                             MAJOR  MOTION

                      Brought to you by Garfield


                             INTRODUCTION


Rolling along in the rugged interior of a thundering vehicle transport truck, you examine your new car.  It's a sleek, sporty model: the latest from the Firm.  However, the crisp styling is only a cover to disguise something much more lethal.

With this in mind your hand trembles as it opens the envelope labelled "Top Secret".  As you turn to the first page, you realize there is no turning back now, you have sealed your destiny as hopeful savior of the western frontier.  Below is the information from The Chief.


                         BACKGROUND BRIEFING

A group calling itself "The Draconian League" has taken over the highways on the western frontier.  Lawlessness and hysteria suddenly pervade the region.

Apparently the League slowly built up a fleet of powerful, deadly cars.  But only when they began terrorizing the highways a few days ago did we realize the extent of the imminent danger.  As of now we still do not know how many cars they have.

No scouts from the area have survived long enough to file complete reports, so we have only a few sketchy reports for you.  They are:

1.  Some cars have spikes on their wheels that can slash any tires that come into contact with them.

2.  Some cars are armored against machine guns.  To defeat these cars, you must "bump" them off the road.

3.  The enemy has an attack helicopter at its disposal.

4.  A very fast car fires machine guns from its sides.

5.  The League has stolen an early prototype of the car you will be driving.  Its code name is "Evil Twin".

Quickly absorbing this information, you reluctantly advance to the next page... The Mission.


                               YOUR MISSION

Your mission is to rid the frontier of this enemy of freedom, to make the roads safe for civilian cars once more.  Your car is fast, powerful, and ready to accept advanced weapons systems that will be delivered to you as soon as they are available. Your code name on this mission will be Major Motion.

A weapons truck will drop you off on the frontier.  We can supply you only with machine guns at the start, but if you can survive, the truck will return periodically to bring you new weapons.



After finishing reading the Top Secret report your heart beats faster as you prepare yourself for the ensuing engagement.  Just as you are putting on your leather driving jacket, you hear a signal from the cab of the truck.  The truck ramps extend as you slide smoothly into your cars seat.  The seat seems to mold itself around you, a high-tech blend of comfort and support.

You start the car and the dashboard comes alive.  Softly glowing, it's more like a jet cockpit than a car - in one corner is the weapons read-out.  Only the machine guns read "Functional", but The Firm as stated earlier, has promised more weapons in the future.

You put the car in gear and slowly decend to the road.  A light step on the accelerator sends power surging through the car.  Your body feels that power as it forces you deep into the seat.

The road blows by in a whirlwind of vibrant, pulsating color.  Is the car as manuverable as it is powerful?  You easily swere to the left and right.  Strange - the car seems to sense what you want to do before you do it.  You think, "No, that's impossible!"  Or is it?

Before you have a chance to consider this, you spot the enemy up ahead.  You push the accelerator to the floor...

...and the battle begins.



                           LOADING MAJOR MOTION

Load Major Motion by inserting your working copy of Major Motion into the disk drive and turning on your computer.  After a few moments, you'll see the opening screen, then the demonstration.  Press the left mouse key to stop the demonstration and begin play.

TRAINING SESSION - THE DISPLAY

You'll see an opening display with a title screen, a list of the scores run up by other agents and some film of action on the road you'll be driving.

At the left is the weapons display.  Available weapons are shown in white, those not ready yet in blue.  To the left of each weapon is displayed the key you must press to fire it.  At the right is the number of times you may fire it before the weapon requires more ammunition from the weapons truck.  As you fire any weapon, its symbol turns yellow.

Below the weapons table, is the weapons truck symbol.  This symbol turns white when the truck is ready for you.  If it's nearby but hasn't seen you yet, the symbol turns yellow.  The truck will also honk when it is ready for you.

Your curent score is displayed below the truck symbol.  Next is the number of cars The Firm will give you before they turn the mission over to another agent.

At the bottom left of the screen are the definition of the function Keys.

     F1  Press twice to abort the mission.
     F2  Press once to pause, again to continue.
     F3  Toggles Sound On/Off.
     F4  Press once to pause and reassign weapons keys.
         Each weapon symbol will turn white in turn, and
         you may assign any key by pressing it.  When all
         weapons are assigned, the mission will resume.



CONTROLLING YOUR CAR

Yours will be the white or yellow car dropped from the weapons van at the start of the mission.  The car is controlled by the mouse or the joystick.  There is no need to select between the two, as both are always operative.  Below are the instructions on how to control your car.

     TO ACCELERATE - move the mouse/joystick forward.

     TO BRAKE - move the mouse/joystick backward.

     TO SWERVE LEFT OR RIGHT - move the mouse/joystick left or right.

     TO CALL THE WEAPONS VAN - press the spacebar when the weapons van icon is      yellow.


WEAPONS

At the beginning, you'll only have the machine gun, which fires straight ahead when you press the left mouse button or the joystick fire button.  Other weapons include:

     MISSILE - can shoot down the helicopter.  Fire by 
     pressing the "I" key.  Maneuver the missile by moving
     the car as you want the missile to move.

     TURBO BOOST - can get you out of trouble with a burst of speed.
     Press the right mouse button to use it.  (If you are using the
     joystick you will have to reassign this function. See F4.).

     REPULSOR - can push away all nearby cars.  Fire by pressing
     the "K" key.

     OIL SLICK - can cause trailing cars to skid off the road.  Fire
     by pressing the "J" key.

     SMOKE SCREEN - can blind trailing drivers, causing them to run
     off the road.  Fire by pressing the "L" key.


SCORING

The Firm will reward you with between 200 and 400 points for each Draconian League car you destroy with your weapons or between 400 and 800 points for each one you eliminate by knocking it off the road.

If you down the helicopter (You'll need the missile weapon to attack it),
The Firm will give you 2,000 points.

You'll get extra points if you drive faster and cover more of the threatened territory.  For every 10,000 points you score, The Firm will entrust you with an extra car.

MISSION HINTS

All Draconian cars are blue and black.  If you destroy too many civilian cars, a patrolling jet will decide you've deserted to the Draconians and shoot a missile at you, so be careful of non-combatants.

All cars you encounter, including your own, are amphibious.  Some lay mines when they are in the water.

It's handy to have the Repulsor ready to fire as you leave the water and return to the road.

Don't drive behind the helicopter.

Turbo Boost lets you drive over potholes created by the helicopter.

Try to hide from the "Evil Twin" in the weapons truck of on a split road.

A moderate speed is best when you're trying to bump cars off the road.

On curves, bump cars from behind, this pushes them off the road.

When you first get a new weapon, try it to see what it does.

                             The Chief


Docs by Garfield