The Plot

Welcome to the floor of the world's latest exchange. Traditional exchanges trade in commodities, currencies or companies but here we exchange shares in computer games. What's more, because all our transactions are electronic we can cut out the middle man here so there's no commission for buying and selling, and best of all we're out to have fun while we're doing it.

The Mission

To begin with you need to raise some capital, and to do this we start with a game of Muncher, the first game listed on the exchange. In this game capital is acquired by eating the dots in the maze. Once this first screen is complete you will be asked to purchase shares in any of sixteen games listed, and you can opt to buy shares in any of those companies provided you can afford to do so.

Share prices can go up and down, so you're always taking a bit of a gamble as to whether the value of your investment will increase or decrease, but at least you can always make money from the dividends on any shares you buy. When a dividend is payable you will be forced to play the particular game in which you have invested. All the time the share prices, listed on the right panel, are fluctuating. Naturally, you can stop the game at any time to buy or sell shares, before resuming play. Buy low and sell high - if you can!

One thing to watch out for is tax. This is increased as a penalty during the games, and should it reach 100% your time on the exchange is over. Fortunately, it is possible to collect GAME tokens in most (but not all) of the games, and by spelling out the word GAME you will receive a 10% tax reduction. With a couple of exceptions these tokens are only available once per play and for the first four screens of each game so grab them while you can.

Choose your purchases carefully. Difficulty levels vary from game to game, some pay better than others, some give more GAME tokens while some give none at all. It will take time to learn which does which.

Game Controls

9 - Left, 0 - Right, 2 - Up, W - Down, M - Fire, Z - Buy/Sell
H - Hold

The game has a control menu where you may define your own keyboard controls, or select Kempston joystick.

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On a 128K Spectrum, select Tape Loader from the main menu