ßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßß RAILROAD EMPIRES ßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßß

  Railroad Empires is a game of acquisition of the railroads of the early 20th
century.  There are 32 railroad companies in business as the game starts.  It
is up to the players to purchase as many of these as possible in order to
consolidate them under the player's own Railroad Holding company.  To generate
money each player moves his trains from shipping center to delivery point and
is paid a fee for doing so.  He then takes this money and any part of his
initial money and purchases railroad companies.  Railroad companies pay divi-
dends to their owner.  The goal of the game is to accumulate $200,000,000 from
fees and dividends. If no one reaches the winning amount by the final day (999)
then the player with the most money at that time wins.

At the start each player is assigned a 'home' city.  At a player's home city
will be one freight train ready for the player to schedule shipments and to
move.

Each player has an initial investment of $20 million with which he can
purchase railroads or new trains.  Up to 90% of this money can be spent on
capital purchases, the rest must be used as 'working' capital in order to pay
bills.
And bills there will be.  Each time a train is switched onto a railroad
company's private lines a player must pay a switching fee.  This is $400,000
if the rails are not owned by another player.  In addition every 12 spaces of
movement costs $100,000 in use fees/expenses.

It is extremely important for a new player to learn the railroad routes.
These are the paths the railroads travel from city to city ('').  The most
direct route being the fastest, but it may not be the cheapest.

The Screen you will 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 areas.
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.

Players should read the help menu and then maneuver around the map and try
the options of Find or Overlay as well as List and/or Abbr.

The first thing a new play should do when asked for a command is to type 'H'
for help.