
                        MATRIX

It is 10 years after the infamous Grid wars. You, one of the few
survivors of the Gridrunner squadrons, are sitting watching TV when
suddenly an announcement breaks in:
   "All pilots with Gridrunner experience report to bare immediately.
This is an emergency!"
Arriving at base, you are shown into a briefing room. already thronged
with pilots. The briefing begins:
   "We have brought you here because once again earth it in danger.
The droids have returned - with superior weapons and tactics! We intend
to form a new squadron - Codename MATRIX - of the best pilots to combat
this menace!
   You will be flying the latest fighters - capable of operation on or
off the power matrix and with improved firepower and manoeuverability.
   However, the droids have better weapons, to.... Scouts have
reported droids dropping bombs and flying at crazy angles, and areas
out in space with forcefields which are liable to hurl your fire
straight back at you!
   We also believe the droids are attempting some kind of bizarre
psychological disorientation tactics - some pilots have reported
sighting what appeared to be camels running down the matrix....
   We can only advice you to be prepared for anything to happen. You
will be assigned twenty sectors each - Please do your best to clear
all sectors!
   The earth depends on your success!.......
So now you find yourself seated in your fighter as the Power Matrix
slips gently by below you, every nerve taut as you wait to unleash
a stream of white-hot death on the enemy....

MATRIX - CONTROLS

1)  SKILL LEVELS
    There are 20 zones (skill levels). The first 6 only are selectable
    before play. To achieve levels above 6, you must do battle.
    Press F1 to select.

2)  SHIPCONTROL
    This is achieved by joystick. You can move anywhere bar the top
    four lines. Press the red button to fire. Hold it down for
    continous fire.

3)  PAUSE
    Press SHIFT and any letter key to pause action. Press letter key
    again to re-start.

MATRIX - GAME FEATURES


1) DROIDS
   These attack in squads which fragment when hit. They may drop bombs
   if feeling nasty. They will begin diagonal tracking on reaching
   matrix base.

2) COSMIC CAMELOIDS
   These appear in two situations:
   a) TARGET WAVES - Cameloids on their own. Your score counts down
      during these waves. Blast Cameloids fast to keep score level
      or increasing.
   b) IN NORMAL WAVES - Cameloids mix with droids, confusing player
      and causing droids to descend faster.
3) DEFLEXORS
   On waves with Deflexors, your bullets can be deflected into
   different paths. Watch out for ricochets, and learn how the
   deflexors change.

4) DIAGONAL WAVES
   These appear only above wave 6. Droids are liable to begin
   their attack in diagonal tracking phase.

5) ZAPPERS
   Beware the Y BEAM!!

6) THE SNITCH
   The snitch is a traitorous humanoid who appears on zones after
   zone 2. He runs along the top of the Matrix and, if he finds you,
   waves to the aliens to point you out. If he is waving when the Y
   Zapper goes by beneath you, it will zap and destroy yuu.

Note that as you continue up the levels any or all these features can
combine in any one wave!

MYSTERY BONUSES
There are seven bonuses from 2000 to 8000 points. It is up to you to
discover how to score them!

MATRIX - SCORING
For a LEADER DROID     400 pts
For a DRONE DROID      100 pts
For a CAMELOID         106 pts
For a POD               10 pts
For CLEARING A ZONE    1 extra ship


    Look for over 150.000 points. High score is kept and displayed

Design History
--------------

The last of the Grid games, transferred over to the '64 in an intense
3-day hack session just before my holiday in Portugal. The graphics
look a bit thin and weedy if you've been used to the nice fat Vic
display, but the action is very fast. Despite its Centipede roots,
I still look on the Grid series as quite a nice bit of blasting. The
XY cannon makes them just sufficiently different to be a decent blast.
I never did get through all 20 levels without resorting to cheating
(the cheat mode is accessed by holding down Commodore, Shift, CTRL and
a letter key, and is left over from when I was testing the levels),
best I managed legitimately was to reach Level 17.
