Tempest - pulsar tips?

Steverd

Active member
Joined
Aug 15, 2007
Messages
2,012
Reaction score
7
Location
Spokane, Washington
Anyone have any tips for Tempest level 20 and above?
That's when the Pulsars first appear. I know you can shot them and they will kill you if they Pulse on your lane. They make the edge disappear, that does that mean?
 
They change color and have an audible sound when the pulse. Wait for them to pulse, then after that you can move over them and shoot. Just remember they pulse at a specific rate, so make sure you're not over them when they pulse again.

It gets harder when they're riding on spikes because you have to shoot the spike down to get to them and that can take so long to do that they will pulse before your shots reach them.

The red levels are about 5 minutes into this video I made:
 
Great video.
I don't know how you can play it with your arms crossed like that!!!

So when a Pulsar is in the lane the edge line disappears?
And you can kill them when they are yellow, but they will kill you
when they are white?

Thanks,
 
You can kill pulsars at any time, whether they're pulsing or not. They will kill you if you enter into their lane while they're pulsing. They can also kill you at the end of a level if they've reached the top - they'll behave like flippers.
Pulsars do make the edge lines disappear for the lane they're in - it's a handy way to know where you can/can't move when you're focusing on action close to the near end of the tube.

I'm not positive of this, but I don't think pulsars can kill you by contact until the end of the wave (when they're acting like flippers). I frequently 'kamikaze' myself in front of them when they're near the top, and don't recall ever being killed (unless they're pulsing of course).

One of the most important things when dealing with pulsars, is to get into a rhythm with your movement, moving and shooting when they're not pulsing, then hiding out in a safe lane when they are pulsing. Related to this in my opinion is the necessity to learn how to kill flippers when they've reached the top and are flipping - you just can't cover everything when you're movement is constrained. I spent several months retooling my Tempest game, getting the timing down, but it's well worth it and even more important when you reach yellow and have to deal with multiple fuseballs.

One other thing which I've recently noticed, you can sometimes control the direction of movement of pulsars with your movements, sort of like how you can control barrels on Donkey Kong. For example, if there's a pulsar on your right, you can move to the right and coax the pulsar to the right (away from you), if you time your movement correctly. I need to take some video too!
 
Great video.
I don't know how you can play it with your arms crossed like that!!!

That's how I play too. It feels more comfortable to me and I have more control over the spinner. Great video too! Really shows some good strategy that I probably wouldn't have figured out on my own. Thanks!
 
Excellent description gregafree!
Thanks for the compliment Radford119!

I didn't see that many gameplay videos for Tempest on the net, so I figured I'd throw one out there. It's great to hear that it's helping folks get more out of the game. Whenever I hear someone say that they like Tempest but have never made it past the blue levels, it makes me a little sad. To me the blue levels just serve as a warmup, the red levels are when it starts to get fun and the yellow is when it really shines.

When you get there and have to deal with the spikes, pulsars, fuseballs and tankers that carry random enemies it gets so intense that you feel like you've had a workout when your done. It kind of feels like when you get to the higher levels of Robotron. You really have to watch the whole screen to see what's near you and where it's safe to move to.
 
That's how I play too. It feels more comfortable to me and I have more control over the spinner. Great video too! Really shows some good strategy that I probably wouldn't have figured out on my own. Thanks!

Very interested, are you right or left handed?
I am left handed and it feels natural for me to control the spinner with my right hand and fire with my left.
 
I'm right handed and cross hands because I can control firing better with my right hand. My strategy is more dependent on keeping a good rhythm of shots going than large spinner movements.
 
Very interested, are you right or left handed?
I am left handed and it feels natural for me to control the spinner with my right hand and fire with my left.

I am right handed. It just feels easier to maneuver the spinner with my left hand, more precise for me that way.
 
Very interesting! Maybe using your dominate hand to control the firing is the way to go!???

That is how I play joystick/button games, maybe I'll try Tempest this way as well. Can't hurt :)

Anyone who is into Tempest needs to one day see Laszlo Takacs play this game. I've only met him a few times and seen him play maybe 2x but it is insane how good he is at this game. He barely moves at all it seems.
 
I'm very late to this discussion but have been an avid Tempest player since it first came out. I go to CAX every year just to play them again and always meet other enthusiasts there. When I played alot back in the day I could start at level 9 and play past level 65 on a single quarter on machines that gave lives every 20,000. These days it usually takes quite a few plays to advance that far but I can still eventually get past level 65.

The levels go like this:
1-16 Blue
17-32 Red
33-48 Yellow
49-64 Light Blue
65-80 Invisible
81-96 Green
97-99 Green

THe game get progressively faster and the number of enemies increases with color. Invisible is very fast and difficult to play and there are only two starting levels at 65 and 73. Green is about the same speed but at least you can see where you're moving. Strategy is all about timing and trying to defend a small area until you are forced to move.

I'll be at CAX again this weekend :)
 
Back
Top Bottom