All over the internet you'll find the cheat codes for Tempest. It's been a while since I used to do this in the arcade (circa 1984) and although there are loads of sites telling you how to use various codes to achieve strange effects on Tempest I could not replicate what I did in the aracde on either of the last two Atari Tempest cabinets I owned.
My current Cabaret has just been repaired by Andy Welburn (thanks Andy) and I powered it up last night and had a few games. It's been a while since I played so I was a bit rusty but I tried the cheat out with a couple of different settings.
My memory of this was a little hazy but in 1984 we would put in 50p for three games, play the first game to a certain level, start the second game at a certain level to get the score up and then end the game with a correct two digit code on the end of the score. The third game we played we could start on any level and the hardest level would give us a massive bonus, and the high score.
Here's how to do it:
1. You must have the Revision 1 ROMs in your machine.
2. You must have your machine set to coins and not on free-play.
3. Start a game and play until you successfully clear the red V stage. Die.
4. Start a new game on the red V level and complete the stage to get a bonus taking your score to more than 160,000.
4. As soon as you get the bonus from clearing the red V level get the last two digits of your score to 46 (by shooting spikes). Die.
5. Wait! Wait for one cycle of the machine's attract mode - high score initials, TEMPEST attract, game demonstration, high score table.
6. Start a new game, spin the spinner to the right all the way up to level 1 of the green stages.
7. Complete the stage for a bonus of 898,000.
Da dah!
This was originally published in Computer & Video Games magazine I think. My mate showed me in 1984, the internet told me it was possible, and last night I finally managed it again.
Charlie
My current Cabaret has just been repaired by Andy Welburn (thanks Andy) and I powered it up last night and had a few games. It's been a while since I played so I was a bit rusty but I tried the cheat out with a couple of different settings.
My memory of this was a little hazy but in 1984 we would put in 50p for three games, play the first game to a certain level, start the second game at a certain level to get the score up and then end the game with a correct two digit code on the end of the score. The third game we played we could start on any level and the hardest level would give us a massive bonus, and the high score.
Here's how to do it:
1. You must have the Revision 1 ROMs in your machine.
2. You must have your machine set to coins and not on free-play.
3. Start a game and play until you successfully clear the red V stage. Die.
4. Start a new game on the red V level and complete the stage to get a bonus taking your score to more than 160,000.
4. As soon as you get the bonus from clearing the red V level get the last two digits of your score to 46 (by shooting spikes). Die.
5. Wait! Wait for one cycle of the machine's attract mode - high score initials, TEMPEST attract, game demonstration, high score table.
6. Start a new game, spin the spinner to the right all the way up to level 1 of the green stages.
7. Complete the stage for a bonus of 898,000.
Da dah!
This was originally published in Computer & Video Games magazine I think. My mate showed me in 1984, the internet told me it was possible, and last night I finally managed it again.
Charlie