Galactic Trader

Galactic Trader is a video game in the strategy genre and published by Adventure International originally released in 1981. It is currently playable on Atari 8-bit.

Galactic Trader is the sequel to Galactic Empire and the second game in the Galactic Saga. The forces of the planet Galactica have conquered the Central Galactic System, but with the new empire now established and at peace, the fleet commander responsible for the campaign finds himself out of a job. With only a small personal ship, some fuel and a few credits, a career change from conqueror to trader is enforced.

The goal of the game is to amass a billion credits in 1000 years. Profits are made by transferring cargo from one planet to another: the farther a commodity is sold from its origin, the more profit is made. Due to the absence of faster-than-light travel or established communications in the Galactic Empire, it is impossible to know the price of a commodity on a given planet unless it is visited. Although the ship's computer keeps track of prices, they may be out of date when a planet is revisited. Prices follow a dynamic economic model of supply and demand. Finding a good trade route may invite you to reuse it again and again, but there is a catch: if a large consortium learns that a route is profitable, it can claim it exclusively, preventing its use by the player.

Flying from planet to planet is not free: you must always keep an eye on fuel consumption, which depends on the distance traveled and the mass of the cargo carried. To avoid getting lost in space when it runs out, you have to buy fuel from the fuel cartel. They accept credits, but when cash flow is tight, cargo can also be bartered for fuel, but usually at less attractive prices. Bartering is also necessary on most planets, as only on Galactica can cargo be converted to credits. The objective of the game thus requires visiting Galactica from time to time, but this harbors another risk: the new emperor, jealous of the popularity of the former fleet commander, might try to assassinate him. Each visit to Galactica increases the possibility of an untimely death.

The game interface is mostly unchanged from Galactic Empire, but has been adapted to the new gameplay. The ship's console displays a picture of the current location, the current stardate, and statistics on cargo, money, and fuel. The ship's computer can display the galactic map, give information about trade rates on planets already visited and calculate the fuel needed to reach the next destination.

It is possible that we have multiple downloads available when different versions exist.