Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2000 08:56:14
To: vectorlist
From: Eric Clayberg
Subject: Re: VECTOR: 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



----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2000 13:39:47
To: vectorlist
From: Eric Clayberg
Subject: Re: VECTOR: Tempest Gameplay Question



>Are the green levels truly faster than the black ones?

Yes, they are slightly faster and seem to have a slightly higher density of 
enemies. As you say, the greens do feel easier overall because you can see 
the shapes again.

>I always wondered why the designers didn't save the black figures for last 
>since they are the hardest (and also the coolest looking:)).

My guess is that since the last color was to be the last color played 
forever, the designer wanted those levels to reflect the "truest" playing 
experience. The black levels are cool and novel, but they have a decidedly 
different feel from the rest of the game.

>Hey, someday I'll have to come by and challenge you (or if you're ever in 
>the San Francisco area, feel free to stop by:))...

Sounds like fun. Playing doubles in the upper greens is always a blast (as 
Noel can attest <g>).

>And another reason that Tempest is VERY difficult to have a marathon game 
>on is that in some situations, no matter your skill level, you will 
>die.  I most hate it when you are going along just fine on the black or 
>green levels and then all of a sudden, a pulsar will just appear randomly 
>in your lane already it the "pulsed" state.  Thus, you die instantly with 
>essentially no chance of getting out of it (Eric, is there a way out of 
>this situation that you know of?)

Yes, but it is *very* subtle. Watch the swarm of dots (red ones in the case 
of the green levels) in the center of the shape. Each enemy to be faced 
during the level is represented by a dot. Before an enemy appears in a 
lane, its dot will first stop at the entrance to the far end of the lane. 
They appear to be queuing up and waiting their turn to attack. Since there 
is a maximum number of enemies visible at one time (which varies by level 
and difficulty level), they will sit there until some other enemy is 
killed. Then they will appear at the bottom of the lane. If you watch 
carefully, you can see which lanes have enemies queued up and which ones do 
not. As long as there are loose pulsars in the lanes attacking you, the 
odds of another one appearing are pretty low (the game seems to want to 
balance the enemy types and will sometimes even morph them or sent tankers 
with mixed cargo at you). If you are low on pulsars, the odds are high that 
it will throw one at you. In those situations, scan the bottom of the lanes 
for one *without* a red dot attached and sit there for a moment until it is 
"safe" again. Even with that knowledge, they will still get you every once 
in awhile when you aren't looking. ;-)

>And Eric forgot to mention another added difficulty here...when you get 
>real close, you not only have to be VERY careful not to overshoot 999,999, 
>but if your score is on an even number at that point, the only way to 
>change it to an odd number (to allow for 999,999) is to shoot a spike all 
>the way down.  Each "piece" of a spike is worth 2 points with the 
>exception of the final "piece" which is worth 1 point.

Very good point. I have ended a lot of games at 999,998 (or 0 <g>) in my 
time. ;-)  When I was in high school, I was a real bastard when it came to 
"owning" Tempest machines. I traveled around to almost every arcade in a 50 
mile radius and left my signature "999,999 ELC" in the top three places on 
every Tempest machine I could find. I can remember going to the Time Out 
arcade at the Springfield Mall in northern Virginia one time and spending 
all day playing their *four* Tempests up to green and leaving my mark. 
:-)  I had no greater joy than going toe to toe with the local Tempest 
champ (every arcade had one of those, right? <g>) and wiping their scores 
off the board.

>I second his request to Clay for a fix...I know what my all time high 
>score is, but I want to be able to have evidence of it on my game to show 
>the rest of the world...:).

No kidding. If it were possible to do that, we should petition Twin 
Galaxies to use that ROM revision for any new record attempts. It used to 
really piss me off when I would see the game magazines listing high scores 
for Tempest in the 9-11 million range (which is basically impossible 
without cheating or lying). The best that I ever did was a three hour, 2.2 
million game starting from level 81 (with standard settings). I could see 
someone possibly getting 3-5 million which would take approximately 5-10 
hours of uninterrupted, flawless play. Beyond that, and I don't see how it 
would be humanly possible.

Of course, if we could somehow "fix" the five max life limitation, you 
could turn Tempest into a real marathon game. I once had the game glitch on 
me and show *six* men lined up across the top and have spent years trying 
to replicate that scenario.

My ultimate Tempest revision would have the following mods:

1) Seven digits of scoring (or maybe eight, if some of the other mods are 
in effect)
2) No limitation on the number of lives that you could build up (up to 255 
I suppose)
3) Open level select (already implemented by the Tempest Code Project) so 
that you could start on green anytime you wanted.
4) Have the high score display also record the last level played. In the 
case of level 99, count how many times it has been played.

Any others?


-Eric

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