Matrix: Gridrunner 2 was confusingly re-titled as “Attack of the Mutant Camels” on the VIC-20 in North America. The suits in charge of this re-naming fiasco insisted that the title from one of Llamasoft‘s older games be used, instead of “Matrix“.

Well: f*ck them, I’m calling it “Matrix: Gridrunner 2” in light of a lack of some common sense here…

“Attack of the Mutant Camels” [cough] first came out on the VIC-20 in 1983 and was a reasonably successful release. The colourful explosions and challenging shooting action were appealing to VIC-20 owners and the loud sound effects made them feel like they were in an arcade. Which was desirable back in 1983.

The game’s got absolutely no connection to the C64 version of Attack of the Mutant Camels, but it is definitely an early version of Matrix: Gridrunner 2 (which also came out on Atari 8-bit, C64, and ZX Spectrum).

“AMC” on the VIC-20 is a worthy blaster, but with limited longevity. It’s definitely better than Gridrunner though.

More: Attack of the Mutant Camels on Moby Games
More: Gridrunner History on minotaurproject.co.uk