Abstract:
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The game Trade Wars is a delightful mix of economic strategy,
exploration, and military conquest.  For the first two to succeed,
however, requires a good working knowledge of the universe.
Unfortunately, keeping all the information about which sectors
you've visited, which are ports, and which is connected to which
can be a nightmare.  These two programs, "Convert" and "Examine"
should help to make keeping that information straight a little
easier, and increase your enjoyment of the game.

The first program, "Convert", creates a data base of explored sectors,
warps for each sector, if it is a port or not, and if a port, what it
is selling.
The second, "Examine", allows you to look at that data base in a
variety of ways, from visual graphing of the data to asking questions
about nearby ports and so on.


What you need to run the programs:
----------------------------------

To create the data base, you need to be in a terminal program that
allows ascii uploads and ascii captures.  The best situation is one
that allows you to do them simultaneously, i.e. capture input while
uploading a file.
Second best is to have a large scrollback buffer, that allows you to
take pieces out of the scrollback and append them to a file.

There are two versions of the programs, one for DOS machines and
another for Macs. (Source code available if anyone wants to port it
to the Amiga or something.  Should only require minor changes to file
I/O and graphics.)
If you are running the DOS versions, you will need the device drivers
(.BGI files) suitable for your machine.


FEEDBACK
________

Best place for info is 415-376-1554; leave mail to number 1.


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
________________

Thanks, of course, to the Martins for such a great game!


COPYRIGHT AND LICENSING STUFF
-----------------------------

Copyright 1991 by Robert Weaver.  All Rights Reserved.  You may not
distribute this for any fee beyond reasonable costs of distribution.
Permission is granted to distribute this document and the related
executables and source code provided this notice is preserved, and
anyone you give the executable has the ability to obtain this
documentation and the accompanying source.