THE STORY:
Extract from a journal, found in the wreckage of a Cobra class jetboat at an abandoned factory in Germany:
My name is not important, just what i do. I am a Jethead. Some people call us crazy, but i just like to think that we push life to the limit. It all started at my Plymouth apartment one cold November morning. As usual the post hitting the floor raised my from a drunken stupor. On entering the hall I stared at the usual pile of unwanted crap, and noticed something else, an envelope with no address, just my name in red pen. Upon opening my heart hammered in my chest, this was it, my invitation. For years my associates and I had built and raced fast boats on any water (sometimes illegally) we could find. It became a kind of urban myth amongst all of us, that a contest held every year, backed by huge money existed. It was also said, it was only accessable to the underground amateurs, no professionals. Inside was a letter;

Dear racer,
Our scouts have been watching you, and you have been selected to compete for the Black Dome prize. This race is not easy, and many who compete never live to tell about it. You have been warned. Inside this package you will find an airline ticket to Africa and all the necessary instructions. Please reply quickly to 'I'm-in@anon-mail.org' simply quoting '34782797749' and yes or no. The entrance fee is £5300 of your UK pounds and the prize money for completing the black dome is £5,000,000. You will be given a boat by us of your choice and can swap it at any time.

The commodore
U.J.R.A.
-END-

The UJRA, stood for the Underground Jet Racing Association. If the rumours were true, they were a shady bunch of rich and powerful people who's appetite for gambling and excitement had well exceeded safety laws! My first instincts were that some of my friends were messing with me, but then an air ticket in Africa? The date on the ticket was for a week and I did not need a boat, these were provided and they were certainly were no homemade jet-ski. These were real boats with super tough hulls, and as legend has it can do the impossible. Lest to say my mind was set, in a week I was in a jeep heading across the Sahara to an unpronounceable location. I realised this tournament was as much to do with getting there as actually racing!

Once we reached this tiny oasis in the desert, I was met by a man who told me the first race was tomorrow and showed me to a tent housing several boats. These craft were like nothing i had ever seen, some even had bits stolen from what only could be described as military hardware! Then I saw it, the Cobra. As i slid into the cockpit, head up display lighting came on in my helmet, and the whole feel of the boat seemed made for me.

The race began the next day, with pounding heart I closed my eyes and relived my trial runs with the boat on previous day. Then everything seemed to happen at once, I maxed out the throttle and felt the huge surge of power. Suddenly an Inferno class catamaran slammed into the side of me causing me to slide over the sand and stop. Some locals quickly pushed me back in the water but the positioning computer in my helmet was reading 6/6, last place!

Once again I gunned the engines and let myself get crazy, narrowly missing a sand blasted pinnacle of rock. In the distance, I could see a Midnight and a Lightning fighting for 4th place, both slamming each other into separate rocks! The Midnight was destroyed instantly in a huge fireball, pieces of it flying everywhere, the other sent flipping out of control end over end until it hit the sand. The moment of shock passed quickly, death is part of this game and now I was dancing with it. A massive clang jolted me back to reality. It was the auto-scoop for booster cans and my HUD read that the fuel was loaded. Ok, this was good.

I could now see 3rd place, a hovercraft! I managed to pass it but the Tornado kept me behind all the next 2 laps and we were now approaching the finishing turn! I realised it was heading for the sand banks, this was bad, the hovercraft could easily slide over the sand! Without thinking I turned the bow until I was right behind him and floored it. I hit the sand with a jolt and we flew into the air. Remembering the boosters I hit the red button on the control stick, then it all happened at once. The Tornado was flipped over as I hit it, the force of the acceleration was incredible!

The finish line sped past and it was all over, I had done it, I had qualified...

VIDEO SETUP*:
Due to the varying complexity of the levels, if you have a slower machine, or a slower graphics card you may experience slowdown sometimes. To get the best performance you have several options to choose from to speed things up:

*The best idea is to play with the settings and get the best balance for graphics vs gameplay.

Common Problems: Hi scores and settings do not save. This will happen if you are running the game from a CD or files in the DDF directory are read only. Game runs horribly slow. If you have followed all the video options advice and it is still slow, make sure there is no processor intensive software running. If its still too slow then your machine might not have the muscle and it may be time to upgrade. Game refuses to load or you get a 'Memory Access Violation'. This is the most difficult to diagnose and you can try restarting the PC. If the problem persists contact dan@d-grafix.com stating what hardware and OS you have.