Trader II

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Screenshots - Trader II

Trader II atari screenshot
Trader II atari screenshot
Trader II atari screenshot
Trader II atari screenshot
Trader II atari screenshot
Trader II atari screenshot

Information - Trader II

GenreStrategy - TradingYear1998
LanguageSTOS BASICPublisher[no publisher]
ControlsMouseDistributor
Players1DeveloperCroft Soft Software
ResolutionLowLicensed from-
Programmer(s)

Polonowski, Colin

CountryUnited Kingdom
Graphic Artist(s)

Polonowski, Colin

SoftwareEnglish
Game design

Polonowski, Colin / Wilcox, Kevin

Box / InstructionsEnglish
Musician(s)

[unknown]

LicensePD / Freeware / Shareware
Sound FX

[unknown]

Serial
Cover Artist(s)ST TypeST, STe, Falcon030 / 1MB
MIDIVersion
Dumpdownload atari Trader II DownloadNumber of Disks1 / Double-Sided
Protection

Additional Comments - Trader II

Other version with the same title:


[no publisher] (version 1.5) ([unknown]).

Instructions - Trader II

Trader 2
Copyright 1996-1998 Croft Soft Strategy Software

The year is 1357, you are a trader in Northern Europe.

After many years of trading, you   have   been  able to buy yourself a
ship. This will enable you to  increase   your income, and open up new
markets. However there are many  problems  with  travelling by sea for
example the threat of  pirates.   You  must overcome these problems in
order to become the greatest businessman in Europe.

You begin the game with 1  Sloop  and   £1000.  Your aim is to make as
much money as  possible   whilst   fending   off   the   threat of the
pirates.

System Requirements
-------------------

Trader 2 should run on the following minimum set-up:

An Atari ST/STE/Falcon
At least 512K memory
A Mouse
A Double Sided Disk Drive
A Colour Monitor or Television

A Hard Drive and more memory are recommended

The game has been tested on:

4 Mbyte STE, TOS 1.06
1 Mbyte STFM, TOS 1.04
4 Mbyte Falcon030, TOS 4.04
4 Mbyte PaCifiST emulation, TOS 1.62
4 Mbyte PaCifiST emulation, TOS 2.06

If there are  any  problems  running  the  game  on  your  system, try
disconnecting any unneccessary peripherals  and  loading  it again. If
you have more than 1 Mbyte of  memory,  you  could also try using a PD
program which reduces the amount of available memory you have.

The game hasn't been tested  on  systems  such  as the Medusa T40, the
Hades, the Medusa T60 or the C-Lab Falcon Mk X.

If the game fails to run correctly on your system then try running the excellent Generic STOS Fixer by Anthony Jacques on the TRADER2.PRG file.

Finally, Trader 2 is not fully compatible with NVDI 3 and will not run
on an Apple Macintosh running MagicMac.

Croft Soft Software cannot be held responsible for any loss of data or
damage to any hardware through the use of this program.

New Features
------------

Trader 2 is twice as big as the  original game, below are just some of
the improvements.

A full specially designed graphical interface
A much more user friendly environment
A new Dynamic Economy System (DES)
Improved graphics
More variation
Print Option

Before you start
----------------

You MUST save games on to the  Trader  2 program disk, you must ensure
that the disk is write enabled at all times.

It is strongly recommended that you  make  a  back-up copy of the game
before you play it.

If you are running Trader 2 from a hard drive then ensure that all saved games are in the correct Trader 2 directory.

Loading
-------

Boot your computer and insert you Trader 2 disk. You should shortly be
presented with the GEM Desktop, double click on the "TRADER2.PRG" icon
to load the game.

The game can be installed  on  any  hard  drive,  to do this, create a
Folder called "TRADER2", and copy the contents of the Trader 2 program
disk to it.

The initial figures for  each  game  are randomly generated, therefore
every game you play will require a different strategy.

The Main Screen
---------------

Once the game  has  fully  loaded,  you  are  presented  with the main
screen. From here you can do the following things:

Buy/Sell Ships
Sail to different towns
Trade Goods
Trade Weapons
Visit the local bar
Load
Save
View the information screen
View your opponents status
View the credits screen
View Croft Soft's previous releases
Print Statistics
Quit

Each option has its own icon.

Buy/Sell Ships
--------------

In order to increase your cargo space, you will need new bigger ships.

By clicking on this  icon,  you  are  presented  with the ship trading
screen. There are 10 icons  on  this  screen. The three leftmost icons
give you details of the ships available to you, the arrow icons enable
you to buy or sell ships  and  the  Exit  icon returns you to the main
screen.

Ships are very expensive, before you  buy  a ship you must have enough
money to do so. You can only sell a ship if you will have at least one
left. There are three types of ship available:

                Sloops
                Merchantmen
                Hulks

Each has a different  cargo  capacity  and  price.  Remember by buying
ships, you increase the amount  of  crew  required  to sail. Make sure
that you can afford to  pay  peoples  wages  before investing in a new
ship.

Sailing
-------

By clicking on this icon, you are presented with a map.

On the map there are eight  towns  marked  out. By clicking on a town,
you will sail to it.

If you click with the right hand  mouse  button, you will be shown the
name of the town.

By clicking on the Exit icon you will be returned to the main screen.

It takes about a month to travel between any two towns on the map.

