Merchant of Venus

ZX Computing

Nick Pearce

THE ZX81 SOFT SELECTION Nick Pearce looks at some new releases for the ZX81. MERCHANT OF VENUS Crystal Computing This adventure with graphics' program was first on sale in 1982, and has recently been re-released 'due to popular demand' as Crystal put it. Merchant of Venus is certainly an absorbing game. It combines real-time graphics simulation in which you control a leviathan space freighter (whassat?), with the challenge of building a strong economy on Venus. The program auto-runs upon LOADing, and your first task is to select the class of freighter you desire. They vary in price, and of course, quality. A cheap ship will possess only limited cargo-carrying capacity, and could cost you a small fortune in repairs! Once a freighter has been selected, trading can commence. As you gain experience as a merchant, you discover how prices for the various commodities - Plasteel, Technetium, Mylar etc. - vary between differing regions of the planet. It is a matter of judgement to buy and sell at the most advantageous prices. Take off is not always uneventful. Insufficient thrust will result in the freighter falling back to the planet. The screen displays the readout from the on board computer, relaying information such as the vertical and horizontal velocities, and the state of the reactor core and fuel. Once airborne and cruising, youare warned by the computer of any approaching landing base. As you descend the display changes and shows information from the ground tracking radar. Piloting the freighter to a safe landing is not an easy task. If you are successful, a landing report details your touchdown velocity and the amount of damage sustained on landing. Trading can then continue. Merchant of Venus is a complex and absorbing game, and fun to play. However, it requires most of the 16K RAM and as a consequence, the load-time of the game is quite considerable. Crystal Computing are at [redacted].

Sinclair User

TRADING WITH CRYSTAL You can now take part in the re-building of the economy of the planet Venus and make money on the side. Your adventures on Venus are all part of a new graphics game for the 16K ZX-81 called The Merchant of Venus. A corporation on Venus has employed you to make its investment programme profitable. You must decide where you will invest the money given to you under your contract and, if you fail, from where you will get that pound of flesh. You make all your decisions from your Hivliner freighter while flying around the planet. You must use your judgment to decide which spacecraft you want. You can deal in machinery, robots or fuel; it does nor matter so long as you make a profit. Crystal Computing should make a profit with this complex action-graphics game. Crystal also provides a series of 1K games on cassette. They include a version of asteroids which takes some beating, a ski-run slalom game, a dungeons and dragons adventure and the inevitable but excellent space Invaders. The standard of programming is technically excellent to put the games into 1K and the games are fast and addictive. The Merchant of Venus is available from Crystal Computing, [redacted]. It costs £5.95. The ZX-81 1K Games pack is priced at £4.95.