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Tempest 2000 - Full Live Playthrough


Austin

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Hey folks, I don't normally post this sort of thing here, but I thought it would be cool to share. I managed a full one credit clear of the Jaguar Tempest 2000 on stream last night. I was trying to unlock Beastly Mode on my Game Drive and was half expecting to have to use checkpoints to achieve that, but I ended up rolling through the whole thing without a Game Over. I intentionally failed the bonus stages as well to see if I could push my score higher, and as such I played all 99 levels straight through. From what I can tell, this is the only full playthrough on YouTube with all 99 levels, and the only full run on original hardware (the other one was running in an emulator, smoothing out the framerate). Hopefully it's a fun watch for people that want to see the entire game (literally!).

 

I did try Beastly Mode afterwards (not in the clip below), and as expected I completely bombed out on Level 64. :lolblue:

 

Link: https://youtu.be/UzYkE0xbpVc

 

 

Edited by Austin
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19 minutes ago, Goochman said:

I got past lvl 64 once(after alot of tries) but didnt make it past the next level to get the save code or whatever.  I was pissed and havent returned since :) - its still a great game, Ill start working on it with my GD here soon enough.

Level 64 is absolutely brutal. It has a reputation for a reason, haha!

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4 hours ago, Cafeman said:

Very cool, I'll have to watch some of this, I play the Saturn version but I've never reached level 99 or got close to it,   I wasn't aware of that channel on YT. 

Yeah, it's a side channel I have for my Twitch archives. I don't post everything there, but if something interesting happens (like this T2K run) then I'll drop it over there. Now that I've done a full run successfully, I'll probably try one or two in a live stream on my main channel. We'll see.

 

Saturn version is a great way to play the game, it's nice and smooth. I forgot how choppy the Jag version can get. Still love it, but there are some stages where the framerate got so bad I pretty much had to simply move from one side of the web to the other because there was zero room for precision. :lol:

2 hours ago, KidGameR186496 said:

Mad props to 'ya Austin :)

Thanks man!

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32 minutes ago, Austin said:

Saturn version is a great way to play the game, it's nice and smooth. I forgot how choppy the Jag version can get. Still love it, but there are some stages where the framerate got so bad I pretty much had to simply move from one side of the web to the other because there was zero room for precision. :lol:

Yes, I played the Saturn version 1st and loved it.  Around 2001 I went to a Philly Classic show and I actually got the high score on a contest with Jaguar Tempest 2000, so I won a free Jaguar. Once I got it mailed to my house I popped in Tempest 2000... and I was kind of disappointed because the frame rate was so choppy at times. Still fun though!

 

Anyway, I just watched the second half of that play session on YouTube. I have to admit I never got far enough in the Saturn version to see some of those enemies, it made me wonder if all these enemies are in the Saturn version. Unfortunately my Saturn seems to have died recently so I won't be able to try it out anytime soon.

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13 minutes ago, Cafeman said:

Yes, I played the Saturn version 1st and loved it.  Around 2001 I went to a Philly Classic show and I actually got the high score on a contest with Jaguar Tempest 2000, so I won a free Jaguar. Once I got it mailed to my house I popped in Tempest 2000... and I was kind of disappointed because the frame rate was so choppy at times. Still fun though!

 

Anyway, I just watched the second half of that play session on YouTube. I have to admit I never got far enough in the Saturn version to see some of those enemies, it made me wonder if all these enemies are in the Saturn version. Unfortunately my Saturn seems to have died recently so I won't be able to try it out anytime soon.

 

I'll be sure to fire up the Saturn version soon to see. I'd be willing to bet those enemies are still there, but I'm also up for a surprise!

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I'm gonna have to give this a watch. I've never understood how people could get so far in this game. I think the most I was ever able to get was close to 1,000,000, but it's hard to remember since I haven't played so long. 

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4 hours ago, Sauron said:

I'm gonna have to give this a watch. I've never understood how people could get so far in this game. I think the most I was ever able to get was close to 1,000,000, but it's hard to remember since I haven't played so long. 