Trading goods and weapons
-------------------------

This is  the   main   part   of   the   game,   it   features   eleven
different tradeable items (including weapons) within a newly developed
Dynamic Economy System. Unlike in the  original Trader, prices were in
general random, in Trader 2 they are based on a unique set of forumlae
taking into account both  supply  and  demand.  In general, trading in
these goods has different  effects  on  the  economies  of a town, eg.
buying all of the towns  corn  will  cause  demand for this product to
increase in turn leading to an increase in price.

To trade in goods, click on the  trade goods icon, to trade in weapons
click on the trade weapons icon. (Both on the main screen)

Trading in these items is very  similar to  trading in ships, clicking
on the relevent arrow either buys or  sells each item, clicking on the
picture icon shows what each item is.  The figures to the right of the
icons are:

Buying Price    Selling Price   Supply          Quantity owned

The number in the top right of the screen corresponds to the amount of
free space within your ships. Money is displayed at the bottom.

To exit, click on the Exit icon.

Bar
---

By going to the bar you can  recruit crew members. These are useful in
many ways:

        Required to sail between towns
        Every five crew people you recruit increases your weapons
         strength by one. You weapons strength is also multiplied
         by one for every five crew members you have eg:

                Crew=5, Weapons=50
                Weapons strength=51

                Crew=10, Weapons=50
                Weapons strength=102

Remember, each crew member you recruit must  be  paid a wage of œ5 per
month, don't recruit more than you can afford.

The recruiting screen is similar  to  the  trading screen, clicking on
the  arrow  icons   increase   and   decrease   your  crew  compliment
respectively.

The numbers to the right of the icons are:

Required Crew           Actual Crew

To exit, click on the Exit icon.


Print
-----

By clicking on this icon,  you  can  print of various game statistics,
you should ensure that your  printer  is  connected and on line before
attempting to print.

You can print your current status and your opponents status.

To exit click on the exit icon.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

At the extreme top right  hand  corner  of  the  Main  Screen,  there are five buttons, to access these,  press  the  left  hand  mouse button on all occasions other than the quit option  which requires you to press both buttons.

Info Button (I)
---------------

This gives you a report on your  current status in terms of what cargo
you own, what ships  you  control,  number  of crew, weapons strength,
money, date, total cargo space and free cargo space.

This is the screen you are presented with at the end of every year.

Opponents (O)
-------------

This button gives you  access  to  information  on  your opponents, it
tells you how much money and how many of each type of ship they own.

Credits Button (C)
------------------

This leads you to the credits and greeting screen, exit by clicking on
Exit

Releases Button (R)
-------------------

This leads you to the list  of  croft softs releases, exit by clicking
on Exit

Quit Button (Q)
---------------

Use this button to quit, you  will  be  asked to confirm this. NB, you
must press both mouse buttons over this option.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Money
-----

You begin  the  game  with  £1000,  this  will  increase  or  decrease
throughout the game depending on your  actions. You must pay wages and
docking fees at the beginning of every month.

Weapons
-------

There are four different types of weapons  in Trader 2, they all weigh
different amounts and each one has advantages:


        Weapon          Weight          Hit Points

        Cannon          4 Tonnes        10 HP
        Gun             3 Tonnes         6 HP
        Bow and arrow   2 Tonnes         2 HP
        Swords          1 Tonnes         2 HP

The total strength of you weapons depends on many factors:

        No of each weapon type
        No of ships
        Number of crew

The more ships you have, the greater the area you must protect and the
less effectve each weapon is. Weapons can be used more efficiently the
more crew members you have.

Battles
-------

You may be attacked while at  sea,  if  this occurs, you will be given
the opportunity to retreat. If you retreat,  you lose out on any ships
you may gain by  attacking  the  enemy.  On  some occasions, the enemy
ships may be travelling faster than  yours,  if  this is the case they
may catch up with you and attack even if you do attempt to retreat.

If you decide to attack, the computer  works out who wins based on the
number of ships, weapon  strengths  and  number  of  crew members each
fleet has.

Upon winning, you  can  capture  the  enemy  ships  for  your own use.
Usually, the enemy will lose  some  ships  in the battle and therefore
you may not have any ships  to  salvage.  To prevent you from stealing
their weapons and goods, on  most  occasions  the pirates will discard
these items before you board the ship.

If you lose a battle, you will lose the game.

Random events
-------------

Throughout the game,  it  is  likely  that  various  random event will
occur, these could be  almost  anything,  some  will be useful, others
will be detrimental to your success.

Later on
--------

As the game progresses,  the  economies  of  the  different towns will
change, therefore, it is  likely  that  you  will  have to change your
strategy fairly often. As you  make  more  money  the threat of attack
increases, you will therefore need  to  make  sure your ships are well
defended.

Credits
-------

Programming, Graphics, Idea, STE, Falcon and PaCifiST Testing and Design - Colin Polonowski
STFM Testing - Kevin Wilcox
Additional Testing - Croft Soft Testing Group
Programmed in STOS
Graphics in Crackart.

Full source code is included with this program. IT MUST NOT BE ALTERED
AND RESOLD.

SHAREWARE
---------

Trader 2 is shareware with a £5 registration fee. If you enjoy playing the game then please show your support by registering with Croft Soft Software. 

To register, please send a cheque made payable to 'C J Polonowski' to:

Croft Soft Software
The Croft
Hope Rd
Nibley
Nr Yate
Bristol
BS17 5JH

This game is exclusively distributed in North America by the Computer Dungeon. If you have purchased this game from the Computer Dungeon, you are not required to register.

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