In Atari’s 1981 arcade game Tempest, a spinner rotates the player’s claw around the playfield.
Tempest displays a geometric tunnel or other three-dimensional-looking surface viewed from one end. The player controls a claw-shaped shooter positioned on the rim and moves it left or right around the edge using a rotary spinner. Enemies travel toward the player along the tunnel’s lanes, so precise rotational control is essential for quickly changing targets.
Dave Theurer designed Tempest for Atari, and the game was released in 1981. It was among the earliest arcade games to use Atari’s color vector display, producing bright, sharply defined lines rather than rasterized sprites. The spinner is sometimes mistaken for a trackball because both are physical arcade controls, but a spinner is a rotary dial designed for controlled angular movement. Tempest also became known for its progressive difficulty and for allowing players to select starting levels after earning enough progress.