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#                   STRANGE Computing Presents:                     #
#                Air Bucks Ver. 1.2 by Impressions                  #
#-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-#
#                        -=   Credits   =-                          #
# Typing/Copy-Editing:  OverKill & Wentworth Q. Giddy               #
# Immoral Support:  The Hostess Cupcake Lady                 8/4/95 #
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Introduction
------------
  The game begins in 1946.  You have invested your last hard-earned
dollar to found your own fledgling airline company - Air Bucks. 
Starting with only $100,000 and one small DC-3 Dakota, it is up to you
to make the key decisions which will decide whether Air Bucks will
mature into a globe spanning empire, or wither and fail.

  If you can last, the game will span the ensuing years and decades. 
Not only will your own fortunes evolve, you will also live through
this period of modern history.  The world about you will change. 
Whether it's the introduction of the first civilian jet airplane, or
the death of a great leader, no year will be the same as the last.  PC
users will see newspaper updates illustrating the significant recent
events at the end of each game year.  Thus history provides the
backdrop for the success story called Air Bucks!

Objectives
----------
  Air Bucks begins in 1946, when you are 25 years old, and continues
until you are ready to retire 40 years later.  At the end of each
year, and again at the end of the game, the airline industry will
announce its awards -- to the companies with the highest turnover,
largest fleet, and the most air routes.  Your goal is to finish the
game with the best rating in each category.

  If you fail to do this but your ratings are good, you have still
expanded from one stretch of Florida asphalt to a world-wide airline,
and made a few bucks in the bargain.  At the very least, you should
try to keep your airline solvent until the end of 1985.

  Regularly throughout the game, you will receive updates of your
progress -- are you the biggest, the richest, the most popular
airline?  The better these assessments are, the better you are doing. 
You will also be shown financial results for each airline every year. 
Air Bucks is one of the four main competitors vying to control the
world's airways.  The others are:

Trans Global International (TGI)
International GT (IGT)
Great Times Inc. (GTI)

  In fact, each of the four can be assigned to computer or human
control, or disabled altogether.  This allows up to four players to
compete.

Getting Started:  Into the Wild Blue Yonder
-------------------------------------------
  Air Bucks is first and foremost an enjoyable, fun game, and secondly
an airline simulation.  Your main decisions will be:

-    Which airports to buy landing rights for
-    When to buy new planes, and how to outfit them
-    When routes to send which plane on
-    How much to charge on each route
-    How to market your airline

  When you have a large fleet flying all the best routes more
profitably than your competitors, you know you are on the right track.

The Interface
-------------
  Air Bucks is designed with an easy to use, pull-down menu interface
which can be controlled entirely by mouse or keyboard.

  Pressing a key while over an icon or command works in the same way
as pressing the mouse button, so keyboard commands will not work when
selecting a command with the mouse.

  When the computer player is thinking and carrying out his plans, the
mouse pointer will change to a picture of a computer.  During this
time, you will not be able to enter commands into the computer.

  Across the top of the screen is a bar containing the titles of
several pull-down menus.  To select a menu, either click on the title,
or type its highlighted first letter on the keyboard.  A menu of
commands will appear; to choose one, just click or type in the same
way.

  To leave a menu, press the space bar, or click outside of the menu
area.  More screens that will appear over the main map can be left in
the same way.  It is important to note that game time only passes when
no menus are being used, so exit your menu if you want the game to
proceed.

  To ensure that the computer will recognize all keyboard commands,
always remember to leave your CAPS LOCK key switched off.

  Finally, whenever you are using a mouse to alter quantities -- for
example, changing ticket prices -- clicking with the right mouse
button will produce several additions or subtractions in quick
succession.

  To speed up the process of entering numbers, certain screens (for
example, the ticket price screen) will allow you to type in a value
directly.  To do this, simply highlight the field that you wish to
alter and type in the new number.  When finished, press ENTER.

Game Options
------------
  The first menu from the left is titled "Air Bucks."  It has a number
of commands which will change the way the game plays.

Sound FX lets you toggle music and sound effects on or off
independently of each other.

Game Speed determines how quickly the months and years of game time
pass.

If you have a lot of decision-making to do by the end of the current
month, it is a good idea to switch to a moderate speed.  When you are
happy with your operation, you can then change to Fast or Turbo, and
watch how things progress.

Difficulty determines how long it will take that company to acquire
new landing sites, and how frequently planes will develop mechanical
problems, among other factors.  To set the difficulty for an airline,
click on the displayed current level, or type the number of the
airline (1, 2, 3 or 4)

  Initially, the size of each airport city in the game is a reflection
of the size and air traffic of that city in real life.  The
"Randomize" city option within the Difficulty screen will reset each
airport city in the world to small, medium or large.  Since the
location of larger cities is crucial to many decisions, this demands
different strategies from the players.

Note: The size of the cities is measured relative to each other with a
percentage system..  Cities from 1% to 29% are small, cities from 30%
to 50% are medium, and cities from 60% to 100% are large.  As the
years pass, all cities will grow, but their relative sizes will change
little.  Only a few cities will show significant relative growth or
decline.  Keep an eye out for them.

  Other options on the Difficulty panel are New Plane Each Year, Base,
and Easy First Three Years.

New Plane Each Year speeds up the debut of new plane models which
would normally appear on a more occasional and historically accurate
schedule.  You can toggle this on or off within the first month, but
not after that.

Base allows you to change the city that your airline is based in.  All
four airlines begin from the same site, no matter what it has been
changed to.  You can only use this option right at the start of the
game.  Use the + and - keys to change your base, or select them with
the mouse.

Easy First Three Years is an option that gives you a "grace period" of
three years, where it will be easier to turn a profit.

Customize allows you to change the name and logo for your airline. 
Select one of the four logos on the Customize panel to alter its
background and name.  Click Reset at any time to return to the
original logo.

Player Types allows you to determine how many airline will compete,
and how they will be controlled.  There are four companies which
appear in the game.  Each one will be given one of three settings:

- Controlled by a Human player
- Controlled by the Computer
- Not in the game at all

  To change the setting for one of the airlines, just click on the
current status, or hit keys 1 - 4 repeatedly until the desired setting
is shown.

Zoom Mode activates a scrolling view of the world.  Use the scroll
icons in the top right corner of the screen to move your view.  Right
click on them to scroll continuously.  Clicking on a city shows its
name, size and owners.  To see planes flying for other airlines, just
choose the airline in the usual way (either click on the airline logo
to cycle through the choices or press 1 - 4 to choose an airline). 
All commands can be accessed while in the Zoom mode.

Air Bucks with Several Players
------------------------------
  Air Bucks can be played with up to four human players.  However,
since it runs in real time, rather than in turns or rounds, the
players will have to come to some sort of an agreement about who gets
control of the computer when.  Our recommendation is to let each
person have one opportunity to use the mouse per month.  Remember that
the game time stops whilst the menus are being used.

  Making deals together adds a new dimension to multi-player games. 
If two people agree to swap airports, for example, they can sell them
to each other for the same price, using the Site Trade command.

Disk Options
------------
  If you wish to, you can save a game so that you can return to it
later.  Considering the length of real-time it takes to complete the
forty years of the game, this will be an essential command.

  If you click on the Load or Save options, a directory panel will
appeal with several options.  A list of files with numbers is in the
center of the panel.  Either type a number or click on one of the
names to select a file.  If you have saved more games than are
displayed, click on the up and down buttons to see the rest.  You can
also choose a file name by clicking on File and typing it in.  Click
on Load or Save (as appropriate) to accept the command, or Cancel to
cancel the action.

