Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!think!snorkelwacker!bloom-beacon!athena.mit.edu!rsfinn
From: rsfinn@athena.mit.edu (Russell S. Finn)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Pirates!  by MicroProse (not a review, a complaint, please read)
Message-ID: <1990Jan9.213341.26331@athena.mit.edu>
Date: 9 Jan 90 21:33:41 GMT
References: <84978@linus.UUCP> <1031@pmafire.UUCP> <1990Jan5.055220.4463@athena.mit.edu> <1359@key.COM>
Sender: news@athena.mit.edu (News system)
Reply-To: rsfinn@athena.mit.edu (Russell S. Finn)
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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In article <1359@key.COM> jsp@penguin.key.COM (James Preston) writes:
>... is there more to it than have a sword fight, sail the ship,
>fight other ships, attack/go into towns?

Sure.  If you go into taverns, you can acquire pieces of treasure
maps, which can lead you to fabulous wealth.  You can hunt down evil
Spaniards who know where your long-lost sister is being held captive.
If you're of a more peaceful bent, you can effectively become a
merchant trader and make your fortune that way.  Eventually you
acquire wealth and fame, and get to meet the governor's daughter.

Pirates! is a fairly open-ended game, in that there is no specific goal
imposed by the scenario; however, when you retire a character, you get
a score based on how well you did in general terms.

>And why-oh-why can I only save a game when I'm in a town?!?!?

Um... because that's the way it's always been done?  Seriously, I
didn't actually do the game design myself, and this didn't come up
while I was working on the conversion (or I might have considered it).
I suppose you could argue that it's part of the game to plan your
voyage accordingly (and as long as you stay fairly close to the
islands in the Antilles, you should be okay), but you'd probably say I
was feeding you a line, and you might be right...

-- Russ