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Alpha Waves

October 21, 2023

For the electromagnetic oscillations of the thalamus, see Alpha wave.

Alpha Waves is a 1990 3D[1] game that combines labyrinthine exploration with platform gameplay. It combined for the first time full-screen, six-axis, flat-shaded 3D with 3D object interaction (like bouncing on a platform). Alpha Waves was an abstract game with a moody, artistic presentation, named for its supposed ability to stimulate the different emotional centers of the brain with its use of color and music. The game was awarded the Guinness Book of Records title for First 3D platform game[2]

Alpha Waves
European cover
Developer(s)Infogrames
Publisher(s)Infogrames (International)
Data East (North America)
Designer(s)Christophe de Dinechin
Platform(s)Atari ST, Amiga, DOS
ReleaseAugust 1, 1990
Genre(s)Platformer
Mode(s)Single player (DOS), multiplayer (Atari ST, Amiga)


It was developed initially for the Atari ST by Christophe de Dinechin, and later ported to the Amiga and DOS. The DOS port was done by Frédérick Raynal, a notable game designer who would go on to develop Alone in the Dark and Little Big Adventure. He has said that his work on Alpha Waves was a major inspiration for the 3D engine for Alone in the Dark.[3][4] The PC version was also localized in North America by Data East, and retitled Continuum. Infogrames may have also published their own version in the US under the original title, and it was also released as a part of no less than two Infogrames compilations, on which it retained its original name.

In November 2012, Christophe de Dinechin released the complete assembly language and GFA BASIC development tools source code for the Atari ST version.[5] There is also a started PC port in C++ on SourceForge by the original author.[6][7]

Mechanics Edit

Alpha Waves features two main modes of play: Action and Emotion.[8] The core gameplay in both is the same.

In emotion mode, players guide one of six crafts (which are little more than geometric shapes in many cases) onto trampoline-like platforms. On these platforms, the player bounces automatically, higher, with each jump, until he reaches the maximum height possible for that platform (some are stronger than others). Every room in the game is a cube, and the walls contain doorways leading to other rooms. In this way, players have to work their way through the game's rooms, and reach different areas based on different emotions.

In Action Mode, players also work against the clock. Time bonuses are awarded for entering new rooms, and keys can be collected to open new paths. There is not a particular end to the game, but the goal is simply to last as long and to discover as much as possible before time runs out. Emotion Mode allows players to explore without time constraints, but players are not allowed to cross certain game boundaries.

Emotion mode was not time limited, and allowed players to explore the game environment freely. While completing the game in Action Mode was very difficult, many players simply enjoyed exploring the game territory in Emotion Mode.[9]

Version differences Edit

Alpha Waves was initially released on the Atari ST. This version is notable for allowing two players to compete simultaneously. It lacked music entirely on the Atari 520ST, because of insufficient memory to store the music samples. On Atari 1040ST and later models, the theme song played during the intro. The music was stored on the second side of the floppy disk, since any Atari ST with enough memory also had a dual-sided floppy drive. A promotional version of the program was distributed by a French magazine on single-sided floppy disks, crashing any machine with more than 512K of memory.

The Amiga port was second and added a theme song at the title screen. The interface is similar, but the zone select in Emotion has been redone. Beyond this, it is very similar to the original - including the retention of the split-screen two player mode.

The DOS version was the last one, and contains a number of improvements. This version supported AdLib/SoundBlaster sound cards. The soundtrack was also expanded to play in-game, and each zone had its own music. Additionally some of the mobiles have been changed, level layouts tweaked, and the camera tilting toned down for easier viewing. The menus and level selection screen have been redone again, and are noticeably enhanced. The DOS version also includes a two player Action Mode (turn-based as opposed to the split-screen of the other two versions).

The DOS version lacks a mechanism to regulate speed when played on systems faster than it was intended for (essentially causing it to play in fast forward on newer hardware). However, when played on a properly configured system or emulator, this can offer the highest frame rate and most reactive controls, for solo play especially.

