Tempest (1980 coin-op) Easter Egg - Cheat (NOT AN EGG)

Doing this in 2 player mode may damage your monitor.

Of course if you have the 1980s Coin- OP at your fingertips . You can still access all the levels when not in FREE PLAY mode . Like level 81 where the bonus for completing that level is 898,000 points. Simply follow these steps. In fact it works on any arcade dated 1980 & 1981 models. 1982 & 1983 models have a chip installed to prevent the cheats rom working... You will need at least 1 quarter to work these 2 steps. more needed if your not good at playing: 1. Start at level 9 or 15 if you have it set that way. play up past level 24 (thats the red "V" shaped design). keep playing after level 24 or until your score reaches past 190,000. after that shoot spikes so the last two digits of your score is 11,12,16, or 40. then stop and let the monsters or bullets kill your shooters. end the game and type in initials if wanted. The scores get displayed. Then the demo screen comes up. When the demo screen comes up watch the credits counter -- You should now see 40 creditz . 2. Cheat Two: Warp Mode - after the creditz appear press start and start on level 24 (the Red "V") . again get over 190,000 and and shoot spike so the last two digits is 46. then end the game. place your scores and watch 4 demo screens . notice on the demo screens of things that don't normally happen during regular play like - Spikes on level 1 - the circle, or no spikes on level 9 the V shaped staircase, or if during the demo your shooter gets killed before warping to the next screen or if after warping to the next screen that the next screen is the same one as the demo played on. Ok , finally after the 4th demo screen plays wait until the Logo TEMPEST starts to get displayed. Just after the Tempest logo is fully displayed quickly press two-player start and spin your turn knob to the right to warp up to level 81 or if you are daring level 67 where the screen designs are invisible. Finally 3rd cheat is a tricky one: Its called "Attract Mode"... agains start at level 24 or higher and get past 190,000 points then shoot spikes until your last digits of the score is 05 . end game . now watch the 1st demo screen. hopefulyl it will be one with spikes on it. This demo screen after like 3 seconds will turn into realtime play mode. quickly shoot spikes to make last two digits 48. this gives you 255 shooters at your disposal (although only 6 get displayed on screen - all 255 reside in memory). Get 46 and you still get warp mode ... get 60 to 78 and weird things happen like everything drifts to one side or spike drift upwards... Careful if you get 00 then the game freezes and crashes everything. you can get out by pressing start but you must start all over from level 9 and all high scores get resetted and you lose any remaining creditz saved. also, if you overload the games memory banks it will reset everything. you'll know this when the screen blanks off for a few seconds then comes back on like someone cut the power. Again these cheats work on any tempest coinop dated 1980 & 1981 in Full Uprite and Cocktail Table versions. it will not work in the Mini 4 foot uprite models.