sTABLE mASTERS II bY LSD 5tH fEB'94 INITIAL MENU. ------------- AFTER THE GAME HAS LOADED,THE MAIN SCREEN WILL APPEAR. [PLAYERS] BOTTOM LEFT HAND OF THIS SCREEN... To start a new game,select the number of players by clicking on one of the numbers.(1-4 players) the box which is outlined is the current selection.before pressing OK to continue you might want to AUTO-RUN some races. [LOAD SAVED GAME] BOTTOM OF SCREEN AND CENTRE. click on this icon to restore a previously saved game. [AUTO-RACES] BOTTOM OF SCREEN FAR RIGHT. when starting a new game you can select the number of races you wish to run before the game starts,by clicking on the arrow icons at either side of the auto-race box.this will quickly build up form on all horses created in the game. ONCE YOU HAVE FINISHED ON THIS SCREEN..GOTO TO OK AND CLICK L.H.M.B FOR THE NEXT SCREEN. STABLE MENU ----------- THIS IS WHERE ALL THE MAIN GAMEPLAY IS...I'LL GO FROM THE TOP OF THE SCREEN THERE ARE 9 BOXES FROM LEFT TO RIGHT... BOX 1. DECLARATIONS ------------------- each of the next 3 days races,are listed here along with the horses declared to run by the cumputer controlled trainers,along with their form,use this option to assess the quality of the opposition before entering your own horses.the form book and the win summary card can be automatically assessedby pointing at the required horse and pressing lhmb. NOTE; to avoid giving players an unfair advantage,in multi-player games,no player declarations appear and some horses listed maybe withdrawn n the day of the race due to feild size or other factors. BOX 2. COURSES -------------- on selecting this option the player will be presented with a list of all 26 courses used in the game.at the bottom of this screen is a list of overall time records for 5,6,7 and 8 furlongs(times for distances over 8f are recorded in the form book) by clicking on any of the course names,a more detailed description appears along with individual and more detailed course records. NOTE; course records and times are only recorded if the race is viewed by the player/s.if the quick race option or auto race options are used no time is recorded. BOX 3. BIG RACE DETAILS ----------------------- the flat season begins on the 24th march and ends in late november.throughout the season there are approx 50 big races,these races pay much more prize money and are more cpmpetetive.all the big race dates along with the race distance,the race name,type of race,the prize money and the race venue are displayed here.to spool through the full list,just press space,click to finish.use this list to decide upon big race targets for your horses. BOX 4. TRAINER DETAILS ---------------------- there are 35 computer controlled trainers in this game,each trainer is allocated horses at the start of the season,this screen lists all the trainers including players in order of prize money won.after the trainer name there is the number of horses in stable,number of winners to date,numbers of runs to date,total prize money won and wins percentage ratio. NOTE; to figure prominently here,the player has to do well in the big races throughout the season,check the big race list (box 3) for the races that pay the most prize money. BOX 5. STATUS ------------- this screen gives a breakdown of deductions and bills.the top half of the screen gives details of injuries/viruses ect... in the case of injuries there is a daily vet fee for each horse injured,there is a flat fee for any stable virus. the second half of the screen lists a breakdown of bills. one item on this list is feed.there are 3 basic grades of feed,press SPACE to spool through these grades,the grade of feed has a small effect on injury recovery and fitness development. BOX 6. JOCKEY FEEDBACK ---------------------- selecting this option after you have raced any of your horses,the jockey will tell you which tactics were used,these are sometimes different from the orders that you gave.the lower down the jockey list the jockey is,the more likely your orders would not have been followed.usually a jockey will tell you if the tactics seem to suit the horse or not. the jockey will also often give an opinion as to which tactic should suit. the better the jockey the more reliable this advice will be.bad jockeys are less likely to give an opinion.to find out the most suitable tactics for a horse hire the best jockey you can and give him no orders,a good jockey will choose his own tactics.check the feed back the next dayand make note of the advice.do this 2 or 3 times and you should have a good idea of the best tactics to use. the effectiveness of tactics also depends on tactics of other jockeys in the race,and the general pace of the race. ie holding a horse up in a race that turns out to have a slow eraly pace will mean the horse have to be very quick to overtake accelerating horses towards the finish,also big races are usually run at a fast pace and its important notn to get to far behind. BOX 7. LIST JOCKEYS ------------------- this option simply lists the jockeys used in this game.there are 20 jockeys and the higher up the list the more expensive.there are 2 costs for most jockeys,a flat booking fee which is paid as soon as you book a jockey and a % of the winnings,information from left to right is -JOCKEYS NAME- RIDES - WIN\RIDE % - BOOKING FEE\WIN % BOX 8. FORM BOOK ---------------- There are 2 ways of accessing the form book,where indicated the player can click on the name of a horse and its form will automatically be displayed in last-first order.alternatively,if desired 2 horse names can be entered and only races which both horses competed in will be displayed.if only one horse is used simply press return past the second imput.wild card searching can be used..just type in the first 3 letters of the horse name generally finds the horse in particular. after the form book has been searched the first form card will be displayed,click or press SPACE for next.press ESC to stop listing. at the top of the form card is some general race information,race number and date,course and going,number of runners,race type,prize money and winning time. A. list of runners in the order they finished B. weight carried.in handicap races the weight carried corresponds to the horses handicap rating (this rating is adjusted by the computer controlled handicappier depending on how the horse performs,in group races horses are given set penalaties. C. Handicaps ratings run off (handicap races only).this is the rating that the horse run off.if the horse is overweight this rating maybe different from the true handicap rating of the horse. D. distance behind the horse(in lenghts) for distances less than half a length the following descriptions are used. HD - head..SH-HD - Short Head. E. Jockey F. Staring