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ASCII text
— 5K bytes
— 1989-08-17
MICROMARKET - PLAYING INFORMATION
Introduction
The idea for this game originaly came from an educational program for the
BBC micro/Electron. We found the original program (Stokmarket) highly
playable and we decided to write a game based on the BBC program, and
convert it to the Amiga using some of the Amiga's capabilities.
The original program was a fairly limited affair, with only four
companies in which to trade in, and consisted of absolutely no graphics
whatsoever. Our Amiga conversion, on the other hand, has six companies and
" SOME " graphics. (Although after three or more hours looking at our
screens will make you either want to retch violently and/or wish we had
stuck to plain black screens or died horribly in a freak bottulism outbreak
whilst an in patient at the local infirmary.)
Playing The Game
Playing the game itself is very simple. First, you will, after the game
has loaded, be presented with a menu. This is the Main Menu Screen. This
consists of the following items:-
ALTER NUMBER OF PLAYERS - Well, if you can't work this one out ,then ....
OPTIONS - This allows you to select either human or computer players once
you have decided how many players you want ( see above. Got it
yet ?!). You can also enter the player names at this stage
( PLEASE NOTE : Player names will be set to " Player 1 ", "
Player 2 " and so on, if no names are entered. Also, the
default setting is two players , one human and one computer.)
READ CREDITS - By selecting this item, you will be able to read all about
all about the wonderfull people who put this crap
together, you lucky, lucky people!! Needless to say, this
is not a game requirement, but we all need our little
moments of self congratulation so humour us a bit and read
them. Go on ! Its not long and it won't hurt THAT much.
Please ?!
EXIT TO DOS - Again, pretty self-explanitary so if you still can't get
the jist of this one, I suggest you forget your application
to Mensa and go and weave some baskets.
PLAY GAME - Nuff said , really ( see above as I am too lazy to write it
all out again.)
The Game
Object of the Game
The object of this game is to get very rich indeed. ( pity the same
can't be said of the poor impoverished programmers who put this game
together with sweat, blood, tears and herbal tea )
Buying and selling shares in the six companies listed will enable you
to amass a great fortune or a credit blacklisting depending on how good, bad
or lucky you are, although the spawney git with no idea of any strategy will
not get very far, we promise you!
First of all, the computer will ask you which share you wish to trade
in. Click left on number one to six on the keypad at the bottom of the
screen. Then, using the same method, type in the number of shares you wish
to buy. If you click on the full amount key, the computer will automaticaly
buy (or sell) the maximum permittable number of shares.
Selling the shares is done in much the same way, click on the share
you wish to sell and enter the amount, then click on go (the green one)
or click on the full amount key.
Should you make a mistake, click on the backspace key (at the bottom
right of the display). This will delete the character you entered last.
If you click to trade on the wrong comapny then click on the CANCEL key
and this will return you to the beginnning of your turn.
The system can also be controlled by the numeric keypad (unless you
were one of those sad deluded people who bought an A600, ha ha !), use "-"
to sell, "+" to buy, "*" to cancel, "/" for full amount, ")" miss a turn and
"(" for backspace. Also the go key is enter and the "*" key is cancel.
The game works on 4 rounds, at the end of which the players will
have their pockets filled by the companies dividend payouts. These consist
of a percentage payment per share owned. The rounds are displayed at the top
left and top right of the screen, and increase as each person takes one
turn.
At the end of the first round, you will be presented with a newsflash. This
will tell you significant things which have happened on the market. This
may not affect you, but there it just may send you bankrupt.
At the end of round 3 the computer gives each player a simple wealth
evaluation. It works out how much you are worth, then tells you in the
nicest possible way that you're skint.
I think thats it, apart from to tell you that it has a highly complicated
mechanism which fluctuates share prices, and gives news reports and stuff.
I will leave it up to you to work out what the P/E and YIELD mean. I'd tell
you only it would make the game too easy - well easier at least, so sod it.