Gazillionaire Deluxe User's Manual Copyright (c) 1996 LavaMind. All rights reserved. Getting Started: 1) You must have the Gazillionaire Deluxe CD-ROM in the CD-ROM drive at all times, otherwise the software will not run. 2) You should check to make sure you are running in 256 color mode. If the images do not contain hundreds of colors, you are probably running in 16 color mode. 3) The SOUND should be switched OFF if you do not have a Sound Blaster 16 compatible sound card already installed. The Game Menus: This manual is divided up into sections. Each section contains information about a specific game menu. The sections are listed below in alphabetical order: Advertising There are two types of advertising: Passenger Advertising and Commodities Advertising. The more you spend on Passenger Advertising, the greater the chance that more passengers will be waiting to buy tickets on the next planet. The more you invest in Commodities Advertising, the more cargo (i.e. tons of goods) will be available for you to purchase on the next planet. Commodities Advertising does not affect the price of the commodities. It only affects the amount of commodities available for you to purchase on the next planet. Any money you spend on advertising is only effective for one week. If you forget to advertise before travelling to a planet, don't expect any results. If you purchase a new, larger ship, your advertising costs will go up because you will need more passengers and commodities to fill the larger ship. Bank Any time you are on a planet, you may deposit money in your Trader's Union Bank Account. Every time you travel to a new planet, the interest will be automatically added to your bank account. There is no limit to how much money you may deposit in your account. Company History Graph The Company History Graph shows the change in each company's net worth over the last 20 weeks (i.e. 20 game turns). Each company's net worth is computed by adding together the company's total cash, savings and stock, then subtracting any money owed to the Trader's Union or Mr. Zinn. Configuration Menu If you are having trouble running Gazillionaire Deluxe on your computer, you should go to the Configuration Menu. The Configuration Menu will explain how to select the appropriate CD-ROM drive letter, install the correct graphics drivers, and switch on/off the sound. Crew The number of employees you have depends on the size and type of your ship. You will not be required to hire any additional employees until you purchase a larger ship. You must pay each employee a weekly salary. If you fail to pay your crew, there is a chance they will go on strike. Distance Chart Just click on one of the PLANET ICONS at the top of the menu, and the DISTANCE CHART will show you how far away each player is from that planet. The distance chart is useful for determining who can reach a planet first. To calculate the approximate time it will take to reach a planet, just divide the distance by the engine speed. The players with the shortest travel times will usually reach a planet first, barring they don't run into a meteor storm or some other misfortune along the way. Explore Planet While on a planet you may visit any of the local institutions. The PLANET SPECIAL allows you to access each planet's special resources such as banking, insurance, taxes, religion, engine construction and so on. The WEATHER BUREAU can alert you to dangerous storms in the area. The NEWS CENTER can provide you with updates on pirate attacks, revolutions and other events which will affect your business. The MINISTRY OF TIME and the PLANET HISTORIES are good sources of Kukubian trivia and background information. Facilities In an attempt to promote free trade in the Kukubian Colonies, Supreme Commander Dred Nicolson has decided to privatize various government-owned facilities on each planet. Every few turns, Dred Nicolson will auction off facilities, such as fuel depots, launch pads and passenger ticket offices, to the highest bidder. The company that buys a facility can charge other trading companies a FEE every time they visit the planet where the facility is located. The FEE is the amount of kubars each trading company must pay when arriving on the planet. The REVENUE is the amount of kubars generated from the fees. The company who owns the facility must travel to the planet to collect the REVENUES. File Options From the FILE OPTIONS menu, you can load an old game, start a new game, quit Gazillionaire Deluxe, configure the game, activate the shortcuts or save your game. Fuel Your ship runs on Ionic Fuel, a combination of nuclear and synthetic fuels. Every time you travel to a planet, your ship consumes fuel. On average, the longer the distance travelled and the larger the ship, the more fuel is used. If you want to save fuel, a good idea is to travel to a nearby planet, rather than one on the other side of Kukubia. Help Most sub-menus contain a context sensitive HELP button. If you have any questions, just click on the HELP buttons, and they should explain each menu in more detail. Introduction For the first time in 700 years, Emperor Dred Nicolson has granted you and a handful of other newly-formed trading companies permission to operate inside the Kukubian Colonies. As president of a trading company, you must make a profit transporting essential commodities between the seven planets of Kukubia. Your goal is to build a trade empire by investing in larger ships, buying warehouses and skillfully out-maneuvering your competitors. Leave Planet To leave a planet, click on the planet you wish to travel to. If you are travelling to a nearby planet and have a fast engine, you will usually beat your competitors to the planet. That is, if you don't run into trouble along the way. Load Email Game Email games are played by emailing a game file back and forth