E-Motion

E-Motion or Sphericule or The Game of Harmony
Cover art for the Game Boy version
Developer(s)	The Assembly Line The Code Monkeys
Publisher(s)	US - Accolade Non-US - U.S. Gold
Platform(s)	Amiga Amstrad CPC Atari ST Commodore 64 DOS ZX Spectrum Game Boy
Release	1990
Genre(s)	Strategy, action, puzzle
Mode(s)	Single player

E-Motion (also known as Sphericule) is a strategy video game developed by The Assembly Line in the late 1980s. It was published as The Game of Harmony in the United States by Accolade, and as E-Motion by U.S. Gold elsewhere. It was available for Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS, ZX Spectrum, and Game Boy. The Spectrum and Game Boy versions were developed by The Code Monkeys.

The player controls a round spacecraft, and must work to clear all globes from the screen within a time limit. 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, and in others, 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 your ship. If your 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.

The player's spaceship is operated by polar control, as in Spacewar!: moving the joystick 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 way.

The "E" in the title of E-Motion stands for Einstein, 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.

Screenshots

• 
  Screenshot of the Game Boy Color version
• 
  Title screen for the ZX Spectrum version of E-Motion
• 
  Note the use of shapes instead of colours on the ZX Spectrum in order to avoid colour clash

External links

• E-Motion at SpectrumComputing.co.uk