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2022-08-26
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SEA TO SEA INTRODUCTION
Text by Dave Moorman
[AN EDITOR'S RIGHT TO RAVE:] I am not
conceited. I just have an appreciation
for my own genius! OK -- not quite
Genius genius, and certainly not in
the same class as some of the truly
gifted and talented C-64 programmers
such as Maurice Randall or Jacob Voos
(aka Jak T Rip).
But Sea to Sea has earned a number of
fans and accolades. Fender Tucker
recently sent me two professional
railroad games. Both were confined to
simulating model railroads. I don't
know of anyone (else) fool enough to
try to put a fairly complete
simulation of intercontinental rail
roading on the C-64.
Some of you have run across Sea to
See on eLOADSTAR 002 (in Collection
#1). But it was tweaked for emulators.
Here is the original version -- with
what may be an important fix.
Below is the introduction that
appeared on eL002:
Sea to Sea was my first "full
sized" game program. While visiting
my sister, I saw a game called
"Railroad Baron" (I think) on her PC.
My only thought during the 10 hour
drive home was "How can I make this
fit on a C-64?"
Actually, the C-64 has a number
of features that made the game fairly
easy to create. The map of the USA is
a full 20 K (one-third of the C-64's
memory), but more than half of the
map could be put in usually unused
memory. Each item on the map was
created out of a text character
definition. Figuring out how to keep
the trains on the track, handle the
switches, and get trains to leave a
station at a particular time were
heady problems.
(If you would like a blow-by-blow
concerning these strokes of genius,
send me a SASEnvleope, an I will
gladly ramble for pages on end.)
Soon, not only were all the
problems solved, but the result
looked good. So I sent it off to the
one publisher who might use it:
LOADSTAR. I expected a rejection
slip, but instead I got a call from
Fender Tucker. He liked it and wanted
to give me money for it.
Of all the programs I have
written, Sea to Sea is my favorite. I
come back to it time after time to
try to create new networks of rails
across the continent.
And I have found Sea to Sea even
better on the PC! First of all, the
keypad as joystick actually works
[for] the player. Curl your thumb
under to press the <0> key (fire),
and use your little finger to hold
down the ENTER key to make the
Utility train trundle along the track
without guiding it.
Like any simulation, learning the
game takes some practice. You will
want to print out the Read It text for
on-the-go reference.
Also, we have included another
text file from Johnny "The Mad Gamer"
Harris which explains the game from a
second perspective.
While the goal of Sea to Sea is
to get the Presidential Express from
Washington, D.C., to San Francisco,
CA, this is an open ended simulation.
Dozens of scenerios are possible. My
favorite is to try to get four or
more trains in and out of one station
in Chicago without having a wreck.
How that is done is a challenge for
you to figure out!
On the other hand, my son likes
to just make money, and has reached
over $14,000,000! In other words,
"There's a whole lot of Choo-chooing
going on!"
DMM