Tempest for the Atari 800xl with paddle support

[RicardoMosse]

Hello guys,

 

I was wondering if there is a port of Tempest for the atari 800xl with paddle or the racing controller support? If so, can someone point me where i can download this rom?

 

Thanks in advance.

[Beeblebrox]

@RicardoMosseSo if you are referring to the post 2000 developed A8 game called Tempest Xtreme, to download there only exists a demo:

 

https://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-tempest-xtreem_23225.html

 

.... where AFAIK the game doesn't support paddle control. (I may well be wrong). 

 

The game itself, having been developing in 2007, isn't available in the public domain and is only sold commercially from Video61(?) afaik. 

 

There is also reference to Tempest Elite by the same developers here in this 2916 thread:

 

https://forums.atari.io/topic/2774-tempest-elite-for-atari-400800-xl-xe/

 

 

 

 

[RicardoMosse]

1 hour ago, Beeblebrox said:

@RicardoMosseSo if you are referring to the post 2000 developed A8 game called Tempest Xtreme, to download there only exists a demo:

 

https://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-tempest-xtreem_23225.html

 

.... where AFAIK the game doesn't support paddle control. (I may well be wrong). 

 

The game itself, having been developing in 2007, isn't available in the public domain and is only sold commercially from Video61(?) afaik. 

 

There is also reference to Tempest Elite by the same developers here in this 2916 thread:

 

https://forums.atari.io/topic/2774-tempest-elite-for-atari-400800-xl-xe/

 

 

 

 

Hello! Thanks for the reply. It is not clear to me, the difference beetwen Tempest Xtreme and Tempest Elite. Anyone knows if there is a difference in terms of which controllers they support?

 

Also any other differences in gameplay or graphics?

 

So the only way to play these games is purchasing a physical cartridge from this developer in both cases?

[Beeblebrox]

1 minute ago, RicardoMosse said:

Hello! Thanks for the reply. It is not clear to me, the difference beetwen Tempest Xtreme and Tempest Elite. Anyone knows if there is a difference in terms of which controllers they support?

 

Also any other differences in gameplay or graphics?

 

So the only way to play these games is purchasing a physical cartridge from this developer in both cases?

Yup, I am not sure. 

 

AFAIK yes you can only purchase from the developers /publishers.i won't say anything more as it's been a long and much talked about thing, which I don't think is needed replicated (see here:

 

 

 

And here:

 

 

 

 

[Rybags]

Tempest Elite supports other controllers. 

 

But a paddle for Tempest?  Would probably make it harder to play, you really need the spinner/driving controller with it's infinite turnability.

[janzh]

I tried to get Tempest Xtreme but no reply from the developer and on the web page there was a message about health issues. I am fascinated by this game and how close it could get to Tempest 2000 for the Jaguar. Unfortunately, the demo directly loads to D800-DFFF so you cannot load it from a PBI device.  Nevertheless I would also appreciate any information on how to get the full version.

[Beeblebrox]

25 minutes ago, janzh said:

I tried to get Tempest Xtreme but no reply from the developer and on the web page there was a message about health issues. I am fascinated by this game and how close it could get to Tempest 2000 for the Jaguar. Unfortunately, the demo directly loads to D800-DFFF so you cannot load it from a PBI device.  Nevertheless I would also appreciate any information on how to get the full version.

I load the demo from my side3 cart. Seems to work OK. 

[TGB1718]

3 hours ago, Beeblebrox said:

There is also reference to Tempest Elite by the same developers here in this 2916 thread:

Wow, that's a long development time

 

[Beeblebrox]

7 minutes ago, TGB1718 said:

Wow, that's a long development time

 

Opps Heh Heh, fat fingers on my phone!!

[RicardoMosse]

The purchase page is not up from what i can tell. Isnt there a way to publish the rom since it cannot be purchased anymore?

