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Centipede was developed by Dona Bailey and Ed Logg. Bailey previously worked as a computer programmer for General Motors. She was hired as the sole female programmer in Atari's arcade division, and recalled having to grow a "thicker skin" to adapt to the dominant male work culture. Centipede was the only released game she worked on before leaving Atari in 1982; she chose to work on it after reading an internal notebook of game ideas and concluding it was the only nonviolent idea:
According to Logg, he initially worked on the game as Bailey's supervisor, and was busy as the lead developer on another project:
Incidentally, Centipede was also one of the first arcade games to attract a sizable female audience; Simon & Schuster's 1982 guide "How to Win Video Games" estimated that the game appealed to a 50/50 ratio of men and women, hypothesizing that "Cuteness overcomes most people's squeamishness about bugs." Bailey heavily used pastel colors in the game's sprites to make it "visually arresting", and felt it was a "new emphasis" in video games. Logg believed the game's wide appeal was because its design was not biased to one gender demographic like other genres, and he was unsure "that without Dona's viewpoint it ever would have made it [to the women's market]."
"The shooting part was left kind of implied because if the multi-segmented insect is the bad thing and the player is at the bottom, you kind of have to shoot, but it didn't seem that bad to shoot a bug."
According to Logg, he initially worked on the game as Bailey's supervisor, and was busy as the lead developer on another project:
"I thought up the idea of the centipede segments and the way the legs moved. [...] I had assigned a new programmer, [Dona] Bailey, to do the programming on Centipede. Partway through [the other project], I quit being a supervisor (I didn't like the job and it took me away from doing games) and spent time working on Centipede. [...] I would guess she did about half the programming. The game design was left to me because she was working on her first project."
Incidentally, Centipede was also one of the first arcade games to attract a sizable female audience; Simon & Schuster's 1982 guide "How to Win Video Games" estimated that the game appealed to a 50/50 ratio of men and women, hypothesizing that "Cuteness overcomes most people's squeamishness about bugs." Bailey heavily used pastel colors in the game's sprites to make it "visually arresting", and felt it was a "new emphasis" in video games. Logg believed the game's wide appeal was because its design was not biased to one gender demographic like other genres, and he was unsure "that without Dona's viewpoint it ever would have made it [to the women's market]."
VancouverDesi interview with Dona Bailey:
https://web.archive.org/web/20121009025633/http://vancouverdesi.com/business/dona-bailey-a-rare-female-programmer-in-ataris-early-days-recalls-birth-of-centipede/
Interview with Ed Logg in Game Design: Theory and Practice (pages 93-94 in the book):
https://books.google.com/books?id=tGePP1Nu_P8C&pg=PA93#v=onepage&q&f=false
Simon & Schuster's "How to Win Video Games" (page 83 in the guide):
https://archive.org/details/book_how_to_win_video_games/page/n83/mode/2up?view=theater
Pumpkin Press' "Video Games" (No. 1, Vol. 6) (pages 51-52 in the magazine):
https://archive.org/details/Video_Games_Volume_1_Number_06_1983-03_Pumpkin_Press_US/page/n49/mode/2up?view=theater
Electronic Gaming Monthly issue #103 (February 1998) (page 86 in the magazine):
https://retrocdn.net/images/d/df/EGM_US_103.pdf
https://web.archive.org/web/20121009025633/http://vancouverdesi.com/business/dona-bailey-a-rare-female-programmer-in-ataris-early-days-recalls-birth-of-centipede/
Interview with Ed Logg in Game Design: Theory and Practice (pages 93-94 in the book):
https://books.google.com/books?id=tGePP1Nu_P8C&pg=PA93#v=onepage&q&f=false
Simon & Schuster's "How to Win Video Games" (page 83 in the guide):
https://archive.org/details/book_how_to_win_video_games/page/n83/mode/2up?view=theater
Pumpkin Press' "Video Games" (No. 1, Vol. 6) (pages 51-52 in the magazine):
https://archive.org/details/Video_Games_Volume_1_Number_06_1983-03_Pumpkin_Press_US/page/n49/mode/2up?view=theater
Electronic Gaming Monthly issue #103 (February 1998) (page 86 in the magazine):
https://retrocdn.net/images/d/df/EGM_US_103.pdf
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