Star Trader
Star Trader was one of the original computer games of interstellar trading. Seemingly based on Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series of novels, Star Trader presents a star map of the galaxy in which the players move about and make money from trading and establishing trading routes. The players travel about the star map buying and selling six types of merchandise: uranium, metals, gems, software, heavy equipment, and medicine.
Star Trader was written by Dave Kaufman in the BASIC programming language. It was published by the People's Computer Company in Volume 2, Number 3 of its newsletter in January 1974.
A few years later, the game was reprinted in What to do after you hit RETURN, A computer games book from People's Computer Company, Hayden Book Company, Inc., Rochelle Park, New Jersey, ISBN 0-8104-5476-9. It contained a reprint of the BASIC source code listings for Star Trader. This book can still be found at rare book stores, web sites and on-line auctions.
The Star Trader code evolved into Trade Wars, making it the ancestor of many modern space trader games, including Eve Online.[1]
References
- Mulligan, Jessica; Bridgette Patrovsky (2003). 's+Guide&source=gbs_summary_s&cad=0 Developing Online Games: An Insider's Guide. New Riders. ISBN 1-59273-000-0.
- ↑ Edwards, Benj (February 8, 2009). "The Ten Greatest PC Games Ever". PC World. Retrieved 2010-01-03.
External links
- The People's Computer Company Alumni Pages People's Computer Company Alumni and History site.
- Standard HP BASIC Listing #1 Star Trader Game Setup Module BASIC programming language listing.
- Standard HP BASIC Listing #2 Star Trader Game Main Module BASIC programming language listing.
- Star Trader Tribute Page Site describing the history of Star Trader.
- History Of Trade Wars Variants Timeline of the history of Trade Wars variants.