between players. This game file is created when a player saves the game using the SAVE EMAIL GAME menu. When you receive a game file from another player, you should start Gazillionaire Deluxe, then click on CONTINUE OLD EMAIL GAME. From the LOAD EMAIL GAME menu, you can pick up the game where the other player left off. After you are finished with your turn, you will be prompted to save the game and email the saved file to the next player in line. In a nut shell, this is how to play-by-email. NOTE: Everyone participating must have email software with an ATTACH FILE function. The saved game is a binary file and can only be sent by using some sort of ATTACH FILE function. This function is present in most shareware and commercial email software. If you aren't sure about your email, contact your email software manufacturer and ask them if it's possible. Load Game To load a game, just click on the position where you last saved your game. If you haven't saved a game, it is impossible to load a game. Loan Any time you are on a planet, you may take out a loan from the Trader's Union. You will be charged interest on this loan every week. A new week begins every time you travel from one planet to another. The interest accrued on your loan will be automatically added to your debt. Under no circumstances must you allow your loan to exceed your CREDIT LIMIT. If you ever allow your loan to exceed the CREDIT LIMIT, the Trader's Union will force you into BANKRUPTCY and cause you to lose the game. Main Menu The MAIN MENU is the heart of the game. From this menu you can access almost every major sub-menu. Marketplace As a space merchant, your goal is to buy commodities for a low price on one planet, then travel to another planet and sell them for a substantially higher price. As long as you have enough money and room on your ship, you can purchase any of the goods available for sale. If you make a mistake and buy the wrong commodity, just return it right away and you'll get a full refund. The MARKET PRICE is the price that the commodities are selling for on the planet. The PRICE RANGE shows the lowest and highest possible prices on other planets. The PRICE YOU PAID is the AVERAGE price at which you bought the commodities. The TONS ON THE PLANET specifies the amount of commodities for sale. Market Strength Pie Chart This pie chart shows each company's Market Strength. The Market Strength is based on each company's ship size. The larger the ship, the more cargo and passengers the company can transport between planets. Ministry of Time The Ministry of Time provides you with background information on how time functions in the Kukubian system. Money The standard currency in Kukubia is the kubar. Your NET WORTH is computed by adding together your cash, savings and stock, then subtracting any money you owe the Trader's Union and Mr. Zinn. Net Worth Graph This bar graph shows each company's Net Worth. The Net Worth is computed by adding together a company's total cash, savings and stock, then subtracting any money owed to the Trader's Union or Mr. Zinn. News & Information Center The News & Information Center provides you with the latest reports on revolutions, popular trends, pirate attacks and other headline stories. If you watch the news carefully, it can provide useful information and help you to make better business decisions. Opponents You are competing against six computer controlled companies. Each company has its own personality and a unique business strategy. You may click on the buttons at the bottom of the menu to change each computer opponent's intelligence. The higher the intelligence the more difficult it will be to compete with the computer players. Passengers Every ship can carry a certain number of passengers. You can charge as much or as little as you like for tickets. If your ticket price is too high, nobody will want to travel on your ship. On the other hand, if your ticket price is too low, it will be difficult to make a profit. In the future, you may be given the opportunity to buy a larger ship. The general rule is the larger your ship, the more passengers you can carry. Planet Histories The Planet Histories menu provides a detailed history of each planet. This is a good source of Kukubian trivia. Planet Special Each planet has a SPECIAL feature, which can benefit your business. A good way to familiarize yourself with the PLANET SPECIAL is to travel to all of the planets and check out the results. Occasionally, you may run into a little bad luck. However, as a rule, it is well worth your while to take advantage of the PLANET SPECIALS. Save Email Game Email games are played by emailing a game file back and forth between players. This game file is created when a player saves the game using the SAVE EMAIL GAME menu. When you receive a game file from another player, you should start Gazillionaire Deluxe, then click on CONTINUE EMAIL GAME. From the LOAD EMAIL GAME menu, you can pick up the game where the other player left off. After you are finished with your turn, you will be prompted to save the game and email the saved file to the next player in line. In a nut shell, this is how to play-by-email. NOTE: Everyone participating must have email software with an ATTACH FILE function. The saved game is a binary file and can only be sent by using some sort of ATTACH FILE function. This function is present in most shareware and commercial email software. If you aren't sure about your email, contact your email software manufacturer and ask them if it's possible. Save Game As You can save up to five different games. Just click on the position where you would like to save your game, and your game will be automatically saved on the hard drive under the SAVEGAME directory. At a later time you can load the saved game by clicking on the same position under the LOAD GAME menu. Ship