


                       CORPORATE RAIDER by SoftServ Inc.
                                        
                                 User's Manual
     
     
     Corporate Raider is a game for the IBM PC and compatible computers
     based on the phenomenon in American business of corporate takeovers.
     You, the player, attempt to take over corporations in various
     industries trying to gain a monopoly in the industry. The object of
     the game is to take over controlling shares of all of the companies in
     a given industry.
     
     
     1.  Installation and Startup

     Before you can play the game, it must first be installed on either
     hard disk or disk(s). Due to the slow access times of floppy disks,
     it is recommended that Corporate Raider be installed on a hard disk,
     or RAM disk, if possible. If you wish to install the program on
     floppy, you will need either two standard 360K floppy drives or one
     high density drive (720K or 1.2Meg).

     To install Corporate Raider, place Corporate Raider Disk #1 into
     drive A. Log onto A by entering A: then type:
     
          INSTALL
     
     The installation program will prompt you for a video adaptor type
     and your hard/floppy drive arrangement. For an EGA video adaptor,
     the game will run with 16 color 640 X 200 graphics. For a CGA
     video adaptor, the game will run with 2 color 640 X 200 graphics.
     For all other video adaptors, the game will run in text mode.
     Corporate Raider requires 256K bytes of RAM.
     
     To start playing the game, change to the directory that contains the
     Corporate Raider program files and type:
     
          RAIDER switches
     
     where switches can be /S, /R or /M:
     
          /S causes the game to start up with sound disabled
          /R will cause the game to start up from a 'SAVE'd game
          /M for playing the game on a monochrome monitor
     
     For example, to run the game using a previously saved session with
     sound disabled, enter:
     
          RAIDER /S /R
     
     
     
     2. Playing the Game
     
     You begin the game by owning companies in each of twelve industries.
     You play one industry at a time and can change industries at any time.
     When changing industries, you have the option of saving the game for
     the industry you have been playing in. You also have the option to
     restore a previous game in the industry to which you have changed.
     
     There is a "hostile corporation" in each industry that is trying to
     take over other companies as well. It is possible for the hostile
     corporation to take over your company in which case you lose the game.

     The hostile corporation is assigned randomly from the list of
     companies when the game begins.
     
     You win the game when you take over all of the companies the industry
     in which you are playing. You can only take over the hostile
     corporation after you have taken over all of the other companies
     in the industry.
     
     
     2.1  Companies
     
     You begin the game by entering your name. You are then assigned a
     company in each of the twelve industries. A ticker symbol is generated
     for your companies by using the first character a your last name, a
     unique character for each industry, and an exclamation point.
     
     For example, if you enter in your name as Bob Jones, you are assigned
     the following companies:
     
           Company Name               Ticker Symbol
           -----------------------    -------------
           Jones Computer Company         JC!
           Jones Textile Company          JX!
           Jones Steel Company            JS!
           Jones Mining Company           JM!
           Jones Timber Company           JT!
           Jones Chemical Company         JH!
           Jones Pharmaceutical Company   JP!
           Jones Petroleum Company        JO!
           Jones Automotive Company       JU!
           Jones Aerospace Company        JA!
           Jones Retail Company           JR!
           Jones Entertainment Company    JE!
          
     
     2.2  Obtaining Financing
     
     An important aspect of the game is how you raise money to fund the
     takeovers of the various companies that you wish to purchase. Ways of
     raising money include:
          
          
          1. Company funds gained by buying and selling stocks.
          
          You can buy and sell stocks of any company in the exchange using
          the BUY and SELL commands. When the game is started, a random
          profile is generated for each company. In each game there will
          most likely be some stocks that perform very well and some stocks
          that perform very poorly. The information used in the profile can
          be viewed by using the REPORT COMPANY command.
          
          In order to purchase a major share in a company, you must first
          file with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) using the
          FILE command.
          
          
          2. Conventional bank loans
          
          To obtain a loan from the bank, use the FINANCE command. If you
          qualify for the loan, you will receive the funds, however you
          will be charged interest periodically while playing the game. If
          you do not qualify for a bank loan, you will be referred to a
          venture capitalist.
          
          
          3. Venture capital
          
          Venture capital is obtained in same manner as a bank loan but at
          a higher interest rate. If you do not qualify for vanture
          capital, you will be referred to a junk bond broker.
          
          
          4. Sale of junk bonds
          
          Junk bond funds are obtained in same manner as venture capital
          but at a higher interest rate.
          
