ECS no. 1

ECS

ECS no. 2
ECS no. 3

ECS

ECS no. 4
OCS no. 1

OCS

OCS no. 2

Sphericule [Prerelease name] / E-Motion / Game Of Harmony, The

General info

Not Amiga Original

Relationships

WHDLoad

2002-09-17

Stats

13,640

Genre

Conversions

Amstrad/Schneider CPC464/664/6128
Atari ST/E
Commodore C64/128
Nintendo Game Boy
PC (DOS)
Tandy PC/IBM PCjr

OCS

Version info

No
Max 2, Sim 2

Features

Hard Disk Installer

Unknown

Compilations

Releases

Year
Name
Licence
Type
Country
Publisher
Languages
Manual Languages
Disks
Rarity
1989
Sphericule (Pre-release name)
Commercial
Full Price
Worldwide
English
1
Unknown

Notes

[1] Game concept & design by John Dale and The Assembly Line team. Coding by Adrian Stephens. Graphics by The Assembly Line; additional artwork by Nick Pavis (Blue Turtle). Music by John Dale and Adrian Stephens; sound FX by John Dale.

[2] Released in the U.S. as THE GAME OF HARMONY and elsewhere as E-MOTION.


TRIVIA: Game designer John Dale took inspiration from the classic arcade games ASTEROIDS and JOUST in coming up with the concept for THE GAME OF HARMONY (aka E-MOTION). In a 1990 interview he explained the thought processes behind his conception of the game:

"My job is to have ideas - I just sit around and have them. There was a little bit of thinking about the fact that there haven't been many games which use the 'Asteroids' type motion. You know: rotate and thrust. But at the same time we thought: 'What can we do that's different to Asteroids?' We had the idea for the ship that rotates and moves and then we thought: 'Well what's it going to do if it's not going to shoot things? Let's try pushing things around and see what we can do.' And we did."

"You push two different coloured ones together and they become a pod.... that's an idea from Joust (an ageing Williams arcade game, which unfortunately only ever made it onto the ST, and even then not very accurately). You know, when you kill a bird it drops an egg? Well, if you don't get the egg it hatches out into another bird. So we kind of 'borrowed' that idea, in as much as you generate pods, and if you don't get the pods they grow into full size balls again. So the idea just got built up, really."

[Source: The Assembly Line interview, The One for 16-bit Games (Issue 18, Mar 90, p44); courtesy of the Amiga Magazine Rack].


 

Conversion Notes

ECS / OCS

Version info

No
Max 2, Sim 2

Features

Releases

Year
Name
Licence
Type
Country
Publisher
Languages
Manual Languages
Disks
Rarity
1990
E-Motion
Commercial
Full Price
Rest of the World
English
English, French, German, Italian
1
One version is common, at least one other version is rare
1990
Game Of Harmony, The
Commercial
Full Price
USA
English
English
1
Rare
1991
E-Motion
Commercial
Budget
Worldwide
English
English, French, German, Italian
1
One version is common, at least one other version is rare
1994
E-Motion
Commercial
Budget
Worldwide
English
English, French, German, Italian
1
One version is common, at least one other version is rare

Notes

[1] Game concept & design by John Dale and The Assembly Line team. Coding by Adrian Stephens. Graphics by The Assembly Line; additional artwork by Nick Pavis (Blue Turtle). Music by John Dale and Adrian Stephens; sound FX by John Dale.

[2] The "E" in E-MOTION stands for Einstein, who appears on the titlescreen, the game box and in the UK game advert.

[3] Released outside the U.S. as E-MOTION, in the U.S. as THE GAME OF HARMONY, and also known as SPHERICULE.

[4] Magazine Publisher:The One Amiga no. 32, May 1991 [downloadHERE].

[5] Budget Publisher: Kixx release no. 6 in the series of single disk dual-format (PC/Amiga) budget releases.


TRIVIA: Game designer John Dale took inspiration from the classic arcade games ASTEROIDS and JOUST in coming up with the concept for E-MOTION. In a 1990 interview he explained the thought processes behind his conception of the game:

"My job is to have ideas - I just sit around and have them. There was a little bit of thinking about the fact that there haven't been many games which use the 'Asteroids' type motion. You know: rotate and thrust. But at the same time we thought: 'What can we do that's different to Asteroids?' We had the idea for the ship that rotates and moves and then we thought: 'Well what's it going to do if it's not going to shoot things? Let's try pushing things around and see what we can do.' And we did."

"You push two different coloured ones together and they become a pod.... that's an idea from Joust (an ageing Williams arcade game, which unfortunately only ever made it onto the ST, and even then not very accurately). You know, when you kill a bird it drops an egg? Well, if you don't get the egg it hatches out into another bird. So we kind of 'borrowed' that idea, in as much as you generate pods, and if you don't get the pods they grow into full size balls again. So the idea just got built up, really."

[Source: The Assembly Line interview, The One for 16-bit Games (Issue 18, Mar 90, p44); courtesy of the Amiga Magazine Rack].

Conversion Notes

Based on 1990 Assembly Line/U.S. Gold Atari ST release.

PC versions: CGA, EGA, MCGA/VGA, Tandy

N.B. A PSX conversion was started, but never released.

