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### Typhoon 2001 [PC]

#### http://typhoon.kuto.de/

#### Reviewed By J. Monkman

Typhoon 2001 is the definitive PC remake of Jeff Minter's Atari Jaguar classic Tempest 2000. For those of you unfamiliar with the game on which Typhoon 2K1 was based, Tempest 2000 was the Atari's highest selling 64-bit title (often referred to as 'the only reason to buy a Jaguar') and was itself a remake of the Atari arcade game of the same name, minus the 2K suffix.

As with the original game, Typhoon 2K1 is an instantly accessible and highly playable arcade shoot 'em up. The player controls a claw-shaped craft on the outer rim of a three-dimensional vector web and must shoot all the enemy 'flippers' that appear on the base of the web and advance towards the player. If a flipper succeeds in reaching the top it will continue to chase the claw around the rim, contact resulting in death and the player having to start the level again.

Tempest is very simple to learn but challenging to master, and even now (some 25+ years after the original release) you'll be hard pushed to find a more intense arcade experience. Jeff Minter succeeded in giving the coin-up original a 1990's face-lift for the Atari Jaguar without detrimentally affecting the vital game-play, and thanks to Thorsten Kuphaldt you can now play a further enhanced version of the game in superior high resolution graphics on your desktop PC.

The progress that Thorsten has made in Typhoon 2K1's relatively short development period (about three months) is outstanding. Although (at the time of writing) work is still underway on the game, Typhoon 2K1 is already essentially complete, with 100 levels, an editor and a plethora of in-game options. The retro audio effects and music sound as though they have been plucked straight from the golden age of computer gaming, and Thorsten has succeeded in taking Minter's eye-popping visuals and giving them a 21st century boost.

As stated above, playing the game is an intense experience. To progress from one web to the next the player has to survive a one-minute relentless onslaught of the various enemy types that advance towards the player at break-neck speed. The hectic game-play combined with psychedelic layers of explosions and particle effects, sampled speech and thumping techno backing results in a game quite unlike any other. (Needless to say, Typhoon 2K1 is not recommended for people who suffer from epilepsy).

Control is via either mouse, keyboard or joypad, and each method plays equally well (which is something of an achievement in itself). The game is incredibly polished, with commercial quality presentation, attract mode and even the addition of planned features that were left out of the original (such as the rotating webs). Typhoon 2K1 really proves to be a more than worthy homage to Jeff Minter's opus, and as a veteran PC gamer I have to add that it is also one of the best freeware releases that I have ever played. Keep an eye on http://typhoon.kuto.de/ for updates.

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OK, first things first - confession time. My name is SirClive and I have never played Tempest! There, I've said it out loud. Seeing as the retro gaming police haven't come to arrest me, I think I am safe to continue.

When I was asked to play this game, I didn't expect a remake of Jeff Minters apparent masterpiece. For some reason I was expecting a helicopter sim. Thank god I was wrong.

On loading T2K1 I was immediately taken with the quality of the attract mode and the mesmeric title music that draws you in until you are leaning forward with your head almost touching the screen. I was a little disappointed to find that the in-game music was a trippy dance tune, but this is a Jeff Minter remake, so what did I expect! Playing the game is as simple as it stunning. The use of colour is fantastic and whilst not my genre of choice, I found the game-play very addictive and wanted to keep playing to see the next web and the fantastic warp effect that rewards you for completing a level.

The best testament I can give to this game is that it has rekindled my desire to buy an Atari Jaguar, just to play Minter's original - surely that is job done for Mr Kuphaldt.

SirClive.

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Graphics: | 92%
Sound: | 91%
Game Concept: | 89%
Gameplay: | 92%
Lasting Appeal: | 90%

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Q1. As way of introduction, please could you give a brief paragraph about yourself?

A1. My name is Thorsten Kuphaldt, and I was born in Munich where I still live (more exactly in a small suburb called Ottobrunn). I started messing around with computers at age five or so, but did not do any "serious" programming until I was around 15 years. It took until 2001 until I started learning C, before that I only used BASIC.

I work as a programmer/technician/support hybrid in a small IT firm here in Ottobrunn.

My primary interests revolve around computers in one way or the other. I am especially interested in "how things really work inside a computer", and the history and development of computers in general. My "speciality" are Commodore computers, from the PET to the Amiga, and I maintain a museum website (in German) about these things.

Q2. What development tools were used to create Typhoon, and could you briefly describe the development process?

A2. Typhoon is written in C. The base for everything is the GCC (GNU Compiler Collection), or more exactly MinGW, a Windows port of it. In addition I use the Allegro and AllegroGL libraries, Allegro saves me from reinventing the wheel too many times and AllegroGL makes the use of OpenGL in Allegro programs possible. I used this combination for some test programs before I started working on Typhoon, but in Typhoon I for the first time used OpenGL "for real" (for example, I did all transformations "by hand" before, whereas I now use OpenGL's matrix routines). My working environment consists of a command shell window, a text editor (Ultra Edit) and a paint package (Paint Shop Pro).

