Taipan! is a 1982 turn-based strategycomputer game written for the TRS-80 and ported to the Apple II.^[1] It was created by Art Canfil and the company Mega Micro Computers, and published by Avalanche Productions.^[1]

The game Taipan! was inspired by the novel Tai-Pan by James Clavell. The player is in the role of a trader in the Far East. The goal of the game is for the player to accumulate wealth through trade and possibly also through booty won in battles against pirates. As soon as the player's net worth reaches one million (in the game's undefined currency), the player has the option to retire.

A companion book about the game was co-authored by Canfil and illustrated by Chrisann Brennan.^[3]

Gameplay[edit]

In-game, the mouse performed well. Placing the powers of a twin sensor setup to make use of, I tossed the Taipan and also myself right into the ring with Red Band 2, Revolt, Arma 3, People: Beyond Planet, and Wargame: Red Dragon. The Taipan worked without mistake for these video games that call for tremendous accuracy in mouse control.

The player begins the game with a ship. At the beginning, they have the option to either start without any cash but five guns, or with some cash and a debt.

The basic strategy of the game is to buy goods (opium, silk, arms, and general cargo) at a low price and sell them at a higher price. Silk, arms, and general cargo have no special features; opium is special in that it can be confiscated at random points by the local authorities, resulting in a fine for the player. This makes dealing in opium riskier than dealing in the other goods; however, it is also generally the most profitable item for trade.

At various times when arriving at a port, a message will pop up indicating a special price has occurred for one of the commodities. In this case, either the commodity's price falls or rises significantly.

The player may trade at any of seven historically named ports: Hong Kong, Shanghai, Nagasaki, Saigon, Manila, Singapore, and Batavia.

The port at Hong Kong is the player's home port. Here the player has access to ship repair, a money lender, and a bank. Often in Hong Kong, the local extortionist Li Yuen asks if the player would like to 'donate' money to the Sea Goddess. If the player refuses to donate, Li Yuen eventually sends a fleet of hostile ships after the player (which are much more difficult to fight than ordinary pirates). On the other hand, if one chooses to pay Li Yuen, he will occasionally drive off hostile ships for you. The money he asks depends on the amount of cash the player carries. It is not advisable to carry too much excessive cash; the donations asked from Li Yuen, the fines for dealing with opium and the amount stolen from oneself after occasionally getting 'beaten up and robbed' always depend on how much you have.

Money may be transferred into your bank account for some interest. The player also has the option of borrowing money from Elder Brother Wu, the moneylender, although this amount is limited to twice the amount the player already has on hand (if the player has zero, they cannot borrow anything). Free anime rpg games for mac app store. Goods may be stored in the warehouse in Hong Kong, while waiting for prices to rise. However, purchases left in the warehouse may be stolen if left too long. Rates of theft are higher with higher-end commodities such as opium or silk.

Note: A bug in the original game allows the player to overpay the moneylender, acquiring 'negative debt'. This 'negative debt' will accumulate interest very quickly, and will count towards the player's net worth. As the game's vocabulary of number words ends at 'trillion', this can cause the game to display garbage instead of the player's correct net worth. This has been fixed in the online 'for browsers' version of the game.

Runner's Gambit: When attacked by ships an effective escape strategy is to do nothing and wait until the crew asks, 'Taipan, what shall we do??' and then immediately pressing 'R' for run. This strategy which usually results in a quick escape may only work on the Apple II version.

Throughout the game, the player is sometimes offered the opportunity to purchase ship upgrades. When this happens, the player can trade their old ship for a larger one with fifty extra units of cargo space by paying some money.Guns are also occasionally offered to the player for varying prices, when arriving in a harbor. More guns mean more firepower (and subsequently also larger fleets attacking), but also require 10 units of valuable cargo-space in the hold.

When being attacked by hostile ships, the player may decide to either 'run' or 'fight'. Dropping cargo overboard increases the chance of escaping if the player decides to run. In order to fight, the ship must be equipped with guns. When hit by enemy fire, the ship gets damaged, and occasionally a gun is lost. If the ship's condition reaches zero percent, it will sink, and the game ends. But if the player succeeds in sinking all hostile ships, they earn some booty (cash).

Reception[edit]

J. Mishcon reviewed Taipan in The Space Gamer No. 32.^[4] Mishcon commented that 'This game is so much fun that I must recommend it [..] It will be a constant delight for older children.'^[4]

References[edit]

1. ^ ^abcdefTaipan! at MobyGames
2. ^Hague, James. 'The Giant List of Classic Game Programmers'.
3. ^'About Taipan!'. taipangame.com.
4. ^ ^abMishcon, J. (October 1980). 'Capsule Reviews'. The Space Gamer. Steve Jackson Games (32): 28.

External links[edit]

If you like to game on your Mac, you probably want any extra edge you can find to improve your gaming performance. A good headset and a precision mouse are key to a good gaming experience, which is why I've been using Razer's Kraken headset and Taipan gaming mouse.

