The history of Atari in video games is vast and super interesting, and I think for that reason, the company’s representation in this countdown might be a little lacking.
Hey, I can admit my failings.
It’s also never too late to change.
That having been said, we’re still in the “These games deserve an ‘A’ on the report card” range of the retro essentials list (9s and 10s), and I’ve gotta be honest: it might be a stretch to go that far on most of Atari’s classics.
Do I like “Asteroids?” Sure. Do I think it’s an absolute must-play in the same way that “Pong” is? No, I’m not going to go that far with it. Pong might get a historical bonus that elevates it above other games that didn’t matter quite so much (as do many of the games on this list that have an influential streak a mile wide). But a game’s still gotta be a fun time that holds up in some manner.
Table tennis, to me, is pretty much timeless. Shooting asteroids is … kinda boring.
Yeah, I said it.
Anyway, trying to grapple with those kinds of decisions is what this list is all about.
Fortunately, we have a sequel to a game that originally hit during Atari’s heyday that landed on an obscure gaming system in the early 90s, which offers the opportunity to speak to that company’s important history, while simultaneously being an absolute banger of a game that holds up incredibly well today.
Prepare your loins for “Tempest 2000,” a fever dream gaming experience that will scratch the kinds of itches you didn’t even know you had.
Tempest 2000 at a glance:
Genre: Tunnel shooter
Released: 1994
Platform: Jaguar
No. 17 on GamesMaster’s Top 100 Games of All Time
I feel like saying “it scratches itches you didn’t know you had” is a safe thing to say about most any game that landed on Atari’s Jaguar, a colossal mess of a system that released in North America in 1993 and was promptly buried like a copy of E.T.
That release date – late 1993 – was abysmal, as it landed after the video game market had already been inundated with the likes of the NES, Sega Mastersystem, Sega Genesis, Turbografx-16, Super Nintendo, Game Boy, Game Gear, Lynx (an Atari product!), TurboExpress, NeoGeo, 3DO, various CD peripherals and other add-ons from Sega and NEC, and even the goddamn Philips CD-I.
We didn’t even touch on the systems coming up on the horizon, such as the 32X, the Playstation, the Saturn, the N64, and so on. We also should mention that PC gaming was coming into its own around this time.
And I probably just left off a half dozen devices, because when I say the market was flooded with video games during this time period, I MEAN that.
It was FLOODED.
Also working against the Jaguar was its silly-looking form factor, a controller that was unreliable at best (okay, it was notoriously shitty), a lack of third-party support for software, and first-party titles that weren’t all that scintillating themselves.
People weren’t lining up to play “Trevor McFur” or “Evolution: Dino Dudes.”
(I didn’t make those games up. They are real.)
So, naturally, the Jaguar was a total failure.
But still, even within the stinking heap of fail-sludge that was the Jaguar (no offense), there emerged a couple of glimmers of genuine excellence.
One of these was Tempest 2000.
Atari’s Dave Theurer developed the original “Tempest” for arcades in the early 1980s. The game features a claw-like object equipped with shooty blasters to destroy oncoming enemies and projectiles. A rotary spinner allowed you to move the claw-critter quickly, in and out of the path of harm’s way in order to avoid death whilst also destroying the things trying to kill you.
It really stood out for its perspective – the game gave the illusion of looking through a vector-based tunnel (or along the edge of a random vector-base shape) downward at oncoming threats, with those shapes varying across different stages (also a unique feature for its time).
It was conceived as a 3D version of “Space Invaders,” but Theurer couldn’t quite make it work until he had a dream about monsters coming at him out of a hole in the ground. How do I know this? Wikipedia told me, naturally.
The vector tunnel shapes were of that particular time and place, for sure, and I’ve always found them to be sort of trippy. Tempest (along with the arcade “Star Wars” games) was one of the biggest users of the look at the time.
And it works.
Yes, vectors look very much like 1981. But that style, such that it is, is unique enough to stand the test of time. Anything sporting that look in the subsequent decades is clearly an intentional choice, conveying a particular point of view, and who am I to judge this? Things go in and out of style all the time.
Celebrated developer Jeff Minter took the reins for the sequel over a decade later, which he envisioned as a sort of remake and was crafted at his company, Llamasoft, for the new, soon-to-be-a-disaster Jaguar.
