Tempest

A glowing geometric funnel that pulls you into the depths of the screen, and enemies clambering toward you from the depths of an abstract space. Tempest from 1981 is one of the boldest and most visually hypnotic titles Atari ever produced, and to this day it looks like a visitor from another dimension.

The game places you at the edge of a tube divided into segments, and your task is to move around its rim and shoot at enemies pushing upward from the depths straight toward you. When they reach the edge, they can kill you, so you must constantly circle, fire, and use a limited superweapon to sweep the whole screen. Each level has a differently shaped tube, from regular circles to strange irregular forms, which keeps the player in constant tension.

Behind Tempest stands the legendary designer Dave Theurer, who had previously created the game Missile Command as well. Tempest was one of the first games to use the color vector graphics of Atari's Color-QuadraScan system, thanks to which the lines glowed in rich colors. It was controlled with a rotary knob that allowed lightning-fast and smooth movement around the tube's rim. The game also offered the option to choose a starting level, which was an unusual concession to player freedom at the time.

Tempest's cultural significance transcends its era. Its aesthetic influenced whole generations of creators, and in 1994 it saw a grand rebirth in the form of the remake Tempest 2000 for the Atari Jaguar console, which is still considered one of the best games on that system and a small cult in its own right.

For today's player, Tempest is a kind of trance. The combination of abstract space, pulsating music, and rapid reflexive movement creates an experience that is in its own way both meditative and frenetic at once. It's a game that proves how far designers' daring could go at the start of the eighties.

Why play: For a visual and gameplay experience unlike any other arcade offers, and for the feeling of falling straight into the heart of neon geometry.