Question to Stainless Games Development -

 

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Hope you guys had a happy new year,

I was wondering if any Stainless development members reached the random levels
in Tempest in Evolved Normal Mode? I own the coin-op and never reached wave 97;
though I did managed to get to the mid invisible waves. The XBLA version of
Tempest seems over the top hard with a few fairness issues that compound
gameplay at the higher waves -  knowing if the Turmoil AP is possible or not
would benefit me greatly.

If the Turmoil AP is possible in your estimation, do you have tips, cheats or
other advise that can assist the very good XBLA Tempest players in gaining the
AP?

Thank in advance for your speedy reply! 

Virtua V

Answer - recieved 1/1/2008

 

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Well it's "possible", in that Atari's test department reached it with the help
of the extra lives cheat. I.e. it's *technically* possible.

It's also possible for a human being to reach those levels in Tempest as a few
select people were doing it, back in the 80s.

However that was with a proper spinner...

So, only time will tell whether anybody is good enough to make it. What we've
tried to do with the Atari classic games is to have one achievement per game
which means "You're a ninja at this game!", as that accurately reflects the
competitiveness that pervaded the amusement arcades back then.

So for instance, with Battlezone, it's going to be "Score 1,500,000 points". I
know that one's possible, as my high score when playing it at university in 1982
was 1,710,000 :-)

(But I was totally *** at Tempest...)

Likewise the Asteroids "Clock-stopper" achievement is difficult, but we know
it's obtainable as I knew 4 or 5 people who used to post that "highest possible
score" on arcade machines with relative ease.

So anyway, in conclusion, the Turmoul achivement is certainly possible, just
*very* difficult.

Patrick Buckland

patrick@stainlessgames.com
CEO
Stainless Games Ltd

Well it's "possible", in that Atari's test department reached it with the help
of the extra lives cheat. I.e. it's *technically* possible.

BTW: I inquired about the extra lives and a level select cheat availabliity. I was told theses were disabled in the production release of Tempest XBLA.

I'm afraid there aren't any cheats in the release version of Tempest. Some
of the screen shots may have been taken from pre-release development versions of the game which did have such cheats (one of which gave you six lives).

Patrick Buckland
CEO 
Stainless Games Ltd

 OnaBeamOfL1ght wrote:

Thank you VV for posting this.  I was wondering if you could provide the email address you sent your email to.

This is the original email address I used corporate@stainlessgames.com

I've corresponded with Patrick (Stainless Games CEO) after my initial email - through his replies. His email is patrick@stainlessgames.com

I hope you can pass along any useful/useless information you might receive from the Stainless guys on this topic.

In addition, Patrick also had this to say about the Turmoil AP....

Virtua V wrote

Thanks... I really don't think the Turmoil AP is possible with this
configuration. Even on easy, I've only been to wave 54 - classic mode. I'll keep trying, but without cheats or other unknown game tactics this evolved AP will most likely never be obtained.

Patrick Buckland replied

It's certainly way beyond my ability.
 
But the one thing I've learned in this business is to never underestimate the
abilities of your customers out there. Some of them must be augmented by alien technology if you ask me!
 
Did you ever see the video footage of the guy playing Raiden (I think, or one of  the other vertically scrolling shooters)? He was playing it two player, with one hand playing each joystick and using the heels of this hands to fire. Doing this he was dodging all bullets with BOTH ships simultaneously and just waltzing through the game from start to finish like he was strolling in the park.
Incredible.

I think that since like 15 people finished Missile Command and 50 completed centipede and millipede that they made the achievements to easy.  On Asteroids they just had to make the 250k achievement.  the 99990 one has actually been achieved at least and there are 10 or more that have the ability to achieve it.  The 250k is never going to happen considering the highest score right now is 68k.  I'm not sure if I can deal with another tough Atari game.  I'll probably end up getting this though.

The 250k is never going to happen considering the highest score right now is 68k.

Is that a challenge? LOL, I just may try and get that 250k!

You would be a true Asteroids Deluxe god if you can get that score.  I think it's pretty far out of reach though.  I think a years practice and you might barely be able to break 100k.

Also, why don't you get the throttle monkey achievements and join the elite 150 club of like 4 people :).