Tempest 2000, level 64

[seamoon]

Gah! I've given up on ever finishing that level, 64. How can it be possible? Is there some ingenious strategy I'm not aware of? The only possibility I can think of is to get an "excellent!"-power up just at the beginning to get me warped to the next level. Would trade my cat for that... If that would ever happen I would probably die instantly on level 65 anyway, before I can save, hehe. Is there some logic behind when those warp power up's are awarded BTW? To me it looks pretty random.

[leearco]

yer Im stuck on this exact level as well. hope someones has some tips.

it sucks I love this game but seriously cant beat this level

[kevincal]

Is this the one with all the yellow zappers? If so, yup I hate that level. I have been playing Tempest since back in '94 I think I've only managed to beat it a handfull of times, prolly like 3-4 times...

[seamoon]

Do you remember how you did it?

For example, level 63 can easily be beaten by constant spinning and shooting until one get a jump power-up. It works at least one out of three. It just CAN'T be possible to rigorously shoot the yellow switches one at a time, then you'll soon have a handful of switches reaching the border and BOOM!

[kevincal]

I think the best way to get past those levels is start at level 55 or so and then strategically get to the warp stage right before those leves, and then beat the warp stage and go right past em!! Of course, that is not so easy either But, I think in general, just start back around 55, accumulate some extra lives, and by the time you get to the killer stages you'll be warmed up and hopefully pass em in the 1st or 2nd try. Cus if you just keep restarting at those hard levels it can get so frustrating and when you are frustrated you prolly won't play as good.

[Mr_Spock]

Yepp.. it's a quite nasty level! :-(

I've given up on it. I've used the cheat to play levels beyond, but haven't saved. Been very near a couple off times, but It involves getting AI droids or/and jump.. some times you just have "luck" and get it as the first power up =)

I've tried to warp it, but I've also given up on that aswell =)

Perhapps one should make a new atempt on it this summer... =)

[goatdan]

Level 64 can definitely be done. It is one of the really hard levels that Minter purposely made to try to stop people at certain points. If you think it's difficult, beat the game and then try it with the slower shots! Insane!

 

And yes... I've managed to do that

[kevincal]

I decided to have another nice sit-down with T2K today. I always score over a million points when starting from the beginning, but of course I ALWAYS get stuck at level 64...like everyone else! I wonder if Minter purposely chose level 64, because of the whole 64-bit Jaguar campaign Atari had going... Anyway, I just thought of another strategy that might work well. Start at level 63 and try to grab a bonus from killing the last enemy, that way you start level 64 with the A.I. droid. But I haven't actually tried this and even pulling this off would be very hard and even with the A.I. droid, I'd imagine lvl 64 will still be a bitch!

[kevincal]

OR start at level 60 or so and try to get to a bonus stage before lvl 64. Then of course you must beat the bonus stage and warp 5 levels.

[kevincal]

Level 64 can definitely be done. It is one of the really hard levels that Minter purposely made to try to stop people at certain points. If you think it's difficult, beat the game and then try it with the slower shots! Insane!

 

And yes... I've managed to do that

 

Damn man, what's your hi-score? Mine is around the 1,250,000 mark.

[JagChris]

Yes Minter did it at 64 intentionally. He does the same thing using the same web maps for Space Giraffe on level 64.

 

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4394997538725969856

 

I'm stuck on level 64 as well.

Edited October 26, 2007 by JagChris

[PeterG]

My experience is that you have to try to stick around long enough to get the jump powerup.

I always have to use the super zapper too and it takes several attemps to finish the level but it is not impossible.

But I must admit that it often enough takes a lot of luck trying to run around the web shooting the enemies and trying not to get zapped...

[Foxsolo2000]

The last time I played this epic game was back in 2000 and my best game lasted some four hours but I do remember getting stuck on one particular level. It was probably the one you lot are talking about

[Kripto]

Why intentionally put in a level that stops the player dead in their tracks?

 

I remember hitting that level and it made me stop playing as that, suddenly, 'skill' seemed to have been taken out of the equation for achieving success.

 

BTW- I love difficult games. Arcade Robotron set to level ten difficulty is my favorite. Even though that game is among the most nasty and 'angry' at that point, it can still be beaten using skill and focus.

[kevincal]

I agree, Tempest 2000 level 64 was a bad idea.

[kevincal]

Had another nice T2K session last night. I decided to clear my cartridges memory because I had cheated to get past level 64, and I just wanted a clean start. I also realized that I had hardly played "Traditional Tempest" or "Tempest Plus".

 

I found that both Traditional and Plus are infact HARDER than Tempest 2000! The main reason...you can't jump. I managed to get a score of 307,751 in Traditional Tempest and 217, 727 in Tempest Plus. It's a shame the highscores aren't saved for these 2 games, you have to get old school and actually right down your highscores.

 

Then I gave Tempest 2000 a go. I decided that in the bonus rounds, I will play them up to the end to get points, but purposely not complete the bonus rounds. I figured out you score way more points in 5 levels (50,000) than the bonus rounds give you after completion, 20,000 points and warp 5 levels.

 

This proved to ring true as I made it to level 64, having playing every single web because I purposely didn't complete one bonus level. I didn't even realize I was on level 64 because I was in the zone, and I actually came very close to getting the jump powerup before a swarm of zappers came. I then said to myself in shock, "Is this level 64!? " Sure enough, I got my ass handed to me over and over and lost all of my lives on this level 64, as usual... But I did manage to achieve my best score of 1,358,059. I used a regular old stock Jag pad too.

[Goochman]

Stopped me - thought not for a lack of trying - I cant remember when you get 'level saves' but the 2 times I made it past 64 I died on 65 so I had to go back - after a month of that I stopped playing - bummed I didnt get to the 'red' levels or whatever after 99 I think?