Tradewinds is a video game by Sandlot Games, in which the player is a merchant. The player sails to various cities to buy and sell goods while battling encountered pirates. It is very similar to the game Taipan! that was available for the Apple and TRS-80 in the 1980s.
It was re-released as Tradewinds Classic on March 30, 2009.
Use all of your guiles to amass wealth through trading or piracy in the 19th century Far East. Earn a fortune while traveling the seas, buying and selling exotic goods, or collecting bounties on previously thought-to-be-dead pirates! With enough wisdom, courage and luck you can become a Tai-Pan!
Updated description
Travel back in time to a world of danger and mystery in Tradewinds® Classic - where the open waters can mean anything but smooth sailing.
Tradewinds Classic, set in the 19th century Far East, takes you back to the very beginning where buying and selling exotic goods, or collecting bounties on previously thought-to-be-dead pirates, can lead to untold wealth...or ultimate doom. With enough wisdom, courage and luck you too can become a Tai-Pan!
Buy low, sell high, and build your fortune
Choose from 4 unique characters
Buy more ships to dominate the seas
Collect bounties by defeating villainous pirates
Gameplay[]
General Overview[]
At the start of the game the player is given a choice between four playable characters. Each character has his or her own unique advantages and disadvantages. The player cannot switch characters midway through the game.
Douglas McGowan is a hard businessman and a successful trader who recently fell on hard times. With nothing but determination and a forceful personality, Douglas worked his way from being an apprentice clerk to running his own trading company, which he believes will once again prosper. Until he can prosper, no other captains will sail with him.
The only child of notorious South Sea pirates, Petra Gale has a gift for getting into trouble. Due to a simple misunderstanding, several mainland authorities have launched a misguided attempt to impound her ship. Running from the Law has caused some unforeseen expenses, but luckily the local moneylender was more than happy to "help".
After the death of her husband, Madame Tso stepped in to become the successful boss of a highly prosperous "merchant" fleet. The Madame has a highly respected reputation in certain circles, and plans to leverage this to expand her operation overseas.
Gossamer is the most notorious brigand of the Far East. Wanted for crimes of piracy in 6 countries. Not much is known about this mysterious figure.
Once a character is chosen the player has only one objective: to attain the rank of Tai-Pan. To do this, the player will need to attain one billion gold through trading goods and collecting bounties on pirates mentioned to him/her by town port authorities. (See Tributes section below for maximum that can be earned.)
Along the way, the player will encounter pirates who will attempt to sink his/her fleet. The player can choose to fight them off, flee, or dispose of all cargo (which makes fleeing easier). If the player wins the battle, then a certain amount of cash, recovered from the enemy, is awarded to the player. If the player loses the battle, then the game ends. The player may only save the game at a port; he/she is not allowed to save during a battle.
The player also has the option of repairing or buying ships at shipyards scattered throughout the Tradewinds world, as well as to buy or sell cannons. As the game progresses, the player is given the opportunity to purchase larger, stronger ships that can hold more cannons and cargo.
There are banks at various ports for the player to deposit excess cash. Banks offer interest. Some ports also offer moneylenders, which allow the player to borrow money and repay with interest.
The player may purchase warehouses in ports to store goods. Guards can be hired to protect stored goods from robberies. Warehouses have a much larger capacity than a ship.
There are also alehouses located in various ports. The bartender can offer information that can aid the player.
At the bottom of the screen is the Ship's Log where your purchases, sales, journeys and battles are recorded. Click on the up and down arrows to scroll and read them.
Game Progression[]
Each turn is comprised of the following player actions:
Port Interactions: The player can interact with all buildings in the given port. Some examples include purchasing/selling goods, repairing ships, or obtaining news on pirate activity from the port authority.
Set Sail: After completing tasks in port, the player selects "Set Sail" and chooses a destination port from the map. Once sailing, two main events may occur:
Battles: While sailing toward the destination port the player may encounter a pirate fleet. The player may encounter a second pirate fleet during a single journey.
Storms: During a journey, the player may encounter a storm. Their fleet is redirected to a random port as a result, including sometimes being sent back to the port they just left. Storm will not redirect players to Shangri La.
To reduce the amount of time shown to travel to a new port, the player can press the Space bar on the keyboard to speed up the display. This does not reduce the in-game time the trip takes, just how long it takes to show the path of the ship on the map. Journeys take one month to get to a port regardless of the physical distance between ports, including when a storm forces the player off course.
