

*********

The Project 64 etext of the ~Beamrider instructions and help file~.
Instructions were converted to etext by Peter Karlsson <pk@abc.se>.
Original Windows(R) Beamrider help file obtained from the Activision
C64 15 Pack was supplied by Fandango and converted by the Basic
Bombardier.

BEAMRI20.TXT, August 1998, etext #407#. This replaces BEAMR10A.TXT
(100).

*********

Ride those beams and make it through the matrix alive!

BEAMRIDER
(c) 1983 1984 ACTIVISION INC.

THE GAME

A huge beam matrix has formed within the vicinity of your home planet,
and beamer ships are at this very moment launching an attack. Your
mission is to infiltrate the matrix and annihilate all enemy craft.

LOADING

COMMODORE 64 OWNERS:

1. Connect the cassette unit to you Commodore according to the User
Manual.
2. Place the rewound cassette into the cassette unit, and press PLAY.
3. Press RUN/STOP and SHIFT simultaneously on your Commodore.

COMMODORE 128 OWNERS:

1. Switch OFF your Commodore 128, and switch it back on whilst holding
down the COMMODORE key.
2. Now follow the instructions for Commodore 64 owners above.

NOTE: Full loading instructions can be found in your Commmodore
Manual.

PLAYING THE GAME
JOYSTICK CONTROLS

  Left = Move left
  Right = Move Right
  Up = Fire Energy Torpedo
  Fire = Fire Laser Bold

Beamrider is a game for one or two players and can be started from
sectors 1, 5 or 10 by pressing the function keys.

Your vessel appears at the bottom of the screen. There are seven
different types of beamer ship to be dealt with, the most important of
which are the white saucers, 15 of which must be destroyed before one
can proceed to the next level. You must also be careful to avoid the
indestructable 'Kamikaze' craft. Contact with th eyellow rejuvenators
adds another ship to your reserve. However, if shot, the burning
debris hurtles towards you and contect then proves fatal.

When the 15 saucers have been destroyed, you must attempt to destroy
the Mother Ship, which is guarded by swarms of green suicide ships. To
destroy the Mother Ship, you have 3 energy torpedos, launched by
pressing the joystick forward. A direct hit from the torpedo causes
the Mother Ship to explode, and a bonus is awarded according to the
level and the number of ships remaining.


WARNING: Copyright subsists in all Firebird Software, documentation
and artwork. All rights reserved. No part of this sofware may be
copied, transmitted in any form, or by any means, hired or lent
without the express permission of the publisher.

If this program is faulty, or fails to load, please return it to the
address below CLEARLY MARKED 'RETURNS' and it will be replaced free of
charge. This offer does not affect your statutory customer rights.

Firebird Software, First Floor, 64-76 New Oxford Street, London WC1A
1PS

Firebird and the Firebird logo are registered trademarks of British
Telecommunications plc

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End of Beamrider instructions.
Start of Beamrider help file.

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Beamrider

Contents

 General Description   [ 1.0 ]
 How To Play           [ 2.0 ]
 Scoring               [ 3.0 ]
 Hints                 [ 4.0 ]
 Game History          [ 5.0 ]
 Troubleshooting       [ 6.0 ]



[ 1.0 ] General Description

3-D. Dark. Dangerous. Demanding.

A beam matrix of iridescent blue engulfs the distant blackness of
EarthSpace. You stand watching. First mesmerized, you now realize the
beams carry weapons. Frightening creations in endless configurations.
Intriguing to watch, but will you - yes you, dear reader - take
action? You will??!! Then roll up your sleeves, mount these beams,
and...ride!!!

Animated graphics create a 3-D perspective that virtually pulls you
into the screen. Pulsating sound effects intensify the constant array
of new objects that zip from beam to beam. Beamrider combines
tomorrow's technology with designer Dave Rolfe's fantastic imagination
to forge the challenge you'll return to again and again!

The Restrictor Shield, 99 sectors deep, now surrounds the Earth. You
are the Beamrider, on a mission to clear the Shield. There you must
demolish an onslaught of alien frights as you dodge from beam to beam.
Sector after sector, the deluge deepens...

Award Winning!

