Minder

Console:	Sinclair ZX Spectrum
TV Standard:	Region Not Set
Publisher(s):	dk’tronics
Release Date:	1985-02-11
Co-op:	No

To those of you who already know the popular
Thames T.V. series, the character, language and
habits of those people in "Minder" will need no in-
troduction. For the rest of us this booklet will try to
explain a little about the world we are about to enter.
The real skills, however, can only be found by play-
ing "Minder" for yourself and learning as you go.

The game is about trading: the buying and selling
of any goods, however suspect or strange, in order
to make a profit for our hero, Arthur Daley.

In Arthur's world a "Minder" is a bodyguard, but
Arthur's lad Terry does a lot more than just protect
him from aggro. He also delivers goods (for which
he has to be paid) and is the carrier of news, good
and bad. Finding Terry can be a problem sometimes,
but it's usually worth the bother.

Stepping into Arthur's shoes, you have 14 days to
make as much money as possible. You start off with
£2000 and a small selection of goods to sell. The way
in which you trade to make the most cash in such a
short time depends on experience, knowledge and
how many risks you're prepared to take.

LOCATIONS

Your starting point for each day.

Your home is a Great Mystery. Just use it for
resting.

THE LOCK UP
The Lock-up is used for storing your goods. You
can buy and sell at the Lock-up but usually you will
only be there to give instructions to Terry or to make
an inventory of goods.

TERRY'S FLAT
Bachelor quarters for sleeping, either alone or
usually with some female company. If you call at his
flat at unsociable hours he will be decidedly unco-
operative.

THE WINCHESTER CLUB
The membership of this small private bar is fairly
exclusive. You can use the Winchester Club to buy
or sell, or get information or meet up with Terry.
Gets very busy, and blokes trying to sell you stuff
are a pest.

DEALER'S PREMISES
Visit these to sell your goods.

GOING AND DOING

Most of your input will be conversational but there
are a few commands. Usually the command mode
will appear unannounced.

If you "GO" places, the space bar or any key
pressed will immediately get you to your chosen
destination.

You will always get a glimpse of the doorway to
premises before you go in. If the place is closed (e.g.
a dealer is out) that's all you will get. Either go
elsewhere or wait.

Every time you press "W" the time will move an
hour, and all the comings and goings will corre-
spondingly happen. Occasionally strange things
may happen. If for example you're in the Winchester
Club and decide to WAIT, and the Club closes, then
everyone will be gone or you may find yourself out-
side on the pavementl

If you press "G" to GO then "ENTER" will allow
you to change your command.

PEOPLE

All the characters move about from place to
place. There are two types, the regulars and the
casuals.

The regulars all have fairly predictable movements
so once you have an idea where they are at certain
times you’ll be able to do more deals and spend less
time rushing about to find them.

As a guide only:-

Dealers spend some time at their premises, or
they may be found at the Club, otherwise they're
"out of town".

Dave is always at the club when it’s open.

Terry spends his time in most locations except
dealers, but you can get him to stay with you all the
time.

The Law, in the person of Sgt. Chisholm, is a
constant menace and can be a severe setback to
your plans.

All these characters will have and keep the same
recognisable faces.

The casuals are strangers you will meet either at
the Club, or dealers’ premises. If they introduce
themselves to you they will be trying to sell you
something.

Once "established" they will be as "real"”as the
regulars, complete with names and habitual move-
ments. When they've sold you something they will
probably disappear, but there will be plenty more to
replace them. Some of the strangers you meet are
merely members of Joe Public, and have nothing to
do with you.

At any place you will have a view of place and a
"rogue's gallery" of the characters who are there.
At many places there will be one face or none at all.
At the club there may be more characters than
spaces available, i.e. somebody may be there but
you can't see them.

When a new set of characters appears, one of
them, a seller or perhaps Sgt. Chisholm, will pop
down and start talking whether you like it or not. If
this doesn't happen, then pressing the correct
number (1-6) will get you into the conversation of
your choice.

You have only a few seconds to do this, and if you
miss your chance someone else may take it.

This happens mostly at the Winchester Club.

MEMORIES
All the characters, as well as moving about, have
memories. The way in which they react to you may
depend on your last meeting.

Dealers can be unco-operative for a few days if
you waste their time or sell them faulty or stolen
goods. Occasionally they get violent! This is some-
thing you have to bear in mind before making a visit.

TIME

HOURS
Time is in hours only.
All scenes have a clock. You’ll find that the more
you get familiar with the characters and their habits
the more useful it will become. Accelerating the
Time with "WAIT" will also accelerate other charac-
ters' movements.
Going from place to place always takes an hour.
Going home at any time automatically puts the time
to 7 a.m. the next day.
All separate conversations, however long or
short, hoewever one-sided, take an hour.
You can't stay up later than 3 a.m.

DAYS
The day and your current bankroll are displayed in
a lighter colour for daytime (6am to 6pm) and in a
darker shade for nights.

THE GOODS

Your Lock-up will have a few goods in it when you
start. In COMMAND mode you can get an "INVEN-
TORY", which lists your prized possessions. There
are three categories of goods.

(1) Those which are yours in stock.
(2) Those which are in stock but promised to
someone (sold).
(3) Those which have to be collected from some-
one (bought).

