Tempest X3

In Tempest X3, a port of Tempest 2000 for the PlayStation, you control a claw that perches and crawls around the outer edge of a series of geometrically shaped, tube-like constructs, shooting down or out into the nebulous void of outer space. From the core of this void, fuseballs, rockets, pulsars, tankers and other hazardous aliens and alien artifacts move toward your ship. Once you clear a screen, you fly into the void and onto the next level. Watch out for spikes as you advance.

This game features three modes of play: Classic Tempest, which is based on the early 1980s Arcade smash simply titled Tempest; an update of Tempest called Tempest X, which features a jump feature, A.I. Droids that help you fight and enhanced graphics and sound; and Tempest Duel, which pits you against a friend and the Generator, which cranks out an endless source of enemies.

Tempest X3, the Sony PlayStation version, was released in 1996, with updated graphics and sound, although the following gameplay differences from the original version were identified by Jeff Minter in a Usenet post:

- The "AI Droid" only follows the player, instead of acting autonomously. A new, "Mega Droid" powerup rectifies this somewhat, but it takes a very long time within a level to acquire it.

- Pulsars now move slowly around the top of the Web if they reach it (rather than electrifying the whole top edge the moment they arrive).
The Particle Laser is no more effective than the normal laser against Spikes (in the original, it destroys them very quickly).

- Some of the harder, "sticking point" webs have been removed from the game entirely.

- Entering the name "YIFF!" or "H_V_S" on the top highscore position activates a secret mode, allowing the user to choose to play the original Tempest 2000 game.[30] Any high scores made in this mode are not saved, the music (wave-captured from the original modules) is muffled and the effectiveness of the Particle Laser against spikes is not restored.

The PlayStation version of Tempest X3 supports the PlayStation Mouse, Nyko Trackball and Namco's rotary neGcon analog controller.