TxK for Vita - Jeff Minter's new game out next week Feb 11th

[antares]

I thought we already had a thread about this game but I couldn't find it, so:

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2014/01/ ... -and-more/

As seen here TxK will be out on the US PSN on Feb 11th! Woohoo!!!
Couldn't find a date for the PAL release, let's hope it won't take much longer.

And here's the latest gameplay video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6nUcT7SRUE

[Theory]

EU release is Feb 14th. Tempest 2000 on the Jaguar was great, so looking forward to this one.

[Damocles]

Minter loves him some Tempest, doesn't he? I never really clicked with Space Giraffe, but this looks just as interesting.

[Special World]

Thanks for the heads up. I've been meaning to give Minter a shot, and I've been meaning to get some games for my Vita. Looks like a great way to do both.

[mosey]

So far Lumines and this are system sellers for me. Maybe after my tax return...on the other hand, SDOJ the best is on preorder now...

[Laurel_McFang]

Wolf Fang hits Vita's psn feb 14

http://monkeypawgames.com/games/wolf-fang/

Also so a lot of goodies that week.

[system11]

They need to make a Vita emulator for the PS4.

[Laurel_McFang]

Woo just watched the video. I was familiar with Space Giraffee. Not a lot of assembly coders around anymore good work Mr. minter.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

When the NDS port of Atari Greatest Hits Vol.1 was released back in 2010 courtesy of developer Code Mystics, it had a spot-on accurate port of the classic Vectorbeam Tempest indeed (in terms of overall framerate speed). The only thing missing is, built-in support for the optional Taito NDS paddle controller support and control-wise, it would've a perfect match/pairing made in heaven.

On the real Tempest cabs, both upright & cocktail table versions, if you spin the rotary knob really hard, it'd spin freely for a long time before slowing down and eventually, coming to a stop (of course, this was possible when Tempest was new in the arcades back in the day). On the older & neglected Tempest cabs by the mid-to-late '80s, spinning the knob hard wasn't possible (assuming if it was possible to find in playable condition at a run-down arcade establishment). Not to mention that if 999,999 points + 1 extra point was scored during a serious Tempest gaming session, it'd rollover back to zero. Pro Tempest players already know about that particular rollover scoring issue (it's quite something to behold/witness someone do it in person indeed).

The sci-fi/horror hybrid flick of Stephen King's Maximum Overdrive features a cameo appearance of an arcade cocktail table version of Tempest running through it's paces.

It'd be awesome to see Jeff Minter's upcoming TxK running on a PSVita Tv setup...will it have proper support for it from the get-go?

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[mosey]

I'm afraid that arcade any purity in arcade conversions will be relative from now on. Some will have the original machine, and some will configure MAME into a sly approximation like I did for Super Hang On. Which now it controls about like Rad Racer does and I couldn't be happier with it.

[DrTrouserPlank]

They need to make a Vita emulator for the PS4.

Buy a Vita.

I don't care for mobile gaming one bit but with the ill-received release of the slim in the UK (and the discontinuation of the OLED) I took the opportunity to grab the useless 3G version with 10 games, 16GB card and an accessory pack for 140 BNP dollars. You can still get the same deal via shopto (minus the accessories) for £150 I think.

Having played with it I must say I think it's a great bit of hardware for that price.. helped by the games that come with it.. and helped because I have saved some (but not all) of the titles I was eligible for during my PS+ sub.

Do you have any games on it that you really wanna play? old vita or PSP compatible titles? I did, and at that price I felt it was worth the plunge. The interconnectivity between the ps3, ps4 is great and there are some titles on vita you just can't get anywhere else.

[Ed Oscuro]

and there are some titles on vita you just can't get anywhere else.

This being the afterthought is the part that worries me.

[system11]

They need to make a Vita emulator for the PS4.

Buy a Vita.

When they release a version I can plug into a TV and a proper joypad, sure.

[austere]

I don't know why they haven't released this in the west yet.

http://www.jp.playstation.com/psvitatv/

[system11]

I saw that, apparently it can take physical media but could I connect to the Japanese store with an imported one, could I get firmware updates, etc?

I suspect Sony have some notion that releasing it here would further damage sales of the handheld, which I'm not going to buy.

