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Welcome to Project 64!

The goal of Project 64 is to preserve Commodore 64 related documents
in electronic text format that might otherwise cease to exist with the
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The Project 64 etext of the Web Dimension help file. Original
Windows(R) help file obtained from the Activision C64 15 Pack was
supplied by Fandango. Converted by the Basic Bombardier. Some of the
information in this etext is assumed to be close enough to the
original hardcopy version until an orginal can be converted, which is
likely to be called WEBDI10B.TXT.

WEBDI10A.TXT, March 1996, etext #25

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Web Dimension

Contents

 General Description   [ 1.0 ]
 How To Play           [ 2.0 ]
 Hints                 [ 3.0 ]
 Game History          [ 4.0 ]



[ 1.0 ] General Description

What if a master software designer was also a great musician? And what
if he took a whole new look at something like Darwin's theory of
evolution - and turned it into a fabulous musical fantasy?

Over one hundred fifty years ago, Charles Darwin developed his theory
of evolution.

It's about time somebody made it hip.

A very unique computerized music video with an electrifying
evolutionary web rocked by exquisite visual effects and eleven
outrageous tunes.

How to Enjoy the Biggest Event Since the Big Bang.

To fully appreciate the Web Dimension experience, we suggest you first
stretch forth your arms and deftly crack your knuckles (a ritual
attributed to early Neanderthal Man).

Then, after the pain subsides, turn off all the lights in your room
and turn up your TV. (It's getting fun now, isn't it?)

In the Beginning A grey web will form before you. Life will spring
majestically from it. Atoms, amoebas, planets and more. Primitive? Yes.
But also, potentially, quite satisfying.

As the atoms and other organisms slide smoothly out along the web, you
must attempt to connect with them in just the proper way. If you're
successful, even more fantastic creatures and wondrously wild music
will be your reward. If you're successful.

The Missing Link Yes, there are rules to our little electronic
universe. However, wouldn't it be much more fun if you took your first
steps up the evolutionary ladder all on your own?

So, for now, it will suffice to say that you rendezvous with life at
the crossroads of existence (the nodes of the web). But the key is to
get there first. And then, figure out the rest.

(Just remember how much poor Cro-Magnon Man achieved 30,000 years ago:
the wheel. Fire. Cave graffiti. And he didn't even have a 64K RAM PC
with a full graphics utility. Let alone printed instructions.)

Evolution of the Blues If you're clever and cool enough, you'll evolve
to the blue web. A world of incredible music and color. Here,
organisms live out their days quite differently. Painted paths will
appear through time and space.

(The neighborhood has really taken a turn.) Again, connection is the
key. But sometimes, and in some places, not touching is even more
critical.

But we've said too much already. Experiment. Take your time. This is
all new ground. Leading-edge stuff. You'll get there eventually. (But,
if you don't, there's always the How to Play section.)



[ 2.0 ] How to Play

Basics

How to Start

Press F1 to start the game.

The Object

To experience, enjoy, create. There is no beginning, no end, no rules,
no lives to be lost, no score to be gained. Watch. Listen. Learn.

Evolve.

It is suggested that you try to figure out the objective, hazards, and
rewards of the game without reading these instructions.

The Process

There are eight levels of evolution. Each level has three phases:

 Phase 1: Freeze all organisms into energy clusters.
 Phase 2: Stabilize all energy clusters.
 Phase 3: The transitional phase that moves you to
          the next level with a musical reward.

Levels increase in difficulty, and the sequence keeps repeating.

The Procedure

Phase 1: Grey Web. Freeze organisms into energy clusters. To do so,
arrive at an intersection (node) of web strands before an organism
gets there. As it approaches, hold down the joystick button.

Caution: All organisms 'paint over' their paths, but the color
disappears when they reach the path's end. Touching a painted path or
crashing into an organism when it is not at an intersection will set
you back to the start of Phase 1.

Phase 2: Blue Web. To stabilize energy clusters, go over them with the
fire button pressed. You do not have to be at a node. In this phase,
the energy clusters don't paint their paths, but you do. Touching your
own painted path will set you back to the start of Phase 2.

Phase 3: Incredible music. Lights. Color. A new epoch is about to
begin. Enjoy, because there's level after level of fantastic creatures
yearning to evolve from the web.



Joystick

Use the joystick to move your on-screen character. Maneuvering around
the web takes a bit of getting used to at first, as you don't always
move in the opposite direction to go back the way you came.



[ 3.0 ] Hints

Relax. Enjoy the game. You have as many lives as you need. Evolve at
your own pace.

We've found Web Dimension to be an excellent thing to do while on the
phone, since there is no pressure to do well. Hey - it beats doodling.



[ 4.0 ] Game History

Russell Lieblich, Designer and Programmer

"Similar to Master of the Lamps, I wanted to create a really trippy
sound-light sculpture; in retrospect, a really primitive screen saver.
Making a game out of it was an ancillary chore. To the best of my
knowledge, nobody was doing anything even like it at the time."

On sound technology then and now: "There was only one sound chip in
the C64, the 'SID' chip, which did both sound and music. There was no
MIDI back then. All you had was this 4-tone analog oscillator. It
could put out a triangle wave, sawtooth wave, pulse, and it had a
noise generator, and that was it! Music and sound then was completely
table driven, based on an interrupt timer. There was no such thing as
a 'MIDI stream' - it was completely macro-driven. In other words, the
data was stored as 'Tone=C4, Duration=8th note'. Web Dimension was yet
another example of how we did stuff back then that was never done
before - looking back on it, to do the sounds and music in Web
Dimension without MIDI was quite a feat."

Before joining forces with Activision, Russ spent most of his time
studying music. Russ currently owns a recording studio in the San
Francisco area, and occasionally works on computer game projects. He
plays the keyboard primarily, but is also a professional saxophone
player. He also did the music for a CD game called "The Manhole".

From the Web Dimension box: Russ is a man of music. And science. He
has degrees in both. It is from these seemingly opposite interests
that Web Dimension was born. And certain scientific theories were,
shall we say, updated. (We'd like to think Darwin would have gotten a
kick out of it.)

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End of the Project 64 etext of the Web Dimension help file.

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