I think the biggest thing is having restraint and playing smart. If you are constantly waggling the claw all over the place irregardless of what the enemies are doing, you are going to die fast (and constantly). The later webs are very difficult as well. They really require you to formulate strategies to get the jump power-up ASAP.

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On 1/20/2021 at 3:02 PM, Cafeman said:

Anyway, I just watched the second half of that play session on YouTube. I have to admit I never got far enough in the Saturn version to see some of those enemies, it made me wonder if all these enemies are in the Saturn version. Unfortunately my Saturn seems to have died recently so I won't be able to try it out anytime soon.

I made it a point to work my way through the Saturn version today. Regarding the enemies, they're all there except the rainbow spikes. Green spikes in the Jaguar version can be mowed down quickly, while the rainbow ones take a long time to deal with. Green spikes in the Saturn version act like the rainbow ones in the Jag game, and since every spike is a green spike now, it makes certain webs much more difficult to deal with since you can't shoot any enemies until they move up past the spikes.

 

You're already familiar with some of these differences, but I'll list out what I noticed for anyone else curious:

 

- Framerate is mostly 60fps. It's very nice and honestly kind of impressive. It was uncommon for 3D games of this era to even be a solid 30.

- Despite the nice framerate, the controls aren't as snappy as the Jaguar version. I found myself over and under-shooting my movement for the entire run. There's a slight delay/lag when you start moving. The Saturn version runs nicer, but the Jaguar version ironically just feels better.

- New transparancy effects are all over the place, some being obvious (like the message text and the wavy pattern in the first bonus stage).

- Enemies at the bottom of the well seem to appear darker than they are up top, making it more difficult to see what is going to spawn in.

- Some sound effects are ear-piercing compared to on the Jaguar.

- There's the obvious use of the official CD soundtrack tunes, but I noticed after a track would finish, it would play a track from the next set of webs instead of looping the current one it's supposed to. I was playing via an ODE so I'm not sure if it's an issue with that, but other games I have don't exhibit that issue, so it's probably just a quirk with this version of T2K.

- Sound effects constantly get completely cancelled out by your firepower, especially when you have the Particle Laser. This makes using audio cues for dodging and attacking enemies like the yellow Pulsars extremely difficult. This was probably the most aggravating thing for me because I rely on the audio cues for those enemies in particular.

- I had some glitches where I was "caught" by an enemy from multiple web spaces away (a clear, large gap between me and the enemy that caught me). There were other times where I landed on something, died, but had no idea what actually killed me. I don't know if the game glitches, or if it's a result of some of the subtle transparent effects and lighting differences causing me to have a harder time seeing what's going on. I'm not sure.

- The Fuseballs (rainbow spark-like enemies) are extra difficult to hit in this version, and more difficult to see. When they get to the top of the web, I had many cases where I could not destroy them, period. It's like their collision detection was completely busted and they were invincible. There was a time where there were four at the top of the web which made the level much more difficult to navigate. Jumping and shooting them at that point did nothing. They are generally hard to successfully hit in the Jaguar version, but they are always shootable.

- The white balloon-like enemies actually reflect your shots in this version. When hit in the Jaguar version, they shoot these red/orange projectiles back at you. It makes it easy to see what's happening. In the Saturn version, it's very difficult to see the reflected shot because you'll be firing with the Particle Laser more often than not. The reflected shots just blend in with your own firepower. It's irritating.

- The movement in the second bonus stage type (the green track) is completely different. Movement is extremely slow compared to the Jaguar game. It just doesn't feel good. Weird thing to change.

- The blue ringed bonus levels are missing! Completely gone.

 

After doing a second run of the Jaguar version on Friday, I expected to jump into the Saturn version and just rip right through it. I figured, hey, the framerate is significantly improved--if the rest of the game is the same, it'll be a cakewalk, right? Wrong! Overall the playthrough was much more challenging. Those subtle mechanical differences probably don't read like much, but when you really try to buckle down and beat the game, they make things significantly harder.

 

Beastly Mode is still there though! GameFAQs says it doesn't exist, which is false. It was cool to be able to verify that.

