Copyright: Copyright Shad Sluiter May 1994


Contents
Jet Trader

How to use Jet Trader

Object of the Game

Starting a New Game

Flying and Navigating

Buying Commodities

Selling Commodities

Buying Supplies

Speed Options

Status

Strategies

Finance Hints

Carriers

Saving and Loading a Game

Enemy Planes

Exiting the Game

References

File Menu

Options Menu

Index

Copyright Information

Distribution Rights


Index
Jet Trader Help Index

Aircraft

Aircraft Carriers

Author

Buying Commodities

Buying Supplies

Cargo Containers

Carriers

Commodities

Control

Distribution Rights

Enemy Planes

File Menu

Finance Hint

Flying

Gasoline

Grid

Hanger

Limit Fields

Loading a Game

Location

Map

Missle

Navigating

Object of the Game

Options Menu

Planes

Price

Selling Commodities

Saving a Game

Shad Sluiter

Strategies

Supplies


Object of the Game

The object of Jet Trader is to make money by trading commodities  skillful pilot of a heavily armed transport jet that must navigate your way from one aircraft carrier to another.  Enemy planes may try to stop you.

When you land on a carrier you may buy or sell commodities.  The price of each commodity will depend on that carrier's need at that time.   Your strategy is to buy low and sell high.


Flying and Navigating

To transport your commodities between aircraft carriers, you must be able to control your plane and find your way around.

To control your plane, use the left and right mouse buttons.  The left button turns your plane left.  The right button turns your plane right.  To fire a missile at enemy planes , press any key.  If you select a choice from the Options menu, your plane will pause.  Click the left mouse button and it will continue.

To use the navigation system, choose Navigation from the Optionsmenu.

Your plane's navigation system maps the ocean into a grid.  Your plane and every ship has a grid location consisting of an "X" and "Y" coordinate  If you fly your plane off the north edge of the screen, the "Y" coordinate will decrease by one.  If you fly south, it will increase by one.  If you fly east, the "X" coordinate will increase by one.  If you fly west, it will decrease by one.  The grid location of a ship does not change during the game.

To land on an aircraft carrier, simply fly over the center of the ship.  The plane will automatically land at any speed.


Buying Commodities

The object of the game is to make money by buying commodities at a low price at one aircraft carrier and selling them at a high price at a different aircraft carrier.

Every time you land on an aircraft carrier, you may choose buy or sell from the Options menu.  The buy and sell dialog boxes have four columns.

                     Description                     Own               Cost                  Purchase

Near the bottom of the dialog box are two limit fields.


Selling Commodities

The object of the game is to make money by buying commodities at a low price at one aircraft carrier and selling them at a high price at a different aircraft carrier.

Every time you land on an aircraft carrier, you may choose buy or sell from the Options menu.  The buy and sell dialog boxes have four columns.

                     Description                      Own               Cost                  Sell

Near the bottom of the dialog box are two limit fields.


Buying Supplies

You need supplies to fly, fight off enemy planes and carry cargo.  To buy supplies, first navigate to an aircraft carrier and then choose Hanger from the Options menu.

The aviation fuel commodity that you buy and sell will NOT be used to fuel your plane.  The aviation fuel commodity is stored in your cargo bay and not in your gas tank.  See Buying or Selling commodities.


Strategies

The object of Jet Trader is to make as much money as possible.  This can be accomplished by following these rules of thumb.

Never run out of supplies!

If you crash your plane because of lack of gasoline or because you were unable to defend yourself against enemy planes, the GAME IS OVER!  Don't lose out on a good trading deal because you forgot to visit the hanger.

Save your game often.

If you save a game and then crash your plane, you can load your game again and continue from the point at which you saved the game.

Check the markets.

If you are unsure of what type of commodity to purchase, check Finance Hint under the Options menu.  The Finance Hint will give a better idea of which commodities are good deals and which items are over priced.

Visit Several Carriers

The price of commodities work on the law of supply and demand.  Some carriers experience shortages of commodities and need you get there fast!  If a shortage occurs, the price of that item will skyrocket.  If you find such a situation, exploit it until prices even out again.

