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You control the Claw. The Claw sits on the upper end (rim) of a web and can shoot down one of its lanes. A web consists of a number of lanes which are configured either as a closed loop or a open string. The Claw can only move along the rim of a web. Jumping off the rim is possible with a powerup. Your task is to defend your side of a web from the incoming attackers originating from the core.

Every now and then a powerup will appear if you hit an enemy or an enemy shot. These powerups will give you additional powers and weapons. The order in which these upgrades are applied is fixed.

1. Particle Laser
2. 2000 Points
3. Jump
4. 2000 Points
5. A. I. Droid
6. 2000 Points
7. Excellent (5000 Points) + Warp Token + instant superzapper
8. And 2000 Points from now on...

There is one exception: If you pick up a powerup while you are leaving a level then the A. I. Droid will be moved to the first position of this list for the next level only.

Sometimes you pick up an "Outta Here!" powerup, this gives you an instant 5000 points and starts the warp to the next level immediately.

The "Excellent" powerup is special, in that it gives you a "warp token". If you have collected six of them, the next time you leave a level you are not transported to the next, but to a bonus stage. In this stage you have to fly through all the gates, if you miss one you leave the bonus stage immediately and the game continues as usual. If you manage to fly through all the gates you will be rewarded with a big bonus score and a level warp that propels you five levels forward.

You will always get a small bonus score when you fly through a gate, the closer to the center the more points you get, 250, 500 or 750 points. There are different types of gates. Here is what they are and do:

• Standard gate (green): Gives you the flythrough bonus, nothing more.
• Speedup gate (pink/cyan): Speeds you up (D'oh!)
• Multiplier gate (blue/red): Raises your score multiplier. The amount and limit depend on the selected scoring mode.
• Up or Down Gate (yellow/cyan): Pushes you up or down
• End of Level Gate (white gate, warp token in the middle): Ends the bonus stage, gives you the bonus scores and warps you ahead 5 levels.

Three different scoring modes are available. Every mode has its own highscore list.

Typhoon mode

In this mode the distance to the enemy is used to calculate the score when it is destroyed. The farther away the enemy is at the time of its destruction, the higher the score, up to ten times the base score.

The maximum multiplier in the bonus stage is 16, and it is multiplied by 2 every time you fly through a multiplier gate.

This is the default.

Combo mode

Here all your scores are multiplied with a global multiplier. It is raised by one if you kill an enemy and is reset to one if you fail to kill another enemy within about one and a half seconds. The multiplier is displayed in the upper right corner of the screen.

The maximum multiplier in the bonus stage is 256, and it is multiplied by 4 every time you fly through a multiplier gate.

Classic mode

This one acts like Tempest 2000: "Just" the base scores for everything, no multipliers or anything. Also the scores for the enemies are the scores from T2K. Powerups can not be grabbed while jumping.

The maximum multiplier in the bonus stage is 4, and it is multiplied by 2 every time you fly through a multiplier gate.

The game keeps seperate highscore lists for every game mode, and the level sets also have their own set of highscore lists.

If you start from a level higher than 1 you get a starting level bonus (to make up for the levels you skipped). This bonus is only added to your score after you passed one level, not before!

Some bonuses can be achieved during the game:

• Outta Here! : This bonus sometimes appears when you pick up a powerup. It ends the level immediately and is worth 5000 points.

At the end of the level you may have achieved additional bonus points. Several different bonuses exist:

• Domination bonus : You receive this bonus once for every enemy you destroyed in the lower eighth of the web. The idea is to reward you for keeping the web clean.
• Zapper bonus : If you did not use your Superzapper during the level you get this bonus.
• Collector bonus : You receive this bonus once if you manage to collect all powerups in the level.

The scoring modes use different combinations of these bonuses. The scores differ as well:

Typhoon mode

• Domination bonus (500 Points)
• Zapper bonus (5000 Points)
• Collector bonus (5000 Points)

Combo mode

• Zapper bonus (2000 Points)
• Collector bonus (2000 Points)

The whole end-of-level bonus will be multiplied with the maximum multiplier you achieved in that level.

Classic mode

No bonuses here.

Most webs are pretty much identical gameplay-wise, except of course for color and geometry changes. There is an exception however: the so-called "invisible" webs. They are exactly that, invisible, the only thing you see is the lane you are on, and a hint of the lanes next to it. However, the web is completely lit up for a short moment while a superzapper is active. Currently, only the "TEMPEST" and "TEMPEST TUBES" levelsets use this feature in the higher levels.

From release 3992 on, there is more than one levelset in the standard distribution. In addition to the default "TYPHOON 2001" set there are two more: the "TEMPEST" and "TEMPEST TUBES" sets. They replicate the webs from the original arcade games, at least the geometry and colors of the webs. The difficulty curve is unchanged compared to the default set, and they both end at level 96, not at level 100 like the default set.

In the future there will probably be a "TEMPEST 2000" and a "TEMPEST 3000" set as well as a few others. For example, a short, 20 or so level set for short games is planned with a different (harder and shorter) difficulty curve.

Menus | Screen | Gameplay | Control | Weapons | Enemies | Configuration