Published by Salamander Software in 1984 the Spectrum conversion of Jeff Minter‘s Matrix: Gridrunner 2 is a decent enough game, with non-flickery graphics and responsive controls. The conversion was coded by Shaukat Ali Tenquist, who kindly commented below to let us know.

This has all the features of the original, including the little spotter man who you can shoot to get rid of. The sprites are all character-based 8×8 UDG graphics and move quickly. The grid backgrounds move (and even change from time to time), and the game is a lot more interesting/challenging compared to previous versions of Gridrunner.

Matrix is a decent shoot ’em up on the Spectrum. I’d maybe even put it in the top twenty Spectrum shooters of all-time because it’s well presented and coded and has its own rhythm.

It’s limited but solid, gameplay-wise, and the sounds effects and graphics are sparse but effective. Matrix is a playable and compelling game for a single-screen shooter with UDG characters. Really, it’s working out how to avoid the lasers that is the most interesting part of the game because that involves some cat and mouse with the computer AI.

Also: knowing how to avoid the many other traps helps too. Matrix: Gridrunner 2 is a challenging game when it’s in full flow.

More: Matrix: Gridrunner 2 on World of Spectrum