Battles[]
Battles in Tradewinds are turn-based. The player fights with his/her fleet of ships against a single enemy fleet. The battle is comprised of alternating player and enemy turns. The player is always given the first turn. Each shot that hits a ship subtracts one point from its hull strength.
Player's Turn
Fight: The player may opt to fight the enemy. To fight, the player's fleet must have at least one cannon. Otherwise, fighting is not possible. Ships in the player's fleet of a given strength will target ships in the enemy fleet of similar strength. For example, Two-Masted Sloops will target the same type of ship. The default for each turn is for all ships in the player's fleet to attack all enemy ships. The player can direct the fire of their ships to a limited extent. By clicking on enemy ships one at a time to de-select them and then clicking on specific ones to target, the player can concentrate their fleet's firepower. If only a single ship is re-selected, all ships will fire on that one enemy ship. Otherwise, the player's ships will spread their attack among how many enemy ships were re-selected.
Flee: The player may opt to run away from the battle. This is not guaranteed to succeed and is affected by the amount of cargo the player has onboard, but usually not by the type of ship. The computer will randomly determine if the player succeeded, sometimes reporting that the player outran some of the ships. In the latter case, the player loses their turn and the battle continues.
Dump Cargo: The player may opt to dump all cargo. This is useful if the player is going to attempt to flee the battle, as having cargo onboard ships decrease the chance of successfully fleeing.
Enemy's Turn
The enemy will always fight the player and will not surrender or flee, no matter how many ships have been lost. Typically, the player's strongest ships are targeted.
Single target only
For both the player and the enemy, each ship in a fleet can only engage one ship a time. Secondary targets cannot be specified for individual ships. The ship will fire all of its cannons during the turn. It will fire all of its cannons even if the other ship sinks before it finishes.
Ghost ships
When a player has targeted individual ships and the ships have been sunk, during the player's next turn, one or more of the player's ships may continue to fire on the spot where the enemy ship was that they attacked previously. To avoid this quirk, the player should select new targets to make it clear where to fire next.
Firing on the wrong ship
Similar to attacking ghost ships, the game has a quirk where if the player does not de-select all ships before choosing individual ships to target, one of the player's ships may fire on an enemy vessel it should not. This is typically the last ship to be de-selected.
Example: The enemy fleet has a Brigantine, a One-Masted Sloop and two Junks. The player wants to target the Brigantine so they de-select the other three ships, leaving the Brigantine selected. If the Sloop was the last to be de-selected, a ship in the player's fleet may fire on it instead of the intended target. To avoid this quirk, the player should de-select all four ships and then click on the Brigantine to re-select it.
To ensure that only the intended ship is targeted, the player should click on the ship at least four times.
Outcome
All battles end in one of the following ways:
Player flees: If the player successfully flees, the battle simply ends and the player continues sailing toward the chosen destination port.
Player wins: If the player wins the battle, the player earns spoils of battle in the form of gold. No ships or cannons from the enemy ships will be salvageable as they will have all been sunk.
Enemy wins: If the enemy sinks all of the ships in the player's fleet, the game ends with a summary of what the player achieved.
The four main ports have a Port Authority, Marketplace and a Warehouse.
Port Buildings
Port
Shipyard?
Bank?
Moneylender?
Alehouse?
Jia-Ching
Tanchon
Edamame
Lama Sut
Shangri La
Shangri La is run by pirates so it does not have a Port Authority or Warehouse. It changes location every month. It is either immediately accessible at the start of the game or will become accessible later on, depending on which character the player chooses.
Tributes[]
When arriving at a port while playing as a character that is not a pirate (McGowan and Tso), the player may be met by gangs working for Gossamer that demand a tribute be paid to a temple. The player can choose to pay or ignore it. The amount demanded can vary, but generally increases the longer it is ignored.
If the player chooses to pay the tribute but does not have enough gold on hand, a loan will be taken from the Moneylender. This will occur even if the player already owes money to them.
If the tribute is ignored, eventually the player will be robbed of either gold on hand or merchandise stored in a warehouse. Additional robberies can continue for a month or two after the first, and being robbed does not prevent tribute being demanded at the next port.
The highest amount the tribute demand will reach is 2,147,483,648 gold. Once it reaches that amount, it stays there. Since the game will force the player to retire after they reach 2,000,000,000 gold, it is impossible to pay this amount without borrowing from the Moneylender.
Port Authority[]
The Port Authority offers a variety of options at his office:
Buy warehouse: the warehouse in the given port can be purchased by the player to store a large amount (5000 items) of goods.
