CompuServe Messages

Marc, Ports of Call is a 1-4 player game that can take anywhere from an hour to many, many hours to play. The overall objective of the game is to make money and gain prestige by running a shipping business. You start the game, with 5 million in the bank (In the expert level at least, don't know if it's any different in the beginner or genius levels) that you can use to buy your first ship. You pick a home port and start accepting contracts to deliver products like Machinery, Textiles, Agricultural products, etc, to different parts of the world, for a fee. By strategically picking your contracts, you can create shortages or overages in specific areas and then capitalize on the rewards. The more ports you service, however, the more prestige you get. Prestige is also dependant on the quality and quantity of your sailing vessels, and how you treat other situations in the game. The game has a good mixture of arcade action and strategic thinking. I can recommend the game quite highly, it's very well done. -John