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Tempest 5200 - 30 Copies Available!


Albert

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've had this 5200 cartridge for like 2 weeks and I still haven't played it ;-)

 

As the owner of a Tempest arcade machine I can't imagine it playing good with a trackball at all. It would be awesome if could work with a 2600 driving controller though. I know, not going to happen. :)

 

I have a MAME cab and actually the trackball doesn't do too bad with Tempest. The spinner is the way to go but I think the trackball is good enough for consideration.

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Agreed that 5200 Tempest is HARD. I play on the default difficulty which seems very close to coin-op difficulty to me. Put it on the easier setting if you are dying too much.

 

I've been playing coin-op Tempest , via the PS2 Midway/ Atari collection. I haven't played coin-op vs 5200 versions back to back , but they seem pretty close. The problem with the 5200 version is its a bit more squished, and the bullets aren't quite as noticeable as they come up the tubes. I've learned some strategies for coin-op Tempest because of my recent playing, strategies I never realized before. The strategies work similarly on the 5200 version. It seems a VERY faithful port. MY best advice is to apply light pressure to the 5200 analog stick so your claw is moving from tube to tube, and keep the button pressed down, then go back-n-forth, watching of course that you don't ram into bullets.

 

Plus, once the red flippers hit the top and are coming for you, do you know you can shoot them as they flip towards you? It's all in the timing. On the coin-op version, I press away from the flipper and press the fire button at the same time, and that seems to work. Never just hold in the fire button! (this is true of Megamania too, but that's a different thread....) :)

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Plus, once the red flippers hit the top and are coming for you, do you know you can shoot them as they flip towards you? It's all in the timing.

 

Well that's one of the oldest Tempest "strategies" in the book.. i.e. just stay motionless and shooting. :) 'Course it works better on a section where the flippers have to flip more.from the adjacent lane i.e. the red area would be good. The blue area would be suicide.

 

post-31-0-81366500-1351889652_thumb.jpg

 

'Course it's arguable whether this is any good or not. :lol:

 

Regarding the squished bullets, harder to see, etc.. even though I haven't played my copy yet that's actually what I suspected. But that's the case for a lot of 5200 ports.. e.g. Defender. I guess it just is what it is. :)

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Well that's one of the oldest Tempest "strategies" in the book.. i.e. just stay motionless and shooting. :) 'Course it works better on a section where the flippers have to flip more.from the adjacent lane i.e. the red area would be good. The blue area would be suicide.

 

I never had any strategy for Tempest until this past month. I just played it and quickly died. Tempest 2000 is totally different because you can jump above the playfield, and that's the Tempest game I played the most of, since its release. When I got coin-op Tempest via the PSX compilation packs, I found it too hard and didn't play it much. Then when I got 5200 tempest, it was the same thing so I figured I better learn some strategy!

 

I see your red and blue area circles now, I didn't notice 'em before.

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Then when I got 5200 tempest, it was the same thing so I figured I better learn some strategy!

 

It's mostly reflex of course (if you don't do the "stay still" method) but there's definitely some strategy, especially when you get into the Yellow levels with the Pulsars.. God I HATED those things.. could never figure them out. But obviously many did since they could get to the light blue, invisible, and green levels which were only a fantasy for me. I generally died in yellow. :lol:

 

I see your red and blue area circles now, I didn't notice 'em before.

Yeah I guess the tiny-ized picture doesn't show it too well. :)

Edited by NE146
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http://www.digitpress.com/library/magazines/joystik/joystik.htm

 

On page 40 of the Sep 83 PDF there's some advanced strategy for those upper levels in the arcade version. Although to me they were always just more "informational" kind of stuff.. it's still pretty much how skillful you are.

 

Not sure how much of the upper levels behavior was translated to the 5200 version.. would be interesting to find out! :) Dang I need to break out my 5200 already...

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I tried following the thread has anyone figured out how to adjust the trackball? Tried with 3 different 5200's Teo of them player goes right one of them it goes left. My machines are daily drivers and I don't have test cartridges or anything fancy. The trackball seems to work just fine with games like centipede. Any help is greatly appreciated thank you :-)

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I tried following the thread has anyone figured out how to adjust the trackball? Tried with 3 different 5200's Teo of them player goes right one of them it goes left. My machines are daily drivers and I don't have test cartridges or anything fancy. The trackball seems to work just fine with games like centipede. Any help is greatly appreciated thank you :-)

 

I was also thinking of asking about this too.

Is a fix in the works?

With the hurricane a couple weeks ago things are only getting back to normal these last few days. I haven't had much time to pay attention to what's going on.

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It sounds like there is absolutely no way to adjust your Trak-ball. Some are within spec and some aren't. Instead, the software needs to check and recalibrate - that is most likely what Missile Command and Centiped do. I say this because my 1st Trak-Ball was far out-of-whack yet still worked pretty well with those 2 games, but not with Tempest.

 

Whether or not Tempest 5200 will get a programming fix for future versions, it hasn't been stated. However, even though I have a TB that works with the game, I quickly tire of the novelty and prefer the analog stick control.

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http://www.digitpres...tik/joystik.htm

 

On page 40 of the Sep 83 PDF there's some advanced strategy for those upper levels in the arcade version. Although to me they were always just more "informational" kind of stuff.. it's still pretty much how skillful you are.

 

Not sure how much of the upper levels behavior was translated to the 5200 version.. would be interesting to find out! :) Dang I need to break out my 5200 already...

 

sep 83 page 40 shows Dig Dug... :-o

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