[Laurel_McFang]

I saw that, apparently it can take physical media but could I connect to the Japanese store with an imported one, could I get firmware updates, etc?

I suspect Sony have some notion that releasing it here would further damage sales of the handheld, which I'm not going to buy.

Here is the only article I could find:

http://www.thesixthaxis.com/2013/11/13/ ... -to-japan/

Which quotes an importer from neogaf

Edit: kotaku summarizes it better:
http://kotaku.com/five-important-things ... 1464987381

It does note that you can login with a Japanese psn account (easy to make and findable with amazon psn gift cards). Using it with the Japanese store would probably be better than the Western stores anyways because Japanese psn has more ps one and psp classics like the Gradius collection, Darius, stuff like that.

Here is the going price for a 10k yen psn card on am amazon (130 usd for 98 usd of store credit):
http://www.amazon.com/PlayStation-Netwo ... =Psn+japan

[PC Engine Fan X!]

As of 11:00am PST, on the U.S. region PSN site, TxK is now available to d/l. It's a mere 102mb download at best with version 1.03 being the latest one. Has 100 waves to test your mettle on. Well worth the mere asking 40 American quarters at regular price (and is priced at $7.99 if you have a PSN+ subscription) & is a instabuy, indeed. Will write a proper game review of it upon checking it out further.

Wasn't sure when TxK was going to be made available for purchase on day one of debut and it, certainly, has been well worth the wait for it.

Initial impressions reveal the following:

Runs at a silky-smooth arcade-spec 60fps framerate (a definite plus in my book). Simply tap the front touch screen to activate the "Smart Bomb" (aka the renamed "SuperTapper" this time around -- a reference to the famous SuperZapper in the original Tempest coin-op arcade classic) functionality. Right shoulder button is the "Jump" button upon getting the Jump power-up. Upon reaching a new Wave, you lose your Jump power-up and have to earn it again on the current wave in order to use it.

Uploading your score is doable with the current highest score at 4,373,710 pts. by CazTheGamer (ain't my gamertag whatsoever) on the Top 10 Classic selection of high scores as of 11:47am PST.

Like the "Your Handy Pocket Mood Kettle" slogan that appears on the TxK main title screen...there're other sayings/catchphrases to see/read/behold/digress over. Another is "Like Bisquits for Tea" -- another nod towards a fine British tradition. "Coin Detected In Pocket" is another instant catchphrase worth a smile/chuckle over for longtime Tempest/T2K fans, myself included.

Really slick upgrade to the Atari Jaguar T2K classic on the powerful Vita hardware at last.

Apparently, there are several catagories to best the current online high score lists including Classic, Survival & Pure sections -- so yes, there're plently of gameplay/challenges to be had (not to mention some serious TxK 1CCs if "in the zone").

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[system11]

Is tapping the screen the only way to smartbomb? If so that one control decision makes this incompatible with the Vita TV.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Unfortunately, yes in regards to that particular control issue for right now. I'm sure a patch could be released so that it could be properly played on a HDTV setup with the PSVita TV and a Dual Shock 3 controller setup. A lot of folks are clamoring for a PS3 release of TxK or at the very least, cross-play functionality with the PS3 console with the Vita TxK release. Would make sense if Jeff Minter changes his mind on this current pressing TxK game controls issue at hand.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[antares]

Friday can't come soon enough for me

[PC Engine Fan X!]

On upon reviewing the proper controls for TxK in regards to the Smart Bomb/SuperTapper functionality in the How To Play section, you can activate it by pressing the front touch screen or pressing the O button. My apologies then for the above initial statement regarding the touch screen issue with the SuperTapper. So it's a resounding yes, that you can play TxK on a PSVita TV setup without any issues. Yeah baby! So that gives you two choices to play TxK on the go or at home on the bigger HDTV screen setup via HDMI + with a smoking surround system in place for a trippy audio-visual experience not to be missed.

And to step up the notch a tad bit higher, if you use a 3D-based HDTV setup along with a pair of 3D glasses + a PSVita TV and TxK combo deal, that's pure gravy, man (of course, it'd mean using a 2D to 3D conversion process to pull it off successfully but it works like a charm, nevertheless).

