TEMPEST the arcade game is 40 years old this month #Arcade #Gaming #History @mikko
TEMPEST, the 1981 arcade game by Atari Inc., turns 40 years old this month. Designed and programmed by Dave Theurer, it takes place on a three-dimensional surface divided into lanes, sometimes as a closed tube, and viewed from one end. The player controls a claw-shaped “blaster” that sits on the edge of the surface, snapping from segment to segment as a rotary knob is turned.
“Tempest hardware was always a bit problematic … one time in the lab a monitor stopped working and we looked underneath it and it had gotten so hot that four or five components had actually desoldered themselves and had fallen out from the circuit board and were lying around”
Below is an excellent video on the history of TEMPEST from creator, Dave Theurer. The clip is from a 1996 Playstation 1 release of ’Midway presents Arcade’s Greatest Hits: The Atari Collection 1’
By May be found at the following website: The Arcade Flyer Archive, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27911281
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