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Austin, thank you for that extremely thorough comparison! I need to read through this again but several of the things you comment on sound quite familiar to me, I'm afraid. Thinking back, I'm pretty sure I never got past level 64 on the Saturn version. Not to add more work to your schedule, but now I'm wondering if the PlayStation version has the same Saturn bugs or not!  :)

 

I have seen negative comments about the Saturn and Playstation ports from Jaguar Tempest 2000 fans, but I could never glean any concrete reasons and I chalked it up to their love of the first version they played.

 

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4 minutes ago, Cafeman said:

Austin, thank you for that extremely thorough comparison! I need to read through this again but several of the things you comment on sound quite familiar to me, I'm afraid. Thinking back, I'm pretty sure I never got past level 64 on the Saturn version. Not to add more work to your schedule, but now I'm wondering if the PlayStation version has the same Saturn bugs or not!  :)

 

I have seen negative comments about the Saturn and Playstation ports from Jaguar Tempest 2000 fans, but I could never glean any concrete reasons and I chalked it up to their love of the first version they played.

I will let you know! After doing my Saturn run last night, my curiosity was piqued and I hopped on eBay and bought a copy of Tempest X3. Once I get that I intend on unlocking T2K within it and see how it compares to the Saturn one.

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I found your twitch play session and skipped through it over the past hour or two. I do see the problems with sound effect cutoffs and glitches.  Sometimes you can't kill a swirly on the web, sometimes you can. You got fried or caught at times where I believe it mistook which web lane you were on, and triggered your death.  I see now that I have encountered the white balloon enemies, but I didnt recognize them on the Jag game because of their red shots, which the red big shots don't exist on the Saturn port.  I always thought the green spikes were too hard to chip away at, wasnt aware there is an easier spike version originally. 

 

Saturn version does seem less fun and more frustrating, no wonder I had such trouble with jt BITD. I still enjoy it but I give up after a while. No wonder Minter and others complained. I was super impressed by the frame rate and CD soundtrack and didn't have experience with a better playing version. 

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Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't go so far as to say the Saturn version is a bad game or anything. It's just compared to the Jaguar version, it's an inferior gameplay experience. Still a lot of fun, but if you try to finish it, it's going to be even more aggravating. And the Jaguar version is already tough enough as is!

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On 1/25/2021 at 11:47 AM, Austin said:

Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't go so far as to say the Saturn version is a bad game or anything. It's just compared to the Jaguar version, it's an inferior gameplay experience. Still a lot of fun, but if you try to finish it, it's going to be even more aggravating. And the Jaguar version is already tough enough as is!

 

On 1/25/2021 at 11:51 AM, str0m said:

Hmm I 'have' the Saturn version but only played it once and didn't like it as much as the Jag version. Will give it another go as at least the dpad won't be terrible lol

So much subtlety in a Jeff Minter game.  People seem to miss this, or dismiss things as just derivative when it's these small nuances that turn a mediocre game into something super addictive.  To this day, his stuff is like that.

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@Austin did you play it with rotary controller mod, or standard pad?

 

I watched some of your playthrough live, maybe first 30 min or so.

 

I have the rotary mod on my controller and I have a hard time playing the bonus levels, you can't steer for some reason. Anyone have experienced that?

 

Also, it's easy to exploit the game with rotary controller on flat levels. Just move all the way to left or right and shoot.

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2 hours ago, Stephen said:

So much subtlety in a Jeff Minter game.  People seem to miss this, or dismiss things as just derivative when it's these small nuances that turn a mediocre game into something super addictive.  To this day, his stuff is like that.

I totally agree.

1 hour ago, amiman99 said:

@Austin did you play it with rotary controller mod, or standard pad?

 

I watched some of your playthrough live, maybe first 30 min or so.

 

I have the rotary mod on my controller and I have a hard time playing the bonus levels, you can't steer for some reason. Anyone have experienced that?

 

Also, it's easy to exploit the game with rotary controller on flat levels. Just move all the way to left or right and shoot.

I was using a standard pad in that run, but I do actually have a rotary. I still haven't tried it as I've always played Tempest with the d-pad. I'll give it a try soon and see if I have the same issues on the bonus levels.

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