Atari Tempest: Dave Theurer’s Masterpiece • Hacker News Board

Re: Atari Tempest: Dave Theurer’s Masterpiece

#11

Post by ChickeNES » Sat, Jan 20, 2018, 2:20 AM UTC

Mountain_Skies wrote: post #9

dylan604 wrote: post #6

I knew a guy that specialized in repairing these types of games. I was fascinated in hearing about how the game controlled the scanning of the electron beam from the normal CRT horizontal scan. I was always curious of what was the genesis for the idea to use a CRT in this way. The first thing I had always thought about was sending this method of scanning an audio signal to let it draw the sound. For the time period,…

Think vector arcade games grew out of oscilloscopes where some smart tinkerers found they could use the oscilloscope as a display screen for rudimentary games.

Yup, one of the first true video games, Tennis for Two (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennis_for_Two) used a scope as a display

Re: Atari Tempest: Dave Theurer’s Masterpiece

#12

Post by sehugg » Sat, Jan 20, 2018, 2:27 AM UTC

dylan604 wrote: post #6

I knew a guy that specialized in repairing these types of games. I was fascinated in hearing about how the game controlled the scanning of the electron beam from the normal CRT horizontal scan. I was always curious of what was the genesis for the idea to use a CRT in this way. The first thing I had always thought about was sending this method of scanning an audio signal to let it draw the sound. For the time period,…

It all goes back to Spacewar. It used a DEC Type 30 display, which was like a vector display except it drew individual dots.

Larry Rosenthal made the first cheap vector game system from the guts of an old TV and a custom TTL CPU, to play Spacewar: https://allincolorforaquarter.blogspot.com/2012/11/at-end-of...

Re: Atari Tempest: Dave Theurer’s Masterpiece

#13

Post by gedy » Sat, Jan 20, 2018, 2:29 AM UTC

I used to work with Dave Theurer post-Atari, he's still programming and a great guy.

Re: Atari Tempest: Dave Theurer’s Masterpiece

#14

Post by dangerboysteve » Sat, Jan 20, 2018, 2:41 AM UTC

That was a glorious read! The development read like they were changing the tires on a moving race car.

Re: Atari Tempest: Dave Theurer’s Masterpiece

#15

Post by linsomniac » Sat, Jan 20, 2018, 2:42 AM UTC

I always loved Tempest. I was terrible at it, but loved it.

Re: Atari Tempest: Dave Theurer’s Masterpiece

#16

Post by joezydeco » Sat, Jan 20, 2018, 2:42 AM UTC

dylan604 wrote: post #6

I knew a guy that specialized in repairing these types of games. I was fascinated in hearing about how the game controlled the scanning of the electron beam from the normal CRT horizontal scan. I was always curious of what was the genesis for the idea to use a CRT in this way. The first thing I had always thought about was sending this method of scanning an audio signal to let it draw the sound. For the time period,…

You'll definitely want to read Jed Margolin's "The Secret Life of Vector Generators"

http://www.jmargolin.com/vgens/vgens.htm

And "The Secret Life of XY Monitors"

http://www.jmargolin.com/xy/xymon.htm

(Jed was an Atari engineer during the vector era and beyond)

Re: Atari Tempest: Dave Theurer’s Masterpiece

#17

Post by kabdib » Sat, Jan 20, 2018, 2:54 AM UTC

stevenwoo wrote: post #2

What kind of CPU drove the logic? This seems to be missing from the article. It describes an iterative compile/debug cycle but leaves out the part where why the DEC computer was needed to make a tape for a Forth debugging machine - we are never told how that Forth thing made the final leap to the stand up cabinet hardware or if the tape thing also went to the cabinet after it was debugged.

Games were cross-assembled on a VAX (using a modified version of the DEC macro assembler).

I never saw the "blue FORTH box" but it was probably a ROM emulator of some kind that you downloaded code to, with some FORTH words for doing low-level stuff like debugging, resetting the target and diagnostics. The game itself was not written in FORTH.

I'd forgotten that some programmers depended on other people keyboarding their source code. I think this was largely a coin-op thing; the other engineering departments never practiced that.

Re: Atari Tempest: Dave Theurer’s Masterpiece

#18

Post by omgwtfpmr » Sat, Jan 20, 2018, 2:56 AM UTC

empath75 wrote: post #5

Tempest 2000 on the Atari Jaguar is still one of my favorite games of all time. I can’t think of any other game that can get me into that pure zen mind/no-mind state as quickly and for as long. I was playing it at the video games exhibit at the Smithsonian a couple of years ago and setting all the high scores and eventually a small audience was watching me play and asking me questions about it. I wasn’t sure if the g…

There's an excellent Android clone, Cyclone 2000.

Re: Atari Tempest: Dave Theurer’s Masterpiece

#19

Post by egypturnash » Sat, Jan 20, 2018, 3:18 AM UTC

empath75 wrote: post #5

Tempest 2000 on the Atari Jaguar is still one of my favorite games of all time. I can’t think of any other game that can get me into that pure zen mind/no-mind state as quickly and for as long. I was playing it at the video games exhibit at the Smithsonian a couple of years ago and setting all the high scores and eventually a small audience was watching me play and asking me questions about it. I wasn’t sure if the g…

Have you tried Jeff Minter's other riffs on Tempest and/or any of his other games? Jeff did T2k; his other Tempest riffs include Space Giraffe (360/PC), TXK (PSVita), and Tempest 4000 (forthcoming, maybe). I also highly recommend Polybius (ps4, vr helmet optional)

Re: Atari Tempest: Dave Theurer’s Masterpiece

#20

Post by megaman22 » Sat, Jan 20, 2018, 3:23 AM UTC

When I was a kid, I had a Windows 95-era floppy with Battlezone, Centipede, Asteroids, Missile Command and Tempest. Wish I still had it; one of the best parts was the .chm (or .hlp? I forget what was the older one) help file has a big section on the development of each game.