STOCK MARKET
'the game'
By: Earl E. Long Jr.
PC version by Scott Adams
(C) Copyright 1990
Starsoft Development Laboratories
Load the disk into disk drive 'A'
and type A:START
You may now select from 1 to 6
players and type in their names.
Joystick Users:
You may now use a joystick with this
game. Simply press 'Y' when asked if
you have a joystick connected. From
then on, you will be able to highlight
the desired option or stock selection,
and select it by pressing the joystick
button. NOTE: when buying or selling
stocks or borrowing money, you must
still type in the amounts when asked.
Note:
for very experienced players (and fast
readers). If you put a - (minus) sign
in front of the number of players then
the beeps will be suppressed and the
built in waits will be reduced!
Player names can not be any longer than
9 letters. After the last player's name
has been typed in, the computer will
then go to MARKET OPEN and hold for a
few seconds before going to the first
players chart.
Player's turns will be at random, so
even if you were entered as the first
player it does not mean that you will
be first each turn. There are ten
turns per game. The object of the game
is to buy and sell large amounts of
shares and make more money than your
opponent(s).
*** THE CHART ***
LAST - This is the price per share of
the last turn.
CURRENT - This is the price per share
of the present turn.
CHANGE - This section tells you whether
or not your stock went up or down.
At the end of each turn each one of the
stocks go through a random change
of ether up, down, or stay the same.
Then the results of the ticker tape
are added or subtracted from that.
COST - This is what you had paid per
share for this particular stock. If
you purchase stock at two or three
different prices your cost per share
will be averaged for you.
DIFFERENCE - Whether or not you have
made any money on this stock.
SHARES - Each company has 1 million
shares available for sale to the
players. This section of your board
will show you how many shares you own.
Remember stocks will split at 140
points(price) or better. A stock
split can be anywhere from (2 for 1),
(3 for 1), or (4 for 1) but the price
will only be divided by two no matter
how much it splits by.
If a stock goes bankrupt, you lose
all your shares. If the stock comes
back on the board you will not
receive any shares back.
Below the chart you find several
choices, SELL, BUY, LOAN, ASSETS,
GRAPH, END, TOP 12.
SELL - To enter the sell mode, you may
press the 'S' key.
Once you see the highlighter, you may
then use the cursor (arrow) keys or
joystick to move up or down. When
you get the shares that you wish to
sell, press the return (<enter>) key
or joystick button. You must sell
before you buy!
BUY - To enter the buy mode, you may
press the 'B' key.
Once you see the highlighter, you may
then use the cursor (arrow) keys or
joystick to move up or down. When
you get to the stock you wish to
purchase, press the return (enter) key
or joystick button.
ASSETS - To view your assets, press the
'A' key.
LOAN - If you would like to go to the
bank and borrow some money, press the
'L' key. Keep in mind, you can only
make one trip per turn to the bank to
borrow or pay back.
GRAPH - Press the 'G' key to check out
your favorite stock's track record.
TOP 12 - Press the 'T' key to check out
the top 12 score board.
END - Press the 'E' key to end your
turn.
*** SELL ***
Remember, you must sell any shares that
you would like to cash in before you go
to BUY or you will have to wait until
the next turn to do so.
If you wish to sell all of the shares
in that one particular stock, all you
do is enter the number 1 and press
return. If you would like to only sell
part of your shares then type in the
amount and press <enter>. Once the
<enter> key is pressed you will then
return to the chart board.
If the amount of shares that you sell
are greater than 250,000 - you could
influence the market by dropping the
selling price as long as the selling
price is greater than 10 points
(dollars).
*** BUY ***
The BUY mode will show you how many
shares are remaining in each company,
how much cash you have, the current
price of the stock, and how many shares
your money will buy up to the limit of
shares remaining in the company.
At any time you may press the '1' key
and then the <enter> key to either use
all your cash or buy all of the
remaining stock if you have enough
money to do so. If you like you may
enter only what you plan on spending
and then press the <enter> key.
If you buy 250,000 shares or more and
the price per share is 4 or higher then
you might be able to bump the market
price up, so the next player will have
to pay that much more per share and you
will have made that much more on your
shares already.
After you have made your selection,
press the <enter> key, your selection
will be entered and you will
automatically be returned to the chart.
Your buy now shows on the chart under
cost, profit(if any), and shares (how
many you purchased).
If you purchased the remaining shares
that were left in a company, when you
return to the chart you will notice
the price column is in inverted video
(black letters on white). This
indicates all of the stock in this
company has been bought up.
