PixlBit

When I was 8 years old, my mother introduced me to a computer game about drug smuggling.

The game in question was a renowned classic from the early days of computer gaming: Taipan! Originally written for the TRS-80 in 1980 and credited in authorship to one Art Canfill, it was ported to every computer system under the sun, with the best-known version being the Apple II version. In fact, you can find several versions of this game on the App Store, Google Play, or even a couple of browser-based versions.

Based loosely on the James Clavell novel of the same name, in Taipan!, you are an up-and-coming British trader based in 1860 Hong Kong. Your mission is simple: trade cargo across the perilous waters of the South China Sea and become wealthy.

There are four types of goods to be traded, in order of increasing value: General Cargo (food/clothing/etc), Arms, Silk, and Opium. Your aim is basically to buy low, and sell high. Sounds good, but each port you visit has differing prices, and certain "random" conditions may cause either a price spike or a huge price crash. In addition, opium, being contraband, carries a risk of being seized by the local authorities with a hefty cash fine on top of that, so there's a certain risk involved with trading opium, given that its value is considerably higher than the next most valuable good, silk. You start out with a small ship that can only hold 50 units of cargo. Randomly, when you make a call at a port, you'll be offered to trade your ship in on a ship with more cargo room with additional money. Any cargo or ship's guns you have will be transferred to the new ship. There seems to be no limit as to how big of a ship you can eventually obtain.

You trade at one of seven ports along the South China Sea. Each trip takes one in-game month (turn). The ports are:

1. Hong Kong. This is your home base. Here you have a shipyard to repair your ship, a bank to store money in (one random misfortune that can befall you is being beaten and robbed), a warehouse to store mass amounts of goods (in some versions, the warehouse can be raided), and "Elder Brother Wu", who will lend you money at a stiff interest rate.

2. Shanghai, China

3. Nagasaki, Japan

4. Saigon, Vietnam (present-day Ho Chi Minh City)

5. Manila, Philippines

6. Singapore

7. Batavia, Dutch East Indies (present-day Jakarta, Indonesia)

In addition to the vicissitudes of the markets, the sea itself carries a number of perils.

Some versions randomly beset your ship with storms. Storms are all or nothing deals, where you can end up losing the game due to an unlucky roll of the random number dice in versions which have storms.

You will be set upon by hostile ships, where you must fight them off in turn-based battles. You'll need guns to fight with, of course. Ship artillery is parcelled out at random intervals at ports, where you'll be offered the chance to buy a gun for a certain price. Each gun takes up 10 hold units on your ship, so if you don't have the money or 10 free hold units, you can't buy a gun. Your guns can also be destroyed in battle. Once your ship reaches 0% condition, down to Davy Jones' locker you go. Generally, there are 4-10 ships per battle. You can choose to run, but if you fail, the enemy ships get free shots at you.

Finally, there is a Chinese pirate, Li Yuen, who seems to rule the seas. Li Yuen will ask for a "donation" to the Chinese sea goddess, Tin Hau, which is really a demand for protection money. If you pay, Li Yuen's ships will leave you alone and even escort you safely to ports. In some versions, they'll even drive away hostile ships for you. If you refuse to pay, his ships will attack you. Li Yuen's ships travel in packs of 25 ships, and they're tougher than standard enemy ships. Every once in awhile a messenger of Li Yuen will ask you to visit Li Yuen in Hong Kong "posthaste". This means that Li Yuen wants more protection money and his ships will start attacking you again if you don't pay.

I actually spent a lot of my free time when I was a kid playing this primitive-looking game. It's addictive, and inspired a whole host of clones, including versions based on the contemporary South American drug trade as well as an online trading game set in outer space, Trade Wars 2002, where the enemies were the mercantilist Ferengi from the Star Trek universe. When our TRS-80 bit the dust, I even wrote my own version of the game in BASIC for the Atari XE computer. I've also thought about using RPG Maker MV to re-create this game, though I don't know how the trading would work.

Anyway, thanks for reading about another one of my moldy-oldy games. See you next time!