Technology Edit

Other 3D games of the same era include various ports of Elite (1984-1991), Falcon (1987), Driller (1987), Starglider 2 (1988), and Hovertank 3D (1991). Alpha-Waves (1990) brought a number of innovations to the 3D gaming experience that make it a significant landmark in 3D gaming:[10][11]

  • Depth-of-field clipping (objects disappearing in the distance)
  • Large (for the time) number of 3D objects displayed simultaneously
  • First simultaneous two-player split-screen mode on a single computer (only on the Atari ST and Amiga versions)

Alpha Waves ran on 16-bit microcomputers that did not have hardware floating-point capabilities. For that reason, it performed all perspective and rotation computations using only integer arithmetics. In order to avoid using integer multiplications, which were expensive at the time, it described objects using displacements that were multiples of a base vector. For instance, a square in the Z plane would have been described as "+1X +1Y -1X -1Y". As a result, the vast majority of geometric computations were performed using only additions, not multiplications.

The computation of sine and cosines was similarly done using only integer arithmetic. All angles were represented using not degrees, but 1/256 of a circle. A lookup table contained the value of the sine multiplied by 32767. Multiplying this value by a 16-bit coordinate gave a 32-bit value, and the 16-bit high-half of that result was used.

Another key to performance was a highly optimized polygon-filling routine, which used a number of tricks, including an assembly version of Duff's device to achieve a high fill rate, besting the in-house self-modifying routine Infogrames was using at the time.

The Atari ST and Amiga versions were written in assembly language. The DOS version was written in C.

Reception Edit

Computer Gaming World stated that the game "plays like one would expect a Star Trek: The Next Generation "holodeck" game to play". The magazine said that it offered "some fascinating game experiences", but the lack of combat or two-player modem racing—and goals so uninteresting that they "actually detract from the game"—caused it to "fall short in the most important department of lasting entertainment".[22]

The One gave the DOS version of Alpha Waves an overall score of 80%, calling it the "most abstract and original" game of Infogrames' Crystal Collection, and begins their review by noting that "Alpha Waves' effect is so dependent on colour and sound that you really do need a fast VGA machine with an AdLib sound card to get the most out of it. However, even with all the suitable hardware Alpha Waves doesn't have much of a lasting appeal." The One furthermore expresses that "It's quite an entertaining way to spend a few hours, but the problem is that as nice as the idea is there simply isn't enough variety to sustain interest. After a few weeks play the only state of mind that Alpha Waves will induce is boredom." In regards to Alpha Waves proposed psychological aspect, The One states that "Whether the light and sound frequencies actually do have some effect is difficult to tell - certainly no-one here noticed any difference." Despite these criticisms, The One praises Alpha Waves as "very original", and also praises its soundtrack as "simple but effective".[21]

