Loadstar 206/206.d81/t.sea to sea

Text File | 2001-01-01 | 8.8 KB | 320 lines

u
        S E A   T O    S E A

 The Transcontinental Railroad Game

        by David M. Moorman


    Welcome to 1866! In a moment, you
will face the greatest challenge in
your life: To build a continuous
ribbon of steel from SEA TO SEA!

    You have at your disposal a
Utility Train (parked at Boston)
which can lay or remove track, and
build or remove stations. You also
have 11 passenger/freight trains
waiting in Vermont/New Hampshire,
plus the Presidential Express, parked
at our nation's Capitol. And, you
have $50,000 (which goes fast) and
just 365 days to complete your
transcontinental quest.

 [DAY AND NIGHT]  The screen border
indicates the general time of day:
it's light green during daylight and
dark green during night.

 [LAYING TRACK]  The U-Train is
operated with the joystick. Push the
joystick in the desired direction.
Once the train is moving, you can
press the ENTER key to make it follow
the track automatically.

    The purpose of the U-train is to
lay track. When the border is green
(either light or dark), the U-train
is in LAY MODE.

    When the border is light green,
press the FIRE button and move the
train into an open space. Track will
mark your path. Track can turn 45
degrees. To create switch track, move
the U-train onto established track,
press FIRE, and move away at a 45
degree angle. If the track you are
laying is to connect to existing
track, you will have to back-track to
complete the connection.

    Track can be laid only during
daylight (light green border).

 [OUT OF RAILS]  Far too soon, the
U-train will quit laying track. A "NO
RAILS" message will appear in the
upper right corner of the screen. You
will notice that the TON value is 0.
You need more steel. Be careful to
not run out when you are connecting
track to the bumper end of another
track -- especially connecting new
trains or bridges.

 [REMOVING TRACK]  One way to get
more rails is to remove unwanted
track. Press F7 to toggle to REMOVE
MODE. The border will turn red (dark
red at night). Pressing fire (when the
border is light red) and moving the
U-train to existing track will remove
the track that was under the train.
Track can be removed only during
daylight.

 [MORE RAILS] are available at
stations (straight track with a small
box to the east or south). The shade
of the station indicates how many
loads of rails are currently in its
yard -- with black indicating the
maximum of three loads, and white
indicating none. The Boston station
begins with three loads of rails.
Place the U-train on top of the
station and press the <L> key. The NO
RAILS prompt will be replaced and the
TON value will become 255. (Note: the
U-train cannot carry more than 255
tons.)

 [STILL MORE RAILS]  Trains 1-9, A-B
can serve as freight trains, hauling
rails to convenient stations. To
engage a train for freight, connect
it to the desired station plus a
bumper track. Be sure all switches
are turned or straight in the proper
configuration (see CONTROL CURSOR,
below). Then press CONTROL and the
desired number or letter. This puts
the train in a 24 hour warm-up
period. When ready, the train will
travel to the station, stop, hit the
bumper track, and reverse its
direction. When the train returns to
its [original] siding, the color
turns to gray, indicating that it is
carrying rails. It will dump these
rails at any station at which it
stops.

    Now all you have to do is get the
U-train in, load the rails, and get
out before a wreck.

       [A WRECK ENDS THE GAME!]

    Once started, trains cannot be
turned off. Certain pauses can be
scheduled at stations. (See CONTROL
CURSOR, below.)

 [BUILDING STATIONS]  You will need
stations to handle rails, and to
enable passenger traffic (The only
way to make money!) Place the U-train
on a straight north/south or
east/west track segment and press the
S key. When you move on, you will
find a white station present. You
have 79 stations at your disposal.

 [FREE RAILS]  At various locations,
you will see a section with three
vertical rails. This indicates free
rails. To load the rails, connect
track, place a station on top of the
free rails. It will have one load
available. Press L to load.

 [PASSENGER TRAFFIC]  When built, the
station counts the number of houses
within three spaces in each
direction. This is the population
that the station serves -- and
affects the number of travelers from
that station. You will need at least
two stations on a line. (Travelers
must go somewhere! Trains will not
stop at the station they just left.)
The simplest line (and fairly
profitable) is to connect Boston with
NYC, placing stations at each end.
Run a switch into the line, connect
one of the trains, and warm it up.
Once the train is shuttling between
stations, you will begin to (maybe)
make money.

