A Tour of the Game

This section of the manual gives a step-by-step tour of a week in the life of a lobster fisherman. It aims to familiarise you with the way the game operates, to introduce you to many of the basic features of the game and to give you a quick taste of what the it has to offer. For a detailed description of all of Lobster Fishings' components of you should consult sections four and six.

Running Lobster Fishing

If you have not already done so install and run Lobster Fishing as described in Getting Started.

Starting a Game

  1. Click on the Lobster Fishing icon on the icon bar to start a new game. This will open the Start Game window.
  2. If the face icon in the blue section of the New Game window is obscured by a red cross, click the mouse on it so the computer icon is crossed out.
  3. Enter your name in the box provided in the blue area.
  4. Make sure the face icons in the red, yellow and green sections are crossed out by clicking on them if necessary.
  5. Click the Start Game icon - this should start the game and open a window containing four coloured squares.

Playing the Game

The first thing you need to do is to buy some lobster pots:

  1. Click on the Go Shopping icon at the bottom of the blue section of the window. This will open the shop window..
  2. Click on the large icon marked Buy Pots. This will open another window where you can trade your cash for pots.
  3. Click on the right facing arrow next to the words "How many would you like to buy?" until the value shown is five.
  4. Click on the Continue icon at the bottom of the window to return to the Shop window.
You will also need to insure your pots to protect yourself against loss in bad weather:

  1. Click the "Insurance" icon in the Shop window, and select "Policy 1". Click the Continue icon to return to the Shop.

As you have now finished the shopping you can leave the shop. To do this click on the Trade icon in the Shop window to return to the main window.

You now need to place some of the pots you have bought:

  1. Click on the right arrow next to "Pots Offshore" until the value shown is three, indicating that you have placed three pots offshore.
  2. Click on the left arrow next to "Pots Inshore". This places your two remaining pots inshore.
  3. Click on the Go Fishing icon in the bottom right corner of the window when you have finished.
A window appears with a weather report. Note what the weather is and then click the OK icon to close the window.

Look at the values shown next to Cash and Pots in the blue section of the main window. You should now have more cash (because of the lobsters you have caught and sold), but if the weather was bad you may have lost some of your pots. The insurance policy you took out will have paid you a certain amount for each of the pots you lost.

It is now Tuesday and so you need to buy and place some more pots. Do this as before then click on the OK icon. If you continue to do this you should gradually make more money each day. After five days a window will appear giving you the End of Week Report. This shows how much rent, fuel, insurance and tax you and the other players have had to pay. If you haven't enough money to pay these then you are out of the game. Otherwise you can carry on with the game and try to make enough money to leave the island.

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