References Edit

  1. ^ Dinechin, Christophe de (17 January 2013). "Is it worth disputing the title of "first 3D game on a PC" to John Carmack?". Grenouillebouillie.wordpress.com.
  2. ^ "Guinness World Record for First 3D Platform Game".
  3. ^ . www.adventure-eu.com. Archived from the original on 13 March 2007. Retrieved 17 January 2022.
  4. ^ "The Making of: Alone in the Dark - Edge Magazine". www.next-gen.biz. Archived from the original on 5 September 2012. Retrieved 26 January 2022.
  5. ^ "cc3d.free.fr/Alpha-Waves.zip". Cc3d.free.fr. Retrieved 2017-08-19.
  6. ^ Dinechin, Christophe de (9 November 2007). "The dawn of 3D games…". Grenouillebouillie.wordpress.com/. Retrieved 19 August 2017.
  7. ^ "Alpha-Waves / Continuum". SourceForge.net. 21 February 2013. Retrieved 19 August 2017.
  8. ^ "Continuum for Amiga (1991) - MobyGames". MobyGames. Retrieved 2017-08-19.
  9. ^ "Continuum (Game) - Giant Bomb". Giant Bomb. Retrieved 2017-08-19.
  10. ^ "The dawn of 3D games..." Grenouille-bouillie.blogspot.com. Retrieved 2017-08-19.
  11. ^ "The Top 10 Most Psychedelic Video Games Ever". Destructoid.com. Retrieved 2017-08-19.
  12. ^ Douglas, Jim (December 1990). "Alpha Waves". ACE. No. 40. p. 46. Retrieved September 7, 2021.
  13. ^ Hoogh, Eva (January 1991). "Pure Psychedelik". Aktueller Software Markt (in German). Retrieved September 7, 2021.
  14. ^ "SP Outro". Amiga Format. No. 23. June 1991. p. 101. Retrieved September 7, 2021.
  15. ^ Ramshaw, Mark (June 1991). "Alpha Waves". Amiga Power. No. 2. pp. 79, 81. Retrieved September 7, 2021.
  16. ^ "Alpha Waves". Computer and Video Games. No. 112. March 1991. p. 75. Retrieved September 7, 2021.
  17. ^ a b Moulinex; Kaaa (December 1990). "Alpha Waves". Joystick (in French). No. 11. pp. 284–285. Retrieved September 7, 2021.
  18. ^ Boardman, Julian (April 1991). "Alpha Waves". Raze. No. 6. p. 62. Retrieved September 7, 2021.
  19. ^ Lawton, Rod (January 1991). "Alpha Waves". ST Format. No. 18. p. 99. Retrieved September 7, 2021.
  20. ^ Ghirardelli, Aaron (February 1991). "Alpha Waves". The Games Machine (in Italian). No. 28. pp. 84–85. Retrieved September 7, 2021.
  21. ^ a b Scotford, Laurence (January 1991). "Alpha Waves DOS Review". The One. No. 28. emap Images. p. 86.
  22. ^ Taylor, Matt (July 1991). "A Good Time Continuum". Computer Gaming World. No. 84. pp. 10–11. Retrieved 18 November 2013.

