	     Alpha Waves
             Infogrames, 1991

             System and control issues:
             The game supports CGA, EGA, Tandy, Hercules and VGA graphics. It
             doesn't have any weird memory requirements, as I recall playing it 
             happily on my 512K 8088 machine, of course YMMV. The internal speaker
             sound is decent, too (if somewhat annoying after a while). 

              There is a good demo that shows how to control the ship - you use
             the arrows for direction and camera positioning, and space for
             thrust.

             Description and instructions:
              Alpha Waves is an action/puzzle 3D game, with vector graphics which
             remind me of Elite. You control what the French designers call a
             "mobile", which bounces around on tiles which are scattered in 
             huge cubic rooms. Your short-term objective is generally to reach 
             the exit of the room, but read below for more.

              There are six different mobiles to choose from, with each one having a
             uinque appearance, but (correct me on that if I'm wrong) not affecting
             gameplay as far as I have noticed. You pick one based on aesthetic
             preferences - my favourite is no. 5, for all it's worth.

              There are lots of different tiles that have different properties - one
             may make your mobile jump ever higher (usually placed on floors), others
             may move around, yet others might be slanted and send you flying off
             sideways. 

              In a few levels, there are wandering creatures / robots / whatever.
             They generally aren't very aggressive, but contact with some of them
             will destroy your mobile, while others will bounce you around. Rooms
             with such critters are quite hard, generally.

              Certain exits have a blue spinning cube superimposed - this means you
             can't use the exit yet, and the cube will bounce you a long way up and
             sideways - this might come in handy in some levels. The exits are opened
             when you find such a cube (by itself) in a room and touch it. I am
             unsure of this, but touching crystals (see below) might open up exits as
             well.

              The game has two modes, with different objectives for each mode:

              In "Action" mode, your objective is to find all 10 (one for each area) 
             of the crystals scattered throughout the game map, and touch them with
             your mobile - they will shatter, and once you've found them all, you'll
             presumably  win the game. The catch is that you have limited time, but
             you gain time by entering unexplored rooms and (if I remember
             correctly), by shattering crystals. You always begin in the center of
             the map in this mode.

              In "Emotion" mode, you choose an area of the game map which represents
             the state of mind you wish to reach, and the game starts from the
             starting room in that particular area. 

              The colors, music and nature of the rooms of each area are supposed to
             help you reach that state of mind, by playing on your brain's
             frequencies. (Alpha, gamma(?) and theta waves, if I remember the manual
             correctly. Hence the game's name.) 

              You just keep playing, with no scores or time limit. This is the
             easier of the two modes, and lets you explore areas you might not reach 
             easily in the action game. This is the mode to start learning the game
             in.

              NOTE: I am personally sceptical about the brain-wave thing, 
             still, it might work for you. The game does have a hypnotic or
             trance-inducing effect for me, but not more than other games ;) 
             Anyone with a spare EEG (electroencephalogram) machine could 
             probably verify the designers' claims, so let me know when you
             do. :)
              
              I like this game a lot, even after all these years. The
             brain-affecting concept is innovative to say the least, and the
             implementation is excellent for its level of technology. Even if you
             disregard this, the game is definitely one-of-a-kind in its game
             design concepts, and the pretty colors are nice, too. :)

              There are some points that might turn you off the game. These are:
             - The game is somewhat hard, especially in action mode. The time limit
             is rather restrictive, and won't forgive many mistakes.

             - Even worse, in some rooms, if you fall off the midair tiles, there is
             *no* *way* to climb back up again. Even with the quick save/load
             feature, this is very frustrating.

             - The game seems to run way too fast (approx. twice the speed) on my
             PPro-200 NT machine at work. I haven't tried it at my home machine yet,
             as this is being written on a hurry. You might need a slowing-down
             utility to play this as it was meant to.

             Disclaimer:
              Alpha Waves is copyright Infogrames(1990). You probably should own this
             game before playing it. Don't hurt your PC while running this game, and
             if you do, please don't blame me. 

             For notes, comments, corrections on this document contact:
             Vangelis Haniotakis
             haniotak@ucnet.uoc.gr