Edited February 25 by RicardoMosse

[Beeblebrox]

55 minutes ago, RicardoMosse said:

The purchase page is not up from what i can tell. Isnt there a way to publish the rom since it cannot be purchased anymore?

if you read all the history and threads about this game you'll see the copyright is very closely guarded. The publishers/developers are not likely to release this into the public domain anytime soon. They only ever sell their games on cart and never release any digital formats. 

[RicardoMosse]

37 minutes ago, Beeblebrox said:

if you read all the history and threads about this game you'll see the copyright is very closely guarded. The publishers/developers are not likely to release this into the public domain anytime soon. They only ever sell their games on cart and never release any digital formats. 

Ok. Fair enough

[+mytek]

1 hour ago, Beeblebrox said:

if you read all the history and threads about this game you'll see the copyright is very closely guarded. The publishers/developers are not likely to release this into the public domain anytime soon. They only ever sell their games on cart and never release any digital formats. 

Well like so many other carts that got released without the author's seal of approval because they were eventually considered to be abandon-ware, this doesn't seem to be any different in criteria. That criteria being that it's no longer for sell, and likely never will be again. The only difference being the time frame involved... 1980-1990's vs. 2016. Since copyright extends for I believe 75 years, both cases would be treated the same in court. Not saying it's OK for an unauthorized person to sell something that is still protected by copyright, but the reality is that if someone makes a copy of the ROM and puts it out there for free it would be pretty unlikely that anyone would get into serious trouble. With the normal scenario being that whatever website(s) that had this content for download, they might be asked asked to take it down by the original author(s). Although this hasn't stopped sites like Atarimania.com and a8.fandal.cz (just to name a few) from creating entire portals dedicated to the cause.

 

So I don't know when, but eventually this will be available as a digital download

[Fred_M]

 In the development of the game Rotor II, which is a pong clone with a 360 degrees playing field, we tried several controllers: joystick, paddle, driving controller, trackball and mouse.

 

 

We thought that paddles would be the perfect way to play this game, but they were not. Because paddles are not turning infinitely, they made the game harder to play. The standard Atari driving controllers were also not a good choice. Because of the low resolution of the driving controllers (the low number of pulses this controller generates) the player had to turn the controller way too many times to make a complete 360 degrees circle on screen.

 

The best option was surprisingly the mouse. It quickly became our favorite controller to play this game. The mouse was the only controller that felt natural and the players were able to turn quickly and precisely in any direction.

 

So I would say, try to find a tempest game that supports a mouse 😉

[+mytek]

4 hours ago, Fred_M said:

So I would say, try to find a tempest game that supports a mouse 😉

Most games that support a 'true' quadrature trackball mode will work with a mouse as well. This would also include the Atari racing controllers.

 

At least one of the Tempest versions (maybe both?) had a racing controller option, so it too would be a good candidate for a mouse.

[+CharlieChaplin]

Just tested my Tempest Extreem cart. and it seems to work with joystick only. There are no (visible) options to choose a different controller.

 

Tempest Elite however supports Joystick, Paddles, Driving Controller and Trackball. Guess in trackball mode one could also use a mouse, since most trackball games work fine with a mouse. More info about Tempest Elite here:

 

 

Too bad, that both Tempest Extreem and Tempest Elite are no longer listed at Video61, no clue why (hopefully not because of Atari)...

[Mr Robot]

1 hour ago, mytek said:

So I don't know when, but eventually this will be available as a digital download

Beef Drop from twenty years ago is still only available digitally as a demo version. "Eventually" could be a very very long time!

 

[SS]

I don't know about the demo version but the physical "Tempest Elite" cart was only ever released on an AtariMax cartridge, so it is in a proprietary format.  I believe that the "Space Harrier" homebrew was also only released in that same format.  

[Beeblebrox]

4 hours ago, SS said:

I don't know about the demo version but the physical "Tempest Elite" cart was only ever released on an AtariMax cartridge, so it is in a proprietary format.  I believe that the "Space Harrier" homebrew was also only released in that same format.  

Yeah, AFAIK only way to get it is buy said physical releases as a boxed commercial release from video61. Looks like it's a no go if they are no longer trading. Such a pity as the demo is great. Ce la vie.