drelbs
07-07-2009, 05:05 PM
Space Trader: Moon Madness – HermitWorks Entertainment Corporation
Price: $0.99 [App Store (http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=308909290&mt=8)]
Version Reviewed: 1.3
Size: 13 MB
Played On: 2nd Gen iPod Touch, OS 2.2.1 and 3.0
My Rating: 5 stars
Discussion Thread: [link (http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=9146&highlight=space+trader+moon+madness)]
“Buy low, sell high. Take your piece of the pie.” – Lester the Investor
This is Lester’s type of game, and it may be yours too if you like playing the stock market with a spiffy 3D interface, at a price that is hard to beat.
http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/6682/titlesvc.jpg
Graphics
From the cinematic introduction, to the locales and the people in them, this game has wonderful graphics. I noticed that the frame rate drops a bit when you are changing your view quickly, but as this is a financial game, and not a FPS, this doesn’t hurt anything. The game is presented in landscape mode, with the home button on the left hand side, which is the way I prefer it.
A few of the peoples’ faces look a tad odd, but everyone is unique and easily identifiable. By your third or fourth game you will probably have everyone’s names memorized (or have made up nick names…) People are animated well – they shuffle around, wave, etc.
Sound
There isn’t much sound in this game, nor is there music. I find myself wishing that the game would allow me to start up my own music first – then I could be listening to the Battlestar Galactica theme while trading and traveling…
Control
This game controls very well, like a first person shooter minus the shooting. Instead, you can click on people to talk to them.
http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/259/controls.jpg
Touching the box on the left walks around, the one on the right shifts your view. From left to right across the top is a galactic map where you can travel to other locations, save or load a game. It also displays how many days are left in the game and how many days it will take to get to the other two locations from where you are. The prices of goods change while you travel from one location to another.
http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/112/travel.jpg
Whenever there is a ‘back’ arrow in the upper left corner of the screen, you can click it to exit whatever you are doing or looking at.
Next is a list of contacts, which lists everyone you have met at your location. You can click on someone to jump to their location if you don’t feel like walking around.
http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/1403/newsp.jpg
The newspaper icon shows the current news relevant to the prices of goods as well as any missions you have found out about from people.
The box displays the total number of goods you currently have, and if you click on it you can see quantities and your cost for the goods, as well as your ship’s maximum carrying capacity.
Finally there is a calculator from where you can borrow from or deposit cash into the bank, and in the upper right corner there is a display of your net worth.
One thing I really like about the user interface is that there is putting in that (SAY) off to the right when talking to people, which helps prevent fat-fingering the wrong response. One thing I would love to see added to the GUI is a back or cancel button located closer to the buy or sell buttons instead of having to use the back arrow at the upper left, though this one really isn’t a big deal.
Gameplay
http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/9654/graphj.jpg
In reality, this is a pretty simple game – walk around, buy and sell goods, make as much money as you can before you run out of time. But since the market will be different every time you play, the game has infinite replayability.
For the longer games, there are a few more things to get involved with – bartenders will give you the hot scoop that just might make you a lot of money (or prevent you from losing it) for a price. There are also mechanics that will upgrade the cargo hold and engines in your ship, increasing how much you can carry or decreasing travel times. These end up being essential for the longer games.
Timing can also be crucial – should you borrow a lot of cash up front for ship upgrades, or upgrade slowly? Some traders only deal in illegal goods, are you going to risk getting caught for the chance of making the quick buck?
http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/4577/busted.jpg
There are a number of missions sprinkled in amongst the trading, which will be entertaining the first couple of times you play. And there is an incentive to walking around – every time you arrive at a location there will be goods laying about for the taking. (look at the box behind the trader in the first screenshot under Controls) These provide a bit of a cash boost early on, but become more insignificant in longer games. Kind of like the GO space in Monopoly.
You can choose to play 100, 150, 300 or 500 day games. With the travel times, the shorter games are really short! I also have a concern regarding the default high scores, I found they were more difficult to beat in the shorter games than the longer ones, due to how you can grow your money as you play, but this also isn’t a big deal as you will be competing against your scores once you’ve gotten them on there.
Price
At $0.99, this game is a steal if you like trading, although I don’t think that I’d have paid too much more for it unless a bit more was added to the game. I’d love to see more locations added and/or a new Space Trader game set in a larger setting.
I received three promo codes for games the day I got this one, and Space Trader: Moon Madness is the one I’ve played the most of the three, which should say something. Also, the developer MrManlyMan (http://forums.toucharcade.com/member.php?u=9223) is active here on touchArcade, which is always a nice thing.