*** ASSETS ***
When you press the 'A' key you will go
to a board that will automatically
analyse your present standing in the
game. You will see how much cash you
have, your stock's present value, a
total of both and then the computer
will subtract your bank balance with
interest, showing how well or bad you
are doing in the game. Don't let the
figures discourage you because in this
game you can be several million in the
hole and on the next turn (with good
investments) be quite a few million
dollars to the good.
To return to the chart, press the 'R'
key, <enter>, or the joystick button.
*** LOAN ***
Press the 'L' key to go to the bank.
When you get to the bank you will have
a choice to make. Do you want to borrow
some money? Do you want to pay back
some or all of your outstanding loan or
simply return to the chart after
checking out the present interest
rates? If you decide to borrow, press
the 'B' key and you will enter the loan
office, where you will be welcomed.
Type in the amount you wish to borrow
and press <enter>. Remember if you
want it all then type '1' and press
<enter>. You may see what your
borrowing limit is by checking the
upper right corner of the bank.
Once you borrow any amount of money,
your interest rate becomes the same as
the present interest rate. All loans
taken when you already owe the bank is
considered rewritten to the present
interest rate.
If you decide you would like to pay
back some money to the bank, then
press the 'P' key and you will be
welcomed by the bank teller. Type in
how much you would like to pay back
and press <enter> If you would like
to pay back all the cash that you have
or you have more cash on hand than
you owe, but would like to pay off your
loan, press the '1' key and then
the <enter> key. The computer will make
the proper transaction for you.
To leave the bank and return to the
chart, just press the 'R' key.
Remember you are only allowed one trip
to the bank per turn. If you borrowed
money on this turn and decided that you
didn't want it, you may pay it back
immediately as long as you had not
returned to the chart.
You can not go to the bank on the tenth
turn.
*** GRAPH ***
Pressing the 'G' key will bring you to
the graph chart. This graph will show
how good or bad a particular stock is
doing throughout the game since the
first turn.
To flick through the different
companies, use the 'S' key but it will
only flick through the companies in one
direction.
The graph can be useful in forecasting
an investment in the company that you
wish to purchase shares in, but like
always, there are no guarantees.
To return to the chart, just press the
'R' key.
*** END ***
When you have finished all of your
transactions and feel you are all done,
press the 'E' key. Once this key is
pressed, if there are any more players
then the bell will ring signifying the
next players turn. If you're the last
player, the market will close and this
will end all turns.
*** *** ***
At the end of each game turn the market
will close and then open at Wall
Street. Each stock will randomly go
through a process of one of three
changes, it could go up in price, it
could go down in price, or it could
have no change what so ever. Also it
could be a bull market or a bear
market. After each stock goes through
its change, then you will see the
ticker tape go by. On the ticker tape
will be some type of event showing
something that might influence the
market in that months period. Any ups
or downs on the tape will be added to
or subtracted from that particular
stock after it has already gone through
its first change.
Dividends may be awarded as long as a
companies stock is worth more than 10
points(dollars). Dividends may be
awarded to as many as one to three
companies per turn.
A bull market means that the price per
share could go up or down anywhere
from 8 to 38 points(dollars) per share.
A bear market means that the price per
share could go up or down anywhere from
5 to 19 points(dollars) per share.
On turn 10 instead of leaving the
ticker tape and going to the chart
you will instead watch another ticker
tape describing how well the
computer thought your performance was.
Keep in mind that the computer
might not understand all the time how
hard you really try to get a good
score. After going through the ratings,
the computer will then load
another screen and you will then see
who the winner was for sure.
Press the <enter> key and the computer
will then place any player who might
qualify on the top score board. Any
player who is entered on the board will
have their name printed along with their
score so they can identify their proper
place in this game. All previous
scores from other games will alse be
printed out.
*** HINTS ***
1. If you are first player make sure
that you sell any stock that you
might have more than 250,000 shares in.
This could mean that following
players could lose money when selling
their shares from that company.
2. Playing low cost stock could be
risky but could also pay off with big
rewards. Remember, the lower the cost
per share the more shares you can
buy with the least amount of money.
3. Try not to invest in more than six
companies, if you invest in too many
you could find out that you are not
gaining or losing too much each turn.
You will never become a billionaire if
you don't take some risk.
4. Think big, in terms hundred
thousands, not hundreds.
This is not an arcade game and does
not require a lot of dexterity.
An average game will last approximately
one and half hours, but the time
really depends on how long it takes for
people to make their decisions.
You will find that you will spend many
hours playing this game, whether by
yourself or with other players.
