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appear and some horses listed maybe withdrawn n the day of the race due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!!!!!