Alpha Waves / Continuum - Early 3D game

[zakopako82]

is not really the first 3D polygon based, but is the first 3D platform game :) the first flat-shaded 3d game is "I robot" in 1983.

[christophe3d]

@greatxerox Je ne sais pas comment éliminer le scintillement dans Dosbox. Je ne l'avais pas noté la dernière fois que j'ai essayé, mais c'était sur un serveur Itanium via Remote Desktop en émulation x86 dans une machine virtuelle HPVM. Du coup, j'avais peut être le ralentissement sans même le demander…

[greatxerox]

@christophe3d merci pour ta réponse. dommage pour le pb de scintillement :) A quand un remake de ce jeu que l'on peut qualifier d'historique ?

[LUDOIDtheFly]

@christophe3d Aurais-tu gardé les sources de la version PC ??? Les miennes ont disparu avec le crash du disque dur sur lequel elles étaient :( Un petit vsync bien placé devrait corriger ce problème de flash... Fred ;)

[cee3d]

@ApacheMan2K Google "Dawn of 3D games", you'll see a blog post I wrote a while back about what inspired me. Among other things a game called Starglider II, but also the Smurfs.

[mewtwo711]

Beat Mario 64 by quite a bit, there.

[icycoolstudios]

ive got a rhyme old school cool i think this is cool but i have never played it before

[redfoxbennaton]

What is even?

[rudiangath]

There were lots of 3D games before that, like Night driver, Star Wars, Star Raiders, Tempest, I Robot, Elite, some Vectrex games, Mercenary, Rescue on Fractalus, Star Glider (2), Stunt Car Racer, Flight Simulations like Falcon and so on.

Still, this one looks pretty good.

[mspeter97]

@rudiangath 3D WITH polygons!

Night Drive was using sprites to immitate 3D!

[rudiangath]

@mspeter97 Yes, I know.

I was just giving some overall examples of early 3D games, and some of them using polygons - wireframes in Elite or filled polygons with flat shading in I Robot (first?).

Maybe I should have mentioned Way Out from 1982, because it *looks* somewhat like filled polygons - but that's almost impossible on an 8-bit machine at that speed (it's probably raycasting, a first?).

I'm not sure if Night Driver really uses "sprites" though.

[mspeter97]

@rudiangath Night Driver used a sort of sprite magnification technique witch was complex for the time,

that's why it was during night time (I suppose..)

[rudiangath]

@mspeter97 Yeah, but since "sprites" were graphical objects indepentent of the background (so that the background wasn't overdrawn), and Night Driver doesn't have a "background" (i.e. background image), there is no need for "sprites". There was no need for hardware sprites or software sprites in Night Driver.

Probably it's just simple graphic drawing routines.

[mspeter97]

@rudiangath but f we count those blank lines that come closer when advancing as a background animation it's a sprite

[rudiangath]

@mspeter97 Sprites are "graphical overlays".

But if you want to call pixel drawing sprites, than call it sprites ;-)

(I used to program animations without sprites)

[christophe3d]

And for the record, this game made the "Guiness Book of Records", gamers edition.

[christophe3d]

The music was done by a guy named Frederic Mentzen. I am not aware that it can be downloaded anywhere. I'll see if I can address that.

[christophe3d]

Many asked what I'm doing these days. Google "Taodyne". I am still doing 3D, but applied to presentations. And we are talking about "real" 3D too, Avatar style, if your hardware permits it. We have a beta available for download if you are interested. Please mention "Alpha Waves" in the comments area of the subscription page.

[fudman02]

Still looks better than most current "indie" games

[MrBigzKY]

The music. I'm in fucking LOVE!

[PeterOnoLennon]

pretty cool.

[JohnshiBRPG]

Uniquely, it's one of those platforming games that you can't jump, but rely on trampolines to gain height.

[happychords86]

Awesome at that time. Wondering how the computing power being utilize to produce such result at that time. Memory is limited and it is still running smooth...

