An Amiga 500 Amiga1000 or Amiga2000 with at least one drive and 1Meg RAM.
Stockmarket disk can be used to boot the system or the game can be loaded
from Workbench.
Double click on the disk icon then double click `The Insider's Club' icon.
`The Insider's Club' contains all that is necessary to run the game. It is
loaded completely into memory except for one small file called S.M.folio_records that is kept on the disk, containing the players history file. Deleting this file will lose your game history. The game will then create a new one.
There is plenty of room to save games on the playing disk.
Should you get an error `Error 7 Line xxxx' during loading, it indicates not
enough memory. If you are running a 1Meg or more system, you have too many
other windows or screens open taking up chip memory. Close them.
Welcome to THE Insider's CLUB.
Stockmarket is based on trading on a mythical Australian `Stock Market'.
The names of the companies used have no bearing or relationship with any
known or actual company and is not intended to reflect any real business.
Your opponents are, indirectly the public at large, and directly, another
'human' known possibly as a friend, or the computer.
The computer opponent can be set to a moderately hard game as a Novice and
called The Bulls, or the best it can do on the information available as
Experienced and called The Bears.
Share price rises and falls depend upon market forces generated logically
within the game. The movement of prices are not haphazard.
You, the investor, must decide how big an effect if any, you think any
particular situation has. As in real life it will have varying effects on
different companies, even on companies in the same group of activities.
When two humans play there is a special feature for a private deal between
them on any company in which either owns shares.
In "Playing" the Stockmarket, the object is to better your opponent by
owning and controlling as many companies as possible, thereby becoming the
richest player. Not only do you have an opponent to beat, you must become
the best player of all time as shown in the game's history listing compiled
by you.
There are two phases to the game.
The first is up to when all the companies are under player control, for that
moment, but then things can change.
No-one likes to lose money.
This is when the most interesting situations occur. When all the companies
are owned by one or other player, some may start to lose money.
Which companies do you drop this turn?
Do you regardlessly buy companies that are available?
Maybe they'll come good or perhaps you'll wait a turn and get them more
cheaply.
Perhaps the Insider's Club has some inside information. Visit them.
There is a lot to be said in buying a company about to go broke. (Asset
stripping?)
Leave the money in The Bank?
When interest rates are high, money can be made by leaving it in `The Bank',
but your opponent may take this opportunity to buy all or part of any
lucrative companies you have ignored. Owning part of a company obviously
prevents your opponent totally owning that company.
The computer rates your credit worthiness and gives you an appropriate
credit availability, which you can borrow. (See if you can work out the
devious banking mind.) This then becomes, or is added to, your already
existing Overdraft (O/D). You must pay back 10% of the balance each turn
and the interest, which is 1.5 times the Finance Rate, on each turn. This
is deducted automatically.
Each player's `TURN' is a `WEEK' as far as the game is concerned.
To start the game, each player is randomly given one company of share value
$10 or greater, plus $100,000 cash. As the first turn each time can be an
advantage, the computer randomly gives the first turn each week. Each
player has their own coloured screens.
All game activity is initiated from the `Stockmarket' screen which lists the
40 companies in the game. Also shown are the company share prices for this
week and last week; the week number; (the number of turns in the game so
far), the percentage of each company owned by each player is shown in the
column beneath the player's number, (99 indicates full ownership); and the
market index for the week.
The Stockmarket screen is being constantly updated showing action by the
player during each turn.
Click on the left half of the coloured bar at the bottom of the Stockmarket
screen labelled `Market Reports' as a shortcut to the Market Reports, and
the right half labelled `Player Reports' for the Players' report.
Alternatively these two reports can be obtained by selecting them at the
Menu Bar.
Click on the line of a company and the `Trading Screen' for that company
appears giving the information needed on that company. This screen displays
`Trading Boxes'. Click in one of these as required to transact business.
Click outside the boxes to return to the Stockmarket screen.
To borrow or repay money to `The Bank' the trading box on ANY company's
`Trading Screen' can be used.
Click anywhere in the trading window outside the `Trading Boxes' to return
to the Stockmarket window. Or select Stockmarket from the menu bar.
