Centerfold Squares

Lore & Background

Centerfold Squares is a variation of Reversi called 'Double-Up' played on an eight-by-eight grid. Players place counters to surround opposing counters, earning points that remove black tiles covering digitized nude model photos. Special squares on the grid subtract or add points, or grant extra turns; a '???' button triggers random effects including instant wins or losses. The game includes ten female model photos in the base game, with an expansion disk adding five more. Difficulty is tied to each photo, with levels Below Average, Average, and Above Average.

Reader's Guide

Centerfold Squares is significant as an early example of an adult computer game that leveraged improved hardware capabilities to display digitized nude images, which reviewers noted rivaled newsstand men's magazines in quality. The game's graphics were digitized in black and white with 16 levels of grey, then colored digitally in a process called 'Digitized Plus', with edges retouched to eliminate aliasing. Reception was mixed: Ahoy! praised its tasteful sexual content and graphics as a 'quantum leap' ahead of competitors, while .info found the nudes less sharp than public-domain Amiga images. Power Play gave the DOS version a 6% score, calling it boring, whereas Amstrad Sinclair Ocio gave it 8/10, praising its addictive gameplay and 'magnificent digitized graphics'. The game's legacy lies in its integration of puzzle mechanics with adult content, and its use of digitized imagery that pushed the technical boundaries of home computers at the time.

Did You Know?

• Centerfold Squares was originally planned to have ten female and two male models, but the male models were cut before release.
• Sound effects and a save feature are included in both the MS-DOS and Amiga versions.

Gameplay & Mechanics

Centerfold Squares reimagines the classic Reversi strategy game under the name Double-Up, unfolding on a ten-by-ten grid. The board starts with four counters in a two-by-two alternating arrangement at the center, and players battle an AI opponent of varying skill. On each turn, a player places a counter beside an existing one; surrounding an opponent's counter with two of their own flips it to their color. The grid also contains special squares: red ones subtract points, green ones award bonus points, and yellow ones grant an extra turn. A ??? button consumes a turn in exchange for a random outcome, ranging from large point swings to instant wins or losses. Scoring derives from flipping enemy counters, and hitting a target set at the round's start wins the match. Earned points then remove black tiles covering a digitized nude image, each tile demanding a specific point threshold. Losing to the AI re-covers an already revealed tile. The base game ships with twelve female model photographs, and an expansion disk adds eleven more. Each image is locked behind a particular AI difficulty tier—Below Average, Average, or Above Average—rather than being freely chosen by the player.

Development & Production

Artworx developed and self-published Centerfold Squares, releasing it in 1988 for the Amiga, Atari ST, and DOS platforms. The Amiga edition appeared around April 1988. In Europe the title was retitled Centrefold Squares and distributed by CDS Software, while Proein S.A handled the Spanish market under the original American name. Designer Doug McFarland revealed that the nude photographs were first digitized in black and white at sixteen levels of grey, then colored digitally through a process called Digitized Plus. McFarland noted that camera filters were applied to improve contrast, and all edges were retouched to eliminate aliasing, producing what he described as more vibrant colors than conventional digitizing. The original plan called for ten female and two male models, but the male images were dropped before release, leaving twelve female photographs. All 1988 ports were priced at US$29.95 or roughly 65 to 70 Deutschmark, while the DOS edition cost 2250 Spanish peseta when it appeared in 1990. Sound effects and a save feature were exclusive to the DOS version, which supported CGA, EGA, and Tandy Graphics Adapter display modes.

Critical Reception

Reviews of Centerfold Squares varied dramatically across publications and regions. Ahoy! praised the Amiga edition in August 1988, calling the sexual content tasteful and the graphics a quantum leap ahead of any competing product, while commending the models' luminous skin tones and expressive faces. The same review criticized the absence of a save feature given each match's length. In stark contrast, German magazine Power Play awarded the DOS version a scathing six percent, dismissing it as a look-at-my-EGA-digitized-boobs game of the stupidest sort and as exciting as a government meeting. Spanish outlet Amstrad Sinclair Ocio gave the DOS build eight out of ten, lauding its magnificent digitized graphics and addictive gameplay while noting the AI felt too difficult and the sound was limited to a few beeps. French magazine Génération 4 scored the Amiga version seventy percent, praising its original gameplay and beautiful graphics but faulting the frustration of losing revealed tiles to AI victories. The Amiga-focused .info site awarded three out of five stars, calling the board graphics adequate but basic and the AI challenging, while describing the overall experience as a pleasant enough diversion.

Legacy & Industry Context

A 1991 retrospective in VideoGames & Computer Entertainment positioned Centerfold Squares as a landmark in adult computer gaming, noting that it began to rival newsstand men's magazines in eye appeal. The article credited advancing hardware as the catalyst, observing that machines could finally generate the complex images needed to depict romance and sexuality, which in turn encouraged more publishers to enter the sexy-game market. The game's Digitized Plus coloring pipeline, which transformed sixteen-level grey scans into vibrant full-color images with retouched edges, exemplified the kind of technical ambition that set it apart from contemporaries. Its self-published origins at Artworx, followed by distribution through CDS Software in Europe and Proein S.A in Spain, illustrate the patchwork international publishing landscape of the late 1980s. The expansion disk offering eleven additional model photographs extended the game's lifespan, while the decision to tie each unlockable image to a specific AI difficulty tier—Below Average, Average, or Above Average—created a progression structure that reviewers across multiple countries found engaging, even when they disagreed sharply on the game's overall quality.

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