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Tempest 4000 is real, Jeff Minter is developing it and Atari is publishing it


Scott Stilphen

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http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-08-08-tempest-4000-is-real-jeff-minter-is-developing-it-and-atari-is-publishing-it

 

 

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 08/08/2017

Surprise! Atari has announced Tempest 4000, the sequel to the classic arcade game Tempest, is coming out later in 2017 for PC and consoles.

 

And get this - Tempest 4000 is being developed by Jeff Minter, creator of Tempest 2000, the 1994 remake of the Dave Theurer 1981 arcade game, Tempest.

Here's the official blurb, courtesy of Atari:

"In Tempest 4000, players are once again in control of the Claw, a powerful spacecraft equipped to destroy deadly creatures and other obstructions with rapid-fire shots on vibrant geometric prisms. With three game modes to choose from and 100 levels to conquer, players must eliminate all enemies as quickly as possible to survive and achieve that coveted spot at the top of the leaderboards."

Those three games mode are standard, pure and endurance. There's a 4K resolution and a retro soundtrack inspired by 1990s techno.

Here's a quote from current Atari boss Todd Shallbetter:

"The original Tempest is a beloved arcade classic with a unique style and intense, edge-of-your-seat gameplay.

"We're thrilled to be able to work with Jeff Minter again, someone who is a legend in the industry and has made a huge impact on the history of video games, to develop this highly-anticipated next installment of the Tempest franchise, updated with today's technology."

News that Minter is once again working with Atari comes as something of a surprise. Back in 2015 Minter said he was "beyond disgusted" with Atari after the company blocked the release of his Vita game TxK on new platforms over similarities with Tempest.

So yeah all the stuff we had ready or near ready will now never see the light of day.No TxK PC, PS4, Oculus, GearVR, Android. Thank "Atari".

 
 

TxK, which Minter called a "distantly related sequel" to Tempest 2000, launched on Vita to critical acclaim in February 2014. Martin Robinson wrote in his 9/10 review: "All you need to know right now is that TxK is Minter at his finest, and it's absolutely mint."

 

Well, it sounds like the pair have patched things up. Here's a quote from Minter from Atari's press release:

"At the end of the day, video gamers always win. I am very happy to work with Atari again to bring a long-awaited sequel of Tempest to our legion of fans and a new generation of gamers worldwide."

As for Tempest 4000 itself, Atari hasn't released any screenshots or gameplay footage, but did say the game will be at Gamescom later this month, so hopefully it won't be too long before we see some footage.

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Well that resolved itself nicely.  A rarity these days.  :beer:

 

Yes. I think it's great they can get together and make something official.

 

I know that the modern Atari has gotten a ton of flak in recent years for just trying to make $ from suing and licensing, but recently its seems like they are trying to make an honest go of being a whole lot more than that. They are trying to actually make a new console, get imaginative with the speaker hat and now this.  I think it's popular to keep bashing them, but I actually hope they succeed a "Make Atari Great Again"  ;)

The No Swear Gamer on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChtJuo040EOCTVziObIgVcg

Host of The Atari 7800 Game by Game Podcast on iTunes, Stitcher and YouTube

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Played a little more of it the other day.  Was testing out streaming on the Xbox One.  (I've started doing some streaming on Twitch... not much, but it's fun.)  Anyway, I need either a new controller or to fix the one I have.  I don't like using the thumbstick for this and my d-pad has issues.  It's doing a double or triple click when I press left, so while going one direction (when pressing right on the d-pad) everything is fine, but going the other direction (pressing left) it kind of hesitates and stutters, throwing timing off and making things more difficult.

 

I did still get a new high score (for me) though, so it's not all bad.  Still hate that the enemies congregate at the top when you die and don't start over at the bottom like in 2000.  That seems a major flaw to me and makes recovering from a death super difficult.

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