The biggest changes within the new game, which made its debut in 1994, relate to power-ups for your claw-spaceship, including the ability to jump, which allows you to completely evade any attack your enemies unleash upon you. This jump basically takes your player off the playing field briefly, which is a weird sort of meta thing in its own right – Imagine doing this in chess, for instance: “You can’t take my queen, I removed her from the board, silly-pants.” – but functionally, it really elevates the game from a frustrating slog to a passable affair, something that seems doable … and therefore addictive.
The newer version is also more psychedelic in its approach, adding bizarre visual effects and sounds to the mix to amplify the sensory overload. Playing into that is a techno-inspired soundtrack, which coupled with the bright, neon explosions happening on screen, almost gives off the sensation of being at a nightclub.
A nightclub of dorks, but a nightclub just the same.
The end result is trance-like – and yes, I mean that both in its impact on the player as well as its musical stylings – leaving the person playing in a rare state of focus. Distractions go away, and you’re left with this one thing, demanding all of your attention and instincts to survive.
Other puzzle games have a tendency to do this, particularly falling block puzzlers like “Tetris,” but I think the effect here is intensified by Minter’s brand of crazy, which shouts random words at you to a house beat while colors flash around you.
“Speed Boost!”
“Zappo!”
“Eat Electric Death!”
“You’re a Saucy Minx!”
I think I made up that last one (I’m actually not sure), but you get the idea.
That noise and color make Tempest 2000 a better comparison for pinball machines, in my opinion, which demand a great deal of anticipation as well as reaction speed while featuring quite a lot of … you guessed it, noise and color.
And since this series of retro gaming essentials isn’t interested in including physical pinball machines in the countdown, nor can I reliably name a virtual pinball game that rises to that lofty status either,* I think we can add Tempest 2000’s similarity to pinball as another point in its favor. Hey, we love representation in this space.
* The closest possible video pinball candidates I can think of include the “Alien Crush” and “Devil’s Crush” duo on the Turbografx-16, which capture the experience of playing an actual table so much better than anything that had come before that point, and which are both pretty friggin’ awesome. But “Top 100” awesome? No, probably not.)
So what makes it worth playing today?
Hot take time:
The Atari Jaguar, all by its lonesome, doesn’t deserve much of a lasting legacy.
And honestly, I’m not sure the original Tempest does either. Its graphics and gameplay were certainly unique for the time, but the game is pretty barebones-feeling in comparison to its direct sequel (and maybe a touch too difficult too), and it’s probably not as influential a game as titles like Space Invaders, “Lunar Lander” or Asteroids.
But man, Minter was really onto something with Tempest 2000, which basically super-charged the original concept and gave the Jaguar one of its only true “killer apps.”*
* The game was eventually ported to other systems, but none received the same glowing critical reception that the original Jaguar version did, which leaves the game undeniably attached to the console on which it debuted.
It’s a really cool game. That isn’t nostalgia talking either, as I only was first able to give this game its proper paces once I’d started playing “Atari 50” a couple of years ago.
Certain titles from that collection grabbed me right away, though none did more to live up to the hype (and exceed it) than Tempest 2000.
Is it an important title? I don’t know that a person could really make that claim, though as an intersection title of Atari’s history, Minter’s life’s work, and as a case for Tempest being a unique early arcade game, it certainly does justify its own existence.
But this game is here not so much because of what it meant to the games industry historically, but more so because it just friggin’ rocked.
If you want a game to play that commands your undivided attention, and in so doing, removes the stress of the outside world in the process, it’s hard to come up with a better game than this one. Yes, there are other games that just as immersive, and Tempest 2000 is faster paced than a lot of other immersive games … and that takes a certain mindset going in. It’s not the game for every mood or any time. You can’t zone out and leave your controller untouched, or you will die.
But I think in the same way a good pinball table can keep you entertained whilst also being demanding, Tempest 2000 provides the same kind of experience.
Lock in and focus, or die like the Jaguar did.
Hey, I’m game. And anyone interested in retro games should be too.
Dave’s Score: 9/10
Check out the whole Retro Gaming Essentials list here!
How to play
- Atari Jaguar
- Various ports (MS-DOS, Macintosh, Sega Saturn and PlayStation)
- Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration (Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Steam, and Xbox One)