It’s 1981, and you play this game for the first time… and your mind melts. Early-80s arcade games were so far ahead of home computer gaming that it’s hard to put the gap into perspective today.
Tempest stood out because it felt like nothing else on the floor: a super-fast, almost hypnotic tube shooter built on color vector hardware and a physical spinner. Pretty much everything about it was unique.
Atari designer Dave Theurer (who also created Missile Command) started from an idea for a first-person Space Invaders, which ultimately became Tempest.
It generated roughly US$150 million in its first year from cabinet sales and coin take, making it a massive commercial hit for Atari.