Well, this was a surprised to see today.  It would appear that Jeff Minter is working on a new version of Tempest for PC's and modern consoles called Tempest 4000!  The game will be published by Atari as well, which is yet another surprise. 

Here's the official blurb, courtesy of Atari:

"In Tempest 4000, players are once again in control of the Claw, a powerful spacecraft equipped to destroy deadly creatures and other obstructions with rapid-fire shots on vibrant geometric prisms. With three game modes to choose from and 100 levels to conquer, players must eliminate all enemies as quickly as possible to survive and achieve that coveted spot at the top of the leaderboards."

Unfortunately, we have no idea what the game will look like yet as Atari has not released any screenshots but the game will be shown at Gamescom later this month.  So, looks like we won't have to wait too long to find out what the game will be like.

Source:  Eurogamer.net