Tempest questions...

ender999

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Hi everyone, I'm new to collecting Arcade Games and this is my first set of questions. I'm about to buy a Tempest and the marquee light flickers either all the time or during game play, I'm not sure which I'm going to have to take a closer look. The seller said the guy that sold it to him said it is by design. I don't remember any flicker 20+ yrs ago when I played it. Normal or not normal, and does it sound like a simple fix?

He said Tempest Tubes is also installed but he doesnt know how to turn it on. How can one tell if Tubes is there? Please don't beat me up, I'm gonna learn along the way. Thx, Bill
 
Marquee lamp flickering = not right.

Chances are "high" it's needs a starter or tube. Starters are a buck or two, tubes a few bucks.
 
Marquee lamp flickering = not right.

Chances are "high" it's needs a starter or tube. Starters are a buck or two, tubes a few bucks.

Yea, just replace and/or reseat the bulb. Also pop in a new starter...probably an FS-2...any 'ol Home Depot or Lowe's will have 'em...and you'll most likely be fine.

Tempest is the first game I picked up when I decided to start collecting some 12 years ago or so...best...game...ever!

Welcome to the club! :D

Jon
 
The contacts for the bulb may be corroded causing it to flicker due to the bad connectivity. If the other things mentioned are OK you may want to try turning the bulb around a few times within the fixture to try to clean the contacts. I've had that fix a few.
 
Replacement bulb. Easy to find. Starter is also easy to buy. Should completely fix the problem.
If not, get rid of the old fixture and put in a new one.
 
I haven't dealt with Tempest Tubes before, but I would think at the least you can take a look at screenshots or whatever you can find online and see what the different is between the original and tubes version. I don't know why, but I want to say I've seen or heard of people using toggle switches to switch between regular and tubes. Good luck with the purchase. Tempest rocks!
 
Just want to say thanks for all the responses. Looks like I'm gonna get the game. Now my next most wanted game is Crazy Climber! Thx again, Bill
 
welcome and congrats on the tempest, awesome game. i will say tempest tubes is really not that much fun in my opinion. i've played quite a bit of tubes and it just doesn't come close to regular tempest in enjoyability.
 
Tempest Tubes is nothing more than a single ROM swap. Many people installed a larger capacity ROM with the data from both the original and Tubes and put a toggle switch on the upper address line so you can change between them. It only affects the shapes of the levels, the rest of the gameplay is unchanged.

If you wanted to add Tubes or swap back to original, the replacement ROM should only cost you a couple of dollars. The files are easily found on the 'net, so if you had a ROM burner you could just burn it yourself, but there are also many people out there that will burn ROMs as a service.

-Ian
 
I really need to finish restoring mine, got it sitting in a back closet at work. One of my all time favorite games and as long as the light is the only problem get it.
 
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