116 EEDG148.makingDG148.making 111616 33/3/05/3/05 55:11:41:11:41 ppmm THE MAKING OF… THE MAKING OF… TEMPEST 2000 Discover why Tom and Jerry had such an influence on one of the most cherished shooters ever ORIGINAL FORMAT: JAGUAR PUBLISHER: ATARI DEVELOPER: LLAMASOFT ORIGIN: UK RELEASE: 1994 nforgivably labelled a curio U by some, Tempest 2000 is often cherished for the wrong reason – namely that it’s one of the few decent Atari Jaguar titles. To own the game is a kind of badge of honour among archivists, but how many have bought the game only to tuck it away until it realises higher prices in the future? Played in its day, Tempest 2000 was a prismatic whirligig of sound, colour and kinetic destruction. Played now, it Tempest 2000 was a prismatic whirligig of sound, colour and kinetic destruction. Played now, it has lost none of its mesmeric charms has lost none of its mesmeric charms or raw spirit. Indie coder Jeff Minter was given the task of converting Dave Thuerer’s 1981 arcade classic to Atari’s new console. With the benefit of hindsight it was a perfect match, but the original deal was struck in a ludicrously casual manner. “I’d been doing some work for Atari UK,” explains Minter, “stuff like Defender II and Atomic Tadpoles Vs Savage Mutant Weirdos From Basingstoke [released as Photon Storm], and I’d already done a couple of months’ work on the Panther system that never got released. Anyway, Atari held a devcon to introduce the Jaguar system in one of those hotels near Heathrow Airport and 117 EEDG148.makingDG148.making 111717 33/3/05/3/05 55:11:42:11:42 ppmm crawled nightmare creatures. Minter’s interpretation was no less surreal. It’s tempting to get carried away, go overly psychoanalytical, but there’s no question Tempest appeals to a primal part in all of us: the need to protect and defend. Other games introduced similar themes, but Tempest 2000, with its beguiling geometry and cacophonous sound effects, went deeper, sketching out the inner turmoil of a psyche under attack from an unremitting, uncaring force. Moving from the stark vectors during the course of the devcon and fearful in their own way as of the original to Gouraud-shaded A DAY IN THE LIFE we were all told about the Jaggy the Fuseballs and Pulsars were polygons was the biggest During the development of Tempest and shown some demos, most in the original game,” says Minter. challenge, but Minter found Atari’s 2000, Minter would typically wake notably the rotating cube with a “Pulsars in particular make you new console surprisingly versatile. up in the morning, smoke cigarettes, drink tea (at least two jaguar on. In due course they change the way you play the “The Jag hardware was cool to cups), read the newspaper, then announced a list of titles to which game when they appear – you can work with – you had the 68K, of feed his sheep before sitting down they owned the rights and for no longer just run around the rim course, but much of the interesting at his workstation. Coding would usually go on until 10pm, when he which they were looking for of the web with impunity, you coding was done on the two RISC would embark to the local pub. In people to convert. Tempest came have to time your motions and coprocessors, Tom and Jerry,” he the latter stages, however, the up and I stuck my hand up and said attacks. The idea with Mirrors and recalls. “Most of my work was on routine altered somewhat to allow for an unusual QA process: “The I’d like to do it. I’d never done any Demon Heads was to break up the Tom, Jerry being the domain of the daughter of the landlord of the pub 3D at that point and never so flow of play in a similar way – with audio programmers. You also had used to frequently visit in the much as touched a polygon.” Mirrors around you couldn’t just a versatile blitter that you could afternoons. At first for SNES Street Fighter II sessions – she was Chun-Li Minter’s working relationship ‘fire and forget’, you had to nip coax into doing interesting stuff. and I was Blanka – and as things with Atari was a joyful one as he progressed with Tempest, as an was given free reign over the unofficial gameplay tester. Her It’s tempting to get carried away, go overly sister had done pretty much the creative content and mechanics same thing during the development of the game, only nudged in psychoanalytical, but there’s no question of Llamatron.” certain directions when he “got Tempest appeals to a primal part in all of us too crazy with the pixel-shattering bonuses.” Tempest 2000’s