Price: $0.99 [App Store (http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=308909290&mt=8)]
Version Reviewed: 1.3
Size: 13 MB
Played On: 2nd Gen iPod Touch, OS 2.2.1 and 3.0
My Rating: 5 stars
Discussion Thread: [link (http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=9146&highlight=space+trader+moon+madness)]
“Buy low, sell high. Take your piece of the pie.” – Lester the Investor
This is Lester’s type of game, and it may be yours too if you like playing the stock market with a spiffy 3D interface, at a price that is hard to beat.
http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/6682/titlesvc.jpg
Graphics
From the cinematic introduction, to the locales and the people in them, this game has wonderful graphics. I noticed that the frame rate drops a bit when you are changing your view quickly, but as this is a financial game, and not a FPS, this doesn’t hurt anything. The game is presented in landscape mode, with the home button on the left hand side, which is the way I prefer it.
A few of the peoples’ faces look a tad odd, but everyone is unique and easily identifiable. By your third or fourth game you will probably have everyone’s names memorized (or have made up nick names…) People are animated well – they shuffle around, wave, etc.
Sound
There isn’t much sound in this game, nor is there music. I find myself wishing that the game would allow me to start up my own music first – then I could be listening to the Battlestar Galactica theme while trading and traveling…
Control
This game controls very well, like a first person shooter minus the shooting. Instead, you can click on people to talk to them.
http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/259/controls.jpg
Touching the box on the left walks around, the one on the right shifts your view. From left to right across the top is a galactic map where you can travel to other locations, save or load a game. It also displays how many days are left in the game and how many days it will take to get to the other two locations from where you are. The prices of goods change while you travel from one location to another.
http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/112/travel.jpg
Whenever there is a ‘back’ arrow in the upper left corner of the screen, you can click it to exit whatever you are doing or looking at.
Next is a list of contacts, which lists everyone you have met at your location. You can click on someone to jump to their location if you don’t feel like walking around.
http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/1403/newsp.jpg
The newspaper icon shows the current news relevant to the prices of goods as well as any missions you have found out about from people.
The box displays the total number of goods you currently have, and if you click on it you can see quantities and your cost for the goods, as well as your ship’s maximum carrying capacity.
Finally there is a calculator from where you can borrow from or deposit cash into the bank, and in the upper right corner there is a display of your net worth.
One thing I really like about the user interface is that there is putting in that (SAY) off to the right when talking to people, which helps prevent fat-fingering the wrong response. One thing I would love to see added to the GUI is a back or cancel button located closer to the buy or sell buttons instead of having to use the back arrow at the upper left, though this one really isn’t a big deal.
Gameplay
http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/9654/graphj.jpg
In reality, this is a pretty simple game – walk around, buy and sell goods, make as much money as you can before you run out of time. But since the market will be different every time you play, the game has infinite replayability.
For the longer games, there are a few more things to get involved with – bartenders will give you the hot scoop that just might make you a lot of money (or prevent you from losing it) for a price. There are also mechanics that will upgrade the cargo hold and engines in your ship, increasing how much you can carry or decreasing travel times. These end up being essential for the longer games.
Timing can also be crucial – should you borrow a lot of cash up front for ship upgrades, or upgrade slowly? Some traders only deal in illegal goods, are you going to risk getting caught for the chance of making the quick buck?
http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/4577/busted.jpg
There are a number of missions sprinkled in amongst the trading, which will be entertaining the first couple of times you play. And there is an incentive to walking around – every time you arrive at a location there will be goods laying about for the taking. (look at the box behind the trader in the first screenshot under Controls) These provide a bit of a cash boost early on, but become more insignificant in longer games. Kind of like the GO space in Monopoly.
You can choose to play 100, 150, 300 or 500 day games. With the travel times, the shorter games are really short! I also have a concern regarding the default high scores, I found they were more difficult to beat in the shorter games than the longer ones, due to how you can grow your money as you play, but this also isn’t a big deal as you will be competing against your scores once you’ve gotten them on there.
Price
At $0.99, this game is a steal if you like trading, although I don’t think that I’d have paid too much more for it unless a bit more was added to the game. I’d love to see more locations added and/or a new Space Trader game set in a larger setting.
I received three promo codes for games the day I got this one, and Space Trader: Moon Madness is the one I’ve played the most of the three, which should say something. Also, the developer MrManlyMan (http://forums.toucharcade.com/member.php?u=9223) is active here on touchArcade, which is always a nice thing.