THE MAIN SCREEN
---------------
  When you first enter the game, you will see a large map of the
world.  All of the airports for which you have landing rights (you
start with just Miami although in Game Options you can change this to
a different airport) will appear as red squares.  This map is the main
screen, from which you will issue most commands.

  Below the map is an information bar.  On the left of this is the
flight number of your currently selected plane -- AB0 at first.  To
the right will be the current activity or location of the plane, your
total current bank balance and finally, the game date.

  You will also see the Air Bucks logo and a clock icon.  The clock
shows roughly how much of the current month has elapsed.  The logo
tells you which of the four airlines you are commanding or viewing.

  You are allowed to study the progress of your competitors.  To do
so, click on the logo repeatedly, or type 1, 2, 3 or 4.  The Air Bucks
sign will be replaced by the logo of one of the other airlines.  All
of the commands which relate to the information and analysis can be
used with respect to every company.

  For example, if you select a computer-played airline, and choose the
Ticket Price command, you will be able to see prices this other
company charges, but you will not be able to change them.

Icon Panel:  Seven of the major commands in Air Bucks are available
from the icon panel at the bottom of the screen.  This panel appears
when all menus are cleared from the screen.  The commands are, from
left to right, Buy Plane, Alter Route, Ticket Price, Plane Income,
Next Plane, Previous Plane, and Zoom icon (Click here, then on any
location on the world map to zoom to that location).

Landing Rights
--------------
  Your planes are only allowed to land at airports where you have
landing rights.  When the game begins you and your competitors only
have rights to Miami.  So your first step on the road to success is to
find yourself a second airport to send planes to!  However, as the
game progresses the early acquisition of landing rights is important,
because only two airlines can have rights to each site.  For example,
if two other airlines have applied for rights to New York, then you
will never be able to fly there (unless another firm offers its rights
for sale or goes bust, thus making all its landing rights available). 
Commands for acquiring and handling landing rights are covered in the
next chapter.

Miami
-----
  Miami is a special airport.  All four airlines begin with landing
rights there, and nobody will be able to sell those rights (since
there is no one who needs to trade for it).  New airplanes are also
delivered there unless you have selected somewhere else for this
purpose.

LANDING RIGHTS
--------------
  The acquisition of landing rights can be one of the keys to building
a successful airline.  This chapter discusses how you can seek out,
negotiate for, acquire and trade landing rights.  All of the pertinent
commands are located in the Routes menu.

The Landing Rights Screen
-------------------------
  To acquire the right to land at an airport, select the Routes menu,
and then the Negotiate New Site command.  You can only start one new
application a month -- if you try for another, your Negotiate command
will be ignored.

  Dots representing each airport will appear on the normal world map. 
If you already have rights to an airport, it will be red.  White
cities are one you have bid for, but not yet been cleared to land at. 
Airports still available are black, while those sites fully bought up 
and thus unavailable are green.

  The information bar at the bottom of the Landing Rights screen will
tell you about the currently selected city.  At the left are the name
and size of the city.  Then comes the distance between it and the
closest site you already own.  On the map, a line will join these two
cities.

  Next, the time in months that it will take for the application to be
processed is displayed.  Your first application will take one month,
your second two, and so on.  If you have set the difficulty level to
hard or hardest, the process will be even slower.

  Finally, you will see the current cost of these rights.  Small
cities are cheapest, and large ones most expensive.  In addition to
this initial payment, all landing rights bring a permanent annual
charge.  This varies, but is usually around 10% of the current
purchase price.

  You can select a new city to examine by clicking on it, or you can
step through the entire list using Next and Previous.

Buying Landing Rights
---------------------
  When you are sure that you want to buy rights to the selected
airports, click on Acquire.  After the necessary time has elapsed (see
above), a screen will appear notifying you that your application has
been approved, and landing rights have been granted.  Your planes will
then be able to land at that airport.  However, you will still need to
make Routes to lead planes to your new airports, which is explained in
the next chapter.

Selling Landing Rights
----------------------
  If you are desperate for cash, you can sell some of your landing
rights.  To do this, select the Routes menu, and then the Site Trade
command.  A list of all used airports will appear. (Select More to
page through longer lists) Click on an airport which you own rights
for, or type its reference number.  The computer opponents may offer
bids for your rights.  Click on an airline or enter their number to
accept the bid.  (To quit without accepting, select Cancel)

  Any other human players are given a chance to enter their own offers
too.  Just type your offer and press <ENTER>.

Negotiation Progress Report
---------------------------
  The Progress Report command on the Routes menu will show how your
current applications are proceeding.

ESTABLISHING ROUTES
-------------------
  After acquiring landing rights at a second airport, it is time to
set up your first route.  The Alter Route command lets you set
destinations for your currently selected plane.  For convenience, this
command is under both the Routes and the Planes menu -- there's no
difference between them.

Setting Up a New Route
----------------------
  To define a new route, select Make within the Alter Route command. 
You can give a plane anywhere between two and eight destinations.  It
will fly a continuous path through all of them, looping back to the
first stop after the last unless you specify a charter flight by
clicking on Service -- then the plane will stop at the last site on
the path (see below).

  To set the first destination, click on the space next to the number
"1" on the route panel, or just type in the number.  The world map
will reappear, with your airports marked in red.  Click on the airport
of your choice, or step through them all with Next and Previous. 
Selecting Ok or pressing the SpaceBar will confirm your choice of
airport, while Remove will cancel the current destination.  Repeat
this process to set up as many destinations as you want.  You can see
the route diagrammed on the map by choosing View.

  Once you have made a route you can either select Assign to allocate
this route to the current plane, or Exit to leave this menu without
allocating it to any plane.

Charging for your Route
-----------------------
  Having told your plane where to go, the next decision is what to
charge the passengers. The Ticket Price command (on both the Route and
Planes menus) lets you do this.  For each leg of the journey, you can
set three prices -- for 1st Class, 2nd Class (Coach) and Cargo.

  Using this command brings up a screen with a grid of numbers, one
for each class on each leg of the route.  To enter new prices, simply
select the price you wish to input, using the mouse or cursor keys,
and then type in your price between 0 and 999.  Pressing <ENTER> moves
you to the next price automatically.  Also, within a given leg of a
route, you can choose a particular class by selecting F(irst),
E(conomy), or C(argo).

Check Plane Income allows you to view the projected income for any
planes flying the current route with the current price structure.  The
cost of flying the route is included to help you gauge the
profitability of the current prices.  Click on Next to cycle through
the planes assigned to that route (if there are any).  Click outside
the panel to exit it.

The Add and Subtract buttons allow you to increase or decrease ticket
prices by a given percentage for ALL your routes.  This causes
widespread changes in your airline, so use with extreme caution!

  You can alter all of the prices at once, by a certain percentage. 
Change the displayed percentage (it starts at 10%) by selecting
Increase or Decrease.  Then, use Up and Lower to raise or lower all
prices for that route by that percentage of their current values.

  The Replicate option sets all prices for all classes and
destinations to the value of the price currently selected.  When you
replicate prices, the price structure for the current route leg is
replicated to all other legs of the route.

  The plus(+) and minus(-) signs on the Ticket Price panel (and on
your keyboard) allow you to cycle through your routes, so that you may
compare prices between routes or alter prices structures for more than
one route without exiting the screen and reentering.

