FIGURE E

Give 'em whatfor! Click picture for a larger image.

The screens in Tradewinds are animated in full color graphics with ambient sounds and a musical background track. You have the option to save your game at any point and come back to it later, or Tradewinds will save your place when you exit. Once you amass $1 billion in net worth, you're given the opportunity to retire, or you can continue the game up to $2 billion, at which point I was forced to retire. In addition, you can trade high scores with other players on Astraware's site.

Market value
I had a great time playing Tradewinds. For me, it was one of those "just can't put it down" games. Its simple interface is easy to master; the real skill lies in your business acumen, and in knowing when to fight, and when to run.

By having four characters, each with their own advantages and disadvantages, Tradewinds has four times the replayability. Fluctuating market prices and random pirate encounters only add to the uniqueness of each game.

Tradewinds reminds me a lot of the PC game Tortuga: Pirates of the New World, by Ascaron, set in the Caribbean. Speaking of PC games, Tradewinds is actually a handheld port of Sandlot Games' Tradewinds for the PC. With its light system requirements, the PC version could even be played on a laptop, making Tradewinds a triple threat. To my knowledge though, games cannot be traded between the various platforms.

I give Tradewinds from Astraware 4 out of 5. It's a light, simple game, packed full of fun. It doesn't require a lot of intense thinking, you can run through an entire career in one evening, and you can come back to it again and again. It definitely has a permanent place on my Zodiac.

There are only a few improvements I'd like to see in Tradewinds. The first is full screen support for devices like the T3 and my Zodiac. The second is the ability to capture pirate vessels, or at the very least commission a ship to be built, as the availability of new ships at the shipyards is a bit random.

And finally, I'd like to see the ability to change your destination after a pirate encounter, as you may be headed to a destination without a shipyard and suddenly find yourself in need of repairs. These are really only enhancements to what is already a great game, but would make it "Totally awesome, Dude."

OUR RATING: 4 of 5

Dr. Humayun Bakht completed his Ph.D at the School of Computing and Mathematics in Liverpool at John Moores University. Prior to his current course of studies, he has successfully completed his MSc Software Engineering and BSc Electronics Engineering from University of Liverpool UK and Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology in Karachi, Pakistan. Humayun's research interest is mobile ad-hoc networks, in particular, the development of a new routing algorithm for this type of networking. He can be reached at humayunbakht@yahoo.co.uk and you can visit his Web site at http://www.geocities.com/humayunbakht/.