Three screens are available from the Menu Bar under the 'Players Screens'
menu. These are the Market Report, a window giving information on current
market conditions and the change from last week, the Players' Report, which
gives full details of the current financial status of each player, and the
Stockmarket window.
The Players' Report is constantly updated as the player makes decisions.
All calculations are done by the computer.
To return to the Stockmarket, Click in the window, or select Stockmarket
from the Menu Bar.
Buying and Selling.
A player cannot own or buy less than one percent of a company, and, except
when paying bank debts, as demanded by the game, a player cannot own more
than 50% without making a full bid for 100% of a company. The Stockmarket
window shows the percentage held by each player. 99% is the lot.
The Companies.
The 40 companies are basically divided into four categories of ten.
The categories are (1) Primary (2) secondary or manufacturing industry,
(3) banks and finance, (4) retail or service industry.
Each group of companies has a unique set of four market factors affecting
it, as shown on the Market Report screen. Each company in a group can be
affected differently. If the trend is positive no company will be affected
negatively.
Each market factor is reported by four degrees, Excellent, Good, Poor and
Bad, and can only move, if at all, one degree at a time. e.g. Good to Poor
but not Good to Bad.
Movement within a degree can be made from turn to turn and will be reflected
on the Market Report screen as Worsening or Improving or No Change.
Saving the game.
The game can be saved under your own file name to to your own disk, to be
continued later.
A request to save the game can be made at any time but the game will only be
saved AFTER the turn of the second player.
The computer remembers your request and at the appropriate time will ask if
you still wish to save.
History.
A history of the best 18 players in each category of one or two human
players can be compiled. The current game position can be added to the list
if you wish. If your scores rate high enough the historical list will be
updated. If not you will be shown at the bottom of the list, this time.
Shares.
All companies start with 100,000 shares at a random value of $1 to $20 and
are immediately assessed on market conditions, and move accordingly.
Share prices are in whole dollars from $1 to $20. At $20 or more the share
will `Split Upward'. That is, the value will be halved but the number of
shares will be doubled, with a bonus issue of up to 1 for 2, (doubling to
tripling the number of original shares). Dependant upon the market.
Falling share prices.
When share prices are falling and the share price drops below $10.
If there are 200,000 or more shares the value will double, and the number of
shares will be halved, (`Split Down'). When the total number of shares in
the market for that company are less than 200,000. and the share price
continues to fall, the price can continue down until the company goes
bankrupt. Then all shares are cancelled. See 'Bankruptcy' later.
Shares can rise or fall up to a maximum of $6 a time. A $6 change is rare
whereas a no change, or a 1$ or $2 change is common. A $2 or more rise in a
share price can trigger a dividend to all share holders. Obviously the
company is managing its affairs well. The value of any dividend is shown on
that company's Trading Screen. Such dividends are shown as income on the
Players' Reports screen.
Bankruptcy.
Bankrupt companies.
(1) Not totally owned by a player.
All share holdings are cancelled. Players losing any shares they may hold.
The company will be refloated with 100,000 shares on the open market as soon
as market conditions are good enough. The value of the shares of the
refloated company will depend upon the market.
(2) Totally owned by a player.
The player may refloat a bankrupt company at any time and at any share price
to $99, providing the player has sufficient cash to do so. Refloated at more
than $19 the company will then split upwards each week until the share price
is less than $20.
The Trading Screen.
Entered only by Clicking on a company name on the Stockmarket screen.
Information given is; the current player's name in the top left corner, the company name and activity at top centre. To the right is a box showing number of shares on the open market and, beneath each player's company name, the number of shares owned.
To the left is the current VALUE of the shares on the open market. The
current value of the shares held first by player number one, then by the
other player.
Beneath that is reported any dividend payout for the week.
Then at the bottom left of the screen is a graph showing the company share
prices for the last ten weeks.
Above the graph is a warning message if there was a split upwards or
downwards in those shares.
Trading boxes are activated by Clicking in them. A Click anywhere else in
the window will return the player to the Stockmarket screen.
Above the Trading Boxes is a pie graph showing factors that influence that
company's business.
