Re: Tempest Gameplay Question

Here are some quick tips for anyone new to Tempest:

1) Flippers flip at a constant rate, so play the angles. You can kill
flippers on the outer edge by shooting when they are in the spaces next to
you (as they flip). The wider the angle, the more time you have to shoot.
You can also move under them as they flip. Good practice is to play level 1
as long as possible without firing. On the open shapes, you will want to
hang out on one end of the other (to avoid attacks from both directions).
On closed shapes, pick a spot with good angles and good visibility. Often
flipping back and forth between two spaces (playing the angles depending on
which direction the flippers are attacking from) is all you have to do.

2) Fuseballs ride the lines. The safest place to be is in the space *next*
to one. It looks like it will kill you, but the hit logic only tests the
center of the fuseball. Fuseballs will only cross one space at a time
before dropping back down (until the end of the round when they start
chasing you). If you get stuck with one coming after you at the end of a
round (usually on one of the open shapes), try the "Hail Mary" move of
spinning very quickly. You can actually jump over one or more spaces (and a
fuseball!) if you spin fast enough. Watch out for fuseball tankers at
higher levels that split into two fuseballs that will immediately try and
jump on you.

3) Pulsars are only dangerous when they are pulsing. Listen to the low,
periodic buzz sound. As you get used to it, you will find yourself adapting
to this built-in rhythm. You can shoot them when they aren't pulsing or
spin out of the way. Watch out for pulsar tankers at higher levels that
split into two pulsars on either side of the tanker lane.

4) Regular tankers contain two flippers. Feel free to shoot them and their
cargo with impunity. Fuseball tankers are *very* dangerous. Shoot them and
get out of the way. Pulsar tankers are also very dangerous. Shoot them and
stay where you are (the pulsars will appear to either side). You can
differentiate between the types of tankers by looking closely at their
centers. Fuseball and pulsar tankers have tiny pictures of their cargos in
their centers. The ability to instantly differentiate between tanker types
is probably the most important ability separating good Tempest players from
great Tempest players.

5) Spikers are generally harmless (although they do shoot at you), and the
spikes they lay down are very handy some times. You can hold the fire
button down for continuous fire, but you only get a maximum of eight shots
at a time. This is enough to fill half the tube, but not enough for a true
continuous stream of shots. If you have a lots of flippers coming after
you, find a long spike to sit on top of. You can then hold down the fire
button for a machine gun effect. As the spike gets eaten away, look for
another one to switch to. Be careful of pulsars and fuseballs when you do
this however. When you get to level 65 (black/invisible circle) try riding
a full spike all the way down at the end of the round. Your descent rate
and rate of fire are perfectly matched so that you can actually blast it
away without being impaled all the way to the bottom.

6) Dip Switch #2 (2nd from the back of the game) on the upper bank (at N13)
controls demo mode. Demo mode lets you start (and practice) anywhere you
like. It does not record scores, however. In normal play, the game will let
you start close to where you left off. If you want to "cheat", put the game
into demo mode, spin up to where you want to start, start the game and hit
the player one start button causing you to zoom down the tube and gain the
bonus. Then die and flip the dip switch back to normal mode. Now you can
start a real game at the same level and record your score at the end. If
you do this often, wiring a front-mounted bypass to that dip switch will
come in very handy. There is also a freeze game dip switch that is also
handy in case the phone rings while you are playing.

7) Level 81 (green circle) is the highest starting level. Most expert
Tempest players agree that green is actually easier than the
black/invisible levels that precede it. It is a bit faster, but it restores
one of the most valuable visual clues in the game - the tell tale break in
the outer edge caused by a pulsar (which is missing in the black/invisible
levels). After level 96 (green figure eight/infinity), you are back to the
green circle (97) and green square (98). Level 99 is the highest recorded
by the game and consists of a never ending supply of random green shapes.
Every time you finish the round or loose a life, you will end up with a
different shape. To achieve a world record score, you will spend *most* of
your time playing level 99 over and over again. If you can keep your rate
of loss to roughly one life per two rounds (at 20K bonus), you can
theoretically play forever. Tempest isn't a very good marathon game,
however, as it only lets you build up five lives max at any one time. A
30-second bladder break while playing level 99 will pretty much wipe you
out. ;-)

8) The highest score recordable by the game is 999,999 (a horrible error on
the part of the designers IMO...Clay, how about a fix? <g>). Starting at
81, you get there pretty fast (mid way through the greens). With a bit of
practice, you can end the game at exactly 999,999. Do that three times and
no one will ever be able to beat your score on a single machine (w/o
clearing the high score table).

Here are several good Tempest links:

GameArchive: Tempest Page
http://www.gamearchive.com/video/manufacturer/atari/vector/html/tempest.html

Troubleshooting your Tempest Machine
http://www.gamearchive.com/video/manufacturer/atari/vector/text/gw_tempest_troubleshoot.txt

KLOV: Tempest Page
http://www.klov.com/T/Tempest.html

Tempest: Detailed theory of operation
http://www.kfu.com/~nsayer/games/tempest.html

Supperzapper.com
http://www.superzapper.com/

Tempest Code Project
http://arcade.gameshop.com/tempest.htm

Mark's Tempest Page
http://www.beeble.com/tempest/

-Eric

VAPS: http://www.vaps.org/members/ma/clayberg@smalltalksystems.com.html
Arcade: http://www.smalltalksystems.com/clayberg/arcade/arcade.htm

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
** 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 09:16:48 2000