looks better with them.
They offered the machine with a CRT for less money? I'm surprised. You should have gotten the CRT, even though they can be frustrating and need more TLC over the years.
...my all time favorite arcade game!
Excellent choice - i got it in my top 10.
As a electronic tech with 20 years experience, AND a game collector I tell people to keep CRT's in their games. A used, working CRT arcade monitor is widely available in the US from for around $75-$125. Broken ones can often be found for cheap (or free) and are easily fixed with the DIY info on youtube for those that aren't technicians. The Happ arcade monitor in this video retails for about $350, and I rarely see LCD monitors and LCD televisions last more than 5 years in my business. Compare this to a 30 year old CRT monitor that is still kicking. You also have to factor in that the CRTs were used 24 hours a day for these games, while most LCD TVs are home use and don't get nearly the amount of playtime, but die much sooner. CRT's do get burn-in, but it can't be seen when the game is in play - it is mostly noticeable when the game is off. And if the game is going in your home, you won't be running it 24 hours a day and causing more burn-in. LCD displays also have mercury in them, so they are not environmentally friendly by any means. Buuut...most counties in the US require that all displays (CRT or LCD) be recycled anyway, so neither of these should be ending up in landfills and hurting the environment. CRTs are more reliable, longer lasting, easier to acquire, cheaper to fix, and equally bad for the environment. I recommend collectors and my customers to keep CRTs in arcades, at least until the LCDs drop in price and become more reliable. The only pros (currently) are that they are about 25lbs lighter and most (depending on model) are more energy efficient.
While I agree, it probably isn't wise to recommend others to use DIY a method for CRT repair - if you don't know what you're doing, it can be incredibly dangerous to attempt.
"Incredibly dangerous" is greatly exaggerated. As long as one has the common sense to unplug the machine, the worst that one can get is a very unpleasant shock that would be fatal to only those with heart conditions. Additionally, all DIY videos are all going to start with a warning of the dangers of working with electronics and going to inform the user of these dangers.
mbizzlesnizz Discharging a CRT? That's not in even the intermediate hobbyist's range, the "very unpleasant shock" one would receive coming from a lack of experience as well as inappropriate tools for a dangerous job - high voltages aren't deadly (and I don't think I ever said they were), but even after a long time, CRT's can still act as a capacitor with enough charge that can arc out and shock you, and this isn't even when taking implosion into consideration.
Not that it isn't impossible to do by yourself, but handling an old CRT is certainly on another level than your usual soldering/wiring hobby jobs. If someone is interested in a project that involves dismantling one, I would, for the first time at least, consult a professional in your area.
This is why I love CGR! Keep doing a great job Mark :D!
Awesome Mark...super cool.
I grew up in the arcades, playing every game you can think of. I also owned the arcade games on several different consoles over previous decades and I think the Centipede arcade game with the lcd looks awesome. Kudos CGR I wish every day I went to work I could slave over a sweet arcade classic like that.
One of my friends has a centipede machine laying around in his basement. It's pretty cool, this makes me want to play it now.
I love the way this guy talks. He makes me laugh! Keep doing those awesome reviews dude!
centipede has always been one of my favorites!
centipede never gets old. i play it alot more than any of my other games.
Ultimate Favorite Arcade Game!!! Centipede Rocks!!! Would Love this in my Home! Lol Yes!!
the room he films this stuff in is the coolest room ever
Ludlow Lamonsoff, Master Of Centipede.
@the gangsters sam brenner😂
I want one. Teenage years. Quarters. Fun, I remember. I want one!
If I had a choice, I wouldn't want a LCD screen. Give me the old tube monitors with the pixels any day. The 1980s graphics look too "boxy" on a LCD screen.
The old school pixels actually round off the edges of everything. For example, Pac Man looks more round when pixelated. Plus, I like the curve of the older screens.
It's his money so if he wants LCD then it's up to him. But personally, I feel like it's the equivalent of buying a classic sports car and fitting modern spinning rims on it. And those graphics don't! look better without the old school rasta scan lines.
Exactly, if he is going to do that he might as well just run the game on an emulator. And those games look horrible on LCDs.
I LOVE the graphics on the side cabinet for centipede. I'm a big fan of the retro artwork.
man you are amazing , you are the best
I've heard that LCD monitors are nothing like CRT and different resoultion and colors kill the "spirit" of the 80's. But I want to try using it in the one I've been working on. So do you happen know what kind of LCD monitor can be used or at least what is the diagonal size of the standard LCD-screen for the aracade machines like Centipede? Thank you in advance!
