Tempest (video game): Difference between revisions

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You're at the top of a long tube. Lots of colorful things are crawling up the tube at you, and shooting things at you. When you shoot them all, you go whizzing down the tube... to yet another tube.

We could make up some kind of Backstory for this... but we won't^[1]. It's a Shoot'Em Up, and fun enough that it doesn't need any excuse. Besides, we're Atari, and this is The Golden Age of Video Games; we know you're going to keep feeding quarters into anything with our logo on it, story or no. Go nuts, guys! This video game was released in 1980.

Not to be confused with William Shakespeare's The Tempest, which is a Third Person "Romance" about a long-lost genius, his beautiful daughter, and the fell things that are discovered in their seeming paradise when a foreign ship crashes there...

For the Urban Legend version, see Polybius.

Tempest provides examples of:

Everything Trying to Kill You
Kaizo Trap: Sort of. As you zoom through the end of a stage to the next, if you hit a green spike you will die. The first few levels with spikes at least give you a brief "Avoid Spikes" warning.
Shoot'Em Up
Vector Game
What Could Have Been: Tempest was originally a game called Vortex. Instead of the player moving, the playfield moved and the gameplay was modeled on Space Invaders. This was scrapped due to motion sickness.

↑ Okay, there sort of is one: Programmer Dave Thereur came up with the idea after having a nightmare about monsters crawling out of a hole

[1] Okay, there sort of is one: Programmer Dave Thereur came up with the idea after having a nightmare about monsters crawling out of a hole

[1]

@@ Line 2: / Line 2: @@
 You're at the top of a long tube. Lots of colorful things are crawling up the tube at you, and shooting things at you. When you shoot them all, you go whizzing down the tube... to yet another tube.
-We could make up some kind of [[Backstory]] for this... but we won't<ref>Okay, there sort of is one: Programmer Dave Thereur came up with the idea after having a nightmare about monsters crawling out of a hole</ref>. It's a [[Shoot Em Up]], and fun enough that it doesn't need any excuse. Besides, we're [[Atari]], and this is [[The Golden Age of Video Games]]; we know you're going to keep feeding quarters into anything with our logo on it, story or no. Go nuts, guys! This video game was released in 1980.
+We could make up some kind of [[Backstory]] for this... but we won't<ref>Okay, there sort of is one: Programmer Dave Thereur came up with the idea after having a nightmare about monsters crawling out of a hole</ref>. It's a [[Shoot'Em Up]], and fun enough that it doesn't need any excuse. Besides, we're [[Atari]], and this is [[The Golden Age of Video Games]]; we know you're going to keep feeding quarters into anything with our logo on it, story or no. Go nuts, guys! This video game was released in 1980.
 Not to be confused with [[William Shakespeare]]'s ''[[The Tempest (Theatre)|The Tempest]],'' which is a Third Person "Romance" about [[Forbidden Planet|a long-lost genius, his beautiful daughter, and the fell things that are discovered in their seeming paradise when a foreign ship crashes there...]]
@@ Line 11: / Line 11: @@
 * [[Everything Trying to Kill You]]
 * [[Kaizo Trap]]: Sort of. As you zoom through the end of a stage to the next, if you hit a green spike you will die. The first few levels with spikes at least give you a brief "Avoid Spikes" warning.
-* [[Shoot Em Up]]
+* [[Shoot'Em Up]]
 * [[Vector Game]]
 * [[What Could Have Been]]: ''Tempest'' was originally a game called ''Vortex''. Instead of the player moving, the playfield moved and the gameplay was modeled on ''[[Space Invaders]]''. This was scrapped due to motion sickness.