TAI PAN ======= Head of a Foreign house of business in China - a great merchant. LOAD "" A game of strategy and skill set in the 19th Century business and trading world, for 2-4 players. OBJECT The object of the game is to become Tai Pan by building a shipping line and then making money faster than your opponents. The first player whose corporate value exceeds £100,000 will be declared Tai Pan. PLAY The program will first ask if instructions are required and if 'YES', 'yes', 'Y' or 'y' is entered will display a brief summary of the available commands, followed by an explanation of the symbols used. These are as follows: BORROW To arrange a loan BUY For purchases SELL To dispose of assets MARKET Current world prices PAY To repay a loan STATEMENT Displays your status MAP Displays your position SAIL To move a ship WAIT Go on to next player HELP Displays instructions RESIGN To drop out END Stop the game SAVE Save the game LOAD Load a saved game After the instructions the program will ask for the number of players (2-4) and immediately following this, will ask for the player's names in turn. This done, play may commence and the program will prompt the first player for a command. COMMANDS Play is controlled by a series of one word commands. All commands may be entered in either upper or lower case, and may be abbreviated to the first three characters. For example a player wishing to view his statement can enter any of the following: 'STATEMENT', 'statement', 'STA', 'sta'. At any time when the prompt ENTER COMMAND " " appears on the screen 'HELP' or 'HEL' may be entered and this will display the instruction screen again. GETTING STARTED In order to acquire a starting capital, players must borrow. The command to use is 'BORrow'. At first sight the loans department of the Bank appear to be extremely generous but a player's credit is not inexhaustible. The next step will be to buy a ship. Players should be aware that ships are only available in London and that the price is fixed at £20,000. All ships are supplied ready manned and the wages bill is £200 per annum per ship. If a ship is already docked in London then there is no room for the launch of a new ship. To acquire a ship players use the command 'BUY'. The program will display 'DO YOU WISH TO BUY A SHIP OR CARGO?' As with commands, replies to prompts such as this may be answered with the first three characters of the answer. In this case 'SHI'. Providing that a) the reply is entered correctly, b) the player has sufficient cash in the Bank and c) there is not already a ship in London, the program will display 'O K. YOU HAVE A SHIP IN LONDON'. SHIPS A player may own up to 4 ships at any one time. Several of the commands will ask for clarification such as "WHICH SHIP?" If there is ambiguity, it is up to each player to remember which ship is which. However by interrogating the statement and map this should prove easy enough. Having acquired a ship, players will require a cargo to carry. The selection of the correct cargo and destination is one of the key factors to success so it would be prudent at this point to examine the world market prices. This you may do using the command 'MARket'. 'MARKET' displays the five ports and the prices of the commodities which are available or saleable in each. Highlighted figures are for commodities which may be bought, with the others being selling prices. Note that if no figure is shown then that commodity can neither be bought nor sold in that port. To acquire a cargo enter 'BUY' and when prompted 'CARgo'. The program displays which port your ship is in and which commodities are available there. Enter the commodity required such as 'IROn' or 'COTton' and when prompted the amount in tons. N.B. be careful to ensure you have entered the correct load as the ship will sail just as well with 1 ton as with 200 and once a ship is loaded it may not be reloaded until that cargo has been sold in another port. The program will check that the player has enough cash in the Bank for the purchase and if so will report 'O.K. YOU ARE LOADED'. Players may at this point wish, to check their financial position and the command to use is 'STAtement'. This command displays a screen with the top half showing assets and the lower showing liabilities. The figure in the bottom right hand shows the sum of these two and is labelled financial status, this is the field which will be used to declare the eventual winner. The value of the cargo remains as the purchase value until it is sold in a foreign port and to move the ships around the world the command 'SAIL' is used. This command displays a screen giving the current map reference of your ship and asks for the next port of call. Again the port name may be abbreviated so that 'HON' is sufficient for Hong Kong. The program will automatically move ships by a random number simulating a dice throw, and will then display the world map showing the current player's ship or ships flashing. Note that a) A player's turn is terminated after a sail command, b) Two ships cannot occupy the same space, c) After a 'SAIL' is commanded hazards may appear, d) If the ship docks during the move this will be notified before the map is displayed, e) A ship may dock in a port only if it was commanded to that port. When a ship has docked the cargo may then be sold. The command 'SELL' will ask 'DO YOU WISH TO SELL YOUR SHI? OR CARGO?' Enter 'CARgo'. The program will then display the port, type and value of the cargo, and then report 'O.K. YOU ARE UNLOADED AND YOUR BANK HAS THE CASH'. Note that a) Commodities may not be sold in their port of origin, b) Cargo or ships may not be sold at sea. INTEREST AND MARKET PRICES For the purposes of the game 1 Year is reckoned to be 10 rounds of play. At the end of each year a) The world market prices are adjusted to simulate a year's worth of production, b) Interest is charged on outstanding loans. Market prices will fluctuate throughout the game in accordance with trade. When a cargo is bought that commodity's price will rise and when a cargo is sold the selling price will drop. As interest is only charged yearly on loans, it is prudent to pay off as much as a player can manage. For this the command 'PAY' is used. This command displays the current Bank balance and debt of the player concerned and asks 'HOW MUCH WILL YOU PAY?' Any amount from £1 to the amount of debt can be entered. HAZARDS From time to time after a 'SAIL' is commanded and whilst the map is being displayed certain hazards may arise. a. Typhoon in the China Seas which moves at random and can destroy ships. b. Sea Monster has been known to eat ships in the Indian Ocean. c. Pirates may appear near any port except London and will delight in stealing cargo. This can occur if they are on your shipping lane (e g. London to Hong Kong) even though they may be some distance away. d. Customs Patrol between Calcutta and Hong Kong will search the first ship it finds and will confiscate Opium if found. e. Bank Crash. This hazard affects all player's interest rated as well as devaluing the sailing players cash. f. Fine Weather and Good Joss. Sailing player may take another turn. g. Ghost Ship. Sailing player finds a floating Treasure Trove. Tai Pan uses machine code routines, one piece of which is located in the printer buffer area and therefore you should not use a printer or other peripherals which use this area. © MIKRO-GEN All rights of the owner, producer and the work being produced are reserved. Unauthorised copying, lending, hiring, public performance and broadcasting of this cassette is strictly prohibited. 44 The Broadway, Bracknell, Berks. 0344 427317