From TradeWars Museum X
Application
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| Published By
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| People's Computer Company
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| Author Name
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| Dave Kaufman
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| Year Written
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| 1974
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| Application Type
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| TW Precursor
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| For Version
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| Unknown
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| Download
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| None
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| Description
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| IT IS THE FUTURE. Interstellar space ships link the small community of newly discovered worlds.
YOU captain two merchant ships with the future of the young, emergent worlds depending upon you and
your fellow skippers.
You land and you liftoff, you buy local merchandise and sell what you have on board. You trade with
the merchants and haggle over prices. Bid too high? Try a little lower. Bid too low? Try again next
time!
You buy your raw materials (like Uranium and Metals) on the less developed, newer star systems.
With a full ship, you lift off and return to Class I or Class II star systems. There you sell out and load
up on goods such as Heavy Equipment, or Medicine. Then out to the periphery for another haul.
But that's not all! As the years progress, the star systems will slowly develop, and those on the
brisker trading routes will grow faster.
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Star Trader is one of three primary influences cited by Chris Sherrick in creating the original TradeWars. The others are RISK and Hunt the Wumpus.
Sherrick simplified the trade system by replacing the six trade items, Uranium, Metals, Heavy Equipment, Medicine, Computer Software, and Star Gems, with the more generic three categories of Ore, Organics, and Equipment. However, the spirit of the haggle system was retained, and though it has increased in complexity, is still at the core of TradeWars 2002. Also, Sherrick considered the navigation structure of Star Trader to be too simple, and he replaced it with the more complex system used by Hunt the Wumpus.
Star Trader was published in People's Computer Company (PCC) Volume 2, Number 3 newsletter in January 1974.
A comparison of Star Trader and TradeWars 2002 porting:
Star Trader
TradeWars 2002
Resources
Star Trader Source Code 1
Star Trader Source Code 2
