CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER
This review was supposed to be turned in a month ago, but I was so impressed with this program I wanted to do more than review the game on first impression.
Looking at the credits in the documentation I noted that the game was designed by R.C. Chiofolo, Ph.D. Mr. Chiofolo is a long time boardgamer and computer programmer who had, in the past, converted some (now defunct) SIMULATIONS PUBLICATIONS, INC. materials to computer. That experience sparked the inspiration for a design of his own, and COE is the result. The game is based on an historical situation in England in the early nineteenth century, at the beginning of the industrial revolution. Great Britain is divided into eight regions with varying resources, populations, money reserves, manufacturing capacity, and transportation nets. The objective of the game is "...to achieve top hole rating on the Analysis Program Graph. To do this you must merge all eight Regions with Great Britain, maximize population and machine utilization, and have at least 55,000 pounds sterling in the Exchequer by 1915." This is achieved through production of natural resources and crops, manufacturing of tools, factories, transportation, arms and consumer goods, and the allocation of these different resources in the eight regions for maximum effectiveness.
Interregional trade is of utmost importance, since most of the regions don't have balanced output of resources. The idea is to trade what you do have for that which you don't, manufacture the tools and machinery to make production more efficient, get rid of the excess population (by inducting them into the service or shipping them off to Australia) and building a transportation network to accomplish this.
Sounds simple enough. But there are a few flies in the ointment. For instance, labor strikes, bad weather destroying crops and creating famine, civil unrest, and inflation all work to put you on the losing end of the stick.
Playing the game is easy. All input is through the keyboard, and illegal entries are not allowed. The game takes quite a bit of time to play, expecially when you're new to the system. You can save up to three games, or restart the historical game. Oh yes, those of you who own Epson printers can dump either individual region displays, or all regional displays, to a printer to obtain hard copies for analysis during the play of the game. It takes some hard mental gymnastics to eke out that last bit of efficiency and attain top hole ratings, and the hard copies are definitely needed.
You should also note that trading can take place anytime -- before or after, but not during a particular stage. For those times when a little fine tuning is needed in a couple of regions for the next stage, this is invaluable.
The ANALYSIS program is one of the nicest features of the game, and of course the only way you can tell if you've "won" or not. Each of the regions can be analyzed for efficiency, as well as the national rating. This analysis is based on the degree of mechanization, population utilization, income, mergers, and the skill level you chose at the beginning of the game.
This game is definitely not for everyone. The physical playing of COE is very easy. The options are always displayed somewhere on the screen and are usually one-touch commands. The complexity of the game lies in the game itself. The manipulation of so many constantly changing variables, and the analyzing of the data is (at least for me) a mind bending experience. If you'd like a teenie insight into what it'd be like to head up an economic organization, buy COE. If you thrive on complex problems, buy COE. If you enjoy puzzles, buy COE. If you like chess, you'll probably like this game. If you're a Pac-Man freak, you'll probably hate it.
The Atari is capable of so much more than creating hoardes of galactic killers. Arcade games are a nice diversion and, admittedly, they make an enormous amount of money, but they are just so much intellectual pap. Chancellor of the Exchequer is a game which is not only intellectually stimulating, but a program which'll teach you something in the process. I'd like to see more programs on the market like this, perhaps simulating different business environments (management, corporate finance, stock market, ad infinitum) or other areas of human endeavor. I hope COE does well.