balance smartly out of the way to avoid One of the hardware designers was exquisite, with a novel save the reflection of your own shots. later told me off for running the key feature allowing players to And the Demon Heads would chip ‘backwards’. I used address get stuck in to the later levels throw their horns at you, and the generators meant for traversing without having to go through horns couldn’t be destroyed, so textures internally for texture the whole game again. you had to shoot, avoid horn, mapping for writing to the screen Maintaining the integrity of the shoot again, avoid horn, then instead – in order to create the original was paramount, and shoot once more to kill. I wanted shattering of bitmaps used a lot in though a ‘traditional’ version was to introduce things that would the game. It was a more complex selectable from the main menu it force players to change their beast than I’d programmed before was the addition of new enemies playing style as the levels evolved.” and I enjoyed getting to grips with that brought a freshness and it, and also enjoyed the variety to the experience. Visually, Tempest 2000 was opportunity to learn some very “I wanted enemies as distinctive a bewitching kaleidoscope of shapes, colours and hardware effects. Webs would whirl out of space in vermilion and blue, and soon swarmed with strange malignant enemies: Spikers, Fuseballs, Pulsars, Flippers, Tankers. Theurer once said of his creation that it came to him in a dream, a dark hole out of which 118 EEDG148.makingDG148.making 110411804118 33/3/05/3/05 55:11:43:11:43 ppmm THE MAKING OF… Some of the more trippy feedback effects were created when Minter fed an entire previous frame into his own sprite scale-and-rotate code. It was christened Melt-O-Vision, but the sluggishness meant that it could only be used effectively on the game over and menu screens basic 3D skills and how to draw A great deal of Tempest 2000’s polygons from first principles. Even charm – and it’s here where the today it still feels a bit like cheating game differed most obviously to the way you simply ask for a the original – was down to the textured triangle and, lo and warp bonus rounds. Replacing the behold, it appears.” pumping techno and screeching Minter’s penchant for death throes of Spikers with psychedelic visuals and trippy audio chilled-out tunes was a stroke of had already been established with genius adding contrast to a game games like Attack Of The Mutant that might otherwise have Camels, but Tempest 2000 took it overloaded the senses. These further: “The audio guys were tranquil breathers were simply great. All I did was send reminiscent of Stanley Kubrick’s them a videotape of me playing spellbinding infinity effects from T2K with the kind of music that I 2001: A Space Odyssey, albeit enjoyed playing the game to. A interpreted for a console, and fair bit came from a compilation of could only be accessed by collecting game failing to reach a wider industrial/techno stuff called Below three warp power-ups. The warp audience (his Nuon version, San Onofre that one of the guys at bonus rounds also gave players the Tempest 3000, would later suffer a Atari had given me because his opportunity to bag up to 20,000 similar fate) but is delighted that band featured on it. The bands had points and jump five levels ahead. the Project Tempest emulator names like Sweat Engine and Tit It’s hard to imagine the game (http://pt.emuunlim.com/) is Wrench, and a few weeks later getting anything but praise from keeping the game alive for those they came up with those awesome both publisher and public alike, but who don’t have space for another tunes. At first they sent me an Tempest 2000 wasn’t always old console in their collection. audio tape and I remember considered the jewel in the Jaguar’s Yes, curio is a demeaning listening to it in my kitchen and crown. “I was gobsmacked at its label for a game that can still thinking that the demo tunes popularity because I’d had a knock- hold its own next to any modern they’d sent must have been made back at the Jaguar launch in New shooter. But as a paean to an on proper synths and that the York,” remembers Minter. “During extinct arcade era and a gift to tunes on the Jag wouldn’t sound a drunken talk with one of the rapid-fire enthusiasts everywhere, nearly as good. But then they sent Jaguar designers he’d been quite Minter believes there may be life me the audio code and I dropped it scathing about the then-unfinished in the series yet.