Dunes Trader!

© 2002, 2004 Jim DuBois
Excalibur2099@yahoo.com
Get the game at: Arcane Journeys (www.arcanejourneys.com)

Dunes Trader 1.5
Table of Contents:
- Introduction
- Starting a game
- Playing the Game
- Preferences

Introduction

Try to make money by buying and then selling cargo between the seven different cities which are hidden among the dunes of a large desert.

Starting a Game

Game Difficulties

On Easy, you start with the most money, and the cities tend to give you more money when you sell them cargo, and demand less money when they sell you cargo.
On Medium, you start with a little less money, and the cities's prices are a little less in your favor.
On Hard, you start with the least money, and the cities tend to give you a small amount of money when you sell them cargo, and demand more money when they sell you cargo.

Game Styles

20 days, 100 days, and 500 days: These are all timed games where you have to make as much money as you can in the time given. 20 days is the most difficult.
7 in a row: You must make one city have in its for sale list 7 of the same item. This is a more advanced style of game, and slightly more difficult than the timed games.
Free Trade: Play as long as you like, with no goals or limits. Or high scores. Good way to get to know the details of the game.

Playing the Game

City Screen

Each city has a row of items for sale, and below that, a shorter row of items it desires. Below each item is the price. Above the price is a bar which indicates either the world demand (if the bar is below a for sale item) or the world supply (if the bar is below a wanted item). If there is no bar, the item is either not supplied anywhere or in demand anywhere.
If you have in your ship an item that a city wants, then that city will display the price of the item on its wanted list in boldface. If the price the city will pay is the best price offered in all cities, the item will be outlined in dots.
Click on an item to buy or sell it.
Sometimes, a city will have an item in its wanted list that is inverted. That means that the city especially wants that item, and if you sell it to them, they will give you discounts and bonuses on all further trades.
To the right of the list of items for sale in the city is a small bar which fills up as your cargo holds fill up.
On top row of the screen is displayed, from left to right,
- The name of the people who live in the city and the number of the city in '()',
- The amount of money you have,
- What day (the number under the arch), and what time of day (the position of the sun on the arch) it is. This row also appears on the player screen, and the world screen.
To the left of the city for sale row is a number in bold. This helps indicate the general price a city will make you pay for an item. The basic formula for price of an item is: the general price, times its position in the for sale list, ie, items to the right are more expensive.
To the left of the city wanted row is another number in bold. This helps indicate the general price a city will pay you for an item. The basic formula for price of an item is: the general price, times 5 minus its position in the wanted list, ie, items to the left are paid more for by the city.

Other Screens

To review your game status, examine what cargo you are carrying, and to dump cargo, go to your player screen, by hitting the 'You' Button.
You can also buy and sell items from the World screen, which shows condensed listings of all the cities in the game. The readout there is similar to the basic city screen, but without as much detail. To get to the world screen, hit the 'World' button on the bottom of the screen, which appears when you are on the city or player screen.

Preferences

There are two preferences you can set:
- Play animations: turn this off the not draw the lines which draw over the screen to indicate travel. With the animations off, the game will play slightly more quickly.
- Default Go and Trade: turn this off to make the default be examine when you are tapping cargo in a city you are not currently in