Winner - 1983 "Video Review" Magazine Computer Game of the Year

Beamrider won the 1984 ViRA Best Computer Game award for the year 1983.
The ViRA is an award given out by Video Review magazine for the most
ground-breaking product in a field. Beamrider's three-dimensional
graphics were extremely realistic for the time, resulting in a game
that was as much fun to watch as it was to play.



[ 2.0 ] How to Play

Basics

How to Start

Select number of players by pressing the appropriate number, 1-4, on
the keyboard.

Select level of difficulty by pressing its corresponding number on the
keyboard:

 Level   Begins at Sector
 1         1
 2         5
 3        10

You will immediately be in the Space Station. Its control panel
displays your score, two reserve ships, the sector number, the number
of enemy saucers in the sector, and three torpedoes.

To start the action, move the joystick in any direction. The hatch
doors will open, thrusting you through hyperspace to the Restrictor
Shield.

{Diagram - Number of enemy saucers in sector, Torpedoes, Sector,
Sentinel Score, Green Blocker, Chirper, Yellow Rejuvenator, Your Light
Ship, Enemy Saucer}

Beam Basics

The Space Station. Whenever your ship is destroyed or when you
complete a sector, you will return via hyperspace to the space station.
When you're ready to continue, push the Joystick in any direction. The
hatch doors will open and you'll be on your way.

Enemy Saucers. There are 15 white enemy saucers in each sector. They
all must be destroyed before you can go to the next sector. Every time
a saucer is hit, the number in the upper left corner of the screen
will count down by one.

The Sector Sentinel. When all 15 enemy saucers have been destroyed in
a sector, their Sentinel ship will cruise across the top of the beams.
Only a torpedo can destroy it.

Weapons. Laser lariats are only effective against certain invaders.
(See Dangerous Encounters, below). Torpedoes, however, will destroy
the first object they meet on a beam. You are only given three
torpedoes per sector! Use them sparingly since they are your only
weapon against the Sector Sentinel.

Yellow Rejuvenators. Occasionally, yellow rejuvenators will float
through the beam matrix. Allow them to land on your deck, as each
connection will add a bonus ship to your fleet. If you shoot a
rejuvenator by mistake, it will turn red from the heated blast. Get
out of the way! The wreckage will destroy you on contact. A torpedo
will completely destroy a Yellow Rejuvenator.

Dangerous Encounters

With the first swing of your laser lariat, the white enemy saucers
approach. But there's more. As you progress through the Restrictor
Shield, a sinister collection of aliens will materialize. A new danger
is added with every other sector, up to sector 14:

 Sector  Craft                   Vulnerable
 ------------------------------------------
 1       White Enemy Saucers     Yes
 2       Brown Space Debris      No
 4       Yellow Chirper Ships    Yes
 6       Green Blocker Ships     No
 7       Green Bounce Craft      No
 10      Blue Chargers           Yes
 12      Orange Trackers         No
 14      Red Zig Bombs           Yes

Only "vulnerable" objects are affected by laser lariats (Saucers and
Chirper are destroyed, Chargers and Zig Bombs are deflected.)
Everything else can only be dodged, or, in extreme cases, torpedoed.



Keyboard

Function Key Description F1 Begin new game with same difficulty and
number of players.

The keyboard can be made to act as a joystick. See the Game Options
section for help on configuring your keyboard for use as a joystick.

The following keys are used in this game, and should not be reassigned
to the joystick functions: - The 1, 2, 3, and 4 keys are used to
select the number of players and starting difficulty level.

To drop out of a multi-player game without interrupting the other
players, press Q on the keyboard when your turn begins. Your score
will be omitted and the sequence of play will be adjusted for the
remaining players.

To begin a new game when the current one is over, press F1. Beamrider
will replay at your previously selected difficulty level and number of
players.

To begin a new game at any time at a different difficulty level or
number of players, select Restart Game from the File menu..



Joystick

Your Light Ship follows the left and right movement of the Joystick.
To fire laser lariats, press the joystick button. To fire torpedoes,
push the Joystick forward.



[ 3.0 ] Scoring

Points are scored each time an enemy Saucer, Chirper ship, or Sector
Sentinel is destroyed. Point values increase as you progress to higher
sectors.

The exact point value for each hit appears in red, briefly replacing
your score, the moment an enemy craft is destroyed.

Also, if you manage to destroy the Sector Sentinel, you'll receive an
additional bonus for each ship in your fleet.