It's fun for the whole family! [explosion] [BOOP]
Wicked choice for an arcade cabinet. Both excellent artwork and really good fun game. Closest I can get to it is playing with a Wico track ball on the 2600, Atari 8-bit, 7800 or Coleco :(
Excellent review as always, thanks.
2 of my favourite games ever
Oh, one more thing. If you're going to pay a bunch of money for an individual, original, retro arcade game, you gotta keep the crt monitor. The one upside to having an original machine is that it's a collector's item, so you should keep it with as much of the original parts as possible.
Bout damn time you scored some arcade machines to review.
I remember a James Bond film was loaded with those Centpede machines.
Never Say Never Again
I played that with a CRT Monitor installed, and it looked just fine.
I love Centipede and Millipede!
Maaan I wish I had a Centipede machine in my house. All I have is MAME. I just scored 31386 on my PS Vita and that was super difficult. Can't get far without a trackball. At least the colors looked extremely vivid. It's pleasing to see on an OLED. The game is fine on a mobile device, but it would be freakin' wonderful to have the real deal in my living room.
Excellent. Spent many quarters on Centipede. I hope you plan to add a Millipede arcade game as it would look great right next to your Centipede machine.
Got myself a original dragons lair machine and would give my left hand for a spaceharrier but we dont have that many good companys in the uk selling , great vid m8 keeo em comming :)
I love CGR Mark always has something funny to say, and it always makes the game look fun even if it isn't.
i envy you mark, such a nice game on such a nice arcade cabinet...wish i had it too lol.
I have Centipede cocktail cabinet I inherited from my grandfather's Holiday Inn lounge, but the picture tube is broken and the trackballs are stuck. I'd love to resurrect it -- best arcade game in history, imo.
You need to get back into this again
Very nice machine.
Man....do I love this game!! I need one in my man cave....I mean my someday man cave!!
Awesome!!
😭😭 i miss classic game room
WOA THE ARCADE MACHINE! nice, ive never seen one of those before, but ive seen alot of others including the pong one :D
when I was little I had the ps1, the n64, gameboy, and a whole other collection of other systems but all I ever wanted was a true arcade machine in my room. I always dreamed of having one and thought to myself, I would be the coolest kid in school if I had an arcade machine in my room
"Rock the trackball, Rock the trackball!" Oh, that would be an awesome song!
Any thoughts on the Arcade 1Up version?
cgr made me care and enthuse about centipede :)
Nice. I remember playing this as a kid at Chuck E. Cheeses.
Nice CGR upgrade.
The other day I went to an arcade with a 25 cent centipede game.
It was the best moment of my life.
Steve is one of my favorite games
I've actually played the original arcade cabinet in a pizza restaurant in Corydon, Indiana! :D
have fun with your machine...i got jealous now..:)
Review a Pheenix machine, if you find one, that was my all time favourite game!
But Centipede, Dig Dig, Pac Man, Vanguard..etc..never will die.
That cabinet is in amazing condition.
I wonder if you could fit an oled in one of these
you also have a frenzy now ? awesome :D Now make classic Arcade Room !
I for one want a modern remake of this game. The Human Centipede Arcade machine would be immensely popular in my opinion.
I know this video is old but where did you buy this?
You don't choose between playing any of those two... you combine them to make THE awesome
CENTIPEDE FRENZY!
Installing an LCD monitor for low rez retro games is just plain wrong Mark. The sprites were made at a certain resolution by the artists to be displayed on the correct amount of phosphour lines. When you output to a fixed pixel display, the image has to be stretched to fit every available pixel, otherwise the image would be in a small window in the centre. Also it removes the gorgeous black unused scanlines that were present and correct for the intended look of the art/gfx.
lol how do you ever get any work done mark?.
Arcade monitors in most classic arcade games have the same resolution as typical CRT TVs (~15 KHz, AKA: "standard resolution"). The reason for arcade monitors' higher quality image is the pure RGB connection and [usually] non-interlaced video signal from the gameboard (~240p). TVs from the same era were normally fed an interlaced NTSC signal via an RF connection, which results in vastly inferior image quality.
michigan, home of amazing arcade machines...and cars.
Centipede was fucking awesome!
It sucks.
how much did this cost to buy?
