Callisto was written by Russell Wallace in 1987, inspired by a game called Ganymede back on the 3.5K Vic-20 but obviously a huge improvement on that game (well, I think so anyway!). In the game, you are in charge of a mining base on Jupiter's moon Callisto. The moon itself contains nothing more valuable than ice and dirt, but valuable minerals can be obtained from the atmosphere of Jupiter itself by robot mining stations (human workers could not survive the conditions there). Your job is to collect the ore produced and bring it to the moon using short-range nuclear drive spacecraft. From there it can be collected by long-range ion drive ships for your employers, the Interplanetary Mining Corporation. You will be paid for the ore and must use this money to buy various equipment and plutonium fuel to run it. WARNING - if you run out of fuel, your food/oxygen recycling machinery will not be able to function and everyone on the base will die.
Sounds simple enough, but there are other difficulties - several competing companies have also set up mining bases in the vicinity of Jupiter. Far beyond the jurisdiction of the Earth police, anything goes and while the robot mines themselves are concealed in the depths of Jupiter's atmosphere your base is vulnerable to attack. Computer-controlled laser batteries can be purchased for defence. Also, spacecraft can be equipped with combat computers, shielding and nuclear cannon so that they can be used for attacking enemy bases as well as setting up mines and retrieving ore. You will be paid for damage done and casualties inflicted. Each ship can carry 2 nuclear warheads on a mission and these must be purchased beforehand.
Now for the legal and financial stuff. This is a shareware program. You are free to give it to other people, put it on bulletin boards, use the source code in your own programs etc. If you want to keep it, please send whatever you can spare to me at: 24 Lower Georges St, Dunlaoghaire, Co. Dublin, Ireland. The source code for the program should be included in the drawer with it. Please distribute the entire drawer, as source code is extremely valuable to people learning to program the Amiga as a source of examples. If you want a copy of anything I may write in the future, send a blank disk (or better still, a disk with some interesting stuff on it) to the above address.