Hire warehouse guards: this option is only available if the player owns the warehouse in the given port. Guards can be hired to protect the warehouse in a port from robberies.
Check for News: provides information about reported raids by a named pirate who can be encountered by sailing between the two ports specified.
Collect Bounty: after defeating a named pirate, a gold reward is made available to the player for collection.
The Port Authority will conduct random inspections of the player's cargo upon arrival. If contraband (Dream Dust) is found, it and all gold the player has on hand is confiscated, excluding any Dream Dust that is hidden in the smuggler's hold of a ship.
Marketplace[]
The marketplace offers four types of goods that can be bought and sold at all ports. Prices change after each turn, generally trending upward or downward before reaching the maximum and minimum prices. Buying goods while at a lower price and selling them at a higher price can offer a significant source of income for the player.
Goods that are purchased can either be loaded onto ships or stored in the warehouse in the port (if the warehouse has been purchased by the player). Dream Dust is the riskiest to transport as it is subject to seizure by the Port Authority of the player's ships are inspected and pirates may be more likely to attack during a voyage. Any Dream Dust stored in a warehouse is not seized during an inspection.
Tradable Goods
Item
Min Price
Max Price
General Merchandise
5
340
Arms
25
870
Silk and Textiles
500
7800
Dream Dust
3000
24000
Warehouse[]
The warehouse offers a large space to store 5,000 items regardless of type. Warehouses can be purchased from the Port Authority, after which guards can be hired to protect the warehouse from robberies or fires started by rival gangs. However, if the player is playing as Douglas McGowan or Madame Tso, hiring guards will not prevent robberies if the player ignores the demand to pay tribute for too long.
Contracts are good for one year from time of purchase. Contracts can be extended at any time or purchased again after they lapse. Prices for buying a warehouse and for hiring guards vary during the year.
Once a warehouse or a contract has been purchased, neither can be sold. For example, if the player purchased a contract that would provide guards for in Lama Sut through July 1875, they could not sell the warehouse nor the contract in March 1871 if they anticipated retiring that year.
The home port of each character determines if will already have purchased a warehouse at the start of the game.
Character
Home port
Owns the warehouse at their home port?
Douglas McGowan
Jia-Ching
Yes
Petra Gale
Edamame
Yes
Madame Tso
Jia-Ching
Yes
Gossamer
Shangri La
No (no warehouse at this port)
Shipyard[]
The shipyard offers the player multiple options for managing a fleet of ships:
Repair: Each point of damage that is incurred by a ship can be repaired at the shipyard. The price to repair a point of damage increases as the game progresses. There is also an option to "repair all", which simply provides a convenient way to repair all damage on all ships for the price of all damage points totaled together.
Sell Ship: A ship can be sold back to the shipyard for a reduced price (relative to its purchase price and number of onboard guns).
Buy Cannon: A cannon can be purchased for a ship for 6000 gold.
Sell Cannon: A cannon onboard a ship can be sold for 3000 gold.
Canons cannot be transferred from one ship to another. Moving a canon requires selling it from one ship and then buying it from the shipyard for the new ship, resulting in a loss of 3000 gold.
Some ports will not repair a ship if it is the smuggler version. The player must sail to a port like Shangri La to obtain repairs. Smuggler versions of ships are not sold at the shipyards.
Bank[]
The bank offers the player options for depositing and withdrawing gold. Gold that is left in a bank over the duration of a turn accrues 1% interest, a simple and effective way to earn extra income using surplus funds.
All three banks are run by the same family. Any deposits and withdrawals at one bank update the player's account at all banks.
Moneylender[]
The moneylender offers the player options for borrowing gold and repaying debt. There is a limit placed on how much debt the player can incur. Debt needs to be paid back in full with any interest, which is accrued after each turn at a rate of 10%.
The three moneylender offices are run by the brother of the banker. Any loans and repayments at one office update the player's account at all moneylender offices.
Alehouse[]
The alehouse offers a place for the player to obtain information. The bartender will offer free tips that the player can use to improve game strategy, or may be trivia items.
If the player buys a round of drinks, they may learn information about the prices of goods in a port. The information will be which month prices are their lowest or highest, indicating the best month to buy or sell a particular good at that port. This information is only valid for the current game session. When a saved game is reloaded, prices are randomized.
Mercenary[]
When visiting the alehouse, a mercenary may be in port and offer his services. In exchange for 10% of any reward obtained, the mercenary will accompany you for six to twelve months and participate in the battles. During the battles, the mercenary's ship appears in green to identify it.