The top box of the Trading Boxes allows for the refloating of a bankrupt
company. With two players the top box becomes two boxes, the one on the
right allowing a private deal between the players on that company. Provided,
of course, they have the share ownership and money to do it. Any private
deal immediately effects the market price of that company's shares.
Borrowing money.
The box `To Borrow' allows the player to borrow any amount of the money to
which the player is entitled, at any time during their turn under the terms
stated.
Repaying money.
Similarly Clicking the box `To repay' lets the player repay all or some of
the overdraft at any time during the player's turn.
Entering a '1' will enable The Bank to pay off all or as much of your
overdraft as you have funds for, and adjust your bank balance.
The Buying and Selling boxes.
Clicking in either of these boxes allows buying and selling of shares.
The Market Report screen.
This is for market force information, with the market index, finance rates
and week number.
The larger bottom section of the screen displays four rows of four
influences on the four markets.
Primary:
Weather, Exporting, Finance, Realty Market.
Secondary:
Market Share, Economy, Trade, Output.
Finance:
Finance, Foreign Exchange, Weather, Commerce.
Retail:
Trade, Credit, Market Share, Deflation.
These influences are referred to on the Trading Screen of each company as
appropriate.
There are two positive degrees and two negative degrees possible for each
influence, Excellent and Good, Poor and Bad. These represent the effect of
current conditions upon the market.
Of the sixteen influences shown, twelve are independent of each other, four
of the twelve then have an effect upon another group of companies to a
lesser degree.
Players' Reports.
Virtually self explanatory, except for the Outgoings for the week. These
are payments on overdraft, and are taken from your `Cash in the Bank'
between each week. This is done after all incomes. If there is not enough
cash, then before you can start to trade you will be made to sell some of
your stock. If there are insufficient shares and funds available, you are
bankrupt and lose. The game then cancels out all your money and holdings.
Menu Items.
The Insider's Club.
This has only one item. TO INNER SANCTUM.
Once selected it will cost you a small tip to get past Security to the
INNER SANCTUM where for another bribe, (sorry tip) you can see the contents
of ONE of the five envelopes by clicking on it.
To see more than one then you have to go around again.
Beware! Not ALL the envelopes are guaranteed to give positive information.
Expensive isn't it! But then inside information always is.
If it is too tough on you, bail out by clicking on the bar.
The information will be valid for that point of the game.
Remember: Advice is worth only what it costs!
When envelopes contain positive information that comes true, you can see the result on the Ticker Tape between weeks. Whether you select them or not.
Game Control
When a player's turn is finished select Next Player, or, after both players
have played, Next Turn.
NOTE. The game can only be saved, (from the Special menu) after both
players have played, (including the computer when playing against it) and
BEFORE Next Turn is selected. If an attempt has been made to save the game
at any other time the computer will remember and remind you at the appropriate time.
Disk Access.
Load OLD Game, can be selected any time when the game will be loaded and
play continue where it was left off.
Save THIS Game, can only be used between weeks, but can be selected at any
time and the computer will remind you.
Start NEW Game, can be selected at any time.
Disk Dir., Can be used to check file names on disk of saved games. If
scrolling too quickly the listing can be paused by holding down the right
(menu) mouse button.
Games History.
Your own history of past games as scored and saved by you.
Record our Score.
Adds current state of play to Games History.
My new colours.
Used to change any or all screen colours any time during play. A saved game
saves your colours.
Original colours.
Selecting this item at any time will reset screen colours to those that came
with the game.
About...
Select any item on this menu to get information from the programmer.
Programmers Note.
As you may have become aware, a great amount of effort has gone into this game to make it as enjoyable as possible and still leave the basic principles of stockmarket trading intact.
It is not only as authentic as possible but plays differently each game, notwithstanding the game starts week 0 from a level playing field.
I hope that a player not experienced in the manipulation of money learns something from this game.
Your comments, views and ideas would be greatly appreciated by me as would any donation as encouragement and a token of your appreciation.
Colin J. Edwards
2 Star Street
Grenfell
N.S.W. 2810
Australia
Watch for my next great game, a crossword game complete with dictionary.
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