External links Edit

  • Alpha Waves for the Amiga at The Hall of Light
  • History of Alpha Waves

October 21, 2023
alpha, waves, electromagnetic, oscillations, thalamus, alpha, wave, this, article, needs, additional, citations, verification, please, help, improve, this, article, adding, citations, reliable, sources, unsourced, material, challenged, removed, find, sources, . For the electromagnetic oscillations of the thalamus see Alpha wave This article needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources Alpha Waves news newspapers books scholar JSTOR July 2011 Learn how and when to remove this template message Alpha Waves is a 1990 3D 1 game that combines labyrinthine exploration with platform gameplay It combined for the first time full screen six axis flat shaded 3D with 3D object interaction like bouncing on a platform Alpha Waves was an abstract game with a moody artistic presentation named for its supposed ability to stimulate the different emotional centers of the brain with its use of color and music The game was awarded the Guinness Book of Records title for First 3D platform game 2 Alpha WavesEuropean coverDeveloper s InfogramesPublisher s Infogrames International Data East North America Designer s Christophe de DinechinPlatform s Atari ST Amiga DOSReleaseAugust 1 1990Genre s PlatformerMode s Single player DOS multiplayer Atari ST Amiga It was developed initially for the Atari ST by Christophe de Dinechin and later ported to the Amiga and DOS The DOS port was done by Frederick Raynal a notable game designer who would go on to develop Alone in the Dark and Little Big Adventure He has said that his work on Alpha Waves was a major inspiration for the 3D engine for Alone in the Dark 3 4 The PC version was also localized in North America by Data East and retitled Continuum Infogrames may have also published their own version in the US under the original title and it was also released as a part of no less than two Infogrames compilations on which it retained its original name In November 2012 Christophe de Dinechin released the complete assembly language and GFA BASIC development tools source code for the Atari ST version 5 There is also a started PC port in C on SourceForge by the original author 6 7 Contents 1 Mechanics 2 Version differences 3 Technology 4 Reception 5 References 6 External linksMechanics EditAlpha Waves features two main modes of play Action and Emotion 8 The core gameplay in both is the same In emotion mode players guide one of six crafts which are little more than geometric shapes in many cases onto trampoline like platforms On these platforms the player bounces automatically higher with each jump until he reaches the maximum height possible for that platform some are stronger than others Every room in the game is a cube and the walls contain doorways leading to other rooms In this way players have to work their way through the game s rooms and reach different areas based on different emotions In Action Mode players also work against the clock Time bonuses are awarded for entering new rooms and keys can be collected to open new paths There is not a particular end to the game but the goal is simply to last as long and to discover as much as possible before time runs out Emotion Mode allows players to explore without time constraints but players are not allowed to cross certain game boundaries Emotion mode was not time limited and allowed players to explore the game environment freely While completing the game in Action Mode was very difficult many players simply enjoyed exploring the game territory in Emotion Mode 9 Version differences EditAlpha Waves was initially released on the Atari ST This version is notable for allowing two players to compete simultaneously It lacked music entirely on the Atari 520ST because of insufficient memory to store the music samples On Atari 1040ST and later models the theme song played during the intro The music was stored on the second side of the floppy disk since any Atari ST with enough memory also had a dual sided floppy drive A promotional version of the program was distributed by a French magazine on single sided floppy disks crashing any machine with more than 512K of memory The Amiga port was second and added a theme song at the title screen The interface is similar but the zone select in Emotion has been redone Beyond this it is very similar to the original including the retention of the split screen two player mode The DOS version was the last one and contains a number of improvements This version supported AdLib SoundBlaster sound cards The soundtrack was also expanded to play in game and each zone had its own music Additionally some of the mobiles have been changed level layouts tweaked and the camera tilting toned down for easier viewing The menus and level selection screen have been redone again and are noticeably enhanced The DOS version also includes a two player Action Mode turn based as opposed to the split screen of the other two versions The DOS version lacks a mechanism to regulate speed when played on systems faster than it was intended for essentially causing it to play in fast forward on newer hardware However when played on a properly configured system or emulator this can offer the highest frame rate and most reactive controls for solo play especially Technology EditThis section possibly contains original research Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations Statements consisting only of original research should be removed November 2018 Learn how and when to remove this template message Other 3D games of the same era include