WALKER
******
BY
**
PSYGNOSIS
*********

WALKER - THE STORY
==================

The  shape  grew  in the dark.  A grinding and clashing of metal filled the
dank air as the immense hulk rose to its feet.

Soldiers  looked on, paralysed by fear at the shape that now stood tall and
menacing scant distance ahead.

The  machine settled itself, almost relaxing on its haunches like a puma in
wait, muscles flinching, silent and purposeful.

A  powerful  hum drew attention towards the towering monster as gun turrets
swung smoothly into view and began to scan the scene.

Shouted orders now issued back and forth accross the lines of infacntry men
who spurred into action.

A  rumbling  heavy  cannon  drew  up  behind  the lines with a loud hiss as
airbrakes brought its colossal weight to a halt.

Yet it was still dwarfed by the Walker.

And  there they lay, face to face; the might of the Endalion Time Force - a
specially  trained  unit  with  the  latest  mortar technology and the best
back-up  hardware  money  can buy (Super Wild Card?!) - against the Walker,
the machine from the future.

It  came  as no surprise, of course, to the troops on the ground facing the
Walker;  they'd  been  waiting and preparing for weeks now, waiting for the
time vacuum to burst its deadly load upon their doorsteps.

But  when the Walker did arrive, its sheer size drove dread into the hearts
of the troops who's task it was to destroy it.

The  history  of  The  Time Wars was scarred with appearances such as this.
The  war  broke  out  in  the year 2370 following the invasion of the Myarn
terbium-mines by the great warring continent of Northern Endalion.

But  it  took  over  three  decades  before the war entered its most deadly
phase...

With  the  shifting polarity of the mother planet, vast new tracts of space
time opened up in which these deadly war games could now be played.  But it
was Northern Endalion who reacted most swiftly.

Suddenly  realising  the  strategic  advantage to be gained they sent large
forces  of highly trained commandos back in time.  There, the Time Bandits,
as they were to become known, established bases in full knowledge of future
enemy manoeuvres.

This  meant  that  the  war being waged in the present could be irrevocably
altered by war in the past - a war in which the Endalions would have a huge
advantage of both surprise and technology.

It  was  only  when  entire  units  of  the  Myarn  army were thrown out of
existence  by  the actions of the Endalion Time Bandits that the Myarn high
command  realised  the immense danger their essentially peaceful nation was
in.

And  so  it was that the AG-9 - codename Walker - was born.  A weapon which
could  be  taken  back  through  time  and  challenge  the  Endalion  units
established in past time zones.

Engineering  criteria required a self-contained and energy-efficient unit -
thus expansive armour and a powerful yet efficient weapons' system would be
required.

Plus  the ability to traverse any terrain, at speed, necessitated a bipedal
movement system.

The  only compromise this design required was the need for a large heatsink
at  the  back  of  the craft to dissipate the heat produced by the Walker's
power source.

Thus produced, the Walkers were sent through the Myarnian timegate and into
battle leaving the High-command waiting with baiting breath to see how many
returned.

History  now  relates  the ensuing events up to the present day; of how the
Endalion   forces   attacked   the  Walker  installations,  halting  Walker
production for any foreseeable future.

It  also  tells  of how only one Walker returned in a usable state, limping
through  the  timegate  to  report  the  sole  successful mission of Walker
operations.

No other mission results were reported.

With  hindsight,  it  was rather ironic that these events happened at about
the  time  that  Myarn intelligence units communicated the presence of four
key  Endalion  positions  within  the timescape which it appeared, with the
enigmas thrown up through time-travel, could prove decisive in the wars.

It  was noted that should these four bases be destroyed, Endalion forces in
the present would cease to exist.

And  so,  armed  with  this  piece  of information, the Myarnian commanders
turned their attention to the remaining Walker unit.

Conventional  attacks  could  not  be  successful  because speed was of the
essence  to  prevent  present-day  Endalion  units  mobilising  quickly and
reinforcing the remaining key installations.

Only  a  Walker unit would be quick enough and versatile enough to complete
the mission within time constraints.

But only one Walker remained operational.

And it it, only one chance for survival...


