Tempest (video game)

Screenshot of the arcade version.

The objective of Tempest is to survive for as long as possible, and score as many points as possible, by clearing the screen of enemies that appear on the playing field. The player's ship can rapid-fire shots down the tunnel, destroying any enemies within the same segment, and is also equipped with a Superzapper, which destroys all enemies currently on the playing field once per level. (A second use of the Superzapper in a level destroys one random enemy.)

Enemies swirl around at the far end of the playing field, then enter the playing field and move toward the player. When all enemies in a level are destroyed or reach the player's end of the playing field, the player "warps" to the next level by traveling down the playing field. As the player warps to the next level, he or she must avoid or shoot away any spikes. The player loses a ship when an enemy comes into contact with the ship, shoots it or otherwise destroys it, or if the ship hits a spike while warping. The player earns a new ship at certain point thresholds, and may hold up to six ships at once. The game is over when the enemies destroy all of the player's ships.

There are multiple types of enemies, each of which has a different behavior pattern. At higher levels, some enemies place spikes in the middle of the lane. These spikes travel toward the player and destroy it upon contact when the player warps out to the next playing field. Other enemies travel towards the player's end of the playing field while firing at the player, and then flip from lane to lane, killing the player if it moves onto the lane that the player is on. Firing while this type of enemy is changing from an adjacent lane kills it.

There are 8 enemy types: Flippers, Tankers, Spikers, Spikes, Fuseballs, Pulsars, Fuseball Tankers, and Pulsar Tankers. The game features sixteen unique geometric shapes for the playing fields, some of which are closed tubes that allow the player to loop around, while others are open fields that have distinct left and right endpoints. When all sixteen screens have been played, the sequence repeats with a different color scheme and a higher difficulty level, including the invisible (black) levels (65–80). Each sequence of levels adds additional faster, deadlier enemies. After level 99, the level number stops incrementing, and one of the 16 variations will randomly appear after each player death or the successful completion of subsequent levels.

The game was initially meant to be a 3D remake of Space Invaders, but early versions had many problems, so a new design was used. Theurer says that the design came from a nightmare where monsters crawled out of a hole in the ground. During the prototype stages the game was entitled Aliens, then Vortex, and finally titled Tempest.[3]

Three different cabinet designs exist for Tempest. The most common cabinet is an upright cabinet in the shape of a right triangle sitting on top of a rectangle when viewed from the side. This cabinet sported colorful side art. A shorter and less flashy cabaret-style cabinet was also released with optional side art. A cocktail-style table cabinet allowed two players to play at opposite ends of the table; the screen automatically flipped for each player.

In the first games Atari shipped there were glitches in one or more of the ROM chips. The problem code allowed a player to do unintended things when ending their score in certain 2 digit combinations. According to Joystik magazine, which detailed these combinations, the most useful were the ones that earned the player 40 free credits (06, 11, 12, 16, 17, 18) and the "jump to green" trick (46).[4] Another useful combination mentioned was 05 which allowed the player to play the game in the attract mode. In this scenario pausing at one the combinations would cause the effect to take place immediately without losing the balance of the player's lives. Also, in the attract mode, pausing at an end score of 48 gave the player 255 extra lives. After this issue was discovered, Atari corrected the problem so that further shipping machines were incapable of allowing the end score tricks. It was also noted in Joystik that Atari shipped updated chips to be replaced in the field.

An official port was released for the Atari ST. An official port that bears the Atari logo was released by Superior Software for the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron in 1985, and another by Electric Dreams for the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC in 1987. Versions for the Atari 2600[5] and 5200 [6] were in the works in Atari, Inc. during 1984, and unfinished prototypes exist for both of them. The game was released for Microsoft Windows 3.x as part of the Microsoft Arcade package. It has 14 secret levels.[7] The original Tempest was included as part of Arcade's Greatest Hits: The Atari Collection 1 for the PlayStation, Sega Saturn, and Super NES. In 2001, Infogrames and Digital Eclipse ported 12 Atari arcade games (one of them being the original Tempest) under the compilation title, Atari Anniversary Edition released for PC and Dreamcast, a PlayStation compilation titled, Atari Anniversary Edition Redux, was also released with the same number of games plus two exclusives to the Redux edition. A handheld compilation released in 2002 titled, Atari Anniversary Advance was released for the Game Boy Advance with half the number of games of the console compilation, Tempest is still included on the handheld compilation though. In 2005, the original Tempest is part of Atari Anthology for the Xbox and PlayStation 2; the PC version also includes the Atari 2600 prototype. The 2600 port was also released as part of the Atari Greatest Hits compilation for Nintendo DS and iOS devices. Also in 2005, a port and graphical "remix" of the original Tempest was included as part of Retro Atari Classics for the Nintendo DS. This version deviates significantly from the basic rules and experience of the original game. On December 19, 2007, Tempest was released for Xbox 360, available for purchase through Xbox Live Arcade for 400 MS Points. This version includes the original arcade game (emulated) and an "evolved" version with updated graphics. After the unfinished 5200 prototype was found in 1999, its original programmer, Keithen Hayenga, resumed work on finishing the port. It was published by AtariAge in 2013 for US $50.[8]

Reception
Review score Publication Score AllGame [9]

Chris Crawford wrote in 1982 that unlike Pac-Man, Tempest "intimidates many beginners because it appears to be unwinnable"; its smoothly increasing difficulty, however, encourages players to continue playing.[10] In 1996, Next Generation listed the arcade version as number 74 on their "Top 100 Games of All Time", commenting that, "It's very fast, it has abstract, color vector graphics that remain unequaled to this day, and its novel 'paddle' controller makes playing Tempest effortless. The game's difficulty advances smoothly, and the play is extremely well balanced."[11] Tempest is #10 on the KLOV's list of most popular games, tied with Centipede.

The game has been cited as an influence on the careers of video game designers Jeff Minter and John O'Neill.[12]

Shortly after the original game was released, an arcade owner named Duncan Brown hacked the level data and made an altered, more difficult version: Tempest Tubes. It was eventually included with Tempest in the Hasbro compilation Atari Arcade Hits: Volume 1 for PC in 1999.

• Golden age of video arcade games
• History of video games

• Tempest at the Killer List of Videogames
• Tempest at the Arcade History database
• Interview with Dave Theurer at the Wayback Machine (archived June 14, 2008)
• Tempest Code Project to reconstruct and document an assembly source code version of the game