This is an improved version of Fukuoka Wings. My purpose is
not to be political. The reason why I chose the old USSR is
that there might be some absurd things and this is good way
to explain them out. (Like in the movie 2012: It's Russian.)
The story goes like this: In 1958 the Soviet Leader decided to establish a partly foreign owned private airline in order to boost Russian economy. All planes are of Western origin, for some reason. (The reason is that almost every time the plane crashes sooner or later, and I dicided not to insult possible Russian players.)
There are 30 possible routes (17 routes at Fukuoka Wings). And life span is 140 years (from 1958 to 2098). And you can pick both route, and plane for that route (there is also a larger selection from which you can pick, for example DC-4 and B-787). You can also make a "Total Inspection", twice, which makes the plane little less vulnerable for accident, and you can replace any plane with an MD-11 or A-350-1000.)
SOME DEFECTS
- The prices of planes are not exactly these are in a real
world. DC-4 or DC-6 price are probably correct, but B-777,
for example, is much more expensive. And the compensation
for scrap metal, if you decide to dump a plane, is pretty
high.
- Similarly, cost for each route (gasoline, personnel, desk
at the airport, lounge, etc.) is pretty low (40,000 USD
for domestic flight and 300,000 for international flight)
per 146 days. However, at the int. flights, inflation is
higher than the possible ticket price increases; thus, the
profit shrinks at each round. At domestic flights, cost is
always same: 300k. The profit varies from 1 to 600, and if
fuel consumption is low, that gives extra dollars. Also,
if the plane has, any seats, it gives more profit, but it
has smaller impact. Stop overs will cut the profit.
- If You want to buy A-350, in the year 2040 or later, you
can buy first DC-4 and then replace it with A-350, you save
money, because price of scrap metal is inflational and it
is more expensive than the plane you bought at first place.
Anyway, it won't rise above 10,000k. Similarly, you get 2.5
percent interest onto your money in the bank. At first, I
planned to give 4 percent interest at level 3, but it will
became absurd within 140 years!
For fuel:
DC-4: +256k
DC-6: +264k
DC-7: +420k
B-707: +80k
DC-8: +160k
B-727-100: +112k
B-727-200: +144k
DC-10-10: +280k
DC-10-30: +232k
L-1101: +272k
B-737-200: +240k
B-737-900: +368k
B-757: +400k
B-767: +440k
A-310: +480k
A-320: +392k
B-777: +376k
B-787: +448k
A-350: +496k
A-321-LR +648k
MD-11: +320k - MD-11 can not fly 15,500 kilometers in real world. I made
this because otherwise you should go back and re-calculate
the distance between cities, and if there are stop-overs,
profit is smaller. Thus, the flight from Minsk to Sydney
requires a plane that flies over 15,000 km. (First, I had
only one option, but I decided to add another.)
- If you accidentally choose a "wrong plane", for example
B-727-100, you can not calcel it. You have to wait until
the year 1990 before you can replace it. (Of course you
can make a "Total Inspection", twice.)
- Quick Basic 1.1. does accept a%(n%) if n% = 1 to 10. But,
if n% = 11, it gives an error. Commodore 64 does not have
such problem. So, I had to to create many "useless" sub-
programs and it ate memory. For example: Planes 1 to 10
equals a%(n%); planes 11 to 20 equals b%(n%); and planes
21 to 31 equals c%(n%). So, More developed coding and you
could create a similar game that has 100 routes.
- Inflation is added to some prices, and sometimes not. For
example, B-777 costs 32,000k USD in 1995. Hundred years
later it is still 32,000. Maybe it is reasonable, because
now it is a used plane. And you can still buy a DC-4. But
it is a Russian Airline, and they trust in luck.
- At level one, inflation is 2.5 percent per year. At level
two, it is 3.5 percent, and at level three it is 4.0 %. At
level two, score is twice as much as it is at level one,
and at level three it is three fold. The score and level
are pretty much syncronized; or at least I hope so, but I
am not sure.
- In case of an accident, compensation you have to pay is
inflational. But it is same regardless of the type of the
plane. There are many similar small faults, but if you are
going to correct them all, you will never finish the game.
- If you have already MD-11 and you accidentally are going
to replace it with another MD-11, you can't. And same with
A-350. But you can dump MD-11 and buy A-350. Also, you can
dump an expensive plane and replace it with a cheaper one,
for example MD-11. It is allowed to do some stupid things
in this game, sometimes.
- I have omitted B-737-MAX because I can't give an accident
rate for that plane. I would love to step into DC-7 but I
would not step into 50 year old B-737-MAX. It's an unstable
plane. badly planned and it even looks terrible. Anyway,
it's fuel consumption is low, below 2 litres per passenger
per 100 km.
- You could still improve this game. For example, by giving
an individual price for tickets for each flight, and then
there are 'n%' passengers, and fuel and other costs are
reduced individually. That would require many extra lines
for the code and I have already used all memory Qbasic has.
Maybe using another language...
- If you do nothing, you can get 1,352,364 points. But if you play seriously, you can get 1,600,000 points by the year 2012. And you have time until 2098...
Anyway, this game should be better than Fukuoka Wings, the code is a little more complex. When I was creating this game I found a couple hundred errors. I have played this game a lot but I am not absolutely sure that I have removed all the errors. But there is the code included...
Best way to play (if you are right-handed): Left hand finger at letter "D", right hand fingers at ENTER and RIGHT SHIFT.
Original "High Flyer" (Commodore 64), 1983 at YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMxV5zFukbE
I tried to capture the spirit of the original version. And also to add something new. I am not sure if the game was worth of it's original (expensive) price but in the year 1983 it had some fresh ideas. JetSet Willy was created in 1982 and it was technically better.
Enjoy.
November, 2024
Pasi Toivonen
Mänttä-Vilppula
FINLAND
Pasi Toivonen
Mänttä-Vilppula
FINLAND
November 2024
hurricaneharvey64@gmail.com
