Minter / TxK / T2K / and stuff

[Lost Dragon]

Quote from another Ye Olde Days interview with Jeff Minter, who'd then, just started working on the ST, but it's another example of how, sometimes he really his words might just come back to 'haunt' him in the later years:

 

'Take Xenon...a beautiful piece of work, but why does'nt the programmer responsible apply his obviousily substantial talents to creating something different and more original?'.

 

Jeff went onto do:Defender 2 (ST) Defender 2000 (Jaguar) and various versions of Defender inc on both...Tempest 2000, 3000, Space G. and TxK etc etc.

 

 

:-)

[Clint Thompson]

I only owned a Nuon for a very short period of time and even then only played T3K a small handful. Got to play it again for the first time in what, some 5+ years? Good lord how incredibily difficult this one is... maybe I didn't notice it so much back then but playing T2k a few weeks ago and this the 3k version, that Nuon chip really takes a beating doesn't it!?

[Lost Dragon]

Jeff Minter was asked back in the summer of '92 IF he had any plans to do something more ambitious, ie a 3D Flight/fight sim or something like that and he replied he would'nt mind doing a 3D game, but he'd do it differently from the normal way, perhaps using sprites instead of vectors as games should'nt be sold purely on the strength of their 3D effects.

[GroovyBee]

I saw Jeff Minter being interviewed while TxK was being demoed on a projector connected to an Oculus Rift headset at Play Expo today :-

 

 

Two things :-

- The good news is that the game looks damn good. Its a shame the lights couldn't have been dimmed for the presentation.

- The even better news is that he announced that the relationship with Atari has thawed and a release could now be possible.

[ovalbugmann]

I saw Jeff Minter being interviewed while TxK was being demoed on a projector connected to an Oculus Rift headset at Play Expo today :-

 

Jeff_Minter_TxK_Oculus_Rift_10_10_15_Play_Expo.png

 

Two things :-

- The good news is that the game looks damn good. Its a shame the lights couldn't have been dimmed for the presentation.

- The even better news is that he announced that the relationship with Atari has thawed and a release could now be possible.

That's great news, I've been debating to get a PS Vita to be able to play TxK, I'm glad Atari is finally coming around to be open to release TxK on other platforms! I hope its possible - would like to see the pc version as i have a nice wireless analog/digital controller for it. That would be awesome, because TxK could be his final game in this series. (fingers crossed!!!)

 

Thank you for considering this Atari!!!! Please release TxK on PC!!!!!

Edited October 10, 2015 by ovalbugmann

[ggn]

- The even better news is that he announced that the relationship with Atari has thawed and a release could now be possible.

 

Please let this happen .

[ovalbugmann]

Actually that Jagpad to PC adaptor that Saturn told us about would be great for TxK, maybe even could use a Jaguar controller spinner!

 

*******Somebody should tell Jeff about this Jagpad to PC adaptor, that came out recently, should a PC version of TxK be released so he could make sure its in the controllers code and then we could use all the various Tempest 2000 spinners that are around!!!*******

 

Whoo! Hoo! that would be dynamite, it would be like having a Jaguar 2 or 3 or Jaguar PC with "Tempest 10,000" and also the Alien vs. Predator PC games. I couldn't get the original AvP for PC to work on my WinXP system but AvP2 for PC works on WinXP and Win7 for me.

Edited October 11, 2015 by ovalbugmann

[PeterG]

 

Still there and works on Vita TV/PlayStation TV.

Finally snapped up a Playstation TV for around 30€, bit the bullet and bought a playstation controller since I do not have any other sony console and now guess what. It constantly gives me network errors when I try to buy TxK...ahhhhh! :-)

And then there is something else. Do I really need to buy a PS vita save card as well? This starts getting more expensive than I wanted for that one game... On the page it says that the game needs a memory card, is it true?

