Producer: Atlantis
Memory Required: 48K
Retail Price: £1.99
Language: Machine code
Author: Andy Morgan

It's a cold grey, misty morning in early spring. As you walk down the quayside you stop and look up at the seagulls wheeling high above the dockyard...

So commences the amazingly long sheet of atmospheric instruction to this sailing/finance strategy game from Atlantis. Some of this intro is just colourful background, but it does also contain warning hints about the storms and having to jettison cargo to stay afloat, sudden sea mists and collisions, arming your ship against pirates, being aware of loan sharks, paying your harbour dues, paying your crew and insurance costs and so on.

After a misspent life at sea, rounding the Horn, you have amassed a sum big enough to buy your own vessel called the Titan Trader which can carry up to 50 units of cargo. You may choose from 5 types of cargo, general goods, arms (for which you will need a license although they are obtainable on the black market as illegal cargo), coal, whiskey and bullion. You may sail between any of 5 ports, being Southampton (where you start), Swansea, Liverpool, London and Newcastle and it takes one week per trip including time spent in port. Your ultimate aim is to make £1m and retire. Sounds ideal!

The playing screen is divided into two areas. At the top is your bank balance, the amount you already owe the finance company including interest (it starts at £7,000), the units of cargo your ship can carry and the types of cargo for reference. Below the line is the command area. You may elect to buy or sell, and the respective prices per cargo type are shown on the right. On leaving a port, the screen cuts to a shot of the docks with your ship sailing out. In between ports, the various hazards already mentioned will randomly occur. If you have paid your crew enough they may even repel the cut-throat pirates of Long John Quicksilva!

COMMENTS

Control keys: simple prompted input
Use of colour: good
Graphics: clearly laid out text in Spectrum character set, neat, detailed drawings for sailing and unloading screens
Sound: simple tune and some effects beeps
Skill levels: 1

The long intro implies that you must read through it in order to understand what is going to happen, but in fact it isn't really necessary as the game itself is fairly standard to the type and pretty self-explanatory. As the instructions have to be loaded first and then the game after reading through them, this is a bit irritating. Fair enough, they have provided alternative short instructions, but it is a bit tedious when reloading. The game itself is straightforward and easy to play, and like so many of these games is fun. The fun. however, is probably as limited as the program, not a criticism aimed at this game alone, it tends to be common to many, that the variations allowed for are insufficient to command the attention for more than a few plays. But as the price, this is well worthwhile for those who enjoy the game of buying and selling.

Master Mariner presents a number of random factors that affect you which are realistic, and unusually in these games, not to severe a hindrance to playing, which increases the playability. The actual display screen is well laid out and easy to use, and colour has been nicely used to highlight certain aspects. In between screens make a nice break and the graphics are well detailed, and they don't last too long! The game gets more progressively difficult with more hazards to avoid and more debts to pay off, until it gets to the point where it is very cruel! Overall, this is excellent value for money for this type of game, and I really enjoyed playing it.

Nice little graphics, fun to play. Master Mariner works rather well in two, not that it's a two-player game, but it helps to have two minds working out the various selling and buying prices as you are unable to see in advance what they will be at the various ports of destinations and so able to make a decision before buying. It's probably unrealistic to expect demand and prices for commodities to alter so fast and over the extent of Britain so much, but that's a small quibble really. Pretty good value.

MAKER: Atlantis
FORMAT: cassette
PRICE: £1.99

In which you captain the good ship 'Titan Trader' and attempt, by buying goods at one port and selling them at another around the coast of Britain, to become a millionaire. As in real life, that's a little difficult. Especially as you've no idea what the selling price is going to be until you've arrived at your destination and clocked the menu and options thereabouts.

Marred by some of the most mind-numbingly sluggish graphic sequences in the history of computer gaming and made damn near impossible in the early stages by a series of random and improbable disasters that hit you every single time you set sail (pirates, sea mists, customs officials who always know when you've got arms or bullion on board), it's actually pretty entertaining in the buy/sell stages. 'Coals To Newcastle' would have been a much better title.

Two years ago it was possible to produce a simple game for the Spectrum, market it, and expect it to sell in large numbers. Since then the market has changed considerably. A game costing around six pounds is expected to be original and of high quality, and the more straightforward games will not sell.

However, there is still a market for these games, although it is located in a much lower price bracket. Atlantis are supplying games for this market, and are selling games for the 48K Spectrum, priced at £1.99 each.

Master Mariner is a revival of that hardy perennial Ocean Trader. The player owns a boat which must be taken from harbour to harbour, buying and selling goods. Hazards are many: storms, sea mists, pirates, high taxes or simply a run of bad luck. A slow-moving game, delayed frequently by animated representations of the boat setting off to sea, or goods being unloaded.

Vagan Attack sets the player moving around the galaxy, trying to find and destroy enemy ships and bases. Although the title and cover suggest that this is a fast-moving, shoot-'em-up game it more closely resembles a simulation, for moves are made slowly and with thought. The instructions are confusing and the screen display and diagrams not entirely clear, so the first few games played are more a stab in the dark than complex space war simulation.

Master Mariner, Eights and Vagan Attack are all produced for the 48K Spectrum by Atlantis Software, 19 Prebend Street, London N1.

Now this is tantalising and frustrating, and not for the easily discouraged. Master Mariner is written for the 48K Spectrum, and as the title may suggest it's about shipping.

You are Captain of a sailing shipcalledthe'TitanTrader' and you have to sail from one port to another carrying various cargoes which you have to buy and sell. Of course, it's not that simple as you have to contend with other factors.

First you have to borrow money from the finance company so you can buy your cargo, as well as paying harbour fees, wages and the dreaded income tax, plus a host of other charges which crop up in the game.

As well as handling the financial side there is, of course, the sailing side of it. You don't actually sail or steer the ship on screen, you just type in your destination and by clever graphics watch your ship sail out of the harbour. This isn't as easy as it sounds because en route you may meet pirates or run into bad weather and even lose all you cargo.

You have a choice of cargoes which you can carry and prices are different at each port. So if you bought arms in London and sailed to Liverpool you may findthey are cheaper when you get there and so you will lose money if you sold them.

The graphics are well drawn but are only there for your amusement. Great game this, one I can recommend to anyone.

NB. The editor is a sneaky fellow. After I wrote this thinking it was a full price game he tells me its one of the new cheap range series! In this case it's fantastic value for money.