[ 4.0 ] Hints

Dave Rolfe, programmer of Beamrider

Greetings from sector 26 and moving! If you want to make it to the
outer sectors, pay attention to these tips.

Maintain precise control of your Light Ship by learning to TAP the
Joystick to move your ship a single beam at a time. And stay near the
center beams so you won't get boxed into a corner with nowhere to run.
Zap the white enemy saucers as early in their approach as possible.
And check this out: You can hit them when they're slightly off the
beam, before they can drop their missiles.

When you see a yellow rejuvenator, don't abandon all caution as you
move to catch it or you'll likely wreck your ship. If an enemy object
is blocking the rejuvenator, you can use a torpedo to blast it out of
the way. Then, catch the rejuvenator. But remember, you only have
three torpedoes, and they're your only weapon against the Sector
Sentinel.

And while we're on the subject, when the Sentinel is about to approach,
don't sit on the beam you plan to shoot from. Green Blockers will
swarm onto it immediately! Instead, wait on a beam you're NOT going to
shoot from (like the one nearest the Sentinel's first sighting). As
soon as the Blockers are 'locked' onto that beam, zip over to an
unblocked beam and torpedo the ship.

Last but not least, take time to notice the enemy attack movements.
They follow motion patterns that allow you to anticipate many of their
moves.



[ 5.0 ] Game History

Dave Rolfe, Programmer

The burden falls upon the survivors to tell this tale of the old days.
This was an era of 8-bit processors with 1- or 2-megahertz clocks, and
graphics systems so primitive that in some cases the computer had to
actually guide the scan down your television screen, line by line.
These were game machines that had perhaps 128 or 256 bytes of scratch
RAM, and could accept a program ROM cartridge of no more than 4 or 8
thousand bytes. The challenge, in those bygone days, was to use those
primitive tools as a platform to create something fun and interesting
and maybe a little bit complicated. Into this world was born Beamrider.


My name is Dave Rolfe, and I was the primary developer of Beamrider.
I'm writing to give you a short history of Beamrider and me (the two
are, of course, inseparable).

I made the transition from amateur software designer to professional
software designer in 1977, when I graduated from Caltech. Being a
professional is desirable, because it means that people pay you money,
in theory if not in practice. After graduating, I worked for a couple
of tiny little companies. You can make a difference at a small company,
instead of being just another cog in a large machine - but be warned
that working for a tiny little company sometimes pushes the monetary
rewards back into the realm of the theoretical. It turned out that
this company where I worked was asked to help Mattel build some games
for a new game unit. So I visited Mattel and found that their hardware
was impressive (for that time), but the software was non-existent. And
so I proceeded to develop, from scratch, the protocols and software
environment and initial line of games to support what would eventually
become the Mattel Intellivision.

Between the late 1970's and the mid-1980's, I worked in many areas of
game development. After setting up the basic method of Intellivision
game design, and writing the Intellivision operating system (the
"Exec"), I went on to create four other Intellivision game cartridges
and to supervise other apprentice game programmers. I also programmed
games for other platforms, including the Atari 2600 and Colecovision,
and some of my games were ported to still other game machines. I
developed small games, such as prototypes for the Mattel handheld
units, and big games, including two arcade games, "Star Fire" and
"Fire One". ("Star Fire", released in 1979, was the first arcade game
to maintain a high score table which accepted and displayed the name
of the winning player. Sometimes I wonder whether this might be my
personal contribution to our planet's culture. Not exactly on the
level of world peace, but I suppose it's something.)

The funny thing is, despite all of the game work I've done, I have
never thought of myself a "game person". I am a computer person at
heart, and I see games as merely something you can do with a computer.
So in the Beamrider days, I was very grateful to be working with Tom
Loughry, who is the best game person I've ever known. You'll find
Tom's personal history of Beamrider somewhere nearby. It was Tom who
came up with the original inspiration for Beamrider, and I'd run
screaming to him whenever I needed to kick around a development
question about what was "fun".

And there were many questions as the game of Beamrider was fleshed out.
First the basic game scenario was created: There was a moving matrix
of beams with a 3-D perspective. The player controlled his base unit
on the bottom (near side) of the screen. The enemy spacecraft appeared
at the top (distant side) and then scurried towards the player while
dodging left or right across the beams. With that structure in place,
the tweaking began. A good strategic balance between the player and
the enemy had to be decided upon. How much freedom of motion should
the player have? How fast should the enemies move to attack? At what
point does the player feel challenged, and at what point is the
challenge overwhelming?