Travel at a Medium Speed

If you fly at the fastest pace (10), you will be wasting fuel.  Slower speeds conserve fuel, but a slow moving cargo plane is an easy target, especially for enemy helicopters!


Carriers

There are five aircraft carriers in the fleet that you are servicing.  The U.S.S. Enterprise, the U.S.S. Midway, the U.S.S. Yorktown, the U.S.S. Hornet,  and the U.S.S. America.

Each aircraft carrier needs commodities.  The object of the game is to buy and sell commodities between ships.  Each ship has its own grid location that you can find by using the Navigate choice from the Options menu.

Occasionally each ship will experience severe shortages of a certain commodity.  If this happens, the ship will pay a high price for you to bring that commodity to them.


Saving and Loading a Game

A good strategy in playing Jet Trader is to save your game often.  When you save a game, every detail of the game is stored on a disk.  You can load that game again at a later time.

To save a game

1.	Choose Save... from the File menu.

2.	Choose a directory.

3.	Type in a name (8 characters or less).

4.	Click the OK  button.

To load a game

1.	Choose Open... from the File menu.

2.	Choose the directory in which you saved the game.

3.	Click the OK button.

See also New game.


Enemy Planes

Occasionally you will be attacked by enemy planes.  These planes are sent in on a suicide mission and will try to crash into you.  You must avoid them or shoot them out of the air with missiles.  If you land on an aircraft carrier, the enemy plane will fly away and leave you alone for the time being.

The slowest planes are 727 cargo planes, the fastest are attack helicopters.


File Menu
The File Menu

The file menu is used to...

Start a New Game

Load a Saved Game

Save a Game

Exit the Game


Options Menu
The Options Menu

The Options menu is used to...

Buy Commodities

Sell Commodities

Navigate

Check your Status

Change your Speed

Visit the Hanger

Get a Finance Hint


Distribution Rights

This program is FREE.  You are allowed to copy and distribute this program along with this help file.  No one is allowed to buy or sell this program.

Author:

Shad Sluiter

2417 Kerry Winde Drive

New Lenox, IL 60451

Thanks to Dr. Brubaker for teaching us all he knows about Borland C++!


Starting a New Game

As soon as you load the Jet Trader program, you are in the pilot's seat flying your trusty 727.  If for some reason you are careless enough to run out of gas or to be knocked out of the sky by an enemy, simply choose New from the File menu to begin again.


Speed Options

You may adjust your speed by choosing Speed Options from the Options menu.  You may also choose the type of aircraft you wish to fly.  The type of aircraft you choose makes no difference in performance or capacity.

See strategies for help in choosing your speed.


Status

To see your status, choose Status from the Options menu.  Your status consists of three things.

1.  Cash - See Object of the Game

2.  Cargo Space - See Buying Supplies

3.  Location

4.  Fuel


Finance Hint

To get a finance hint, choose Finance Hint from the Options menu.

The finance hit gives a price range for each commodity.  When you choose Finance Hint, the computer checks the prices at every carrier and identifies the lowest and highest price being paid.  Use the Finance Hint before buying or selling commodities.

See also Strategies.


Exiting the Game

To leave the game, choose Exit from the File menu.

Before you exiting, make sure you save the game if you plan to continue it later.


There are six different commodities that you can trade between aircraft carriers, drinking water, food, fuel oil (for ships), aviation fuel, ammunition, airplane parts..


You can have any combination of commodities on your plane.  But, the total number of commodities can not be greater that the number of cargo spaces.


The price of each commodity varies from ship to ship.


Enter the amount of each commodity you would like to buy.


These tell you how many of each commodity you can purchase and how many cargo spaces are available on your plane.


Enter the amount of each commodity you would like to Sell.  Of course you cannot sell more than you own.


The supplies you can purchase are fuel for your airplane , missiles and cargo containers


An airplane hanger is a garage where planes get serviced.


See your DOS manual for a description of directoreis.


You may choose any of the following plane types: 727, F-15, Paper, Helicopter.


A coordinate is a two number location on a grid.  The number 1,1 would be the top left corner of a grid.  A number 1,10 would be the bottom left number of a 10x10 grid.


The name of the commodites are: Drinking Water, Food, Fuel Oil, Aviation Fuel, Ammunition, Airplane Parts.