HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Game Wave Family Entertainment System, commonly abbreviated as Game Wave, is a hybrid
DVD player A DVD player is a machine that plays DVDs produced under both the DVD-Video and DVD-Audio technical standards, two different and incompatible standards. Some DVD players will also play audio CDs. DVD players are connected to a television to ...
and
home video game console A home video game console is a video game console that is designed to be connected to a display device, such as a television, and an external power source as to play video games. While initial consoles were dedicated units with only a few game ...
manufactured by ZAPiT Games. It is part of the
seventh generation of video game consoles The seventh generation of home video game consoles began on November 22, 2005, with the release of Microsoft's Xbox 360 home console. This was followed by the release of Sony's PlayStation 3 on November 17, 2006, and Nintendo's Wii on November ...
.


History

In October 2004 the first Game Wave prototype system was made. It was first released in
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
in October
2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...
. It was released in the
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
at an MSRP of $99. It was packaged with the
pack-in game Since the origin of video games in the early 1970s, the video game industry, the players, and surrounding culture have spawned a wide range of technical and slang terms. 0–9 A ...
''4 Degrees: The Arc of Trivia, Vol. 1'' (later changed to ''VeggieTales: Veg-Out! Family Tournament''). Because of the use of family friendly games and a partnership with
VeggieTales ''VeggieTales'' is an American Christian media, Christian Computer animated, CGI-animated series and multimedia franchise created by Phil Vischer and Mike Nawrocki under Big Idea Entertainment. The series stars Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumb ...
, the system found some success with
Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...
households. The system was discontinued in 2009. A followup console had been planned for 2009.


Hardware

The Game Wave was packaged with both
RCA RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded in 1919 as the Radio Corporation of America. It was initially a patent pool, patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Westinghou ...
and
S-Video S-Video (also known as separate video, Y/C, and erroneously Super-Video) is an analog video signal format that carries standard-definition video, typically at 525 lines or 625 lines. It encodes video luma and chrominance on two separate chann ...
cables, along with 4 IR-based wireless controllers (modeled after typical DVD remote controllers) and a case that holds up to 6 controllers. The case and console are designed to sit side-by-side on a shelf to form a complete wave shape. The primary processor of the system is the Mediamatics 8611, which is coupled with 16 megabytes of SRAM and 2 megabytes of NOR flash memory storage. An
Altera Altera Corporation is a manufacturer of programmable logic devices (PLDs) headquartered in San Jose, California. It was founded in 1983 and acquired by Intel in 2015 before becoming independent once again in 2025 as a company focused on developm ...
MAX II
CPLD A complex programmable logic device (CPLD) is a programmable logic device with complexity between that of PALs and FPGAs, and architectural features of both. The main building block of the CPLD is a macrocell, which contains logic implementi ...
is also used. An Atmel serial
EEPROM EEPROM or E2PROM (electrically erasable programmable read-only memory) is a type of non-volatile memory. It is used in computers, usually integrated in microcontrollers such as smart cards and remote keyless systems, or as a separate chip d ...
is used for save data. The system uses a dedicated 2 channel audio DAC in order to avoid royalties for the one integrated in the Mediamatics processor. Game software for the Game Wave Family Entertainment System is typically scripted in Lua. The system can operate as a typical DVD player.


Controllers

The Game Wave controller has 4-directional navigational buttons used for menu navigation and DVD playback control. The controller has 4 alphabetical buttons along the top labeled "A", "B", "C", and "D" designed primarily for selecting responses in trivia games. A
numeric keypad A numeric keypad, number pad, numpad, or ten key, is the calculator-style group of ten numeric keys accompanied by other keys, usually on the far right side of computer keyboard. This grouping allows quick number entry with right hand, ...
lines the bottom of the controller with Menu and Setup buttons. The Game Wave controllers came in 6 colors: blue, yellow, green, red, purple, and orange. Blue, yellow, green, and red come packaged with the console, whereas the purple and orange controllers could be purchased separately for an MSRP of $30. Each controller color has a different IR beat frequency, allowing the console to differentiate the different controllers for
multiplayer A multiplayer video game is a video game in which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time, either locally on the same computing system (couch co-op), on different computing systems via a local area network, or ...
gameplay for up to 6 players (if the game in question supports it).


Games

Due to the shape of the controller and marketing concerns for a "Family Entertainment System," no heavily action-based game genres are present within the Game Wave's 13 game library. Rather, the software library consists mainly of
trivia Trivia is information and data that are considered to be of little value. Modern usage of the term ''trivia'' dates to the 1960s, when college students introduced question-and-answer contests to their universities. A board game, ''Trivial Purs ...
and puzzle games. In addition, many Game Wave games are heavily inspired by other video games and TV shows. A 14th game, Quiz Konnect was developed for the
India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
market.


References


External links

* (Archived)
Game Wave - Video Game Review
at
Common Sense Media Common Sense Media (CSM) is an American nonprofit organization that reviews and provides ratings for media and technology with the goal of providing information on their suitability for children.
{{Home video game consoles Seventh-generation video game consoles Hardware DVD players Home video game consoles Products introduced in 2005 DVD interactive technology Discontinued video game consoles Video gaming in Canada