Anyway hoped to be able to give the game a spin today but not such luck as it seems. (And even less if I also need to get that memory card first... :-/)

[PeterG]

So all around something like 100 Euro and a few annoyances just to play TxK in a few days. The game better be good:)

[sh3-rg]

Finally snapped up a Playstation TV for around 30€, bit the bullet and bought a playstation controller since I do not have any other sony console and now guess what. It constantly gives me network errors when I try to buy TxK...ahhhhh! :-)

And then there is something else. Do I really need to buy a PS vita save card as well? This starts getting more expensive than I wanted for that one game... On the page it says that the game needs a memory card, is it true?

Anyway hoped to be able to give the game a spin today but not such luck as it seems. (And even less if I also need to get that memory card first... :-/)

 

Wow, unlucky timing, PSN was hardly down at all over xmas but today it went down big time (around 4 hours ago or so).

 

Did you buy a ds4 pad or ds3? ds4 is much nicer, but quite a bit more expensive (more than your pstv I'd imagine).

 

There were some places selling VitaTV for $10-ish recently, Euro15, and 8gb memory cards were being snagged for £9 (which probably still seems expensive if you're not used to vita memory card prices, but it's as good as it gets for now until the real fire sales begin). Here is where I usually spot decent game bargains: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=894608and her: http://savygamer.co.uk/

 

Can't help you with the memory card question, never tried to use one without a card :/

[Bill Loguidice]

It's effectively a Vita without the portability, so yes, you need a memory card of any size for it to work since it has effectively no internal storage. Get at least 8GB, but obviously bigger is much better.

 

By the way, I set up my Vita TV (got a dirt cheap bundle with PS3 controller, 8GB memory card, and Lego Movie game a few months back) over the break to make sure I had it working. It was a pain to set up and looked rather ugly with the blown up Vita interface (keeping in mind I really like my original Vita itself). It's back in the box now and I don't know if I'll bother taking it back out. I was mostly interested in using it to stream PS4 games on another TV, but I was not exactly thrilled with the performance.

[PeterG]

Thanks for the replies guys. I got a PS4 controller, as expensive as it was, it only cost me 5 Euro more than the ps3 controller they offered so I thought why not. A friend of mine has a ps4 and only one controller so it might come in handy there as well. Also I wanted to check out if I can use it for my PC as well since the controller I have is atrocious.

I bought a used memory card from eBay, that should do the trick for txk other than that I don't see myself playing the pstv very much. I agree with Bill that the blown up screen does not look very nice, it is already noticeable in the menues. I hope that won't matter once I'm blasting away things coming at me through the tube.

[atarian63]

I loved Tempest 2000 but I absolutely hate Space Giraffe. Personally, I think it's the worst because I can't see what the hell is going on. He went "full retard" with it.

 

Space Giraffe is worse than E.T.

I liked it

[PeterG]

Sooooo. First of all you don't need a memory card for TxK. Finally was able to download it and it is only around 100 MB and installs flawlessly on the internal memory so I don't know why they want you to have a memory card for it.

But anyway it works and it is great, played straight to level 31 and although at first I thought that it would move to slow, and I didn't like the music very much and thought that some of the graphics are a bit too cartoony (Powerup, Ox Heads) it already grew on me. So I started to dig the music and the graphics grew on me and I must say that it looks excellent. Much better than I feared yesterday considering what I saw from the menues. And if you ever played T2K you are immideatly in it again. Thing is that I somehow feel this is how T3K was supposed to look if it wasn't for the blurry images.

Two more observations. I kinda miss the over the top graphics from Space Giraffe and I also found myself trying to bull the enemies from the edge. Given that most don't instantly kill you and you have the abbility to shoot them still on the edge first made it a bit hard for me to know exactly what works and what not at first. But I am already happy that I got that game. It will have a good place between all the other Tempest Variations I have. :-)

 

One question though. What am I supposed to do between levels. Is there a function that did not translate from the vita? I don't quite get what I am supposed to do while flying through the rings.

Oh and another thing, the best bonus round is still in the Jaguar Version. I always thought that the river bonus level looked the most beautiful there. But the new version ain't bad at all either. :-)

[+CyranoJ]

One question though. What am I supposed to do between levels. Is there a function that did not translate from the vita?

