ßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßß RAILROAD EMPIRES ßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßß Turns are calculated in terms of 'days' here. Because this corresponds to the amount of distance each train will cover in a day. As a train moves the day and time will be updated in the status box at the bottom of the screen. Once the train's day surpasses the current game day limit the movement of the train ends. At the start you are assigned a 'home' city. All of your new trains will start from this city. It serves no other purpose, and a player does not need to buy railroads connecting to it. The screen you see is a portion of the map of the USA and southern Canada. Cities are described as grey spaces with black diamonds. Mountains are described by brown spaces. Flat country is represented by green area. Blue areas are bodies of water. The cities are connected by grey lines. These are the rail lines. A single line indicates only one railroad (of 32) owns the rails through a side of the space. If there are double lines in the space then at least two railroads own rail lines through at least one side of the space. The bottom of your screen is your information box. Here's the break down of that: Information Box: ßßABBRßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßß Railroad Name ßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßß End Day: xxß ON: xxxxxxx or NO:xx Train Type Current City Bank: (cash on hand) Destination: xxxxxxxx Enter Train Command > _ Due: xx.xx:xx Date: xx.xx:xx Speed:xx ßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßß Company Name ßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßß ABBR: Abbreviation of the railroad you're overlaying, finding, etc. RAILROAD NAME: Same as above but the full name. END DAY: The day at which all train movement will stop. Once the maintence program has been run by the SYSOP there will be a new END DAY and movement will be allowed again. ON: Name of railroad you're currently on. NO: Number of the railroad you're overlaying, finding, etc. TRAIN TYPE: Type of train currently in use, i.e. freight, express, etc. CURRENT CITY: Name of city (if any) that you currently are in. BANK: Current funds of your railroad. DESTINATION: City name of this trains destination. ENTER TRAIN COMMAND >: This is where the cursor resides any commands given are processed. DUE: Date and time when delivery is expected. DATE: Current date and time. SPEED: Current speed at which the train is moving. COMPANY NAME: Your company's name. Operations Orders are: A,B,C,D,F,J,H,L,M,N,O,S,T,X,0,1,2,3,4,5,6,E 0 : Map of central U.S. 1,2,3 : Maps of northern half of U.S and southern Canada. 4,5,6 : Maps of southern half of U.S. E,Q : Exits from game or subsystem. A : Lists railroads and their abbreviations. B : Buy railroads or new trains. Operators may purchase one of the listed railroads if they have sufficient funds. Operators are allowed to spend up to 90% of their liquid assets in capital investments. Players may only make one purchase per maintenance turn. > Railroad company prices may fluctuate because the price includes the treasury monies. > Note 50% of the treasury is paid out in dividends to the owner each maintenance turn. If no player owns the company the treasury is still reduced by half each maintenance turn. C : This Option allows a player to offer one of his railroads for sale. Choose one of your railroads from the list. Then enter the amount you want for this railroad. Amounts can vary only from 1/2 the estimated value to 2 times this value. Other player's may enter their bids on this company from option 'X'. You then can accept any bid you want. Bids of players listed in red indicate they do not have the listed amount of money. If you choose a red lettered bid it is ignored. D : Displays rough maps suitable for capturing on line. Print these diagrams and use them to plan your travel and connections. F : Finds and displays railroad rail configuration by either no. or abbv. The tracks will flash. All lines are shown as single lines even though there may be other railroads running parallel in the spaces. The map will automatically be repositioned to show as much of the rails as possible. J : Adjust Switch Rate. Owners of railroads can adjust the switching rate that they charge other players to switch onto their rail lines. Players can set this from $400,000 to $1,200,000. ($800,000 to $1,600,000 when all railroads are owned); H : Help - help is also available in the Train Option. L : Lists railroads and their railroad numbers. M : Mail This option has several sub options: S : Send mail to other players. R : Read mail sent to you. To Exit press ENTER without choosing eiter S or R. N : Newspaper This is produced by the turn maintenance program. Here railroads and their owners are listed as well as the dividends paid. The amount of rolling stock each player has and the weather forecast is also listed. O : Overlay - Displays railroad rail configurations by either no. or abbr. The map will not be redrawn, and the current view will remain the same except the selected rail line will be shown. R : Resell railroad. If you need cash you can resell any or all of your railroads as long as you have less than $50,000,000. This option is to let a player get some needed operating money not to let them 'cash' out at the end of the game. S : Scrap Trains. If you need cash you can resell any or all of your train engines. The price that a particular engine type will bring is dependent on the level of trains used in the entire industry. The price given will fall as better and better trains are bought by more players. T : TRAIN OPERATIONS Subsystem You will be asked to select the number of the train that you want to move. In this mode you can move your train, switch railroads, and schedule freight deliveries. 2,4,6,8 : To move the train along selected rails in direction per the numeric key pad (assuming train is a '5'). You can only move along a railroad, and when you attempt to pass a train on the same rails as your train, you may be delayed while waiting for the other train. At the start your #1 train is in the roundhouse of your home city. To move it you must select to switch it onto the rails of a private rail- road connecting to your home city. When you attempt to move a window will appear asking you for switching orders. Select one of the rail lines in order to move. If you press any other key (or Enter) the window is erased and your move is canceled. You may at this time order your train to move again in any direction or you may Exit the move option. When you select a railroad to switch to you must pay a switching fee. If the Bank owns the railroad this fee is only $400,000. If another player owns the railroad you must pay $800,000 and this fee goes to his railroad. Once a player pays to switch to a railroad he is entitled to travel 12 spaces free of charge. If he travels more he must pay a user fee. This fee is $100,000 if the Bank owns the railroad or $200,000 if another player owns the railroad. This fee is not always transferred into the owners treasury. Some of it is used to pay for maintenance on the rails. A player does not pay to switch to his own railroad but he must still pay a user fee even on his own railroads. Once all railroads are (or have been) owned by players all fees are increased by 50%. There are three types of trains: Freight - This is the slowest train. Average speed is 45 mph. Express - This is a faster train. Average speed is 60 mph. Super Express - This is the fastest train. This train will have an individual name (Super Chief, Zephyr, etc.) for different railroads. S : Schedule Delivery of Products. In order to make money with trains you must freight cargo from one destination to another. When a train arrives in any city and does not have a schedule it may select this option. If there are none that day the train must move to another city to get a schedule. A window of several cargos and their destinations is presented to the operator. The amount of revenue for prompt delivery is also posted, as well as due date and time of the shipment. If the arrival is up to a day late 25% is deducted. If later than that 50% is deducted. If arrival is a day early there may be a bonus. Only one of the cargo/destinations can be selected. If the operator does not want any of the destination choices press '0' or ENTER and return to the Train Operations Subsystem. X : eXchange - This option allows players to make bids on other player's railroad companies. If any companies are for sale a list of the offered railroads is presented. He can then enter a bid for any or all. A bid of more than one's current bank will show up as red in the sellers menu and will be rejected. Even if the bid is more than the asked for price the seller still has the option of choosing another bid. Special Orders: From the Train submenu an operator can request the 'O' map order. The selected railroad will be mapped onto the screen while cleaning out any previous mapping. This allows players to press Enter at the Switch option and preview the rail configuration of the option railways. All the rail- roads that connect at that junction will have their abbr. listed in the Information Box. Weather: This game has weather. It may start as soon as turn 5. Check the forecast for the weather of the following turn. Snow - This is shown as grey background and white tracks on clear and white tracks in mountains. Snow reduces movement 25%. Snowdrifts- In mountains where tracks are black. No movement at all. Flood - Grey-green clear terrain with black tracks. No movement at all. 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