Tempest 3000

Following the gameplay of Tempest (1981) and Tempest 2000, Tempest 3000 is a tube shooter game where the player shoots enemies and obstacles as they appear from the center of the screen. The player controls a claw-shaped blaster, scoring points by hitting targets as they try to survive multiple levels. The blaster is also equipped with a "Superzapper" that destroys all enemies on-screen, which recharges between each level. Players can collect power-ups and upgrades, which appear when enemies or their bullets are destroyed.

The game modifies and builds upon the enhancements from Tempest 2000 with new mechanics. Instead of a jump ability, the blaster can now spend fuel to hover and glide over the web. A homing missile power-up allows the player to target enemies in two lanes of the web. The player can also improve their score multiplier by collecting power-ups, but using a "Superzapper" resets the multiplier to zero.

Tempest 3000 is a follow-up to Tempest 2000, itself an updated remake of Dave Theurer's arcade game Tempest (1981). It was programmed by Jeff Minter, founder of Llamasoft, who previously worked on Tempest 2000. Minter left Atari after completing Defender 2000 in December 1995 and returned to Wales to work for VM Labs, a California-based semiconductor company founded by Richard Miller with former Atari and Sony staff. He helped with software design and wrote the built-in VLM-2 audio visualizer for the Nuon DVD technology, then codenamed "Project X".

In 1997, Minter teased on his personal website that Tempest 3000 could happen, as VM Labs had contacts where they could obtain the rights to Tempest. In 1998, VM Labs asked him to create a Tempest game for the Nuon, allowing him to apply ideas he had tried with a version of Breakout for his particle effects system. The game was produced by Joe Sousa, who worked on Atari Jaguar titles such as Cybermorph and Kasumi Ninja. The soundtrack features nineteen songs, twelve of which are remixed tracks from Tempest 2000, while the remaining music are original compositions by André Meyer, Ian "T(NT)" Goddard, and James Grunke.

Tempest 3000 received generally favorable reviews from critics. According to GameState magazine, the game had sold over 20,000 copies by 2003. Chris Johnston of Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) highlighted its evolution of the series' gameplay, sense of humor, and difficulty. Edge lauded its attractive graphics, frenetic action, balanced playability, and difficulty curve.

Syzygy's Jason W. Cody liked its addition of the bonus multiplier mechanic, new enemies and music.