  Price Check will show you what tickets on the same route cost from
your competitor, if anyone else is flying it.

  If you want, you can set prices for a different route without
exiting the screen and starting again.  Use the + and - to move
through the routes you have already created.

  Income based on ticket fares is deposited to your checking account
after every four days of game time.  This means that even if you see
your plane picking up passengers, the profits or losses will not show
at the bottom of your screen until the next deposit occurs.  These
four-day transfers are noted in your Register for easy viewing (see
Bank Menu).

Adjusting Old Routes and Prices
-------------------------------
  Once you have defined a route, you can refer to it again later, and
quickly assign more planes to it.  Every route you set up is given a
number.  When you choose Alter Route, the black panel over the bottom
right-hand corner of the map shows the route number of the current
plane, and the number of planes using that route.  The route is also
shown on the map.  Using Next and Previous, you can step through your
routes.

  Once you have selected the proper route, Report will give you the
details on it, Amend will change it and Delete will erase it
altogether.

  It is important to remember that one route can be used by several
planes.  In that situation, any changes made to either the route
layout or to ticket prices will affect ALL of the planes using that
route.  If you want a plane not to be affected by changes to a route,
then you should create a new, individual route using Make, for the
same places, and Assign it to this plane.

  To change this ticket prices for a particular route, select Ticket
Price from the Routes menu.  Then, use the same commands to change the
prices as you did to set them originally.

  You can view your airline by route by using the List Routes command. 
The main report screen gives the following information: route number,
first city and last city, and the number of planes using it.  By
clicking on a route, a secondary report gives the ticket prices for
all legs of the route, and a list of planes flying it.

Switching a Plane Between Routes
--------------------------------
  Using the Alter Route command (on the Routes menu), it is also easy
to move a plane from one route to another.  Just select the aircraft
in question, then select Alter Route.  Step through the routes with
Next and Previous.  Choose Report to get the details of the current
route, and Assign to allocate the current route to the current plane.

Out-of-Range Routes
-------------------
  When you assign a route, your trusty plane will head for the first
stop, and start traveling the circuit ordered.  If any leg of the
journey is too long for the craft's range to handle, it will stop
before heading to that destination, and send you a message requesting
new orders.

Chartered and Scheduled Routes
------------------------------
  Each route has a service-type -- Chartered or Scheduled.  A plane on
a scheduled route will carry on flying indefinitely.  When it reaches
its final destination, it will go back to its first stop, and repeat
the same flight path.  Chartered planes stop when they reach their
final destination.

  Chartered routes are mainly used to get planes onto routes which are
completely out of their range -- e.g., taking a new plane from Miami
to Europe and using it there.  You can tell a plane to go somewhere
and stop by making a route, and changing the service type to charter. 
The plane will stop at the last destination, rather than looping back
to the start of the list.  Having moved the plane to the right area,
you can set up the actual, scheduled route you want from it.

  Cargo planes may also final chartering useful.  If you have a cargo
plane which you always send to collect specific cargo loads as they
appear, you will probably only want it to fly its route once.  Then it
will wait there until you send it to pick up the next load of cargo
that crops up.

Looking at All Your Routes
--------------------------
  The View Routes command on the Routes menu will show every route you
are using on the world map.  This command is a good way of seeing if
you have missed any potential routes between two cities by checking
for a line connecting them.  You can also view the routes of your
competitors.

PLANES
------
  Once you have created your first route, and started your DC-3 on its
way, your airline will finally be operational.  Having done this, the
next step is to expand.  For this, you need more landing rights, more
routes, and most importantly, more planes.  The following commands and
procedures are accessible from the Planes menu, and will help you
purchase, configure, maintain and control the planes that make up your
airline.

Selecting a Plane
-----------------
  The commands that affect individual aircraft, such as Buy, Sell,
etc., all apply to the plane that is currently selected.  To select a
new plane, go to the Planes menu, and use Previous and Next Plane to
step through them all, or select List and click on the one you want.
(Under List Planes, click on any of the planes listed to access
complete information about the plane) remember that the information
bar across the bottom of the screen tells you the number and status of
the current plane.

  If the plane is flying a route, its status will be just its current
destination.  Other possible status values are Idle and In Service. 
Some servicing time is unavoidable, but no plane should ever be idle. 
If one is, give it a route to fly straight away -- or investigate any
possible problems it may have.

  You can also check the status of all your aircraft by selecting the
List command.  Each plane you have is shown, along with its type,
speed, passenger capacity, range and status.  Click on any of these
planes to see complete information on the plane.  If you own more
planes than can fit on the screen at once, use More to see the next
screen's worth of planes.

Buying a New Plane
------------------
  Unless you want to be the world's smallest airline, you will want to
use the Buy command, sooner rather than later.  Selecting it will show
you a blueprint and technical information on one type of plane.  Click
on Next and Previous to move through the available planes.  Initially,
only two models are available, the DC-3 and DC-4.  As time passes, new
planes will come onto the market.  They are announced at the start of
the year in which they are launched.  Select Buy to actually purchase
the current plane.

Evaluating New Planes
---------------------
  The technical statistics of each plane -- speed, capacity and
range -- are very important.  Fast planes are more attractive to
passengers, and complete more flights in a given time.  Planes that
carry more, obviously, will allow you more potential profit -- but
also incur higher costs.

  Range determines what routes the craft will be able to travel.  You
can compare range to the distances between airports within the Buy
screen, using the Distance option.  When selected, the world map
appears with all airports highlighted.  Click on any site to get the
distance from it to Miami.  Choose Select to make the currently
selected airport the base from which distances to others is measured. 
Then, click on any other city to see how far it is from this new base. 
As usual, you can also select different airports by using Next and
Previous.

Fitting and Refitting a Plane
-----------------------------
  When you buy your new aircraft, you must decide how much of its
carrying capacity you want to dedicate to 1st Class seating, 2nd
Class, and Cargo space.  Your choices here are important, as they will
affect your profits for that plane.  Use the various options displayed
on the top menu-bar, or the arrows on the small panel near the plan of
the plane, to increase and decrease the three categories.  Select OK
when you are happy with the arrangement.

  If you later decide to change the seating plan for a plane, you can
refit it by choosing Refit from the Planes menu.  The commands here
are the same as when fitting the plane for the first time.  However,
remember that there is a small charge for this service, and your plane
will be taken off its scheduled route until the work is completed.

Selling a Plane
---------------
  If you need to, you can also sell planes back to raise money.  If
you choose the Sell command from the Planes menu, you will be told
what your plane is worth.  You can then confirm or cancel the sale.

In-Flight Services
------------------
  As an airline, you have the option of offering a cheap yet cheerful
service, or more costly, luxury flights.  When the game begins, your
aircraft are outfitted with the minimum comforts necessary for
acceptable service.  You can then update the fleet with extra
facilities by selecting Comfort from the Planes menu.  Then simply
select whichever luxury items you wish to provide -- you can provide
more than one.  All planes in your fleet will provide the same
services.  Consumers' choice of a preferred airline is affected by the
level of comfort provided.

Maintenance
-----------
  Each of your planes will go into service for one month in each year. 
Additionally, each plane may break down from time to time, requiring
extra service.  The more you spend on preventative maintenance, the
less breakdowns you should get.  Other factors that affect the
frequency of mechanical failures are the difficulty level set for your
airline, and the age of your planes.