[grinick]

This is so fluid, feels so 'physical' in a strange way. Awesome to see such a unique game style

[holegus]

I did play this game! Until it made me feel really insane for a moment, so I quit :)

Wow! :))

[thatsistheguy]

It sucks. The first 3D platformer originated on the PC yet the PC has only about 5 notable one not on other consoles. 2D platformers are in quite an abundance on PC, just not 3D ones.

[proman84]

That's awesome. Would love to see more of your work.

[TheKjaer]

I have been looking for that game music for many years now... Thank you so much!

Does anyone know, where you might be able to download it?

[Ryoku75]

Battlezone came earlier but didn't play in a fully 3D area..

[xrror]

This game was also one of the few that actually showed what the AdLib could do. Need to find some way to export the music from this game, it's amazing.

[PATooTHEooGREASER]

If you like this game, google and download VVVVV the game. Pure Genius.

[RABBIDGamfan]

I'd like to see videos of the other versions of this game, particularly the split-screen multiplayer mode on the original Atari ST version.

[GotNextVideo]

Wasn't the first polygon game by a longshot, but it was the first 3D platform game. And generally great.

I think this was also the first time a DOS game sounded better than its Amiga counterpart, too.

[Amaranthus616]

@GotNextVideo yeah, last i heard the first fully 3d polygon game was i robot, from 1983

[GotNextVideo]

@Amaranthus616 That was the first one using filled polygons, but there were wireframe 3D games going back to the mid 70s. Spasim, Panther, and the like.

[Amaranthus616]

@GotNextVideo indeed, maze war too. a lot of those games are pretty interesting i think

its funny how all these different styled and types of games started a lot earlier than people think they did

[kushka53]

god what an irritating game

[christophe3d]

Hi, I'm the author of that game. If you want to know more about its genesis, Google "Dawn of 3D games".

To Zanik99, yes, you could complete the game by hitting 16 special star-shaped objects. I did complete the game twice to make sure it could be done. I'm not sure anybody else did :-)

[no1DdC]

Your blog entry about the development of this milestone in gaming history was very informative and well written. It's a shame that your game is not that well known and often overseen.

[nutherefurlong]

You really can complete it? I had no idea. I loved the moods this game had. Even after playing so many others I still remember it.

[ThrilloVanHouten]

Really? Let me say that I loved this game as a child; it was the first polygonal game that I played and I thought it looked cool. The gameplay wasn't perfect but it was unique and always fun. All my friends liked the game too. And I absolutely loved spacing out to the music (although I believe someone else created it, but still).

Thank you very much for your hard work!

[JDoucette]

@christophe3d I'm sure I had this game... Christopher, do you still do 3D or game coding?

[christophe3d]

@JDoucette Back to 3D after several years on compilers, virtualization, real-time

[MonoCabron123]

@christophe3d Alpha Waves is not only a great game, but also features an outstanding musical score. Is there any way to get the music?

[pHr33kAcHu]

@christophe3d dude you are awesome this game rocks!

[Drfusebox]

@christophe3d You did 1990's hardware some justice

[mickmils]

@christophe3d Je ne suis pas sur de pourquoi je jouais ce jeu, mais je lui trouvais a l'époque une sorte de pouvoir hypnotique ! Félicitations pour ce succès un peu bizarre à nos yeux d'aujourd'hui :)

[ApacheMan2K]

@christophe3d You designed this game? =O This was definitely revolutionary for its time; and I understand this game came out one year before "Alone in the Dark" did. I remember playing this, only it's called "Continuum" here in North America.

Anyway, what would you say inspired you to make this game?

[greatxerox]

@christophe3d bravo pour ce jeu tres original Christophe que j'avais découvert sur pc à l'époque. comment fait on pour faire disparaitre ce scintillement incessant tout en gardant une bonne fluidité ? j'ai essayé sur dosbox, le scintillement disparait si on fait réduit la vitesse d'émulation, mais le jeu est alors trop lent. :/ merci

[Zanik99]

I never understood this game. How could you complete it? Was this some kind of 3d-maze?

[christophe3d]

@Zanik99 To complete it, you had to find 16 star-shaped thingies, each of which unlocked new areas in the maze.

[mathchadwick]

i loved this game

[BaranTheBad]

This was much slower on an amiga

[SEGnosis]

holy shit i remember playing this for months