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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
-
-
-