Search
Categories
Site Information
News
NaN -Infinity

Tempest - Atari 5200

Tempest - Atari 5200

$35.00
$35.00
Sale Sold out
Shipping calculated at checkout.
View full details

The hit Atari coin-op finally comes home in this exciting and challenging 3-D game for your Atari 5200 System. You control the "Blaster", patrolling the rim of an electric "tube" playfield, in a constant battle with the myriad enemies that are making their way up the tube's rails.

Your enemies are fast, varied and devious. Each class of enemy has its own special attack. All you have are your wits, your Blaster and your devastating, but limited, SUPER ZAPPER. Destroy every enemy and you will warp through the liberated tube, on to an even more challenging one.

Tempest was Atari's first color vector arcade game, released to arcades in 1980. Known for its frantic, addictive gameplay, Tempest was one of Atari's most successful vector arcade games. Versions of Tempest were being developed for Atari's 5200 and 5200 game consoles, but they were never completed or released commercially. A box for the 5200 version of Tempest is actually visible in the 1984 movie Cloak & Dagger.

For 15 years, the existence of an Atari 5200 version of Tempest was thought to be only myth. No prototypes had ever surfaced. A crude 5200 version had come to light, along with a prototype box. Then, in 1999, an unfinished working 5200 prototype appeared on eBay. The game was eventually dumped and the binary freely distributed around the Internet. Another decade has gone by since the game's discovery, and the original Atari 5200 Tempest programmer, Keithen Hayenga, worked to complete Tempest so it could finally see the light of day in completed form!

You can read about the "unfinished" 5200 prototype on AtariProtos.com.

Additional Information

Tempest 5200 includes the game cartridge with glossy label, and twelve page, full-color, glossy manual.

Number of Players 1
Controller Atari 5200 Joystick Controller or Atari 5200 Trak-Ball Controller
Cartridge Size 32K
Programming Keithen Hayenga
Additional Programming Ken Van Mersbergen, Dennis Debro
Graphics Michael Kosaka
Manual and Label Design George Reese, David Exton

Customer Reviews

Based on 18 reviews
94%
(17)
6%
(1)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
R
Ronald

Brand new condition
Great price packaging good.

P
Peter S.
Review

If you own a 5200, you owe it to yourself to buy this game. If you also own a trakball, then why aren't you hitting the checkout right now? THIS is what retro gaming is all about. Fast action, early eighties arcade sounds, great graphics, tight control. This title has it all.

J
Jeremy H.
Review

Why haven't I reviewed this already? If Tempest 2000 is the console-defining game to get for the Atari Jaguar, then Tempest is the game to get for your 5200. Keithen Hayenga knocked this sucker out of the park. It's sad that he didn't get to complete it back in 1984 but it's so awesome that he returned and finished it years later. And the game is simply fantastic on the CX53 Trak-Ball Controller. Hell, the game holds up to the arcade original and I can say that because I'm one of the few that's played it with the arcade spinner wired up to a CX53 courtesy of Dan Kramer himself at the last Davis Atari Party that was held. Get this game!

E
Edladdin
Review

Great port with the Trak-Ball. Love it!

R
Rob A.
Review

Just a quick update, since last review I acquired a tracball and what a amazing difference! Brings game to a whole new level, the way it should be played.

R
Rob A.
Review

Game is amazing! Love it, great work! Seems alot harder than I remember!

J
James C.
Review

What a game, one of my favorites! This and Star Castle.

R
Robert M.
Review

One of my favorite arcade games gets a spot-on, banging port for my favorite Atari console! Tempest looks great, plays great, and sounds great on the 5200, and it makes me wonder why Atari had to shelve what was an excellent port. if this came out back in the 80s, it would've been a killer game for the system!

R
River R.
Review

Man'o'man. . . do I remember poppin' a lot of quarters into this baby at the Dream Machine arcade in Lexingtion, KY; they had 3 of these machines there, and they were usually all occupied. How Atari never made this a priority for their arcade-library for the 5200 is beyond me.

Color and graphics are stellar; but I haven't played it much, basically because player-movement with the CX52 controller is incredibly twitchy. Other reviews indicate it's optimized for the CX53 track-ball; I have 2, but neither work presently. So I guess I'm going to be busy trying to fix those rascals. . . heh.

I suppose I would recommend that Tempest support both the CX52 and the CX53 amply, as was typical with standard titles like Centipede and Missile Command. The whole idea behind the CX52 was to rid oneself of a tangled mess of game-specific controllers.

Still, 5 well-deserved stars! Thank you!

R
Ron L.
Review

This is a cherished gem in my 5200 collection, I got it boxed. Very interesting that this is the finished version started and completed by the original Atari programmer Keithen, along with newer help from some AA members.

I hope you have a Trak-ball controller if you get this, because its so cool trying this out, and we just don't get Trak-ball games anymore.

For control, I actually pefer the stock CX52. The Trak-ball is fun, but wears me out. :) I remember reading that the developers reworked the control logic to make it more accurate and auto-sync to each unique system setup/pokey calibration. Once they did that, the control became very good in this final version, but the analog can be sensitive until you adjust!

With the stick, you can crawl along slowly or fast once you acclimate to the sensitivity of it. Stop yanking it left and right just barely apply pressure in the direction.

I can't believe how faithful this game is to the coin-op original. It's difficult (just like Atari's original)!

12