    Every time a train stops at a
station, there is a chance of
population increase. Houses will
start to pop up in open spaces. These
increase the revenue -- but make
laying track more difficult (or
impossible). PLAN AHEAD!! Especially
plan for the Presidential Express,
which can become rather "home-bound!"
On the other hand, extensive track,
especially in the soon congested
Mid-Atlantic States, will curb
revenue.

 [CONTROL CURSOR]  To pause the game
and get a chance to just look around,
press F1. This turns on the Control
Cursor (a green square in the middle
of the screen).  Use the joystick to
move the cursor anywhere on the map.

    The Control Cursor also sends
instructions to switches and
stations. Place the cursor over the
desired switch or station and press
fire. Then press the number or letter
of the desired train. Use the
joystick to flip through the options
shown at the left-top of the screen.
Press FIRE to set. You may choose
another train, or move the cursor
with the joystick. To exit Control
Cursor and get on with the game, move
the cursor to any space that is not a
switch or station and press FIRE.

 [SETTING SWITCHES]  Switches are the
most powerful function of the game.
Remember, unless told to do
otherwise, trains will travel
straight through a switch. Using the
Control Cursor, you can assign a turn
or straight selection for each train
that uses the switch. It is a good
idea to check all switches before
warming up a train or before moving
trains into new areas.

    [SAFETY FIRST! WRECKS KILL!!]

 [SCHEDULING STATIONS]  Each train
can be scheduled to pass through a
station, pause for 1 hour, or wait
for a scheduled departure time. Use
the Control Cursor to select the
station and press the number or
letter of the desired train. Your
options can be scrolled with the
joystick:

 THROUGH - The train does not stop.

 PAUSE   - The train stops 1 hour.

  Six AM
  Noon      The trains leaves the
  Six PM    station at this time.
  Midnite

 Again, press FIRE to set. To exit
Control Cursor, move the cursor to
any non-switch or non-station and
press FIRE.

 [FOLLOWING A TRAIN]  You can watch
the progress of any train by pressing
SHIFT and the desired number or
letter. To stop the scrolling
function, press the C= key.

 [GETTING SOME SLEEP]  To save a
game, either before going to bed or
before doing something stupid, press
<Alt-ENTER> (if in full-screen mode),
Then use the Windows mouse to click
Tools > Save Snapshot. Give the
Snapshop a name you can remember.

    Formerly saved games can be
loaded by using the Windows mouse to
click Tools > Load Snapshot. Choose
the file you saved.

 [HELP KEY]  Pressing H will pause
the game and bring up a Help Screen
with major commands listed. (<F3> now
only allows exiting Sea to Sea. The
Save and Load functions are easier to
do on Frodo with Snapshop.0

 [WINNING THE GAME]  Once you have a
profitable operation, you will want
to build your Transcontinental
Railroad, connecting the Presidential
Express train at Washington, D.C. to
the station at San Francisco,
California. Do [NOT] change the San
Francisco station for the
Presidential Express. For that
station is encoded with a special
value for the P-train. When all is
ready, press CONTROL-P.  Then press
SHIFT-P to watch its historic
progress.

 Have Fun -- and Happy Railroading!!!

 DMM

 [LATE-BREAKING ADDENDUM:] Johnny
"The Mad Gamer" Harris just called
and said that he had made it to the
end of SEA TO SEA. It turns out that
there's quite a spectacular payoff
when you get to the end -- which I
have yet to do.

    I asked Johnny, who gave the game
"three enthusiastic thumbs up", if he
could write up an article outlining
the strategies he employed (to help
those of us who were born without a
strategy gland), and he said he
would.  Unfortunately, the deadline
for this issue looms, so Johnny's
help will be published next month. If
you get stuck in Nebraska or
somewhere, just wait till LOADSTAR
#108 and The Mad Gamer will tell all.

    All aboard!

 FT

 [eL Note:] Fortunately all this
"late breaking" stuff happened back
in 1993. So we are pleased to offer
Johnny's excellent Strategy article
right here on eL002. It's the next
one on the Menu.

 DMM

 **** R > Run    ENTER > Menu ***