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t.movie mogul
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2022-08-26
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u
M O V I E M O G U L
by Anthony Chiang
and
Alan Gardner
MOVIE MOGUL sets you up as a big
cheese producer. The resources of
Hollywood are at your disposal. Name
stars are clamoring to do your
pictures. Scripts are flooding in.
What will you do? Which script
will benefit from your magic touch?
Which stars will you employ? How much
money will you spend?
What will be the result? Will you
make money or lose it? Will your pic
have legs or be n.s.g. (not so good,
as they say in Daily Variety). Was
your casting astute enough to capture
some Academy Awards? Will you get
rich or go to the poor farm?
Here's your big chance to find out
the answer to these compelling
questions. As they say in the biz,
break a leg.
[SCRIPT]
[------]
At the beginning of the game, you
will be handed the scripts to three
different movies. Read the
descriptions of the scripts carefully
and decide which of the three you want
to produce.
[CASTING]
[-------]
After selecting a script, you must
hire actors to star in your film. A
list of twelve available actors and
actresses and their salary demands
will appear on the screen. You may
hire only three of the twelve stars
listed. Enter the number next to his
name to cast an actor in a specified
part.
When casting, consider how well an
actor/actress is suited for the part.
The amount of talent an actor
possesses is very important,
especially during Oscar time. Also
important is the popularity of the
stars you hire. A big star will demand
a big salary, but he will will attract
a big audience.
Some parts are restricted by sex
while others aren't. Experiment to see
which roles can be portrayed by either
an actor or an actress.
Age should be taken into
consideration when casting an actor.
However, the make-up men in Hollywood
can work their magic to make the old
look young and the young look old.
[PRODUCTION COST]
[---------------]
The next step is to decide how
much you want to spend making your
movie. The amount of money you allot
for a film directly reflects its
quality.
A picture with high production
quality will normally outperform a
cheap, low-budget movie. However,
there are times when a small movie
makes a huge profit and a big film
turns into an expensive failure.
The total cost of your film will
include the amount you spend on
production, the salaries you paid your
three stars plus any cost overruns.
[REVIEWS]
[-------]
After your film is shot and before
it is released to the public, there
will be a special screening for the
critics.
What the critics say about your
film may affect its popularity at the
box office. Unfortunately, you have no
control over them, so just read 'em
and weep.
[BOX OFFICE]
[----------]
Your picture is now ready for wide
release.You will see a weekly total
and a running grand total of revenues.
Some films will have 'legs' and
their weekly take will drop very
slowly. Other movies may have a big
opening week, but then fade away
quickly. The smallest amount of
revenue a film can generate is
$200,000. If that is all your film has
made, then you have what we in the Biz
call a 'bomb'. Better luck next time.
[OSCARS]
[------]
No matter how poorly your film
did, it will have a chance to win an
Academy Award.
Taking home an Oscar means an
opportunity to re-release your movie.
The revenue generated from a
re-release could be the difference
between making and losing money.
[HIGH SCORES]
[-----------]
At the end of the game you will be
told how much you made or lost. If you
did exceptionally well, you and your
film will enter the high score list.
A really poor performance will
give you the dishonorable distinction
of making the low score list. Please
be honest and enter your own initials
instead of somebody else's.
When identical movie titles appear
on the high score list along with the
same initials, a marker will be added
to your name to distinguish between
the two different films.
[HIGH SCORE UTILITY]
[------------------]
If you'd like to restart with a
new high score file, there is a
program on the disk that will let you
do just that. Simply run the program
called
'RESET MM.SCORES'.
Good luck! And remember, you're
only as good as your last movie!
M O V I E M O G U L
Copyright 1985
Chiang Brothers Software
[Tech Notes:]
Movie Mogul is an "ancient"
LOADSTAR program (as you can see from
the copyright above). It was
originally written for the Apple II
and SOFTDISK Monthly. Alan Gardner
translated it over to the C-64.
And a plain vanilla program it
was. The opening screen was an early
SHP file, using a different Unpacker
than we use today. And the body of the
program was light blue on blue default
C= font. Data is loaded into the
program with INPUT# in a FOR-NEXT
loop. Slow!
I couldn't do much about the snail
pace set-up, but I could fix the
opening screen and save some space. I
also added a LOADSTAR font and did
some color tweaking.
I used Snapshot 5.0 to capture the
title screen as a Doodle graphic and
modified it some. Then I used Johnny
Harris' "Doodle to Font" utility (LS
116) to turn the Doodle to a screen
and custom font.
With a little cajoling, I got the
screen and font into Mr.MICK, did some
further touch-up, and saved it as a
Font/Toolbox Stash (FTS) file. This
file is 16 pages (17 disk blocks) long
and contains the font, screen, and
color information in that order.
I have a tiny ML routine, TBS.ML,
(residing at page 42) that does
nothing but put a Mr.MICK file onto
the screen. With this in mind, I set
the Bottom of Basic to page 43, loaded
Movie Mogul, then saved it again.
Time to link! Lee Novak's Linker
utility allowed me to put the opening
screen file at 2048, a LOADSTAR font
at page 32, and the TBS.ML routine at
page 42.
The linked program crashed, of
course. It was still trying to load
the old bitmap graphic. However, I
could edit the Basic and save it.
Then, when I was satisfied with all
the aspects, I created another linked
file and packed it.
Sounds like a lot of work, right?
Well, it is. But that's what I do as
often as possible -- bring programs up
to the high standards Fender Tucker
set. I am just starting to "Think
Linked", which saves a lot of fooling
with Bloads and boot programs. Just
use the linker to load all the parts
of the program.
By the way, if you are going to do
this, [please] use Lee's Linker 2.1
and Packer 2.1. I have Dissolver --
and can pull everything apart as
needed.
DMM