Airline Boss (Acorn Electron/BBC Micro)

Airline Boss is a small BBC BASIC management game, originally written in 1992 and updated with some improvements in 2023.

Background

Back in 1992 I wrote a small game called Airline (unrelated to the Cases game by the same name, released in 1984). It was inspired by Usborne Publishing's Space Mines from 1982, Kevin Tom's Football Manager and Gremlin's Footballer of the Year (note the 'Incidents' page)... Combined with my personal interest in aeroplanes at the time!

Improvements made in 2023

* Game renamed from Airline to Airline Boss to avoid confusion with the 1984 game by Cases.

* Saving and loading - words 'cassette' removed. Game will save to cassette or disk depending on how the game was loaded.

* Improved debugging and error handing when loading/saving position

* Names added to main menu area

* Plane buying/selling prices moderated.

* Income from other sources added

* Changed to Mode 6

* Rebalanced salaries (wages in original) and maintenance costs

* If sell all planes, maintain some financial outgoings

* Updated annual targets and bank judgements

* Advertising reviewed and updated

* General finance balancing and improvements (game gets increasingly difficult over game years)

* Spelling errors and various bug fixes

Original Instructions (written in 2002 to compliment the 1992 version)

You have to manage an international airline company. You will start with three airliners and just £50,000. The aim is to be as successful as possible in your new job. When the game loads, enter your name followed by the name of your airline company. This will be followed by the main menu. You have seven choices:-

(1) AIRLINE INFORMATION : Vital information about your airline, including finance, profit target for the year, number of airliners, average number of people per flight and cost per flight per person.

(2) BUY AN ADDITIONAL PLANE

(3) SELL ONE OF YOUR PLANES : Note that second hand planes do not fetch much money!

(4) ADVERTISE YOUR SERVICES : Vital for making your airlines more popular, but expensive!

(5) SAVE POSITION TO CASSETTE : You need a blank tape ready.

(6) LOAD POSITION FROM CASSETTE

(7) CONTINUE MONTH : You will be asked for the flight price and you will be informed of the month’s news etc. The bank manager will then give their monthly verdict. Keep an eye on your bank balance to keep them happy! Good luck !