| High Seas Trader | |
| Developer: | Impressions Games |
| Publisher: | Impressions Games |
| Designer: | Christopher J. Foster David Lester |
| Programmer: | Chris Gurski |
| Artist: | Chris Beatrice |
| Composer: | Jeremy A. Bell Jason P. Rinaldi |
| Released: | 1995 |
| Genre: | Business simulation |
| Modes: | Single-player |
| Platforms: | DOS, Amiga |
High Seas Trader is a 1995 naval business simulation video game. The player runs trade routes, fends off pirates, collects artifacts and offers transport to fellow countrymen in need, all for the sake of climbing up the game's ranking ladder, which in turn allows the player to buy bigger ships, more firepower and larger cargo holds to progress more quickly in the ranks.
The game is set in the year 1650. The player starts out with the most basic ship (Fluyt) and 5,000 (5k) gold.
The player chooses a nation at the beginning of the game. Consequences lie in the relations between nations; which nations declare war/peace will determine which ports the player can access at given times, and which ships will open fire on them at sea. The options are:
Climbing up the ladder ranks grants the player titles, access to bigger ships, and bigger estates. The player can gather points in the categories, then cash them in for a title. Once they are granted a title, the points in the categories reset, allowing them to do it all over.
Players can place money in banks for safekeeping. This is useful if they ever lose a battle at sea, as they can start over with their savings. However, the savings are reduced by the interest rate over time, as the player must pay for the security.
High Seas Trader received mixed or average reviews. The game was reviewed in 1995 in Dragon #221 by John Brunkhart in the "Eye of the Monitor" column. Brunkhart gave the game 2 out of 5 stars.[1]
Next Generation reviewed the PC version of the game, rating it three stars out of five, and stated that "Although the subject material may be a little too dry for some gamers, High Seas Trader is definitely a must for strategy fans."[2]