  The Maintenance command under the Planes menu lets you choose the
level of maintenance you want to give your fleet.  Remember that out
of commission aircraft cost you lost revenue as well as maintenance
charges.

  Use the Reliability option to set a level of Maintenance for your
planes.  Select High, Medium, or Low to set a preset number, or use
Increase and Decrease to choose a percentage.  The higher the
percentage, the more your maintenance costs, but the more reliable
your planes will be.

Attracting Passengers
---------------------
  The number of people who choose to fly with you depend on a number
of factors: airport size is a key one.  The number of people who want
to go from small city to small city is far less than those who will
fly large to large.  First-class passengers, particularly, prefer
direct, large city travel.  However, remember that some small cities
are essential refueling points for longer routes to large cities. 
Such small cities will be more popular than others, once such a route
is up and running.

  Ticket prices are obviously a crucial selling point -- not only
should they be cheap, but they should offer more value to the customer
than the competition.  People will cough up high prices more willingly
if you have a high comfort level and fast, new planes.  Marketing,
reliability and staff morale also affect demand for your airline.

Attracting Cargo Jobs
---------------------
  Cargo availability works differently from the passenger business. 
From time to time, specific cargo pick-up jobs will appear at each
airport.  If no such job is present, no cargo will be carried.  Jobs
can be quite large, so if a consignment is available for pickup, you
could well fill the cargo holds.  This means that, although cargo
income is a bit more variable than passenger fares, it can still end
up a lucrative service to offer -- especially if you are the only
airline to carry cargo on a particular route.

  The Jobs Available command under the Cargo menu gives you a list of
cargo loads waiting for a carrier right now.  The Demand report shows
you a world map with areas which are tending to produce lots of jobs
at the moment highlighted in black (high demand) or red (very high
demand).

FINANCE AND ECONOMICS
---------------------
  Very probably, the time will come when your own resources are
inadequate for your needs.  In that case, in order to fulfill your mad
dreams of world domination, you will need to first come crawling to
the bank manager, or -- worse -- sell some of your corporation. 
Meanwhile, while your plans begin to take hold, you can use several
informative charts and graphs to help you measure your progress,
relative to your opponents.

Bank Loans
----------
  Selecting the Loan command under the Bank menu displays your current
borrowings, and the maximum the bank is prepared to lend you in total. 
When the game begins, you will not have borrowed any money, but if you
have run out of money once during the game, the bank manager will give
you an emergency loan.  The interest rate you will have to pay out on
your loan in there also.  Bear in mind that this rate can change, and
you might end up paying out more than you expected.

  The number of years over which the repayments are to be spread is
also shown.  The longer you want to take to repay the bank, the more
interest you will end up paying by the end of the term.  Repayments
are exacted at the end of each game year.  Select Add and Subtract to
alter the size of the loan by $10,000, and Increase/Decrease to change
the term of the repayments.

  If you are comfortably wealthy, and wish to pay off the loan
entirely, just decrease the term of the loan until you are set to pay
it all out at once.

The Bank Menu
-------------
Balances -- The bank manager  maintains two accounts for you, Checking
and Savings.  The Savings account accrues interest based on the
current interest rate, and is the best place to store your excess
funds.  Use the plus and minus keys to change the Amount Transferred,
then press OK to accept the transfer.  You can transfer money between
accounts in $100,000 increments.

Register -- This check register keeps track of all deposits and
withdrawals to your account; here you can find exactly where your
money is going to and coming from, and when these transactions occur. 
The last sixty transactions are always available for review.

An Overview of the Stock Market -- Here, in brief, is an
example/explanation of how the stock market works.  You begin your
company with 100 shares.  Let's say that right now your company is
worth $100,000 dollars.  Each of your current shares is worth $1,000 -
- and so will any other shares created at that time.  So, if you sell
20 additional shares, they will sell for $1,000 each, and your company
will receive $20,000 for them.  Now your company is worth $120,000,
and there are 120 shares, and so each stock is still worth $1,000. 
And you have $20,000 in new cash to spend on new sites and planes,
increased advertising, etc.  However, you have to pay dividends to
each person who owns shares, and if you sell too many (more than you
own), you lose control of your own business.

Buying and Selling Shares (Stocks Screen)
-----------------------------------------
  There are two screens: the Buy screen and the Sell screen.  You
start out on the Sell screen.  Select S or B to choose which one to
display.

  On the Sell screen, there is a grid representing each company's
stocks, divided by its owner.  The names on the left represent the
stock owners; the names across the top show which stocks are owned. 
Each company starts with 100 shares owned in their own company. (In
reality you, the owner, own these shares in your airline -- companies
are not allowed to own all the stock themselves.)

  To sell shares, use the mouse or cursor keys to move the asterisks
to one of the kinds of stocks you own.  Then type A, or click on
Action to make a sale; type in the number of shares to sell and press
<ENTER>, and answer Yes to confirm the sale.

  Selling stocks owned by another company puts them out on the market. 
Selling your own stocks actually creates new shares, and puts them on
the market for people (and other airlines) to purchase.  Putting them
on the market gives you additional revenue from the money paid by the
new owners of the stock; however, dividends are paid out to
shareholders, and are a drain on your bank balance.

  If none of the other airlines buy your stocks, they will be
purchased by other buyers in the stock market -- and will be available
for purchase back by you (or the other airlines) at a later date,
should you wish.

  Also, remember that if you sell new shares such that you no longer
own fifty percent or more of the total shares, you lose control of
your company.  This is not the same thing as selling fifty or more of
your shares, because in selling them you actually create new ones, and
the 1-to-1 proportion of shares to percentage points no longer exists.

  To Buy a stock from (of all things) the Buy screen, select one of
the four share listings at the top of the now-empty grid.  A listing
of "0" means that there are no shares of that stock currently on the
market.  Select Action while on a stock that is available, type in the
number desired, and press <ENTER>.  You will be asked to confirm. 
Buying back shares will allow you to regain controlling interest of
your company, or at least cease paying dividends to outside
shareholders.  Additionally, buying shares is a good way to gain
controlling interest in *another* company; you will receive dividends
from the shares you own.

  If the other airline does well, you gain -- and the end-of-year
messages will recognize your achievement.  You, of course, will have
the satisfaction of knowing that, as owner, it is *you* who are the
real winner!

Going Bust
----------
  All airlines, human or computer controlled, can fail if they are
mismanaged, or squeezed sufficiently by their competitors.  When a
company runs of out money, it will get a warning from the bank, and an
emergency loan to keep it afloat.  If the bank balance reaches zero
again within a certain time, there will be a more severe warning. 
After that, the bank will foreclose, and the airline will be forced to
shut down.  There is no Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection here -- the
harsh reality is that without cash, you will not survive!

Financial Reports
-----------------
  There are three financial reports that you can use to see exactly
where you are making and losing money.  They each feature a list of
all of your planes, identified by flight number and type.  Each plane
then has figures each telling you how some aspect of its business is
doing.

  All reports in the game can be printed.  Just click the Print
command, or press the "R" key to send the report to the printer. You
can skip pages either forward or backward in a report by using the
Prev and Next commands.

Plane Income
------------
  This is the most general report of a plane's success.  Next to the
plane type, you see the speed of the plane and the percentages of its
space dedicated to 1st, 2nd and Cargo class of travel.

