High Seas Trader

• Title — High Seas Trader • Developer — Impressions Games • Publisher — Impressions Games • Designer — Christopher J. Foster David Lester • Programmer — Chris Gurski • Artist — Chris Beatrice • Composer — Jeremy A. Bell Jason P. Rinaldi • Released — 1995 • Genre — Business simulation • Modes — Single-player • Platforms — MS-DOS, Amiga

The game is set in the year 1650. The player starts out with the most basic ship (Fluyt) and 5,000 (5k) gold.

The player chooses a nation at the beginning of the game. Consequences lie in the relations between nations; which nations declare war/peace will determine which ports the player can access at given times, and which ships will open fire on them at sea. The options are: • Dutch • English • French • Portuguese • Spanish

• Fluyt • Crew: 100 • Cargohold: 300 tons • Firepower: 4 banks of 1 cannon each • Price: 4k gold • Corvette • Crew: 100 • Cargohold: 150 tons • Firepower: 4 banks of 2 cannon each • Price: 8k gold • Merchant • Crew: 200 • Cargohold: 500 tons • Firepower: 4 banks of 2 cannon each • Price: 14k gold • Frigate • Crew: 200 • Cargohold: 350 tons • Firepower: 4 banks of 4 cannon each • Price: 16k gold • East Indiaman • Crew: 250 • Cargohold: 700 tons • Firepower: 4 banks of 5 cannon each • Price: 21k gold • Fourth rate • Crew: 300 • Cargohold: 600 tons • Firepower: 4 banks of 8 cannon each • Price: 27k gold

• Peddler (Fluyt and Corvette) • Journeyman (Merchant and Frigate) • Tradesman (East Indianman and Fourth rate, Small estate – 2 treasures max) • Merchant (Medium estate – 4 treasures max) • Master Merchant (Large estate – 6 treasures max) • Viscount (end of the game)

Climbing up the ladder ranks grants the player titles, access to bigger ships, and bigger estates. The player can gather points in the categories, then cash them in for a title. Once they are granted a title, the points in the categories reset, allowing them to do it all over.

• Round (Long-range ammunition) • Chain (Short-range ammunition, tears up sails leaving enemy ships dead in the water) • Grape (Short-range ammunition, leaves big holes in attacking ships, akin to firing a huge shotgun filled with grape-sized balls of steel. Note: The actual purpose of grapeshot was to reduce the enemy crew.)

• Swivel-gun (0.3t) • Saker (1.0t) • Demi-culverin (1.2t) • Culverin (2.0t) • Demi-cannon (2.5t) • Cannon (3.0t)

Players can place money in banks for safekeeping. This is useful if they ever lose a battle at sea, as they can start over with their savings. However, the savings are reduced by the interest rate over time, as the player must pay for the security.