Re: Tempest Gameplay Question

Thanks Jonathan,

I've been playing Tempest for 19 years, and that has always been my belief.
I was just wondering if someone who has looked at that part of the code can
confirm it.

-roy-

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jonathan Koolpe" <jkoolpe@itsa.ucsf.edu>
To: <vectorlist@synthcom.com>
Sent: Wednesday, October 11, 2000 12:31 AM
Subject: Re: VECTOR: Tempest Gameplay Question

> > So, tonight I was playing it for a while and a question came up. Do
flippers
> > flip at a constant rate or does one flip occur within a constant time
> > interval?
> >
> > I was always under the impression that it is better to hang out on
segments
> > with an approach angle greater than 90 degrees. My thought was that it
would
> > take longer for the flippers to traverse the greater distance from one
> > segment to the next thereby giving you more time to shoot them.
Conversely,
> > I thought that it would take less time for them to flip a tighter angle.
>
> The flippers definitely flip at a constant rate. You are always better
> off hanging out where you have a greater than 90 degree angle. For
> instance, the last figure (the figure eight) is much easier from the left
> side even though your movement is reversed. Once you get used to the
> reverse movement, it is much easier as the flippers have to flip much
> further to kill you.
>
> Of course, once you get to the faster levels, it is not always possible to
> stay where you want to so you just have to learn to be quicker...have you
> gotten to the pulsars yet?
>
> >
> > Tonight, however, I constantly got stuck on the "bad" angles, and I
> > terminated the flippers with a vengence. Whenever I got to a "good"
angle, I
> > got creamed. So I started questioning my long-held beliefs.
>
> You were probably just getting a little lucky:). Seriously, you will need
> to master all of the spots on every figure when you start to get to the
> later levels, especially when you reach the black figures and beyond...the
> game gets almost unbelievably fast at that point, but it is possible to
> survive with a LOT of practice.
>
> Have fun...hey, at least you don't have to pump a million quarters into
> the thing like I had to way back around '81 or so to master it:). Wish I
> could've afforded one back then, but I don't think my dad would have
> allowed it in the house anyways (but I do have a nice one now...)
>
> Jonathan
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
> ** To UNSUBSCRIBE from vectorlist, send a message with "UNSUBSCRIBE" in
the
> ** message body to vectorlist-request@synthcom.com. Please direct other
> ** questions, comments, or problems to neil@synthcom.com.
>

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
** To UNSUBSCRIBE from vectorlist, send a message with "UNSUBSCRIBE" in the
** message body to vectorlist-request@synthcom.com. Please direct other
** questions, comments, or problems to neil@synthcom.com.
Received on Wed Oct 11 09:08:29 2000