Everything started with me just trying out how to draw a Tempest web with OpenGL. I did not even want to develop a Tempest clone at that time, I just wanted to play around a little. But things progressed very fast, and I then proceeded to add some more elements, like a moving claw at the top of the web. After that I added a few enemies, and everything got a life of its own from there. This first very incomplete "version" took me about a day to make.

After a week I had a much improved test version ready that included more enemies, the spikes and a score for the player. About a month later most of the game play elements were in place, and I decided to post the game on retroremakes.com to see what people think, and of course, to find out if it crashes on someone's computer.

Since then I am tweaking, testing and experimenting...

In total I guess I spent around 100 hours on this thing so far, over a period of about one and a half months. I just work on it when I feel like it, I have no self-imposed deadlines or anything like that.

Q3. What was it about Jeff Minter's original game that *most* inspired you to create a modern day remake of Tempest 2000?

A3. Perhaps the whole abstractness of the game. Tempest 2000 looks really colourful and different compared to most other games, and I thought that such an abstract game gives me ample opportunity to experiment with and test things like transparency, blending effects, matrix operations and more without the limits that a more "realistic" game would impose. And since I always thought that there is no decent T2K remake out there I decided to give it a try after it started so well.

Q4. Was it difficult to get Jeff Minter to permit you to continue development of the game? Did he lay down any conditions regarding the release of the final version?

A4. As you may know, Jeff initially was not exactly happy about me developing the game, but his position is quite understandable if you know the back-story behind other remakes and ports of Tempest 2000. Luckily we were able to sort things out with a few emails. He did not lay down any conditions, but I will certainly treat the whole matter (and remaking in general) with a lot more respect now.

Q5. Are there any planned game-play/game mode enhancements in the pipeline for Typhoon 2001? (Personally, I'd like to see a two-player co-op game mode).

A5. I just added a "new" optional scoring system, based on a score multiplier that gets increased every time you destroy an enemy and is reset to one if you fail to destroy another one after about a second (actually, I "borrowed" that idea from a few Japanese arcade shooters, namely DonPachi). This seems to work quite well but still needs much tweaking. There are some other changes already in there, but many are very subtle. For example in Typhoon the player's movement does not accelerate like in T2K, the claw is moving at the same speed at all times instead. I feel that this gives me more control about the game, but if anyone prefers the original control mode, just enable it in the config file.

Further changes will probably follow, but I have no idea what they will be at the moment. Well, maybe except for that co-op mode that you mentioned, that sounds like a good idea, even though some internal rearrangements would be necessary. On the other hand, I need to clean up the code anyway so...

Q6. Will the editor ever be released as a fully documented and user-friendly standalone executable, or will it remain accessible only via a command line switch? The same applies for the settings in the configuration file - do you plan to add a comprehensive settings menu later in development?

A6. The editor is already accessible via the level selector. I prefer to have the editor inside the game, because it is very comfortable to edit a level and to be able to try it out immediately.

There is a preliminary settings menu in the newest release (nr. 560 at this time), which only features a few settings now, but it will be extended sooner or later.

The system specific things (resolution, anti-aliasing etc.) will stay in the config file for now, but I thought about creating a small config executable. I plan to keep the game itself as clean as possible, and since you usually select the system specific things just once, I see no reason to clutter the game menu with them.

Q7. After the development of Typhoon 2001 has finished, do you plan to work on any other remake or original game projects?

A7. I will probably never really finish Typhoon, but if it reaches a certain state it will "sleep" for a while. In that time I might go and update my other project, "Dogfight - Battle in the Skies". This one is a Sopwith remake that I am working on for about five years now. Well, actually it developed more into some form of "pseudo-flight-simulator" by now... even though everything is still 2D. The game is still mostly in German, but I have started to translate parts of it into English. The next release of Dogfight, whenever that will be, will feature a language selector.

I have no plans for anything else - at least at the moment...

Q8. What other retro-gaming projects have captured your attention recently? On a tempest-related note, have you played Odd Bob's tempest-inspired 'G-Force'?

A8. G-Force looks really good, and plays good as well, but personally I would speed up the movement of the claw a little.

Apart from that, the Driller remake looks very promising, as does the Spindizzy one, even though I never played Driller for long (too slow on a C64...) and Spindizzy always frustrated me. Still, both should really benefit from a makeover (especially Driller) and I am looking forward to playing them both.

Q9. Thank you for participating in this interview. Is there anything else you'd like to add before signing off? (This is your chance to speak, ask questions, plug your website, etc.)

A9. If anyone is interested in my personal projects apart from Typhoon, you can go directly to www.kuto.de, this is the "portal" for everything else. Most pages are in German though, except for the Typhoon website, but you still might find something of interest.

I also have to thank a few people. First, of course, many thanks to Jeff Minter for allowing me to remake his game, and for creating it in the first place! And also thanks to the people at www.retroremakes.com for their ideas and support!