          
          5. Greenmail
          
          Greenmail occurs when a company buys back shares that you own at
          an inflated price. It is possible for a company to offer
          greenmail when you tender a takeover offer with the OFFER command
          (provided you already own shares via the BUY command).
          
     
     2.3  Takeovers
     
     A takeover is accomplished by owning the majority of the outstanding
     shares of company. This is accomplished with a tender offer using the
     OFFER command.
     
     When the OFFER command is entered, you will be prompted for the price
     you are offering for the outstanding shares. The company will respond
     by accepting the offer (if the price is high enough), declining the
     offer, or offering to buy back any shares you already own (greenmail).
     
     It is not possible to take over the hostile corporation until you have
     taken over all other companies in the industry. When you take over the
     hostile corporation, you win the game.
     
     
     2.4  Blocking
     
     During the course of the game, the hostile corporation is competing
     with you for control of the industry. As a result, the hostile
     corporation will attempt to take over your company. You can attempt to
     block this attempt by using the BLOCK command. It is possible that as
     the result of the BLOCK command, the hostile corporation will offer
     you the opportunity to buy back the shares of your company that it
     owns (at a premium, of course, since you are being greenmailed!).
     
     
     2.5  Reports
     
     You can obtain a report of your stock holdings by using the REPORT
     HOLDINGS or REPORT H command.
     
     You can obtain a quick report on a company by entering REPORT [SYM]
     where [SYM] is the ticker symbol for the company. A detailed report is
     obtained by entering REPORT COMPANY [SYM] or REPORT C [SYM].

     If you would like to know the name and symbols for all companies whose
     names begin with a particular letter, use the COMPANY command.
     
     
     2.6  Save and Restore
     
     At any point you can save the game you are playing by using the SAVE
     command. Games are saved according to the industry and only one game
     can be saved per industry. Whenever you quit playing by using the QUIT
     command or change industries by using the INDUSTRY command, you will
     be prompted with the opportunity to save the game you are leaving.
     
     When you change industries, you will be prompted with the opportunity
     to restore a previously saved game for that industry. If you start up
     the game with the restore command line option (/R) the saved game, if
     there is one, will be restored for the selected industry.
     
     
     2.7  Help
     
     Quick help screens can be displayed for the various commands by
     entering the HELP command.
     
     
     2.8  Printer and Sound Control
     
     All wire service events can be echoed to your system printer by
     enabling the printer with the PRINTER ON command. The printer can be
     disabled with the PRINTER OFF command.
     
     The sound can turned on and off by using the SOUND ON and SOUND OFF
     commands.
     
     
     2.9  Shell Escape
     
     The BOSS command can be used as a quick exit to DOS with the state of
     the game preserved. This is particularly useful if you are playing
     this game on company time and your boss is coming. The DOS EXIT
     command is used to get back into the game.
     
     
     3.  Command Summary
     
     Note:  [SYM] refers to a company ticker symbol.
            <argument> refers to an optional argument.
     
     BLOCK
     Used to block a takeover attempt by a hostile corporation.
     
     BUY [SYM] <shares>
     Used to buy stock on the stock exchange.
     
     FILE [SYM]
     Used to file with the SEC.
     
     FINANCE
     Used to obtain financing.
     
     INDUSTRY
     Used to select an industry in which to trade.
     
     OFFER [SYM]
     Used to tender a takeover offer.
     
     REPORT [SYM]
     Used to obtain a quick report on a company.
     
     REPORT COMPANY [SYM]  or  REPORT C [SYM]
     Used to obtain a detailed financial report.
     
     REPORT HOLDINGS  or  REPORT H
     Used to report holdings of your company.
     
     SELL [SYM] <shares>  or  SELL [SYM] <ALL>
     Used to sell stock on the stock exchange.
     
     SAVE
     Used to save the game for later play.
     
     QUIT
     Used to quit the game.
     
     
     4.  "Hot Keys"
     
     The "Hot Keys" are used as a shorthand method of entering commands by
     using the Function Keys on the PC keyboard. There are:
     
           F1 - HELP       F2 - BUY       ALT-F1 - COMPANY
           F3 - SELL       F4 - REPORT    ALT-F2 - BOSS
           F5 - INDUSTRY   F6 - OFFER     ALT-F7 - PRINTER
           F7 - FILE       F8 - FINANCE   ALT-F8 - SOUND
           F9 - BLOCK     F10 - SAVE     ALT-F10 - QUIT
     
           ESCape - Clear command line
           CTRL-R - Repeat previous command
     CTRL-NumLock - Suspend game (any key to resume)


