Definitive version of Tempest?

[jfe2]

I let my dad play my MAME'd Xbox recently and he fell in love with Tempest all over again. He used to play it in Germany in the early 80's when he was stationed there, and it really brought back some good memories for him. His only complaint about the MAME version was the lack of a spinner to control with.

I've decided to buy him Tempest for Christmas, but I figured I would ask around here to see what you guys think is the definitive version of the game. I'll splurge and buy him whatever console I have to, I just basically want to make sure that I can find a spinner controller for him as well. Any thoughts?

[Flak Beard]

For spinner control, is he referring to the 2600 paddles? That might be a good bet, getting him a 2600 with the original Tempest cart.

Also, I believe there is a Madcatz controller for 360 with a paddle on it. I'm not sure however if this works with the XBLA version of Tempest.

[jfe2]

He used to play an arcade cabinet, but I guess the 2600 paddle is probably similar to the arcade controls. Is the 2600 version a good port?

[t0yrobo]

You can buy spinner knobs for mame. That'd probably be your best bet for a nice weighty metal spinner like they had in arcades.

Found a link for you http://retroblast.arcadecontrols.com/re ... undup.html

[Limewater]

He used to play an arcade cabinet, but I guess the 2600 paddle is probably similar to the arcade controls. Is the 2600 version a good port?

No. It was never released and, apparently, only exists in the form of a crappy prototype.

[Hatta]

Spinners are freewheeling, paddles stop after a certain number of degrees. Also, the Atari 2600 version of Tempest exists only as a prototype, and by all accounts sucks. I think Tempest 2000 on the Jaguar is widely recognized as the best home version of Tempest, but there's no commercially available spinner controller for it.

There are instructions out there on how to hack an Atari 2600 driving controller (which is freewheeling) for use with Tempest 2000. But if you have to hack something together anyway, I think you're better off building your own for use with MAME. You can do it with parts from an old VCR and ball mouse.

[Flak Beard]

No. It was never released and, apparently, only exists in the form of a crappy prototype.

My bad. For some reason i thought there was a retail 2600 version of the game out there, but I guess I was mistaken.

[Hobie-wan]

Tempest 2000 to me is somehow better on the Jaguar than the PC and Saturn versions. I haven't Played Tempest X3 which is the PSX version. Unfortunately you won't get a spinner or crisp vectors with anything but an arcade, but I think T2K will fit the bill or perhaps the PSX version.

[noiseredux]

I can't help the OP, but this thread has me itching to track down the GBA version. Yeah!

[jfe2]

Thanks for the responses guys!

I actually remember hearing about a spinner add-on for the DS. I'm not sure if they released the actual game for the DS, or if he would even enjoy playing a portable version if they did.

One more question for anyone who may know... If I did build my own spinner controller for him with parts I bought online, would there be any easy way to get it to work on an original Xbox?