When hiring mercenaries, the amount of ships hired will be a random amount between one and three ships. The length of the contract is randomized every time the mercenary prompt appears.
There is a current known exploit that allows you to hire multiple mercenaries at the same alehouse. This is done by not moving the mouse when hiring the mercenaries. Mercenaries hired using this exploit will have the same contract length.
Ships[]
Ships come in five types, each having its own amount of cargo space (number of goods that can be stored onboard), hull strength (damage that it can withstand before sinking), and guns (maximum number of cannons that can be onboard).
Cargo space is reduced by adding guns. One gun takes up 10 units of space and comes with unlimited cannonballs that do not occupy any additional space. Each cannon does 1 unit of damage to the hull of a ship if the cannonball hits it, randomly determined during battle.
Ships
Ship
Image
Cargo Space
Hull Strength
Max # of Guns
Junk
25
4
2
One-Masted Sloop
150
15
15
Two-Masted Sloop
200
25
20
Brigantine
300
40
30
Juggernaut
350
100
35
The Juggernaut is only available when playing as Gossamer. Both Gossamer and Petra Gale start with a smuggler's version of their respective ships. Smuggler versions cannot be purchased from the shipyard. During an inspection by the Port Authority, Dream Dust stored in the smuggler's hold will not be seized and the Port Authority may miss other crates containing it, even if Dream Dust is the only cargo the player is carrying.
The maximum number of ships that can be in your fleet is 25. Once your fleet is full, ships will no longer be available to buy. You must sell at least one before new ships will become available to purchase again. The character chosen affects how often ships are available for sale and how quickly more powerful ships are available.
Ship names[]
Ship names are assigned randomly, making it possible to have more than one ship of the same type with the same name, or the same name for two or more types of ships. Names of ships cannot be changed.
African Queen
Argos
Babylon
Bantu Wind
Bebop
Black Dragon*
Black Pearl
Botany Bay
Bounty
China Cloud
Columbia
Endeavor
Enterprise
Excelsior
Falcon
Fickle Muse**
Green Lady
Heart of Gold
HMS Pinafore
HMS Surprise
Mikado
Minnow
Moldy Crow
Nautilus
Neptune
Oolong
Pargon
Peking Duck
Pilgrim
Potempkin
Sea Princess
Stormchaser
Vivacia
White Phantom
Yamamoto
North Wind
South Wind
West Wind
East Wind
Spring Wind
Summer Wind
Fall Wind
Winter Wind
* Name of Gossamer's Juggernaut.
** Name of Petra Gale's Two-Masted Sloop
Port restrictions[]
The player must have at least one ship that is a One-Masted Sloop or larger in order to sail to Edamame or Shangri La.
Ranks and Hall of Fame[]
All players start out with a rank of Beggar and a goal of reaching the level of Tai-Pan. As a player's finances change, their rank will also change, both up and down. Their wealth used to assign a rank is calculated as:
+ - =
Gold on hand Gold in the bank Amount owed to the moneylender Wealth
When the player earns 1,000,000,000 gold, they are given the option of retiring with the title of Tai-Pan. Retiring will end the game and they can update the character name for recording in the Hall of Fame, which shows the final amount of gold earned and the length of time it took.
If the player chooses to keep playing and their finances fall below 1,000,000,000 gold, they will be offered the chance to retire again when they reach that point again. Depending on what's purchased, for example, warehouses and shiploads of dream dust, this could occur several times.
At 2,000,000,000 gold, the game will force the player to retire, selling all warehouse contents and adding it to the player's total.
To ensure the player receives the highest price for their cargo, they should begin selling what is stored in their warehouses prior to retiring or forced retirement and leave the warehouses empty. Likewise, the player should not purchase guards to watch their warehouse beyond the point where they anticipate they will be able to retire.
Unable to quit game[]
Once the player reaches the point where they can retire, the option to quit the game is no longer present. Even if they purchase enough items to reduce their wealth to below 1,000,000,000 gold, the Retire button will still be displayed instead of the Quit button.
In order to quit the game without retiring, the player must go into the game options section and turn off full screen mode. The game will then play in a window and the player can click on the X in the upper right corner to activate the quit game screen.
Pictures and videos[]
External links[]
Gamehouse — Former distributors of the Tradewinds franchise. Games no longer available from them as of December 2024.
General Merchandise
Arms
Silk and Textiles
Dream Dust