Info The SHIP INFO menu provides you with details about your ship. Just click on the buttons on either side of the menu to find out more about your ship's size, crew, fuel tank, speed, passenger capacity, cargo bay and fuel usage. Shortcuts The SHORTCUTS menu allows you to speed up the game by cutting down on the number of mouse clicks required to perform routine tasks. When a shortcut is activated, it allows you to pay your crew, or fill up your fuel tank, or buy insurance simply by clicking on the appropriate MAIN MENU button. This way you can bypass the sub-menus. The shortcuts save a lot of time, especially for slow computers. However, even after you've activated the shortcuts, you can still access the sub-menus by clicking with the RIGHT mouse button instead of the LEFT mouse button. Stock Market Each planet has its own stock exchange. These stock exchanges are similar to index funds. They are an average of selected stocks on each planet. While visiting a planet, you may either buy or sell shares on the planet's Stock Exchange. If you wish to buy or sell shares on the other exchanges, you must travel to the planet where the exchange is located. Emperor Dred has enacted a strict set of regulations. First of all, each company gets only one chance per week to purchase stock. Secondly, no one company may invest more than 50% of its money in one week. These regulations are designed to prevent rampant speculation, which has the potential to destabilize the market. The stock market operates according to trends. When you invest, you should be watching for bull markets and bear markets. If an upward trend starts, it naturally gains momentum every time the market rises. However, if the market takes a dip, that could trigger the start of a downward trend. As an investor, you want to spot an upward trend and invest heavily, then just as a downward trend kicks in, you should sell your shares. Also, be sure to take note when the stock market falls too low. If the market hits zero, this signals a crash, and you will lose your entire investment. Last but not least, every time you buy or sell stock, you must pay your broker a 1% commission. Sorry, but brokers don't work for free. Supply This chart gives you a bird's-eye view of each planet's economy. If the SUPPLY is 0%, the goods are rare on the planet, and the price tends to be higher. If the SUPPLY is 100%, the commodity is plentiful on the planet, and the price tends to be lower. Keep in mind that no economy is entirely predictable. Prices can change overnight due to such things as natural disasters, labor strikes, changes in government policy, local wars and many other unexpected events. Taxes The Imperial Government, which rules over all of Kukubia, levies two types of taxes: a Passenger Tax and a Commodities Tariff. The Passenger Tax is a tax on all income from passengers. The Commodities Tariff is a tax on all goods exported from a planet and another tax on all goods imported to a planet. If the goods never leave a planet, you will not be charged any tariffs. This is one advantage of storing goods in a warehouse. Voyager's Insurance Any time you are on a planet, you may purchase Voyager's Insurance. This insurance will protect you against a number of misfortunes which may occur during space travel, such as damage from asteroids, losses due to space pirates, warehouse fires, and much more. If you purchase insurance, it will only cover your next trip. You must pay an insurance premium every week if you want to be fully covered. Your insurance costs will rise and fall depending on local conditions, natural disasters, your accident record and fluctuations in the insurance market. Also, if you purchase a larger ship or more warehouse space, your insurance costs will rise. Warehouse You can store goods in your warehouses on each planet. Unfortunately, you cannot increase your warehouse space whenever you feel like it. The Trader's Union strictly regulates the sale of all space. This helps to maintain a trade balance between the various planets and prevents the larger companies from monopolizing the market. By virtue of being a member of the Trader's Union, your name is automatically entered into a lottery. If your name comes up, you will be given the chance to purchase more space. Weather Bureau The Weather Bureau provides you with the latest reports on solar storms, typhoons, asteroid belts, and other natural perils which may affect your company. Zinn Mr. Zinn is a wealthy and somewhat fickle financier. He made his fortune as a merchant on Zile, and now he wants to expand his business. Mr. Zinn is willing to loan you money as long as you pay him interest on the loan. The interest is charged every time you leave a planet and travel to a new planet, and this amount is added to your total debt. Under no circumstances must you allow this loan to exceed the maximum CREDIT LIMIT. If you ever allow your loan to exceed this CREDIT LIMIT, Mr. Zinn will repossess your ship, which will force you into BANKRUPTCY and cause you to lose the game. APPENDIX A: How to Contact LavaMind If you want to get in touch with LavaMind, just send email to the following addresses: General Info (Auto Reply): info@lavamind.com Tech Support: support@lavamind.com Customer Service: service@lavamind.com Sales: sales@lavamind.com More LavaMind Games: games@lavamind.com The LavaMind Web Sites A great way to get information about LavaMind is to come and visit the LavaMind Web Sites. These sites are dedicated to games and entertainment. They are packed with graphics, short stories, reviews, movie material, a Virtual Pet Cemetery, a Volcanic Gallery, and even a lunatic or two. These sites also contain information on ordering LavaMind's other games as well as sneak previews of upcoming games. http://www.gazillionaire.com http://www.zapitalism.com http://www.lavamind.com