Screen info

OCS
ECS / OCS
Screenshot ECS no. 5

Screenshot ECS no. 6

Screenshot ECS no. 7

Screenshot ECS no. 8

Screenshot ECS no. 9

Screenshot ECS no. 10

Screenshot ECS no. 11

Screenshot ECS no. 12

Screenshot ECS no. 13

Screenshot ECS no. 14

Screenshot ECS no. 15

Box: OCS
Box: ECS / OCS
Box scan ECS no. 1

European Release (front) [Source: Moby Games]

Box scan ECS no. 2

European Release (back) [Source: Moby Games]

Box scan ECS no. 3

Budget Release (front) [Multilanguage]

Box scan ECS no. 4

Budget Release (back) [Multilanguage]

Box scan ECS no. 5

Budget Release (front) [Finnish]

Box scan ECS no. 6

Budget Release (back) [Finnish]

Disk: OCS
Disk: ECS / OCS
Disk scan ECS no. 1

European Release [Source: Moby Games]

Disk scan ECS no. 2

Budget Release

Disk scan ECS no. 3

Coverdisk Release [Source: The One for Amiga Games, Issue 32, May 91]

Misc: OCS
Misc: ECS / OCS
ECS no. 1

UK Advert (Amiga Format, Issue 12, 7/1990, Pages 48 & 49)

ECS no. 2

UK Advert [Source: Atari Mania]

ECS no. 3

French Advert [Source: Atari Mania]

ECS no. 4

German Advert (ASM 5/1990, Page 51)

ECS no. 5

UK Advert (CU Amiga 9/1994, Page 180) [Budget, Kixx]

Manual info

OCS

No manuals found.

ECS / OCS
ECS no. 1

Instructions (English/German/French/Italian) [Source: Retro Commodore]

OCS

No cheats found.

ECS / OCS

When the picture of Einstein appears the second time, type “MOONUNIT” and press ‘RETURN’. Now use the following keys during play:

 

‘F1’______________________Forward a level.

‘F2’_________________________Back a level.

‘F3’___________________Forward ten levels.

‘F4’______________________Back ten levels.

There are five ways you can complete a level and gain a hidden bonus:

 

- Finish a level with the last digit of the timer as a three.

- Complete a level collecting exactly 4 pods.

- Completely fail a bonus level by doing everything wrong.

- Complete a screen without wrapping around the screen.

- Finish a level without rotating your ship right (clockwise).

Amstrad/Schneider CPC464/664/6128
Conversion Amstrad/Schneider CPC464/664/6128

Conversion Amstrad/Schneider CPC464/664/6128

Atari ST/E
Conversion Atari ST/E

Conversion Atari ST/E

Commodore C64/128
Conversion Commodore C64/128

Conversion Commodore C64/128

Nintendo Game Boy
Conversion Nintendo Game Boy

Conversion Nintendo Game Boy

Conversion Nintendo Game Boy

Conversion Nintendo Game Boy

PC (DOS)
Conversion PC (DOS)

VGA

Conversion PC (DOS)

Conversion PC (DOS)

CGA

Conversion PC (DOS)

Conversion PC (DOS)

EGA

Conversion PC (DOS)

Conversion PC (DOS)

VGA

Conversion PC (DOS)

Tandy PC/IBM PCjr
No conversion screens found.

Map info

OCS

No maps found.

ECS / OCS

No maps found.

MAGAZINE REVIEWS

Magazine
Issue
Rating
Reviewer
Release type
Review
Scans
Info
32 (Sep 1990)
4/5
Tom Malcolm
1
ACE: Advanced Computer Entertainment
ACE 32 (May 1990)
890/1000
Laurence Scotford
1
ACE: Advanced Computer Entertainment
45 (Jun 1991)
1
Amiga Action
8 (May 1990)
81%
Steve Merrett
Doug Johns
Alex Simmons
0
Amiga Action
64 (Dec 1994)
88%
Steve McNally
Re-release
0
Amiga Computing
Vol 2 No 12 (May 1990)
81%
Green
1
Amiga Force
7 (Jul 1993)
71%
Ian Osborne
Roundup
1
Amiga Joker
May 1990
86%
Michael Labiner
1
Amiga Joker
Nov 1994
Joachim Nettelbeck
Re-release
1
Amiga Power
42 (Oct 1994)
22%
Jonathan Nash
Re-release
1
Australian Commodore and Amiga Review
Vol 7 No 8 (Aug 1990)
73%
0
Computer + Video Games
101 (Apr 1990)
95%
Paul Rand
0
CU Amiga
Apr 1990
74%
Mark Heley
1
CU Amiga
Mar 1991
Roundup
1
Datormagazin
No 9 (May 1990)
8/10
Göran Fröjdh
1
Génération 4
21 (Apr 1990)
91%
0
Joystick
6 (Jun 1990)
91%
JM Destroy
0
The Games Machine
29 (Apr 1990)
90%
Mark Caswell
1
The One
18 (Mar 1990)
92%
Gary Whitta
3
Zero
7 (May 1990)
82%
Tim Ponting
1
Zzap
60 (Apr 1990)
89%
Robin Hogg
Phil King
0

MAGAZINE PREVIEWS

Magazine
Issue
Rating
Reviewer
Release type
Review
Scans
Amiga Joker
Apr 1990
Preview (in-depth)
1
Génération 4
20 (Mar 1990)
Preview
0

OCS

Lore Score: n/a

Your Score:

ECS / OCS

Lore Score: 76%

Your Score:

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