  Finally, three crucial numbers appear.  The first tells you how much
the plane is making in fares revenue.  The second says what it is
costing you to run the plane -- remember that Profit equals Revenue
minus Cost.  Finally, you are told how full your plane is at the
moment.  If they is an asterisk next to a plane, that means that the
plane is not turning a profit, and must be dealt with to improve its
standing.

Cargo Income
------------
  This report gives you a detailed breakdown of how the cargo side of
the business is going.  For each plane you have, you are told its
cargo capacity both in terms of cargo units (each the size of a
passenger seat) and as a percentage of this plane's total capacity. 
Then you are shown the income that would be received from cargo if the
plane flew at full cargo capacity on all legs of its route, and the
costs incurred.

  The volume figure is a guideline of how much cargo is generally
available for transport on this route.  Of course, the actual amount
of cargo available fluctuates; this represents a likely maximum in
cargo units.  So, if the plane's capacity in those units is of
comparable size, you will often be flying with empty holds.

Service Income
--------------
  This report tells you how much of your money is coming from 1st-
class passengers, economy travelers and cargo.  After the flight
number and plane type, the income generated by each class is printed
in turn.

The Profit and Loss Report
--------------------------
  To get an overall picture of how well you airline is doing, select
the Bottom Line command on the Finances menu.  You will see a
breakdown of all of the sources of cash for your company, and all of
its expenses, followed by the balance.

  The categories of income are: plane fares, money from selling
planes, loans taken out, and cash from selling stock shares.  Outgoing
categories are: general costs (fuel and staff, and advertising),
landing rights purchased, planes bought, maintenance costs, interest
repayments, taxes, and dividends to investors.

  Please note that this is very much a cash-based game which is why
this cash-flow system is used rather than a true, accounting-style
profit and loss report.  You will make a nominal loss when you buy
planes, therefore, even though you still have the planes to use next
year and the years after that.

  Note that it is common for fast-growing companies to spend more cash
than they earn -- they simply need to ensure a healthy supply of new
cash, from issue of loan or stock.  Be aware that many profitable
companies go bust by not having enough cash to pay for their growth. 
Be aware also that taxes are applied to any profits you make at a rate
of 35% a year.

  Set your employee wages through the Wages command.  Low wages may
cause a decline in morale, and may even cause your employees to
strike.

  Advertising can improve your sales.  Use the Advertising command to
adjust your advertising policy.  Ad Spend to Date tells you how much
you have invested in advertising, and Turnover tells you your total
fares for the year.  Use the Alter Ad Spend to change the annual
advertising budget.

  You may also take advantage of the Slogan feature.  Select this, and
enter a one-line slogan.  Slogans will pop up in the game from time to
time, but the choice of slogan does not affect gameplay.

  If you are losing money, the Market Research Report is a good way to
find out why.  This option brings up a commissioned report giving five
brief reviews.  But this helpful information does not come cheap.  The
charge is $20,000 at the start of the game, but will rise over time.

Financial Graphs
----------------
  There are four graphs that you can refer to for more information on
your company's success.  They are also found under the Finances menu. 
In each, the fortunes of all four airlines are shown side by side. 
Above each chart, the maximum relevant value or figure of the most
success airlines is shown to give an idea of scale.

  Select Monthly Income for a chart which plots each airline's income
per month over the last year.  The Yearly Income command gives the
annual equivalent.  Valuation refers to the changing overall value of
each company over time.  Finally, Fleet Size will show you how many
planes each airline has in relation to the others.

SPECIAL EVENTS: TROUBLE ON THE HORIZON
--------------------------------------
  There are a number of events that will occur from time to time in
the game.  Some of these will affect your airline, as well as others,
in different ways.

Fuel Prices -- Fuel Prices fluctuate over time, and when they do, a
screen will appear to notify you of the change.  When fuel prices
rise, the cost of running all planes will go up.  You may need to up
your fares.  On the other hand, fuel prices may drop, and lowering
your fares might be in order.

Strikes -- Staff will occasionally strike at individual airports. 
This means that planes will get NO passengers or cargo from that
airport if they use it.  However, this will not affect the flow of
income from any other stages of the route.  The picketing will usually
continue until the end of the month.

Bad Weather -- This forces the closure of the local airport, and has
the same effect as a strike.

KEYBOARD COMMANDS
-----------------
  In Air Bucks, nearly every accessible keyboard command is displayed
on screen; to use a certain command or open a particular menu with the
keyboard, just type the letter highlighted in that command, as it
appears on screen.  To close a menu or panel, press the SpaceBar.

Ticket Price Grid -- When creating or changing ticket prices, use the
cursor keys to move around the grid of prices.  The highlighted price
is the one currently selected.  All other commands are displayed on
the screen.  Additionally, prices are entered using the numbers on the
keyboard or the numeric keypad.  You will still be able to select
prices with the mouse.

AIR BUCKS TUTORIAL
------------------
  Anxious to make your first million??  We understand.  That's why
we've worked out this brief tutorial for you.  By the time you're done
with it, you'll have your first major landing sit, your first route to
travel and your first plane in the air.  But most importantly, you'll
start the money rolling in!

  In Air Bucks, the two things you need are planes to fly and places
to send them.  You start with only one plane -- a Dakota DC-3, flight
number AB0.  It'll get you started.

  However, you only have permission to land at one airport -- Miami. 
Unless you get rights to another airport, you're looking at a pretty
short trip.  So, use the menu bar across the top of screen to select
the Routes menu.

Selecting from Menus: You always select menus and commands by moving
the mouse pointer onto them and clicking the left mouse button, or by
typing their first letter on the keyboard.

  Having clicked on Routes or typed R, you get a list of commands. 
Select Negotiate New Site on the same way.

  All the red dots that appear on the map are airports that you can
buy rights to.  New York is a good bet to start with.

  You should select New York -- but that's awfully close to a few
other cities.  Click on the Zoom option to enter Zoom mode.  You'll
see a close-up view of the world, with cities marked as runways.  The
icons in the top-right corner of the screen let you scroll over the
world map.  Look for the northeast part of the United States, and
click on one of the large cities you find there.  The name of the city
appears when you select it; you may need to try more than one city
before you find New York.

  Selecting Airports:  Specify an airport by clicking directly on it
with the mouse.  Alternately, use the Next and Previous commands to
step through the whole list.

  If you can't get New York, or want to choose another city, any
airport within 1,000 miles of you will do.  1,000 miles is the maximum
distance your DC-3 can fly.  The distance from a site to your nearest
airport (in this case, your ONLY airport) is displayed on the screen
for you.

  Having chosen an airport, select the Acquire command at the top of
the screen, and confirm by selecting Yes.  You'll find that you're
still in Zoom mode.

  It'll take awhile for your landing rights to come through, so you'll
have to wait.  Game time only passes when no menus are up, so get out
of Negotiate and the Routes Menu.

  Quitting a Menu:  To jump out of a menu, hit the SpaceBar or click
completely outside of the selection area.

  Use the scroll icons, if you want, to look around the world.  It's
quiet right now, but in a year or so your planes will fill the skies. 
Game time moves more slowly while in Zoom mode, so you'll probably
want to return to the World Map.  Click on the World icon in the
center of the scrolling icons to do so.  After a while, the date on
the bottom left of the screen should change from OCT 1946 to NOV 1946,
and you will be told that you have landing rights at New York.  (Other
airlines' first acquisitions are shown as well)

Creating a Route:  Your plane is now allowed to go to New York,
although it won't until you tell it to.  So, the next thing to do is
give Plane AB0 a new route.  Select the Routes menu again.  When that
appears, choose the Alter Route command, and after that, the Make
option.