In an initial version of Beamrider, the player ship was flanked by two
pods, one on each side, effectively making the player 3 beams wide. We
thought it would be satisfying to control a big ship, but it turned
out that it was a sitting duck for enemy fire. We decided to change to
the smaller and more maneuverable craft that you find in the released
game. There was also much focus on how the enemy craft would attack
the player. Tom advocated fixed attack patterns, which would allow the
player to watch the enemy and get some sense for the general shape of
what he might do next. I favored dynamic computer-generated attack
sequences, but experiments upheld Tom's view. In essence, the fixed
attack patterns gave the enemy a veneer of intelligence, while
simultaneously allowing the player to learn about the smart enemy and
then outsmart him. So I spent countless hours developing a series of
attack patterns, and then rating and sorting them, so as to present
them to the player starting with the easier attacks, and later (if he
or she survived), serving up the more vicious stuff.

Then I had to invent the other nasties that would show up as the game
progressed, just to make life more interesting for the player. First
there are the straightforward traps, such as rocks that would simply
fall and could be easily dodged. Then we move on to a series of
trickier pitfalls, such as Bounce Bombs (which bounce along the beams)
and Trackers (which try very hard to fall right on the player) and
finally Zig Bombs (which zig (or zag) in such a way as to make the
player dodge and then, just when it appears the bomb has been
sidestepped, dodge again). Those Zig Bombs could be quite nasty until
you got the hang of them!

When Beamrider was originally released, customers were encouraged to
join the Activision "Beamriders". If a player scored 40,000 points or
more and reached at least sector 14, he or she could send in a picture
of the TV screen showing the score and receive an official emblem like
the one shown above. Photos and letters poured in to Activision, and I
liked to read these when I visited the main office. I recall one
thankful letter from a man telling of how he had conquered Beamrider
and the next day he went in to work and was promoted. There was, it
would seem, a connection between these two events, and I sincerely
hope that you will have a similar experience when you master the game.

NOTE: I'm sorry, but they tell me that the offer to join the
Beamriders is no longer valid! The charter Beamriders have, like a
well-known starship captain, been retired. There is as yet no next
generation, so please do not send correspondence regarding this offer.
At this point in time, you can only become an unofficial Beamrider-i
-exile.

Since the late 1980's, I have worked as a freelance consultant
developing software for the IBM PC world. I was a principle programmer
for Lotus HAL and Lotus Magellan, and I helped move Lotus 1-2-3 into
the graphical era. I have also consulted for Stac Electronics,
updating portions of their Stacker disk compression software for the
Windows and Windows 95 environments. I'm pleased to report that I am
still breathing and ambulatory as of this writing, and I invite you to
visit my web page at:

http://www.alumni.caltech.edu/~drolfe/

I hope you have enjoyed this little lesson in history. See you on the
beams!

Tom Loughry - Designer

"When we first started Cheshire, we had rented office space to get set
up. [Ed. Note: see above for more on Cheshire Engineering.] We had
rented this large office space that was all open, and eventually we
were going to put up walls and build cubicles. Before we could get the
cubes built, though, I was designing games."

"We had this idea for a game called Beamrider, but all we had when we
moved into this office space was that it would be on beams. We didn't
know at the time what it would look like, or what the gameplay would
be."

"One day, I was rolling back and forth in my chair looking up at the
ceiling, and I noticed the patterns that the ceiling tile was making
and how it looked as I rolled back and forth under it. I used this to
help me visualize the gameplay for Beamrider."

When asked about why he would imagine things coming down the beams at
him, Tom recalled: "A possible inspiration might have been the 6 inch
potato bugs that were infesting the majority of Pasadena at the time,
and were sharing office space with us for a little while."

Tom recently completed working on PGA Tour Golf for Electronic Arts.
He is currently working on a brand new game design for EA, which Tom
informs us "is something like the 17th product of my career. I lost
count a while back..."



[ 6.0 ] Troubleshooting

How to Start

 Press 1, 2, 3, or 4 for the number of players.
 Press 1, 2, or 3 for the difficulty level.
 Press the controller in any direction to launch into the game.

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End Project 64 etext of Beamrider instructions and help file.

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