THE SPECTRUM GAMES DATABASE

GYRON

PUBLISHER
Firebird (British Telecom Software)

AUTHORS
P. Mochan, R.J.M. Pinto, D.M.N. Prior and M. Wighton (Torus)

YEAR
1985

DESCRIPTION
A 3D first-person perspective maze game. Strong tactical/puzzle
solving element.

CONTROLS
Use SYMBOL SHIFT-SPACE to define keys and BREAK to start the
game.  There is no pause function and no save game facility.  If
you die, you have to start again.

The keys default as the usual cursor keys (5, 6, 7, 8 and 0).


INSTRUCTIONS
There are two parts to Gyron:  The Atrium and the Necropolis. 
The Atrium is a training area to learn the game skills, and
has a fairly linear path from the start to the end of the maze. 
The Necropolis is a much more complex maze with a non-linear
arrangement.  The objective is to reach the "Place of Wisdom"
which is a small cul-de-sac located in a very obscure corner of
the maze.  It is impossible to reach it without deactivating the
towers which guard it, and this is achieved by penetrating all
the other zones of the maze and shooting various towers.  It is
not an easy task to determine the effects of your explorations,
and the overall puzzle is a very tough objective. 

The snapshot file "gyron_in.zip" has a trainer for Gyron which
gives full instructions for the controls of the game.  Red
indicators at the sides indicate position of side passages, green
squares at the side represent the position of the craft.  The
green square must overlap the red bar by two squares before you
can turn into the passage.  The green square along the bottom
indicates the crafts position from left to right in a passage. 
The colour of the spinning icosahedron indicats which zone you
are in in the maze.  The radar indicator shows walls, balls and
towers.  Towers can only shoot you in the direction they are
facing, and cannot get you if you hug the wall of the trench
directly below them.  They can only be shot from the rear, and
shooting them can have varied effects.  Balls cannot be
influenced in any way, and contact is instantly fatal.  They move
in fixed patterns with strict timing, and these can be quite
complex.  Some of the hardest obstacles in the maze involve
sneaking past several balls moving in complex combinations of
patterns. 


CHEATS
Tower shots move at a fixed (but rapid) speed.  Once you hear the
shot sound, back off quick round a corner, and you might just
escape the shot if the tower is distant enough.  There is a POKE
to disable the towers, but it totally defeats the point of the
game.


URL  
Since there are three seperate parts to the program, there are
three different URL's:

Trainer: 
ftp.dcc.uchile.cl:pub/OS/sinclair/snapshots/g/gyron_in.zip
Atrium:  
ftp.dcc.uchile.cl:pub/OS/sinclair/snapshots/a/atrium.zip
Necropolis:
ftp.dcc.uchile.cl:pub/OS/sinclair/snapshots/n/necropol.zip


INLAY CARD TEXT
These docs come from the Firebird Gold Edition, probably from
1984/5 since the competition closing date was November 1985.


THE SORCERER-SCIENTIST

Many eons ago, when men lived in fear of their gods and made
human sacrifices to them, one man - a sorcerer and scientist -
decided to change that order.

He sought to become Quetzalcoatl, God of the Wind, bearer of
civilisation and creator of the calendar.

He worked tirelessly in his quest for mastery of the Laws of
Physics and the Spirit Forces that a God must possess. But his
mortal life was too short to complete the task and he vowed to
store his wisdom - until he could return in a future life to
reclaim it - by entombing it with him. To do that, he created the
Gyron . . .

THE GYRON

Inside the Gyron are two intricate Labyrinths, one within the
other; each contains all of Space and Time.

The outer Labyrinth, the Atrium, and the inner, called the
Necropolis, are cosmic calendar clocks.

Space is contained in the 12 parts of the Zodiac, represented by
12 zones, while Time exists in the configuration of an
interactive defence system - the Celestial Spheres and the Towers
of Silence.

Seekers may choose to enter the Atrium first, a less dangerous
place in which to test the reflexes - it's entered through the
Calendarstone, the face of the Sundisc. Another Sundisc (the
Atrium's 12th zone) inside the Atrium Labyrinth is the entrance
to the Necropolis.

The solutions to finding the inner entrance and the PLACE OF
WISDOM depend on the layout of the Labyrinths, the configuration
of the Towers and the Spheres' time-cycles.

The CELESTIAL SPHERES roll in predetermined motions around the
Labyrinths: in the Necropolis Labyrinth the combined cycles of
the 55 spheres there repeat once in every 15 billion years - the
lifespan of the Universe. Contact with the Spheres is fatal.

The TOWERS OF SILENCE radiate a destructive energy field in one
of the four alignments of the Labyrinth. They can be attacked by
laser from behind: but they interact with each other. An attack
on a Tower may cause it to turn, vanish, reappear elsewhere, or
to re-orientate another Tower. A blind spot to an energy field
exists against the trench wall below the Tower.