  Click on the figure 1 in the center of the screen, or type 1.  You
are saying where the first stop on your plane's route is to be.  Miami
is fine, so just select OK or hit the SpaceBar and it should go into
slot 1.

  Now select slot 2 and select New York on the map (just click on the
city).  Confirm again with OK or the SpaceBar.  You should now have
Miami and New York as the stops on your route.  OK or the SpaceBar
will confirm the whole choice.

  The Ticket Price screen will automatically appear for you to enter a
pricing structure.  This screen shows the prices you are going to
charge for each class of travel on each leg of your trip.

  Changing Prices:  To say which price you want to change, either
click on the figure itself in the table, or move around the pricing
grid with the cursor keys.  To actually change the number, just type
it again.  To make mass changes to all the prices on the route, use
the Up and Lower commands.  To change the percentage difference it
changes by, use the Inc and Dec commands.

  Instead of telling you what prices to use, we recommend you use the
Check Plane Income command to see how your pricing structure is
expected to perform.  If you're not making money on a particular
class, try lowering its price. (Note: since you have no First class
seating on your plane, there will be no First class income listed
regardless of the price you set)  Remember that First class should
always cost more than Economy, and Economy should always cost more
than Cargo.

  When you are happy with your prices, use OK or the SpaceBar to
continue.  You need to select the Assign command to leave the routes
screen (remember, you are still inside the Alter Routes command). 
Exit the Routes menu to unpause the game.

  After a few seconds' delay, your plane status should change from
Idle to Miami or New York, and the cash should start rolling in. 
Click on the Zoom icon on the right end of the icon panel (located at
the bottom of the screen), then click on the Eastern United States
with the magnifying glass.  You should see your first DC-3 as it flies
between the two sites.  You're on your way!

STRATEGY GUIDE -- OVERVIEW
--------------------------
  This is your guide to mastering Air Bucks Version 1.2.  This isn't a
"cheat sheet" -- no game secrets will be given away here.  Instead, by
reading this you'll gain an insight into how an airline flight is
simulated by the game.  The chapters in this guide will try to answer
the following questions:

- What goals should I work towards to win the game?
- What factors are taken into account when calculating demand, and
  how do they affect it?
- What are good strategies for planning my routes?
- What are good strategies for working the Cargo trade?
- What are the actual advantages and disadvantages of each type of
  plane?
- How is cost per flight calculated?

  This section is intended as a supplement to the instructions given
in the manual.  To learn how to play the game, one should look to the
manual or the tutorial.

AIR BUCKS -- HOW THE MODEL WORKS
--------------------------------
  The economic model programmed into Air Bucks takes into account a
multitude of factors and statistics.  The airline executive who
believes that he can make a cool million just by keeping his prices
competitive, may soon find himself up to his ears in banks loans, and
paying his meager profits out as stock dividends.  The businessman who
keeps a firm grip on all facets of his company is the one who could
make incredible profits.

  In economics, demand is a relationship between price and the
quantity demanded of a product.  In Air Bucks, Demand is the measure
of how many people will buy a ticket to fly on one of your planes.  It
is measured as a percentage, and is calculated using a wide range of
factors described in detail below.  One goal in playing Air Bucks is
to maximize demand for your planes -- to fill your planes as much as
possible, at the highest possible price.  This would then maximize the
income for that flight.  Controlling demand is crucial to earning
money -- the amount you earn per flight is (the percentage of demand)
x (the price per seat) x (the number of seats on the plane).

  Unfortunately, some of that money earned must be spent to cover
costs.  In Air Bucks, there are two types of costs: flight costs
(which are incurred for every flight that you run) and overhead costs
(which are charges annually or monthly, and are not directly related
to the quantity of flights that your airline flies).

  The largest factors used to determine the costs per flight are the
distance and the fuel cost at the start of each flight.  The resulting
cost is then increased for any additional Comfort factors you have
selected, and adjusted for the size of airplane flying the route: not
only are larger planes less fuel efficient, but they also use more
fuel for landing and taking off.  This is the reason why modern
airlines use much smaller airplanes for the very short flights; a
large jet would use more fuel to take off and land than to actually
travel!

  Other costs per flight (such as maintenance fees, staff and landing
fees) are deducted annually; you must be prepared for a large
deduction from you bank balance at the end of each year!  Overhead
costs (head office, advertising, bank interest and so on) are deducted
either annually or monthly.

  You should also be aware that Air Bucks will support up to 400
planes -- regardless of who owns them.  Your corporation could in
theory own and run all 400, or none.

  For your information, Demand is not calculated just by city, as many
users have thought; Demand for a route (or leg of a route) is
calculated every time that an aircraft takes off; all the planes in
Air Bucks actually "fly" their routes -- the model does not simply
work out how fights the planes could fly each month, and multiply
through.  This means that the latest possible information is used to
calculate demand every single trip.  This is also the reason why the
computer slows down as the fleet size grows -- it is working much
harder!

  We have had several technical support users suggesting that the
computer players had some sort of advantage: we state categorically
that this is not the case.  The computer players have no more
information than you, and certain rare occasions where the computer
had a slight advantage in reaction time have been corrected with
Version 1.2.  However, the computer uses all of the information
available to it, which a new human player may still be learning to do.

AIR BUCKS -- YOUR AIM
---------------------
  Your basic goal is to maximize profit, preferably by putting a
passenger in every seat and filling the holds with a much cargo as
possible, while charging as high a price for both cargo and passengers
as you can.

  While it is possible to fill every plane, surprisingly, you may well
*not* want to do this.  You might need to drop prices so low in order
to fill the plane that you make less money than charging a higher
price and having fewer passengers!  Or, you may find that you are
spending too much money to create this demand, and your revenue from
fares is being swallowed whole by excessive costs.

  This is really where much of the fun of Air Bucks comes in -- you
can decide whether you wish to try a cheaper price with less luxuries
strategy, or go for the best in quality, the highest prices -- and
fewer passengers.  Air Bucks allows for either of those extremes, and
also many strategies somewhere in between, to work well.  You are in
charge -- what do you want to do??

  To help you carry out your chosen strategy, Air Bucks allows you to
adjust many different factors -- all of which have an effect on both
cost and demand.  Due to the complexity of Air Bucks' economic model,
and the nature of some of the factors, it is not possible to give
precise rankings for all of Air Bucks' many options.  There really are
no set solutions to the game!  Besides, if you knew exactly how the
game worked, you would lose the fun of trying to perfect your business
strategies!

  What follows is, therefore, a guideline which describes each factor
in more depth -- and that hints at how you might like to use it.

  With these tips in hand, we encourage you to continue to experiment
with the game.  There are several ways to achieve success, using
different policies.  In fact, there are several different ways to
achieve full demand -- so in theory, it is possible to achieve
*greater* than 100% -- though, as in real-life, the numbers are
adjusted for this, and you will not be able to fill your plane past
capacity.  You must try to find the most efficient strategy to
increase demand, always being careful that your techniques do not cost
so much that they deny you a chance at turning a profit.