various ports of Elite 1984 1991 Falcon 1987 Driller 1987 Starglider 2 1988 and Hovertank 3D 1991 Alpha Waves 1990 brought a number of innovations to the 3D gaming experience that make it a significant landmark in 3D gaming 10 11 Depth of field clipping objects disappearing in the distance Large for the time number of 3D objects displayed simultaneously First simultaneous two player split screen mode on a single computer only on the Atari ST and Amiga versions Alpha Waves ran on 16 bit microcomputers that did not have hardware floating point capabilities For that reason it performed all perspective and rotation computations using only integer arithmetics In order to avoid using integer multiplications which were expensive at the time it described objects using displacements that were multiples of a base vector For instance a square in the Z plane would have been described as 1X 1Y 1X 1Y As a result the vast majority of geometric computations were performed using only additions not multiplications The computation of sine and cosines was similarly done using only integer arithmetic All angles were represented using not degrees but 1 256 of a circle A lookup table contained the value of the sine multiplied by 32767 Multiplying this value by a 16 bit coordinate gave a 32 bit value and the 16 bit high half of that result was used Another key to performance was a highly optimized polygon filling routine which used a number of tricks including an assembly version of Duff s device to achieve a high fill rate besting the in house self modifying routine Infogrames was using at the time The Atari ST and Amiga versions were written in assembly language The DOS version was written in C Reception EditReceptionReview scoresPublicationScoreACE600 1000 12 Aktueller Software Markt10 12 13 Amiga Format70 14 Amiga Power60 15 Computer and Video Games70 16 JoystickAST 95 17 PC 90 17 Raze85 18 ST Format83 19 The Games Machine Italy 92 20 The One80 21 Computer Gaming World stated that the game plays like one would expect a Star Trek The Next Generation holodeck game to play The magazine said that it offered some fascinating game experiences but the lack of combat or two player modem racing and goals so uninteresting that they actually detract from the game caused it to fall short in the most important department of lasting entertainment 22 The One gave the DOS version of Alpha Waves an overall score of 80 calling it the most abstract and original game of Infogrames Crystal Collection and begins their review by noting that Alpha Waves effect is so dependent on colour and sound that you really do need a fast VGA machine with an AdLib sound card to get the most out of it However even with all the suitable hardware Alpha Waves doesn t have much of a lasting appeal The One furthermore expresses that It s quite an entertaining way to spend a few hours but the problem is that as nice as the idea is there simply isn t enough variety to sustain interest After a few weeks play the only state of mind that Alpha Waves will induce is boredom In regards to Alpha Waves proposed psychological aspect The One states that Whether the light and sound frequencies actually do have some effect is difficult to tell certainly no one here noticed any difference Despite these criticisms The One praises Alpha Waves as very original and also praises its soundtrack as simple but effective 21 References Edit Dinechin Christophe de 17 January 2013 Is it worth disputing the title of first 3D game on a PC to John Carmack Grenouillebouillie wordpress com Guinness World Record for First 3D Platform Game Adventure Europe www adventure eu com Archived from the original on 13 March 2007 Retrieved 17 January 2022 The Making of Alone in the Dark Edge Magazine www next gen biz Archived from the original on 5 September 2012 Retrieved 26 January 2022 cc3d free fr Alpha Waves zip Cc3d free fr Retrieved 2017 08 19 Dinechin Christophe de 9 November 2007 The dawn of 3D games Grenouillebouillie wordpress com Retrieved 19 August 2017 Alpha Waves Continuum SourceForge net 21 February 2013 Retrieved 19 August 2017 Continuum for Amiga 1991 MobyGames MobyGames Retrieved 2017 08 19 Continuum Game Giant Bomb Giant Bomb Retrieved 2017 08 19 The dawn of 3D games Grenouille bouillie blogspot com Retrieved 2017 08 19 The Top 10 Most Psychedelic Video Games Ever Destructoid com Retrieved 2017 08 19 Douglas Jim December 1990 Alpha Waves ACE No 40 p 46 Retrieved September 7 2021 Hoogh Eva January 1991 Pure Psychedelik Aktueller Software Markt in German Retrieved September 7 2021 SP Outro Amiga Format No 23 June 1991 p 101 Retrieved September 7 2021 Ramshaw Mark June 1991 Alpha Waves Amiga Power No 2 pp 79 81 Retrieved September 7 2021 Alpha Waves Computer and Video Games No 112 March 1991 p 75 Retrieved September 7 2021 a b Moulinex Kaaa December 1990 Alpha Waves Joystick in French No 11 pp 284 285 Retrieved September 7 2021 Boardman Julian April 1991 Alpha Waves Raze No 6 p 62 Retrieved September 7 2021 Lawton Rod January 1991 Alpha Waves ST Format No 18 p 99 Retrieved September 7 2021 Ghirardelli Aaron February 1991 Alpha Waves The Games Machine in Italian No 28 pp 84 85 Retrieved September 7 2021 a b Scotford Laurence January 1991 Alpha Waves DOS Review The One No 28 emap Images p 86 Taylor Matt July 1991 A Good Time Continuum Computer Gaming World No 84 pp 10 11 Retrieved 18 November 2013 External links EditAlpha Waves for the Amiga at The Hall of Light History of Alpha Waves Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Alpha Waves amp oldid 1161707154, 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