THE MISSION

Your objective is to enter the Gyron and locate the hidden PLACE
OF WISDOM . To accomplish this, you have full control of a craft
called the HEDROID. This has:

* full multi-channel sensory ability
* precise manoeuvrability in left, forward and right directions
* ability to reverse through a 180 degrees flip instantaneously
* a targetable high-energy laser

The control and instrumentation of the HEDROID are described
below.

You may embark on this mission by entering the Atrium (side 1 of
the cassette), and searching for the inner entrance to the
Necropolis, or by entering the Necropolis directly (side 2 of the
cassette). The Atrium Labyrinth is easier, and recommended for
practice.

LOADING
1 ) Connect the EAR socket of your Spectrum to the EAR socket of
your tape recorder
2) Choose which version of GYRON you wish to play, insert the
cassette accordingly in the tape recorder, and rewind to the
beginning.
3) Type LOAD""CODE and press ENTER on your Spectrum. (CODE is
accessed by pressing I in extended mode)
4) Press PLAY/LOAD on your recorder.

After loading, the screen displays the HEDROID entering a
Labyrinth through the Sundisc. The game then enters the demo
mode.

CONTROL

The HEDROID has four directional controls and FIRE. The mission
is commenced as follows:

KEMPSTON JOYSTICK; press FIRE to start.

ALL OTHER JOYSTICKS OR KEYBOARD CONTROL: 
Keys are initially set to Cursor control with O to fire.

A Cursor Joystick will work without redefining Keys -
press CAPS SHIFT and BREAK (just BREAK on Spectrum + ) to start
each play.

Redefine Keys or Joystick control by pressing CAPS SHIFT and
SYMBOL SHIFT (EXTEND MODE on Spectrum + ) while the game is in
demonstration mode. A FIRE symbol will appear on the screen -
press the FIRE button or the chosen key. As the up, down, left
and right arrows appear, select control by using the Joystick
or pressing the required keys. Press CAPS SHIFT and BREAK (just
BREAK on Spectrum + ) to start each play.

MOVEMENT is effected by the four directional controls. Forward
movement is inertial, i.e. when the HEDROID is moved forward, it
will continue in this direction until the reverse control is
applied. When the HEDROID is stationary, the reverse control will
flip it through 180 degrees.

FIRING is continuous while FIRE is pressed.  Targetting is with
respective directional keys. The laser has uninterrupted power.

The game will continue to play until the HEDROID can no longer
operate, and no lines remain on the Viability Indicator.

INSTRUMENTATION

THE MAIN SCREEN displays the forward view of the HEDROID in
3-dimensional perspective.

THE RADAR SCAN displays an area of the Labyrinth centred on the
HEDROID, orientated to its forward view. It reveals the motions
of Spheres and the orientation of Towers.

THE VIABILITY INDICATOR has a number of lines, which are
proportional to the survival capacity of the HEDROID. This is
reduced by damage, incurred when the HEDROID impacts against a
trench wall.

POSITION INDICATORS

THE SIDE-PASSAGE INDICATORS correspond to side-
openings in the trench. When the green POSITION INDICATORS lie
at least two squares within the red bands, it is possible to turn
the HEDROID into a side passage.

THE TIMER is synchronised to the motion of the Spheres.

THE ZONE INDICATOR displays one of twelve colours which
correspond to each of the twelve Zones of the Labyrinth.

THE LATERAL INDICATORS shows the HEDROID position
across the eight-track width of a Labyrinth trench.


GENERAL FACTS
The Atrium is a pleasant, linear game which is easily solved and
provides a good grounding in the game mechanics.  Necropolis 
is really, really hard: not least because it is not at all
obvious which zones you should go to first, and what effects
shooting the towers has on other areas of the map (the radar map
only covers a 5x5 square area).  Some towers are obvious, others
cannot be altered, others flip round and kill you.  The Place of
Wisdom is not at all easily accessed.

NOTES
When the game was released, a prize of a brand new Porsche was 
offered to whoever solved the game first.  (When you enter the
Place of Wisdom, the game prints a verification code which was
your entry for the competition).  In the event, about 60 or so
people solved it, and they ran a play-off in Spain using a
specially designed Gyron maze (the Arena).  The winner solved the
Arena in 15 minutes flat.

It is possible to walk between balls which have a single space
between them, but requires good timing.  It is also possible to
walk very closely behind a ball if you stick to the left or right
side.  Since balls block tower fire as long as a single pixel of
the ball remains in front of you, you can use this to sneak up
on towers without being shot.

The game is almost totally silent apart from the tower shot
sound.  If you've spent the last hour patiently negotiating the
maze to creep cautiously into a new area, that sound is one of
the most horrible things you will ever hear.....  

Richard Pinto, one of the authors, went on to work for the
Assembly Line, and was one of the chief architects of "Cybercon
III" for the Amiga.  The influence of Gyron, IMHO, can clearly
be seen in this game, which is a vast 3D polygon complex filled
with robots moving in patterns.....