 

You tilt the vita to guide between the checkpoints, much like t2k. Try tilting your TV

[sh3-rg]

I kind of remember there being something I didn't like about the tilting stuff, probably because I always played lying in bed and not upright... you could use the controls as well but it kind of depended where you had it tilted when it began? I really can't remember, my son has the Vita now and I've not discovered which pile of dust the vitatv is buried beneath for some time.

[PeterG]

But still. I can move the "thing :-)" with the analog pad but the idea is to have it fly through the hoops which is exactly what it does if I don't touch anything. What was the tilting doing then? Would it start move in a different directions and you would need to correct its course via the analog stick?

[Major Havoc 2049]

Yes. If you don't keep the Vita still right before the bonus level, you will start out at the edge rings and only get 250-500 points per ring, instead of 750-1000 points. The more perfect rings you get also effects the power-up upgrade you get at the begining of the next level, if you got a power-up as you were sliding down the tube to go to a new level.

Edited January 8, 2016 by Major Havoc 2049

[Agent X]

But still. I can move the "thing :-)" with the analog pad but the idea is to have it fly through the hoops which is exactly what it does if I don't touch anything. What was the tilting doing then? Would it start move in a different directions and you would need to correct its course via the analog stick?

 

That's basically what would happen. Major Havoc 2049 explained it pretty well above. That's one difference between playing the game on a PlayStation TV as opposed to playing on the PS Vita--the tilting functionality isn't replicated on the PSTV. As a result, the bonus rounds become significantly easier to play on the PSTV.

[Flojomojo]

I sure do miss the days of a few years ago, when we would see a new arcade-style Llamasoft game every few months on iOS. Anyone know what Minter is up to nowadays? I know he's done with anything Apple (no money in it for him), and that Atari doesn't approve of unlicensed Tempest style games, even though they're not doing anything nearly as neat as TxK.

[sh3-rg]

Hopefully earning money and not working his arse off for little return as he was a few years ago.

 

Follow his twitter, he always has info there between curry house visits and sheep fettling.

[skip]

He's working on 'something' that will work with VR headsets but also without them. No details yet. No systems announced but I suspect PC and PS4. He's soliciting musicians at the moment, so I suspect it's fairly far along. I reckon we'll know within the next month or two.

[PeterG]

I've been to a video game evening at a local place and took my Jaguar with me as well as the PlayStation TV with TxK and people were pretty impressed with both TxK and Tempest 2K. The other games that were really enjoyed were Raiden, Expressway and International Karate. Got a lot of great feedback on the Jaguar.

 

Oh and I beat TxK a few days ago. It's interesting with the Tempest games. I wouldn't say that I'm very good at it but it has just the right balance. If you keep at it and understand what it may take to get through a certain level, you pass.

[+Stephen]

I've been to a video game evening at a local place and took my Jaguar with me as well as the PlayStation TV with TxK and people were pretty impressed with both TxK and Tempest 2K. The other games that were really enjoyed were Raiden, Expressway and International Karate. Got a lot of great feedback on the Jaguar.

 

Oh and I beat TxK a few days ago. It's interesting with the Tempest games. I wouldn't say that I'm very good at it but it has just the right balance. If you keep at it and understand what it may take to get through a certain level, you pass.

Only Minter game I have beaten was Space Giraffe. Honestly, I found it very easy compared to Tempest 2000, Tempest 3000, and TxK. I haven't played the latter in a long time - I'll pretty much have to start over.

[PeterG]

I beat all of them, actually you just have to stay with it. There are some really hard levels in between, but nothing is impossible. I remember in Space Giraffe at one point there is a level that is so blurry that you don't even know what is going on anymore (I know a lot of people would say that applies to the whole game:)) but once you realise that you have to react more to the sound clues, you are in the Zone and you can pass that too. I think t2k has level 64 and txk level 38 that seem really hard but at the end of the day none if it is impossible. I was pretty amazed how these games allow you to get through in time. For example I never did beat Raiden and I would never have beaten Rtype if it wasn't for the endless mode on the 360.(sure different genre, but I do not assume that all games are beatable for everyone) But the tempest games let you do that, even if it takes a bit of time