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

Re: Atari Tempest: Dave Theurer’s Masterpiece

#21

Post by dylan604 » Sat, Jan 20, 2018, 3:30 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.

After recent threads here about oscilloscope music, I was wondering if this game style was essentially an XY view type of concept.

Also, I know that the ROM emulators had issues getting games to work on nonCRT screens as the games had to do some interesting programming "tricks" to deal with the quirks of NTSC. I wonder if the vector game emulation teams had any additional issues to deal with to get the game to work on nonCRT displays?

Re: Atari Tempest: Dave Theurer’s Masterpiece

#22

Post by SwellJoe » Sat, Jan 20, 2018, 3:43 AM UTC

In my memory the sound of an arcade is Tempest. If I think about it for a moment, other sounds come into focus, but Tempest is the first and primary sound I can identify.

Tempest epitomizes early arcade games, to me. It was subject to all the same technical limits of games of the era, but it seemed to be apart from them; there's nothing you'd need to add to make it better. The sound and the look of it, from the intro screen on, is just really iconic.

Re: Atari Tempest: Dave Theurer’s Masterpiece

#23

Post by tasty_freeze » Sat, Jan 20, 2018, 3:54 AM UTC

I used to work with Dave Sherman, who was the hardware lead on Missile Command to Dave Theurer's software lead. He joined Atari right out of Berkeley during Atari's heyday, and he had a lot of stories about the out of control corporate culture.

I'm sure this happened after Atari was bought, but Dave said the purchasing agents were driving around expensive cars, cars that he as an engineer couldn't afford, the implication that there were obvious kickbacks going on. Programmers were sometimes given coke by their supervisor during crunch time to increase work. Some of the technical talent hired agents to negotiate with Atari -- the thinking being they are in the entertainment business, just like Hollywood.

Re: Atari Tempest: Dave Theurer’s Masterpiece

#24

Post by LeoPanthera » Sat, Jan 20, 2018, 4:00 AM UTC

megaman22 wrote: post #20

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.

That would be "Microsoft Arcade".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Arcade

Re: Atari Tempest: Dave Theurer’s Masterpiece

#25

Post by mey » Sat, Jan 20, 2018, 4:00 AM UTC

SwellJoe wrote: post #22

In my memory the sound of an arcade is Tempest. If I think about it for a moment, other sounds come into focus, but Tempest is the first and primary sound I can identify. Tempest epitomizes early arcade games, to me. It was subject to all the same technical limits of games of the era, but it seemed to be apart from them; there's nothing you'd need to add to make it better. The sound and the look of it, from the intro…

May I suggest, http://plork.princeton.edu/listen/green/ and listen to "The Future of Fun (1983)"

Re: Atari Tempest: Dave Theurer’s Masterpiece

#26

Post by phjesusthatguy3 » Sat, Jan 20, 2018, 4:02 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…

TxK on Sony Vita is pretty nice. I wouldn't buy a new platform just for TxK.

Re: Atari Tempest: Dave Theurer’s Masterpiece

#27

Post by trailbits » Sat, Jan 20, 2018, 4:06 AM UTC

Best. Game. Ever. Tempest came out when I was in high school, and my buddy and I would rather skip lunch and play this instead of eat each day. We produced a little booklet of each level we kept in our wallets so we could jot down where we had the best luck leaving the flipper while we fired away. I was thrilled to find a working Tempest at the “Game Master” exhibit in San Diego's Balboa Park last summer.

Re: Atari Tempest: Dave Theurer’s Masterpiece

#28

Post by LanceH » Sat, Jan 20, 2018, 4:31 AM UTC

I miss the feel of hardware controllers that didn't go through so many layers of software. The tempest controller the best of all of them. Low latency and completely consistent response.

Re: Atari Tempest: Dave Theurer’s Masterpiece

#29

Post by dylan604 » Sat, Jan 20, 2018, 4:31 AM UTC

so i just watched the 23 minute gameplay video linked in the article. after 5 minutes, i realized how much i sucked at this game. it's amazing that even after so many years of game design progress, these old style games still grab my attention.

Re: Atari Tempest: Dave Theurer’s Masterpiece

#30

Post by Bitcoin_McPonzi » Sat, Jan 20, 2018, 4:54 AM UTC

I was in college when this game came out. I loved the vector graphics. It took me a while to "get" what the UI represented, but once it clicked, it was a wonderful game and fun to play.