Anything with the word ''centipede'' in it can't be taken seriously by me anymore. Thanks alot Tom Six
Nice pickup, rich guy. ;)
Are you going to review the Rolling thunder and frenzy Arcade machines too?
I've been a fan of the show for years, and I generally love all your reviews. That being said, I will have to agree with some of the previous comments that a CRT is the best way to go (provided it is in good shape, of course). It seems to be the trend to put LCD's in arcade machines now, but the bottom line is that the game was designed for a CRT. You wouldn't replace the trackball with an analog stick, would you?
Are you going to do a review of the Frenzy machine? I loved that games and it's predecessor Berserk.
This is an Apex arcade game and the cab is stunning.
You should easily be able to change settings like the number of credits required and difficulty with the dip switches. No arcade repair experience necessary. Beautiful machine by the way.
When you gonna put up the review of the box that it came in?
old school but a great one!!!!
What's a good price for one of these used? Working condition but used... They're asking $950.00. What do you look for in a used machine? I don't want to get ripped off. Thanks
Also, it has the old screen type in it
It isn't a matter of input lag; LCDs are ugly, especially when displaying the simple graphics of classic arcade games. Centipede is 256 x 240 (240p) resolution, and 19" LCDs start at 1024 x 768 resolution, so it has to be stretched/scaled to fill the screen, which has inevitable artifacts. Also, LCDs are designed to show fine details. This makes e.g. the Pac-Man sprite look blocky/jagged instead of round.
Try 8liners for a new chassis mounted on a burn-free tube.
Pretty cool. I would've gone with a Millipede arcade machine myself. Centipede was a great game but Millipede was quite a bit better.
The arcade version of Millipede was an absolute joy to play (If you were any good and I was!) because the precision of the rollerball was significantly improved from Centipede. This meant you could often snatch victory from the jaws of certain defeat with some deft maneuvers.
Centipede was a great earlier game. Millipede was how I mispent my youth.
... or look for a classic original monitor that is burn-free (such as a G07 or K4900). Or you can do a tube swap on one that has screen burn. Or you can look for new examples of a Happ Vision Pro CRT monitors (they stopped making them a couple of years ago, but new and like-new examples are still out there). I have a Missile Command, Ikari Warriors, and a Street Fighter II that all have new Vision Pro CRT monitors in them, and they are beautiful.
I could not agree more. Especially with an original PCB
goood review..!
this arcade machine its truly "classics".. haha
Do you have a Killer Instinct Arcade Cabinet? Hopefully I would love to see a Review of it!
NOOOOO I thought I escaped from its retched clutches in the 80's, but centipede haunts me still. Like an angry pirate ghost, it demands quarter and wont go away!
Centipede rules.
you can see the dip switches in the upper-right @3:28, check them out on your other arcade boards to enable freeplay
Looks like it's time to make a trip to the Classic Game Room, just to play arcades for free!
"It's fun for the whole family"
*dies*
"#@$%!"
What's that doll sitting next to Wind Squid? Is it a Digimon?
LORD KARNAGE IS IT EXPENSIVE TO GET A FULL SIZED ARCADE MACHINE DELIVERED IN SPACE ? I AM ASKING BECAUSE I AM THINKING OF MAKING A MOVE TO SPACE ..
Continued..which also adds depth, making the overall image more 3-D. Also CRT's have much faster response times, resulting in very minor smearing..if the phosphours/tube is good, not to mention the coulur fidelity is much more natural to the human eye. Lastly CRT's have a shadow mask grille over the phosphours, which aren't perfectly square, this makes the sprites less jagged/square, giving the sprites/tiles a much more shaded cartoon finish.. CRT ftw!
How much did it cost Mark?
You know they made this into a slot machine? It'll be released sometime in May.
u gonna review frenzy now?
everyday you go to work? best job ever
i agree :)
Incredibly cool, no doubt. But the best value is to make a MAME cabinet yourself or buy an old empty cabinet and go from there. I put one together for less than $700 and it has hundreds of games. It's not the flashiest, but it works for me.
I paid $1 for Atari Anthology on PS2 and Centipede looks just as good on my LCD T.V.
He has the top 3 scores!
wow, how many arcade machines do you actually own mark? or have you named them all
Lucky!
Games like this make me swear... a lot!
why is this video restricted?
What is the difrents between centipede and millipede
Millipede is essentially the same game but adds some new features and enemies. The coolest thing added was the DDT bomb that explodes a large portion of the mushrooms surrounding it. The artwork and cab design was also refreshed and strangely psychedelic.