'Kraken' is a range of gaming headsets made by Razer. The particular model I tested is the Kraken Pro. Available in white, black or green, the Kraken Pro sports a few features that make it a terrific option not only for gamers but for anyone looking for a flexible pair of cans to wear while listening to music, gaming and chatting online.

The cups are large and comfortable; inside are 40 mm neodymium drivers. The band is padded, comfortable and well-balanced for long-term wear. When you need to travel the cups fold into the band for maximum portability as well.

The Kraken Pro features a cleverly-designed retractable microphone — when it's extended, a flexible boom lets you position it wherever is comfortable, but simply pushing on it makes it go back inside the left earcup. That way you don't look like an air traffic controller when you're walking around outside.

Razer has cleverly designed the Kraken Pro to support both PCs with discrete headphone/microphone jacks, Macs and mobile devices, which use a combined headphone/microphone input. The headphone cable terminates at a right-angle plug with a four-conductor (TRRS) connector; a splitter is included to break out microphone input and headphone output to computers with discrete connectors. This way the Kraken Pro works equally well on a Mac, PC, iPhone, iPad or iPod touch - all your bases are covered.

The Kraken is incredibly comfortable. Lightweight and with big enough cups that I don't feel like my ears are being suffocated — a problem I've had with a lot of closed earphones over the years.

Audio quality is good, but like many headsets these days, the Kraken Pro emphasizes heavy bass reproduction over balanced sound. This is great in gaming and even adds some oomph for online chat, but it's less than ideal if you're looking for accurate music reproduction.

The closed design helps to isolate you from outside distractions without any noise-canceling trickery (and conversely, helps to isolate the outside world from your game noise).

The Good

• Works great on Macs, mobile devices and PCs alike
• Retractable mic keeps you looking like a dork
• Different colors
• Very comfortable

The Bad

• Bass-heavy

The Bottom Line

A good choice for both gaming and Skype, the Kraken Pro is a comfortable headset that has booming sound, looks great and is supremely comfortable to wear for long periods. The retractable mic is my favorite feature; this way I can wear the cups while outside or commuting without looking silly with a mic hanging over my face.

For example, BlueStacks requires OS: Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista SP2, Windows XP SP3 (32-bit only), Mac OS Sierra(10.12), High Sierra (10.13) and Mojave(10.14), 2-4GB of RAM, 4GB of disk space for storing Android apps/games, updated graphics drivers.Finally, download and install the emulator which will work well with your PC's hardware/software. Download Swag Shooter - Online & Offline Battle Royale Game PC for free at BrowserCam. Mac compatible shooting games free.

Taipan Game For Mac Pro

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Taipan

The Taipan – which comes in either white or black – is an ambidextrous USB mouse, so if you're a lefty you're in luck. The optical sensor inside the mouse sports 8200 dot per inch resolution, which lends itself to extreme precision placement — just what you need when the slightest movement means the difference between in-game life or death.

It's an extremely well-balanced mouse that works well regardless of your hand style. Some gamers prefer a claw grip, while other prefer to rest their palm against the mouse. Still others maintain a light fingertip touch on the mouse. The Taipan is well suited to all of them, thanks to a combination of its high arc design, great balance and material composition. It sports nine programmable buttons in total and has a click wheel that illuminates (white on the white mouse, green on the black version).

Razer is one of the few game peripheral makers that takes the Mac as seriously as Windows, so you'll find custom drivers available for the Taipan along with online cloud support. You can customize your mouse settings extensively (really, exhaustively), then upload those settings to the cloud so you can use them wherever and whenever you need them.

The drivers are really something else. There's barely an aspect of mouse control you don't have total control of here - not only can you program individual buttons, but you can program very complex macros to execute an entire sequence of commands with a single button click. You can program sensitivity by dots per inch, acceleration and polling rate; you can even program the lighting on the mouse (turn the scrollwheel light on but leave the logo light off, for example).

The drivers also provide you with surface calibration, my favorite feature. If you've ever lifted your mouse off a desktop to reposition it, only to find the cursor jittering or moving while you're doing it, you know it can be frustrating when you're in game and all of a sudden you lose your target. Surface calibration compensates for that by cutting off tracking as soon as the mouse senses it's moved from that surface.

Of course, the Taipan is a great mouse even if you're not a gamer. It's an extraordinarily precise mouse, and works great with OS X's drivers, though you're obviously missing out on a lot of its capabilities if you're not using it for gaming and not using the Razer Synapse software downloadable from Razer's web site.

The Good

• Surface calibration helps stop lift-off jitter
• Cloud-based settings and game profiles
• Ambidextrous design

The bad

• Nothing of consequence

The Bottom Line

Razer's Taipan is a no-compromises gaming mouse from a company that's been making no-compromises gaming mice for 15 years. It's a comfortable, dextrous and extensively programmable mouse with some of the most sophisticated driver software I've ever seen in a Mac-compatible mouse. I don't promise that it'll improve your gaming, but if you use it to its full potential, it should.

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Taipan Game Tips

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