An Introduction to LavaMind LavaMind was founded in January of 1994 by Naomi Kokubo and Steven Hoffman. The company is a partnership located in San Francisco, California. To date, all of LavaMind's projects have been self-funded. LavaMind operates on two basic principles: 1) It produces titles based on original content; 2) It will not take in any outside funding which will compromise the integrity of its work. The goal of LavaMind is to provide alternative entertainment with original characters, stories, design and game-play. In the long term, LavaMind hopes to build a reputation around the uniqueness, individuality and quality of its work. LavaMind's Other Games If you like Gazillionaire, you'll love Zapitalism! Zapitalism takes place in the Archipelago of Mermadan on the island of Zapinalia. Queen Keshi Keshi Gomu, the ruler of Zapinalia, has decided to open up the island's economy to foreign imports for the first time in a thousand years. Your job is to make millions buying and selling everything from imported lumber fish to precious mamo vapor. With the profit you earn dealing in exotic goods, you can expand your operation. But watch out--you must match wits against five other companies in a race to build a commercial empire. These competitors can either be controlled by computer players or human players. Zapitalism is designed for both Windows 3.1 and Windows 95, has play-by-email functionality over the Net, and is being distributed world-wide on CD-ROM. For more information, come visit the Zapitalism Web Site at www.zapitalism.com. LavaMind's Business Philosophy LavaMind is seeking to fill a niche in the entertainment market by providing distinctly different content. One of the fundamental philosophies of the company is to produce original material. LavaMind does not believe in licensing existing characters from other media, such as film, TV, comics and books, unless we have a large degree of creative flexibility. This is both a business decision and a personal decision. LavaMind is constantly looking to develop fresh characters, concepts and stories. The founders of LavaMind believe the process of creating is as important as the final result, and LavaMind is looking to work with people and companies who share a similar vision. APPENDIX B: How to Successfully Play Games at Work Without Getting Caught If you are the type of person who loves to play games on the job, we have a few tips for you: 1) First, open an important spread sheet or application relating directly to your work. 2) Next, wait for your boss to leave the room. It is important never to play games while your boss is in the same room, unless your boss is playing with you. In this case, always let your boss win the first few times. This type of action encourages more game playing at work. 3) As soon as your boss leaves the room, start your favorite game. In your haste to maximize your time, don't forget to switch the sound OFF. 4) As you play, keep one eye on the door and your fingers positioned so that they can instantly hit the Alt+Tab combination of keys. It's good to estimate just how long your boss will take. If your boss goes to the coffee room everyday at 3:00 PM, you should take out your watch and time your boss. You will find that the timing tends to be pretty consistent. 5) If your boss or a nosy co-worker enters the room unexpectedly, quickly press Alt+Tab. This will jump you to the open spread sheet or work related application. Make sure to practice this maneuver several times in advance, so that you know the procedure. 6) Another good strategy is to master that glazed-over look. When your boss enters the room, don't fumble around with the keyboard or your mouse. Keep perfectly still and stare at the application as if you are concentrating 100% on the work at hand. This will give your boss the signal that you do not wish to be disturbed. Then when your boss is not looking, quickly hit Alt+Tab again and quit the game. 6) We designed all of our games so that after being saved once they will automatically save upon quitting the game. This is a good feature for times like this. 7) Despite your appearance of absolute concentration, if your boss inquires about what you are doing, you should look up with a blank, confused expression and mumble something about a tough problem, then go back to your work. It always helps to have a pre-formulated answer, such as "I'm just checking the figures one more time." 8) Contingency Plan: If you get absorbed in the game and don't follow the above instructions and happen to get caught, we've listed a set of viable excuses you can use: The White Lie: "Uhmmm... I just got this for my friend's birthday, and I had to make sure it works before I give it as a gift." The Technical Lie: "This game has been giving me problems at home, and I just wanted to see if it runs on this system. It will only take a second." Probably True: "I was just killing time waiting for you to come back." The Lame Excuse: "I thought it would be okay. I mean, I finished all my work and instead of just sitting around, I thought I'd play a round or two." The Big Lie: "I found this CD-ROM lying around, and I just had to see what it was." A Bold Move: "Have you heard of this game? You should try it! Do you want to start a game with me now?" Honesty Never Hurts: "I'm so sorry. I know I shouldn't be playing in the office, but I just had to try. I'm hooked. I admit it. Maybe you should send me to Gamers Anonymous." 9) Be sure to remove the CD-ROM from the drive before leaving work, otherwise this can be a dead give-away. 10) Finally, at the end of the day, copy the game files to a floppy disk and delete the game directory. This step is only necessary if your boss likes to use your computer or poke around in your directories. 11) Remember, practice makes perfect. Now go and have some fun!