Prices (odds) G. Draw (position from starting stalls) on some of the courses the draw position gives a horse a good advantage over others, the strength of the advantage ranges from 1 (very little) to 9 (good advantage) BOX 9. Win Summary Card ----------------------- Wading throught the form book for every horse in a race can be time consuming. the win summary card contains a list of up to 10 races won by the horse and some details (these are extracted from the form book - last 200 races only) next is a list aof all going conditions the horse has ever won .if the horse has ever won or been placed in a group race this will also be listed. QUIT GAME --------- usually means what it sez..... LOAD/SAVE GAME -------------- Shown as 2 disk/s icons with LD (load game) and Sv (save game) The LD icon will load an old game, the right icon saves. when the player clicks on one of these icons the screen changes, press ESC returns to the stable menu. pressing 1-5 will save or load a game. NOTE never save any games onto the game disk.format a disk beforehand and use this solely as a save disk. there is romm only for 5 saves to a disk (TYPERS NOTE;but you can save as often as you want to any of these 5 saves). HORSE RACE ENTRY (middle screen far left) shown as ENTRY ---------------- All horses owned by the current player are displayed here.each player may own upto 10 horses,there is only room in the box for 6,if more than 6 horses are owned you can use the UP and DOWN cursors to scroll through them. there is a single number to the left of the horses name,if this is 0 then the horse is not entered for a race,click on this number and it will spool through any races that the horse may enter(the number corresponds to the race number 1-3) to the right is the jockey box,after you have designated the horse to run in a race,click on this, the screen will now change and list all jockeys, the jockey information is the same as previously given,but there is an availability column on the right.N/A means not available,there are likely to be more jockeys available for a bad race,but few (especially top jocks) for a big race. even if a jockey is listed as available he may still refuse to ride for you. click on the desired jockey,if accepted the booking fee will be deducted from your cash and the jockey booked,if you change your mind and book another jockey,you will lose the original fee,you must be in credit to pay a jockey.if not choose one of the claiming jockeys at the bottom of the list,these jockeys only require a percentage of any winnings. once a jockey has been booked you will be asked to give any orders.if you dont yet know what tactics best suit your horse then click on the first option and let the jockey decide, the better the jockey the more likely that he will make the right choice(this will alos be reported in the next days JOCKEY FEEDBACK report..shown as J.F.B at top of the screen) the remaining 3 orders are HOLD UP, EVEN PACE, or EARLY PACE even if you know which seems to suit your horse the effectiveness of your choice still depends upon the way the other horses in the race end up being ridden.when choosing tactics take into consideration any specialist courses.some courses favour front runners,others dont, IE if you own a proven front runner then look for the courses that favour these horses and tell the jockey to go for early pace. this would give your horse an advantage.later on in the season when your horse may be handicapped up to its best form(carrying a lot of weight) you may find it difficult to win unless you stack all factors,going tactcis and distance in your favour. The higher up the list the more likely the jockey is to carry out your orders well,jockeys down the list are not so reliable. Once the jockey has been chosen the screen will change back to the stable menu. the jockey you have chosen will now be displayed next to the horse,the jockeys orders/tactics number is displayed at the far right of the box. CHECK HORSES/STABLE REPORT (bottom left of the screen) -------------------------- Selecting this option will bring up a full list of all owned horses,each horse has 2 lines of info, the first line contains the following (from left to right) A. Horse form B. Horse name C. TR todays rating (present handicap rating) D. LWR last winning rating,this is the handicap mark that the horse last won off (handicap races only) E. SLR days since last run, horses that run to often are likely to have a low condition rating and not run to their best form F. Prize money won this season G. Colour of the horse (black,brown or grey) H. TYPE, this gives an indication of the horses best trip (preffered distance) there are 3 types SPRINTER (5-6) MID DISTANCE (7-8) and STAYER (9 and above) this is the only indicator and the player may find some horses run well at different trips.most races in this game are between 5f and 8f (1 mile) the only staying races are listed in the big race option.however by far the biggest prize money is available in staying races,so it can pay to keep stayers that show a glimmer of form and aim them at the big prize races. NOTE; if a horse is noticeably big or small this will be displayed,some courses favour the small horses because they tend to be well balanced and able to cope with sharp turns and undulations better. other courses suit big horses(mainly flat,wide courses with easy turns)if after this description (at the far right of the screen) there is a small arrow then this indicates the horse should prefer an extreme going (state of ground) > means Fast or Firm ground preffered. < means Soft ground preffered. COURSE and WEATHER ------------------ this small box simply displays the course name,where the days races are to be held and the general weather forecast. ie if the weather is sunny,then the going is likely to be firm or fastish.by clicking on this box the player can view more detailed info on the course. BUY and SELL HORSES ------------------- Select this option and the auction screen will appear,there are 2 boxes towards the bottom of the screen, the first one contains one of your horses,to sell simply click on this box,to scroll through your horses use the up/down arrow keys. the second box contains the names of any horses for sale,to buy simply click on the box (there is no scrolling facility on horses for sale) if you try to sell an injured or unfit horse you will get less money. beware of horses going on the cheap as they mas have something amiss. GO RACING --------- Only select this option when you are ready togo the races.In multi player games this box may be overlaid with a NEXT PLAYER icon and clicking here will bring up the stable menu for the next player. after this the racecard menu will appear,its easy from here on in.... HAPPY RACING!!!!!