WALKER - LOADING
================

Insert disk 1 into the internal drive and turn on your Amiga.

Witness cool intro.

Follow  any  on-screen prompt messages asking you to insert disk 2 and disk
3.

The game will now load.

One external floppy disk drive is supported.

To skip the intro, click the mouse button and the game programme will load.



WALKER - CONTROLS
=================
                            FIRE                                          
                GUNSIGHT   /                                              
                   UP  ___/                                               
                   /\ /     LOCK-ON TARGET                                
  MOUSE:            |/     /                    KEYBOARD:                 
            _______|/|____/__                                             
           |    ___/  ___/   |                   _____   _____            
           |  _|  /|_|  /|_  |               <- |     | |     | ->        
           | | |   | |   | | |           WALKER |  Z  | |  X  | WALKER    
           | | |___| |___| | |             LEFT |_____| |_____| RIGHT     
         <-| |             | |->                                          
   GUNSIGHT| |             | |GUNSIGHT           _____   _____            
       LEFT| |             | |RIGHT          <- |     | |     | ->        
           | |             | |           WALKER | <-- | | --> | WALKER    
           | |             | |             LEFT |_____| |_____| RIGHT     
           | |             | |                                            
           | |_____________| |             
           |                 |             
           |_________________|             
                                           
                   \/                      
                GUNSIGHT                   
                  DOWN                     
                      ________________FIRE 
  JOYSTICK:          /            /        
              ______/____________/         
             |  ___/         ___/ |        
             | |  /|  ____  |  /| |        
             | |___| |    | |___| |        
             |       |_  _|       |        
           <-|        |  |        |->      
       WALKER|        |  |        |WALKER  
         LEFT|      __|  |__      |RIGHT   
             |     |  |__|  |     |        
             |     |________|     |        
             |                    |        
             |____________________|        


ACTIVATING THE WALKER

Walker is controlled by an innovative mouse/cursor key combination.

The  cursor keys or the Z and X keys control the direction of Walker whilst
mouse moves the target cross-hair.

The  left  mouse  button is used for firing Walker's twin 30mm carbines and
the right button will allow you to lock-on to a target - wherever it goes.

SCORING & CANNONS

Top  left  of  the game screen, you will find your current score.  Below is
the gun temperature indicator.

When  the  gun  is  used,  the  indicator rises from red through orange and
yellow to white representing the heat level of the cannons.

At  white,  the  cannon is overheated (an alarm will sound) and needs to be
allowed a short time to cool down.

One  tip  for  using  the cannon is to use it in short bursts - letting the
cannon cool down during use.

At  the  bottom left of the screen, a written display of gun temperature is
available.

LIVES & SHIELD

To  the  top  right  hand side of the screen you can see how many lives you
have left.

Below that is the shield indicator.

When your shield is complete, the box is entirely green.

As you are hit by the enemy, the shield level will drop.

When  the  level  becomes low, an alarm will sound and a written display to
the  bottom  right  hand  side  of  the screen will tell you of the current
status of your shields.

When  the  shield  is destroyed, the enemy will be destroying the fabric of
your Walker.

The  shield  box  turns  red  and  when  the  box  is  empty, the Walker is
destroyed.

AREA STATUS & LOCK DISPLAY

When  the current screen is clear of enemies, the message box in the centre
will display 'AREA CLEAR'.

When enemies are about to appear, the message will be 'DANGER'.

When  the  cannons are locked on to a target, the message display below the
area status box will display 'LOCK ON'.

TIME SCENARIOS

Walker is initially placed in a Berlin World War II scenario.

Once  the  travel  is  cleared  of  enemy  troops,  he  travels to the next
timezone.

These progress as follows:

  i. Los Angeles 2019 (The survivors call it Judgement Day...!)

 ii. Middle East, present day.

iii. The Great War 2420


(THE  REST  OF THE MANUAL DESCRIBES THE SPECS OF THE WALKER BY HIGHLIGHTING
AREAS  ON DIAGRAMS -- AS I AM NOT GOING TO DRAW IT IN ANSI, YOU CAN IMAGINE
THE REST....)

End.................