RELATIVE RANKING OF FACTORS AFFECTING DEMAND
--------------------------------------------
Most Important: Ticket Price, Plane Speed, Quality of Sites,
                Strange Pricing

Important: Age of Planes, Competition, Wages, Advertising,
           Reliability, Plane Size, Size of Route Network

Special Circumstances: Fist Class Travel, Cargo, Comfort Level

DESCRIPTIONS
------------
Ticket Price -- This is the single most important factor.  When
properly chosen, ticket price has the power to increase demand
dramatically; when mismanaged, it can drive *all* customers off you
planes.  The customers decide what a good price is, based on the cost
of the trip.  Finding the best ratio of ticket price to cost is a
challenge; obviously, many people will fly with you is you charge only
$1.00 per passenger, but you won't be making any profits from them. 
You must find the right balance between offering good value for the
customer, and charging enough to cover costs (plus a profit).

Note: You cannot fill you planes to capacity just by charging rock-
bottom prices.  Even though a good ticket price is crucial to your
success, charging rock-bottom fares to fill your planes would hardly
be profitable.  You must remember the many other things you can do to
increase demand.

Plane Speed -- As the game progresses, faster and more modern planes
enter the market.  The speed of a plane in Air Bucks can fill up to a
tenth of a flight; customers naturally prefer to ride the newest
planes, as these usually provide the best in passenger comfort and
safety.  And more importantly, the fast planes get their passengers to
their destinations more quickly.  This effect on demand increases as
the older planes become older, and the newest models look
progressively better when compared to them.

Quality of Sites -- In Air Bucks, all of the things that make one city
preferable over another are represented by one statistic: Size.  Size
is an important factor in affecting demand; large cities will have
more customers living in them, and more reasons for people to want to
fly to them.  Therefore, a direct flight from large city to large city
is the best route to fly, and flights between small cities are the
worst.

  There is one exception to this -- if a small or medium size site
acts as a stepping-stone between large cities on a route, then demand
will be higher.  Again, good prices and choice routes are the major
components of a successful service, but they are not the only ones. 
You won't fill a plane by changing only these two factors.

Strange Pricing (!) -- This may be just a game to you, but to your
customers, air travel is a very serious business.  So, if you start
making screwball pricing decisions (like charging less for First class
than Cargo), your business will drop severely.  Passengers like
stability.  Silliness has no place in the service industry.

Age of Your Planes -- Here age does not mean how many years you have
owned a particular plane; rather, it means how long that particular
*design* of plane has been out on the market.  AS it ages and is
surpassed by the latest models, a particular model of plane will start
to look less desirable to the customer.  Specifically, demand on that
plane type begins to decrease after *seven* years on the market, and
will continue to slowly but steadily decrease every year after that. 
This is different from plane speed, which increases demand for a
particular plane design because of its benefits; Plane age decreases
the demand for a design because of its detriments.

Competition -- There is a limit to the number of passengers that want
to fly any particular route -- and hence, also to the number of planes
that can profitably fly on a route.  That limit is not defined as a
fixed number (it grows over time), but if too many planes fly a given
route, demand will begin to drop.  Thus, you will need to seek many
routes to fly on, and not just overfly the few you have.  Just as in
real life, you must use your judgement as to when to fly new routes,
and when to add planes to existing routes.

Wages -- If you don't give your staff the wages they deserve, their
treatment of customers will diminish, taking the demand for your
planes down with it.  It is important to always raise wages after
strong profits, as your employees use your success as a guide for how
much money they deserve.  Nowhere is this more noticeable than after a
particularly successful year; if you don't reward your staff, expect
to see a sharp dip in demand come January.  On the other hand,
employees can only increase their efficiency so much before increased
wages start to have diminishing returns.

Advertising -- Advertising works similarly to Wages, in that too
little advertising will decrease demand, but too much advertising
might not be worth the expense.  Again, some managerial judgement is
in order.  Be aware, too, that the effectiveness of advertising is
linked to the size of your company -- people expect a larger airline
to advertise more, so you will need to increase your Ad Spend as your
revenues grow.

Reliability -- If you keep your plane maintenance level low, then your
planes will be constantly breaking down, creating the image of a
"dangerous" company.  As a result, come customers will shy away from
your services.  The money you save in maintenance fees may not equal
the ticket fares lost as a result.

Plane Size (Short Journeys for Large Planes) -- Planes designed to fly
extremely long distances become inefficient when faced with relatively
short routes.  When this occurs, the cost of running that route
*doubles*, as compared to using a more appropriate plane.  This does
not affect demand, but profitability will plummet.

Size of Route Network -- Because customers do not like having to
transfer airlines when flying complicated routes, and because they
like to stick with one airline where possibly, your demand will grow
with your route network.  This means that the demand for each flight
will be higher than for an airline with more active routes (if all
other factors such as price, age of plane, advertising, etc, were the
same) than for a smaller airline.

First-Class Travel -- Just as in real life, the market for First-class
seats is located mainly in the larger cities.  Demand for a plane
flying to and from large cities will increase if first-class seating
is available.  On a plane flying only between small or medium cities,
first-class will have more empty seats. (The wealthy people in small
cities probably have their own planes!)

Cargo -- If a plane has cargo space allotted, it will automatically be
filled when a city on its route has a cargo job waiting to go.  Cargo
jobs appear from time to time, and can be monitored using the Jobs
Available and Demand Report commands on the Cargo menu.  Cargo
availability is variable from site to site; sometimes, cargo space on
a plane will go unfilled, and potential passenger profit may be lost. 
On the other hand, when cargo is there, the money is good and cargo is
more forgiving of an older, slower plane.  You might prefer to set up
a cargo-only plane instead; see the tips in the section on Route
Strategies.

Comfort Level -- The eight options available from the Comfort command
let you charge more for the same distance flown, and thus increase
your profits.  The eight options have different levels of effect,
which are up to you to discover.  Note that they also increase the
cost of your flights.

ROUTE STRATEGIES
----------------
  Obviously, where you decide to send your planes is very important to
your success; it has a tremendous effect on demand, and can affect
your long-term profitability, when competing with three other globe-
spanning services.  Here are a few general tips that will help in
deciding what kind of route network to create.  Note that the
following information pertains primarily to passenger planes --
routing for cargo and cargo-only planes are covered in the next
section.

  In general, the name of the game is to create a web of routes
connecting cities all around the world.

  The temptation after the reading the factor descriptions above is to
only fly between large cities.  However, there are two major reasons
not to completely ignore the smaller sites.  First in the first decade
or so of game time, some large cities are beyond the reach of your
airlines, without the benefit of stopping over en route.  Therefore,
the small and medium cities in the middle of oceans and large
continents are vital for connecting flights between the more
profitable locations.  As you upgrade your fleet to the latest models,
these small locations will lose their significance in your network.

  Second, even when you have jumbo-jets connecting the most distant
points on the globe, and fly to every large city on the map, there is
still more profit to be had.  Travel occurs between these smaller
locations, and the money-seeking executive will find that a carefully-
run service to and from these locations can add a nice pile of cash to
your bank account.  Also, shorter routes between less-important cities
are a good place to deploy older planes, as they become too outdated
for the big business.  If those aren't enough reasons to explore this
avenue, consider that your opponents will be doing so.

CARGO STRATEGIES
----------------
  Working the cargo market with passenger planes is largely a hands-
off affair.  Your planes fly from airport to airport as you have
directed, and if there is cargo waiting at an airport, and your ticket
price is competitive, your plane will automatically load up and
collect the earnings.  If there is more cargo waiting than your plane
can carry, it will remain there until the plane returns to that part
of its route.

