Finally got a Tempest

gameguy1957

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I finally found a Tempest after looking for one for years (that was close to home). Even better than it being a few minutes away is that it was only $200.

It has been in a mom-and-pop convenience store for the past 20 years. They closed it down and left the games in there about ten years ago. The owner is re-opening the store and wants the room, so she is selling the three games they had in the corner since the 80's.

S/N is 2941, it's clean and in good shape for this area - not water damaged from the humidity. One side has some fairly bad gouges and scratches from rubbing against something, but the rest of it is decent.

It doesn't power up so I'll do the standard Atari power supply/big blue fixes on it and try it again.

She's also got an early run Centipede that still works. S/N 1770, it has a different color bezel and outline around the side art from one I have here at home.

There's a third game in there called 'Changes' , but it won't power on and all of the internal parts and cab look cheaply built.

-JM
 

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Even not working and assuming the monitor is complete, that's a great buy. Congrats. Things I'd do or at least consider:
-big blue
-re-cap monitor
-recheck/reflow any connector pins, incl the interboard connector
-rebuild ARII
 
Even not working and assuming the monitor is complete, that's a great buy. Congrats. Things I'd do or at least consider:
-big blue
-re-cap monitor
-recheck/reflow any connector pins, incl the interboard connector
-rebuild ARII

Oh yeah, it'll get the standard Atari-vector treatment. -JM
 
Changes by Orca? Did you happen to snap a picture of the cab? Is it a conversion?

Nice pickup on the Tempest btw.
 
I got one as well today, been playing it all night! Sorry if i am crashing on your thread. Congrats on your Tempest, great game! Mine has just over 4,900 plays on it, is that a lot??

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QjFPoGNvGI
 

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Changes by Orca? Did you happen to snap a picture of the cab? Is it a conversion?

Nice pickup on the Tempest btw.

It's a conversion, looks like the cheapest parts they could find. Wish it was working so I could have seen it running. I've never heard of it before yesterday.

-JM
 
I got one as well today, been playing it all night! Sorry if i am crashing on your thread. Congrats on your Tempest, great game! Mine has just over 4,900 plays on it, is that a lot??

Your machine has about 56,000 less plays on it than mine. Can't wait to get it working. It's probably been 20+ years since I've played a game the the real machine.

-JM
 
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What is the difference in the artwork? I could tell the difference in the Centipede she has since I have one at home to compare it to, but don't remember the last time I saw another Tempest machine.

-JM

The black area extends fully into the control panel edge on the side art. Later they had white\red stripe\then black. Look at Braido's pic above.
 
The control panel overlay is different too, it has numbers for the player one and 2 start instead of monsters heads.
Is this what you mean by numbers? They don't look like monster heads.
WedMar31094021PDT2010.jpg
 
Dave just called, he said will you please convert that to a Major Havoc already. :001_ssuprised: (oh yes I did :D)

Hey-oh!

And on that note, if anyone's looking for a pretty nice CP in this style, I...uh... know a guy who's got one for sale. ;)

Congrats on your games, guys. Enjoy 'em!
 
In the video i posted i show the Spinner on mine. It's not black like i remember them back in the day but gray instead. Can anyone tell me if it's orginal or if it's an aftermarket spinner???

thx,
 
I thought i saw one somewhere that had little monster heads, guess I am losing it. Maybe that is the one i was thinking of. Mine has the same side art as you but a different panel. I have just a plain white number 1 and 2 , you can see the 2 in the last pic of my resto post in the showcase forum.
 
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