''E-Motion'' (also known as ''Sphericule'' or ''The Game of Harmony'') is a 1990 puzzle video game developed by The Assembly Line. It was available for

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and significantly improved graphi ...

, Amstrad CPC,

Atari ST The Atari ST is a line of personal computers from Atari Corporation and the successor to the Atari 8-bit family. The initial model, the Atari 520ST, had limited release in April–June 1985 and was widely available in July. It was the first pers ...

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in the Guinness ...

, MS-DOS, ZX Spectrum, and Game Boy. The Spectrum and Game Boy versions were developed by

The Code Monkeys The Code Monkeys Limited was a British video game developer based in Dewsbury, England and founded in February 1988 by Colin Hogg, Mark Kirkby and Elliot Gay. It was known for porting video games to various platforms. In February 2011, share ...

.The Game of Harmony for Game Boy – MobyGames
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Gameplay

The player controls a round spacecraft, and must work to clear all globes from the screen within a time limit. The playing field wraps around at the edges, so a globe or the ship traveling off the left edge (for example) will re-appear on the right. Globes come in three different colors, and those of the same color will disappear when they collide, whereas differing-colored globes will produce small pods, of the third color. Pods can be collected for more energy, but if they are not picked up quickly, they will turn into globes. There are 50 levels of increasing difficulty. On some levels, elastic bands connect certain globes, or even attach the player's ship to one or more globes. Destroying a globe will remove any elastic band attached to it. In other areas, barriers block the movement of the player and the globes. On difficulty settings above "easy", the globes are somewhat volatile. If they are not cleared within a certain time of their appearance, they will explode and damage the player's ship. If the ship loses enough energy, it is destroyed. There are two kinds of bonus levels, both containing only pods, not full-sized spheres. One bonus level has yellow and blue pods, both of which can be collected, but only blue pods earn points. Collecting a blue pod causes a yellow pod to turn blue. Another bonus level has blue and red pods. Collecting a blue pod earns points, while collecting a red pod ends the bonus level immediately. There are also hidden bonuses available during the game; for example, completing a level by not rotating right earns extra bonus points. The player's spaceship is operated by polar control, as in ''

Spacewar! ''Spacewar!'' is a space combat video game developed in 1962 by Steve Russell in collaboration with Martin Graetz, Wayne Wiitanen, Bob Saunders, Steve Piner, and others. It was written for the newly installed DEC PDP-1 minicomputer at the Mas ...

'' or '' Asteroids'': moving the

joystick A joystick, sometimes called a flight stick, is an input device consisting of a stick that pivots on a base and reports its angle or direction to the device it is controlling. A joystick, also known as the control column, is the principal cont ...

left or right rotates the ship, and pressing the Fire button makes it thrust in whatever direction it is facing. The game's distinguishing feature is its realistic model of kinetics. Objects colliding with each other change their speed and direction in a realistic manner, and the elastic bands affect movement in a realistic fashion as well. The "E" in ''E-Motion'' stands for

Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...

, and he appears in cover art and advertisements. There is a sequel, '' Vaxine'', a more complex 3D shooting game which featured a similar ray traced graphical style to ''E-Motion''. The game was ranked the 30th best game of all time by ''

Amiga Power ''Amiga Power'' (''AP'') was a monthly magazine about Amiga video games. It was published in the United Kingdom by Future plc, and ran for 65 issues, from May 1991 to September 1996. Philosophy ''Amiga Power'' had several principles which com ...

'' in 1991.Amiga Power magazine issue 0, Future Publishing, May 1991

Screenshots

Image:Game of Harmony screenshot.png , MS-DOS version Image:E-Motion title screen.gif , ZX Spectrum title screen Image:E-Motion screenshot.gif , Use of shapes instead of colours on the ZX Spectrum avoid color clash

References

External links

*
''E-Motion''
at Amiga Hall of Light

at Atari Mania * {{lemon64 game, id=827, name=E-Motion 1990 video games Accolade (company) games Amiga games Amstrad CPC games Atari ST games Commodore 64 games Game Boy games DOS games ZX Spectrum games Puzzle video games Video games developed in the United Kingdom