  In thinking about the cargo market, you should look at the Demand
report map under the Cargo menu.  Here, sites with high or very high
demand for cargo carriers are indicated by the colors black and red,
respectively.  If you have a route flying through an area or areas
with greater demand, you may want to increase the cargo capacity of
the planes assigned to it.  On the other hand, if none of the cities
on a route appear on the Demand Report map, you may want to replace
cargo areas on that routes' planes with passenger seating.  However,
always keep in mind that demand for cargo changes throughout the game;
if you follow the advice above, you may find yourself refitting or
rerouting planes repeatedly to better exploit cargo opportunities.

  Another important place to look at is the Cargo Income chart under
the Finances Menu.  There, the two important figures are capacity and
volume.  The capacity of a plane measures, both in units and as a
percentage, how much cargo it can carry on a flight; volume represents
how many units of cargo are generally available on that route.  If the
volume of cargo produced by a route is sufficiently greater than the
capacity of the plane flying on it, that plane will have to complete
its route many times to completely ship the cargo.  This is an ideal
situation, as the plane will then garner a fairly steady cargo income
from the route.  However, this effect can be diluted if more than one
plane flies on the route; and cargo appears at intervals, so there
will still be "dry" periods for these planes.

  You still have to be careful to set competitive prices for cargo; in
fact cargo uses the *sane* formulas (for the most part) as in
calculating demand for passengers, replacing one person with one crate
of cargo.  Additionally, if you set "silly" prices for cargo (lie
making it more expensive than economy seating), the world will notice
and avoid your service.  *And if a plane fills less than one quarter
of its seats, it is ineligible to pick up cargo.*

Cargo-Only Planes
-----------------
  One of the options mentioned in the Air Bucks manual is the creation
of cargo-only planes.  These planes have no passenger seating, having
replaced it with storage space.

  Flying cargo is a fine purpose for those older planes that are
incapable of turning a profit as a passenger carrier.  Turning out
cargo planes may be the preferred alternative to selling old planes of
the fleet.  However, the chartered cargo business requires a lot of
attention and changing of routes to be successful, so too many of them
may make the business unmanageable.

  The creation of a cargo-only plane is simple.  Simply Refit a plane,
replacing all seats with cargo space.  Then, use the Jobs Available
command to find a particular location with cargo waiting.  Then, Make
a chartered route, solely for this plane, and make its final
destination the location you choose.  Keep in mind that if the
location is too far away from the last city the plane flew to, then
the plane's range will make it unable to complete the journey, and
your route must include a stopover or two.  Making the route Chartered
means that the plane will sit at its destination, once it arrives.

  In some cases, the plane's capacity will be less than the volume of
cargo available at the site.  In that case, you may want to make the
plane's route a Scheduled one for a while, preferably between the site
and another with cargo to pick up.  That way, all of the cargo will
eventually be picked up.  To look or such cases, look to the Jobs
Available and Cargo Income commands.

  For game purposes, picking up cargo is all that is needed to
complete the job and collect the income.  then, you can seek out new
locations with cargo jobs available, and reroute your plane to them to
pick up some extra cash.  You may also use the Demand Report or Jobs
Available commands to decide on stopover points that may prove to be
profitable in and of themselves.

PLANES IN AIR BUCKS
-------------------
Plane Name               Year  Cost $        Range  Cap.  Speed
---------------------------------------------------------------
Douglas DC-3             1936  10,000        1000   21     180
Douglas DC-4             1943  160,000       2500   44     215
Douglas DC-6             1947  200,000       3000   88     315
Vickers Viscount         1950  200,000       1725   75     357
Boeing 707               1958  2,000,000     4000   135    600
Lockheed Electra         1959  1,000,000     2770   99     405
Douglas DC-8             1960  2,000,000     3500   127    590
Boeing 720               1961  3,500,000     4000   127    600
Boeing 727               1964  3,500,000     1700   94     580
Brit.Aerospace Trident   1965  3,500,000     2400   132    605
Brit.Airways BA-111      1966  3,500,000     2150   109    541
Douglas DC-9             1967  3,000,000     1900   119    564
Lockheed L-100 Hercules  1968  4,500,000     5500   100    355
Boeing 737               1969  7,000,000     2135   115    570
Boeing 747               1970  21,000,000    5500   370    589
Douglas DC-10            1971  21,000,000    7200   380    573
Lockheed L-1011 Tristar  1972  18,000,000    6000   280    590
Aerospat./BAC Concorde   1976  80,000,000    4000   128   1350
McDonnell Douglas MD-80  1980  80,000,000    2360   155    800
Boeing 767               1982  100,000,000   4400   290    800
Boeing 757               1983  90,000,000    4600   186    800
Brit.Aerospace BA146     1984  50,000,000    1350   112    477
---------------------------------------------------------------

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS IN AIR BUCKS
----------------------------------
Q: I have assigned a plane to a route, and I get urgent messages
saying that the plane needs a fresh route.  What's wrong with the
route I have?

A: The problem is most likely one of two things.  Either the route you
assigned to the plane contains a leg longer that the maximum distance
that plane can fly, OR the plane is currently at a location that is
not on the route, and is too far away to reach the first stop on that
route.

  In the first case, you must change the route to male all distances
shorter than the range of the plane, or you must replace the plane
with one with a greater range.  In the second case, you must make a
chartered route to reach the first stop, using short hops across your
network of routes.

Q: Why do landing fees explode when I start doing very well?

A: The more money you have, the more the airport owners think you can
afford to spend, and thus the more they will charge.

Q: Every time I see my bank balance go up, it seems that the amount
earned is different.  Is the economic model random??

A: No. Because the computer actually simulates every flight for every
day of the entire month, the number of flights between each balance
update may vary.  Additionally, Demand is recalculated for every
flight, and as it accounts for slight variations in customer desires
with each flight, the demand shifts slightly each time.

Q: Why do I lose large amounts of money from time to time, without
warning?

A: Fees and outgoing costs are paid out at the end of each month and
year.  You will probably find that the sudden downturns come at the
end of the month.  If you are losing too much money to costs, you may
want to change your strategies to include less frills, or perhaps
reduce your wages and advertising budgets.  If you go bankrupt in this
way, you definitely need to rethink your plans.

APPENDIX: COST FACTORS
----------------------
  Cost per flight is calculated as follows:

               (Mileage/Fuel Efficiency) * Fuel Cost

  Fuel Efficiency is measured in Miles Per Barrel, and decreases as
planes get larger.  Fuel Cost is measured in Dollars Per Barrel.

     This is then moderated by several factors:

*    Comfort Factors (any selected by the user will increase the cost
                      of the flight)

*    Relative Plane Size (larger planes use more fuel for taking off
                          and landing)

*    Note that Maintenance Costs and Landing Fees are both charged
     annually, and NOT per flight.

  It is not really practical to provide specific equations or tables:
the equations are complicated by the fact that some of the factors
only crop up in some circumstances.  There is only one table of data -
- that is for inflation, which is based on historical data.

TECHNICAL SUPPORT
-----------------
  If you have difficulties with this game and cannot find the solution
in this booklet, please call our Technical Support Line at (617)225-
0848, 9am-5:30pm EST, Monday through Thursday, and 9am-5pm on Friday.

  Impressions Software also supports a BBS system to provide the
latest product information, software updates and software patches.  If
you have a modem, you can reach our BBS at (617)225-2042.

  Impressions can also be reached online at:

  InterNet: 71333.463@compuserve.com

  CompuServe: 71333,463

  GEnie: IMPRESSIONS

  Prodigy: BCFP34A
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