As for the music tracks, there are 18 different ones to listen to including:

Music Track 1 - "You Like It" by Gareth Noyce [Korruptor]

Music Track 2 - "Ginswigger" by Barry Island

Music Track 3 - "In The Zone" by Leon L. Robinson [Baggypants]

Music Track 4 - "Space is Everything" by Anosou

Music Track 5 - "Berlin" by Twofish

Music Track 6 - "Laser Everywhere' by Anosou

Music Track 7 - "Limaverse" by Danny Patterson [Coupler]

Music Track 8 - "Limaworld" by Danny Patterson [Coupler]

Music Track 9 - "Fridgean" by JMC

Music Track 10 - "Space Flight" by TONAL AXIS

Music Track 11 - "Trance One" by TONAL AXIS

Music Track 12 - "Wandering the Halls" by Mike Finlay [Governmentyard]

Music Track 13 - "Nebula Lost" by David Oldcorn

Music Track 14 - "Musicarena" by Curvespace

Music Track 15 - Consciousness is Feedback" by Ben Crosland [Spydabee]

Music Track 16 - "Machine Code" by Peter Duggal [Moonraider]

Music Track 17 - "Minter Trance" by Andy Kyle [Arnies Audios]

Music Track 18 - "Noise Pulse [Out Of This World]" by Jamie Hamshere [Junosix]

Plenty of TxK cool techno tunes to chill out to. An official pressed TxK music CD would be nice to own/play to accompany the ol' Imagitec produced T2K music CD for completeness/posterity.

A nice little perk is that you can listen to any of the music tracks on the fly by simply pressing the Select button from the main title screen, hit button X to select the Game Info screen, move the cursor to Credits and hit button X again, scroll past the initial TxK credits to gain access to the first Music Track selection and so on. Easy as pie.

I've got to admit that Llamasoft has delivered the goods as promised this time around with the killer Vita app known as TxK...I'm stoked!

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Special World]

Are the songs level dependent or something? All I ever seem to hear is "Space is Everything," unless they all blend together.

[Despatche]

i was told space is everything was chosen for "spectrum" 1. how many levels are in a spectrum this time (i.e. when do the red levels start)?

swear to god i am going to buy a vita for this game alone, never mind pso2.

[gameoverDude]

They need to make a Vita emulator for the PS4.

Agreed. Imagine if Dualshock 4 support were added for console, and the controller would buzz wildly if a Pulsar zaps you.
Rotating stages are pretty cool here. Should Space Giraffe follow this over to Vita, I'm buying- and same goes for any PS3/PS4/PC port of TxK if it happens.

This has been my most wanted Vita game along with Ys: Memories of Celceta.

[Special World]

Not really digging it so far :\ A lot more slow-paced than I assumed Tempest would be. Gonna play it some more tomorrow though.

[neorichieb1971]

I agree that a Vita emulation or cross compatible version of this game be released immediately.

[Terramax]

They need to make a Vita emulator for the PS4.

Or sell the Vita TV in the west.

It's a real shame there aren't many shmups coming out for what has to be possibly my favourite console now. Japan has quite a handful of PSone shmups like Dodonpachi, whilst Konami released some collections (Gradius Collection, Parodius Collection), but decided to keep them almost all in Japan :/

[dieKatze88]

I used to play Tempest 2000 for days on end on my PC. I would love to play this but Vitas are expensive and there's little on it I care about.

[antares]

Looks like it's already available in the EU store.
I'll download it in 2-3 hours

[PC Engine Fan X!]

That's cool to hear TxK's on the EU PSN site now...guess SCEE didn't want Vita gamers "across the pond" to wait any longer than necessary.

If you pause a serious session of TxK by simply pressing the Start button, by tilting the Vita at various angles, you can slightly change the viewpoint of your C-Blaster character while the background scenery continues to move/flow (all in real time). How cool is that?

By collecting four Warp Triangles throughout the various Waves, you get to enter the bonus warp room of randomly chosen events: fly though the speed ring gates or follow the green trail -- all modern-day updates of the bonus levels featured on the earlier port of T2K via the analog left stick or D-pad if so desired.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~