Loadstar 206/206.d81/t.seatoseastr

Text File | 2022-08-26 | 10KB | 338 lines

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    Strategy Guide for SEA TO SEA

   by Johnny "The Mad Gamer" Harris

     SEA TO SEA by Dave Moorman


 [FENDER'S PREMUMBLE:] When I first
saw SEA TO SEA I knew it was a great
game. However I also knew that it
would take me a while to master it
(if I ever did) so I sent it to the
best game player I know, THE MAD
GAMER, of course. Johnny loved it and
quickly became an expert at it.

 I figured that other LOADSTARites
like me would have a tough time coming
up with a good strategy for the game
so I asked Johnny to write the
following text article. If you haven't
gotten around to playing SEA TO SEA
yet, or tried it and got stumped,
print out this article and refer to it
as you try SEA TO SEA again. I think
you'll agree that SEA TO SEA is a
world-class simulation.

 Hats off to Dave Moorman and the MAD
GAMER! Heeeeere's Johnny!


    First off, it helps to know
exactly what your goal is. To win the
game, you'll have to get the
Presidential Express (the "P" located
by that cloud-looking thing [the
Capitol building]) to that solitary
station all the way over on the west
coast (San Francisco).

    To do this, you'll have to lay
lots of track, start up several
passenger lines, connect the
Presidential Express with your system
of tracks and San Francisco, and start
the Express up and have it safely
traverse the continent. It may be
difficult and time consuming, but
you'll have acres of fun along the
way.


 [TIPS FOR PLAYING SEA TO SEA]
 [---------------------------]

    While playing the game, don't
worry about the time limit. You are
far more likely to run out of money
or wreck a train than spend an entire
year running your rails from coast to
coast. So don't worry, be happy.
Well, actually you SHOULD worry, but
about running out of money, which
will happen if you are not careful.

    At the beginning of the game,
you're losing money at the rate of
one dollar per turn. As you build
tracks, the rate at which you lose
money will increase. It also costs
money ($1,000) to build stations. If,
at any time, your funds drop below
zero, you lose. Period. As the game
untactfully says, "Game Over".

    You keep yourself solvent by
starting up passenger lines. First,
use your utility train (the "U" you
move with the joystick) to lay track
up to the trains waiting in the
upper-right corner of the map. Then,
lay track to connect the black dot
below one of the trains with the
tracks your utility train are laying.
Try to connect the "9" train, but if
you can't reach it, the "8" train is
fine, too. Just remember that if you
need the "9" train later you might
have to work your way around any
excess rails you left in the way,
which can get confusing.

    After you've connected the train,
run track south and connect it with
the station you began with (the black
one). Make sure that when you turn to
connect the rails with the station,
you leave a good, long stretch of
straight east-west track (four or
more spaces) coming out of the
station to the left. Then, use the
utility train to branch off of that
straight track a southerly route to
that lump of houses north of the
Capitol building. Stop building at
least three spaces short of the
Capitol.

    Now, go back along the track you
just built, and build stations all
the way along it, leaving one or two
spaces of track between them. The
more stations you have, the faster
you'll earn money. Now, build another
fork branching off of that east-west
stretch coming out of the black
station, but don't connect it to
anything. Just leave your utility
train on it, out of the way.

    Now that you've built a
potentially lucrative passenger
route, it's time to start it up.
First, press F1. Now, move the control
cursor to each switch the train you've
connected will have to go through to
reach, and travel on the passenger
route you've set up. On each switch
the train will have to run through,
press FIRE, then press the number (or
letter) of the train that will be
using that switch. Then decide if the
train will go straight through the
switch, or will take the turn. Do this
with each and every switch the train
will encounter.

    Try running your finger along the
route, and when you encounter a
decision the train will have to make,
use the joystick to change it. This
will not only make sure that you
don't miss any switches, but will
also help you visualize the path of
the train. Make sure that when you're
finished, the train will run into no
dead-ends that do not end in a black
dot (a piece of bumper track), and
make sure that the train will run
between the black station and the
bumper track you placed above the
Capitol unattended.

 MAKE SURE THAT THE SWITCHES ARE SET
SO THAT THE TRAIN WILL NOT RAM YOUR
UTILITY TRAIN!

    Now, move the control cursor to
each station the train will visit and
press FIRE.  Use the joystick to tell
the train to pause at each station.
Now you're all set!

 [DAVE's NOTE:] You actually do not
have to check each station. When
built, the station is set so every
train will pause there.

 [Note:] Do NOT check the station
at San Francisco for the P-train! It
is pre-set to tell the program that
you have won.

    Hold CTRL and press your train
number to warm up the train. In 24
hours (game time, of course) the train
should chug out of its starting point,
go to the black station (which may now
be gray, depending on if you've had to
reload your utility train) then
proceed down the row of stations
you've built, stopping for an hour at
each one. When it hits the bumper
track, it should proceed back up the
line of stations, stopping again at
each one, until it again reaches that
first station. You have just started
your first passenger route. Since, to
win the game, you'll have to build
many, many miles of rails, you'll have
to build several passenger routes (I
suggest five or more) to earn the
money to maintain the tracks.

    At the start of the game, it's a
good idea to open up TWO routes from
the first station (or the area around
it) to that clump of houses to the
south. Build the second one about two
or three spaces from the other, but
you can make them closer, if you have
to. Make sure that you open up the
first line so that it's bringing in
cash while you're working on the
second, but don't let it run for too
long before building the second
route, or you might find too many
houses blocking your way.

    As the game proceeds, you'll find
an advantage to this strategy: the
close proximity of the routes create
houses that are serviced by both
trains, providing a needed income
boost early in the game. Sure, it
probably wouldn't work in real life,
but who called this real life?

    To get more rails, set up a route
between a station and one of the
bumper tracks that your trains start
on. It's best to use a fresh train
for this as it is already on one of
its two destinations. The train, once
started, will eventually supply the
station with rails, and the station
will darken in color to tell you that
you can pick up steel there.

    You can then assign the train a
passenger route, or let it continue
to supply rails to the station. If
this seems like a bit of trouble for
this early in the game (and it is),
you can get along fine for a while by
using the rails you begin with (in
the black station) and by collecting
free rails scattered here and there.
But you will probably have to set up
a train running nothing but rails
before you finish the game.

    You can tell a train to wait
until a pre-specified time until it
leaves a station, but you don't have
to to win the game. Just assign
non-intersecting routes to each of
your trains, and get them to merely
pause at each station, and you'll do
fine.

    When working on future passenger
routes, it's a good idea to extend
the track three spaces beyond the
furthest stations on each end of a
route. If this is not done, houses
can pop up and block off one or both
ends of the line, and prevent future
expansion.

    While connecting our distant
shores, remember:

 (1) a passenger route does not have
to connect two populated areas. As
long as a train is traveling back and
forth between at least two stations,
settlement will occur and you'll
eventually begin