Tempest 128

Tempest 128

Tempest is an arcade game made by Atari in 1980. The video display used Analog Vector Graphics (AVG), which is a technology quite different from modern (digital) Bitmap Graphics (but similar to modern 3D polygon graphics). Although a very successful arcade game, there was never a port to the Commodore 64/128. Strangely, prototypes for an Atari 2600 port have been "leaked" onto the web. I find this strange because the 2600 was terribly under-powered compared to a C64, and the arcade games sold very well.

Anyway, I loved playing the arcade game back in the day. And I have become so disappointed that no company has made a C64/128 port that I decided to do it myself. Logically speaking, this has been a huge waste of time because I have no financial incentive... more likely a financial lawsuit if the current copyright holder(s) [no longer Atari] wished to pursue legal action! Well, I'm doing it out of love, which often conflicts with logic!

Currently I have a working emulation of the game available for the C128 on the 40-column (VIC-II) screen. Actually two alpha versions: high-resolution and multi-color. Although it technically works, it is so slow on a stock C128 that it is not fun to play. If you are lucky enough to own a SuperCPU for the C128, then it should probably be fun to play, but the timing will be off from the arcade. Another alternative (if you don't own SuperCPU for your C128), is to play the game using my Multi-MHz hack of VICE128 emulator (set to 10MHz or so).

The main reason for slow game play on stock C128 is because my software (currently) emulates all the hardware of the arcade. In particular the AVG, Pokeys, and Mathbox (no time to describe those now). I hope to someday create a true port of the game... when that happens it should run acceptably fast on a stock C128.

Until then, I present the current (alpha) version. For gamers, download the D64 disk image here. There are two versions on the disk: high-resolution (HR) and multi-color (MC). MC is recommended because it is virtually impossible to distinguish between the level/board "lanes" and the "spikes" with the HR version. Just RUN the appropriate 1-block BASIC file on the disk (it will simply load and execute a large binary file from disk).

For hackers and software developers, the source code is available here. There is a lengthy discussion about prior versions on the c-128.freeforums.net forums available here.