Tempest Vortex / Aliens prototype videos

ieure

Well-known member

Donor 2014-2015
Joined
Feb 12, 2010
Messages
6,596
Reaction score
986
Location
Portland, Oregon
I know some people have been interested in seeing the Tempest prototypes, so I shot some video of them last night. This is my Tempest cabaret running the VectorLabs kit.

Vortex:


Aliens:
 
Thanks for posting these.. This is the first time I have seen these, and I was hoping for a different bit of gameplay. If the differences are purely cosmetic, what's the point? Just wondering...
 
These were included to have the entirety of the Tempest 'evolution' in one setup. I sent mine back to VL to get re-programmed for the new menu button setup (P2/P1 rather than fire buttons), but from my limited time with them, Aliens is crazy difficult. If that had gone into production as-is, after I dropped my first quarter I would have never played another Atari title again. It'll be an enjoyable way to break up the typical Tempest experience and with it's lack of multi-fire may help improve one's Tempest playing. Vortex does seem very similar to the final Tempest in my limited time with it. Tubes is a whole other exercise in 3D-2D spatial recognition. What kind of differences would you like to have seen?
 
Game variations, new boards, different games... I know, those expectations are pretty high, but it is really what I would have expected. I have the Braze 8-in-1 for my Space Invaders Deluxe, I was hoping it would be closer to that than the 96-in-1 Pacman (96 variations of pacman...).

Is the orginal Clay Cowgill Tempest mod similar (as in the games pretty much all the same)?

Sorry, still pretty new to the whole scene, so my expectations are still all over the place...lol
 
My last question wasn't meant to be condescending, I was curious. The original plan for this kit was to have slots available for user-editable levels, but that was changed. I think Mike said it is still programmable, so you might be able to develop your own levels within ROMs and replace any of the 8 games, but I can't say for certain as I don't know how to do it.

Clay's had Aliens, Vortex, all 3 Tempest revs, 1 version of Tubes and his original vector Breakout. Like I said my time was limited with it, but I think all 3 Tubes games on VectorLabs are the same levels, but the orientation/perspective of the board changes (which actually does change the difficulty of play) .
 
My last question wasn't meant to be condescending, I was curious. The original plan for this kit was to have slots available for user-editable levels, but that was changed. I think Mike said it is still programmable, so you might be able to develop your own levels within ROMs and replace any of the 8 games, but I can't say for certain as I don't know how to do it.

Clay's had Aliens, Vortex, all 3 Tempest revs, 1 version of Tubes and his original vector Breakout. Like I said my time was limited with it, but I think all 3 Tubes games on VectorLabs are the same levels, but the orientation/perspective of the board changes (which actually does change the difficulty of play) .

The VL kit has all 3 revs of Tempest as well.

You're correct that the Tubes 2 / 3 on the VL kit are just rotated Tubes levels. My imperfect understanding is that there will be documentation forthcoming explaining how to change them.

The main differences between the kits are:
VL kit (the revised version) does not require soldering to install.
VL kit does not have vector breakout.
VL kit can actually be purchased.
 
Back
Top Bottom