Note that (2) and (3) are only shown when you're
at the Lock-up. In (2) and (3) the number after the
"*" is the day those goods will disappear from the
list because you didn't get Terry to collect or deliver
them.
The list can cover a number of screens. Any key
will jump to the next screen. After collecting or
delivering the list will be instantly updated.
You can collect as much stock as you want but re-
member, it's not stock you’re after but a fat bank-
roll. A full Lock-up means you're not selling and
you'll probably grind to a halt flat broke!
Another problem is that the goods you buy may
either have a nasty fault, or worse, be well and truly
bent! If they're faulty you will only find this out when
they've been sold and delivered and Terry returns
either with the goods or a lot less money than you
expected! You can try to sell them again.
If they're stolen Sgt. Chisholm will get very active
and make enquiries. He may catch you in the Lock-
up with them; this can be very costly. Either sell
them off quickly or get Terry to dump them.

CONVERSATIONS

GETTING STARTED
Sometimes you won't need to. They will make the
approach. All the faces will have numbers from 1 to
6. Pressing a number will put you into conversation
with that person, who may be a dealer to sell to,
someone with something to sell, or some bod who's
just wandered in off the street!

KEEPING IT GOING
There are different types of conversation, but all
follow the same general pattern. All conversations
have a purpose: to buy, sell, or give instructions etc.
and provided you stick to the point you should man-
age well.

Your particular pearls of wisdom fit into the bot-
tom two lines of the screen . Although there are no
"rules" about what to enter, there are some defined
ways of making specific entries.

Don't bother stringing sentences together. Try
small sentences to get a response (and it's a lot less
work!).

Delete in the usual way.

If you are very wordy and get to the end of the
second line, the sentence will be entered anyway.

Don't bother with punctuation, just concentrate
on what you mean to say, e.g. for "I'M OFFERING
50 QUID" type "IM OFFERING 50 QUID".

It's best not to enter numbers or money by them-
selves, although you can do in some cases, e.g. if
you are asked:
"HOW MANY HAVE YOU GOT?"
you might answer:
"100"
"IVE GOT 100"
or “"I CAN LET YOU HAVE 100"
or even “"HOWEVER MANY YOU WANT 100 IS
ALL I CAN LET YOU HAVE"

If you are asked "HOW MUCH?" you could answer:
"I WANT 25 QUID"
or “ "25 POUNDS IS MY ASKING PRICE"
or even "IM ASKING A PONY"!!

Al! dealings are in whole pounds and all numbers
must be in digits, i.e. "99 POUNDS", never
"NINETY NINE POUNDS". You can also try QUID,
SOV, MONKEY, GRAND, FIVER, and TENNER. An
alternative way to enter "£" is "XX"’(try it).

Don't enter two amounts in one sentence, e.g.
"ILL TAKE 100 FOR £36 EACH".

You will have noticed that you can say what you
have to say in just about any way you fancy. If your
partner doesn't understand you, only rarely will he
tell you directly that you're not getting through. He
will usually let you know in some way though!

HINTS ON BUYING AND SELLING

BUYING
Buying is a relatively easy operation. It will take a
little experience of trying to sell the goods you've
bought before you can judge the prices. In the end,
all you're after is the price (HOW MUCH) and the
quantity (HOW MANY). You don't have to buy.
Often sellers will start a conversation.
A general rule for bargaining with a seller is to
make your OFFER as low as possible without of-
fence, and then to increase it by reasonable
amounts. Without upping your offer he will probably
stick to his price and, if it goes on too long, make a
final offer for you to ACCEPT.
If you're NOT INTERESTED in the goods you can
get rid of him. (BYE).
Alternatively you can tell him you're LOOKING
FOR some particular item. (Maybe some goods pro-
mised to another dealer which you haven't got!). If
he has them you then restart the dealing.

SELLING
Only the regular dealers will buy goods.

You can sell goods at the Winchester Club, but
this is not the best place as you normally get pest-
ered by other characters and you also have to recog-
nise the dealer!

Going to the dealer's premises is better but of
course you need to know when they're in.

Start with "IVE GOT SOME ..."
or”"ARE YOU INTERESTED IN ..."
or”"WANT TO BUY ANY ..."

Your bargaining can then follow a pattern similar
to that of buying, but in reverse, of course. Don't
expect success first time. Getting the amounts and
raises takes a bit of practice.
Another problem is quantity. Let's say you have
30 videos (anyway, that's what you've told him!).
The price is fixed at £80 each and he says:

"AT 80 QUID EACH ILL TAKE 10 VIDEOS"

Then you can try

"WHAT ABOUT THE LOT FOR £2200"

If he accepts you have managed to sell the whole
batch, but notice that your price has had to come
down. You can only do this at the time he has
agreed to both the number and cost of the goods.
A dealer may tell you he's after some other goods.
It's quite likely that you won't have them but there's
nothing to stop you going ahead and selling goods
you haven't got!
You will have to fulfil the order by buying them in
as soon as possible. This makes things a bit more
complicated but can be very profitable. If you fail to
deliver in time you will have to leave that particular
dealer to cool off for a few days.

TALKING TO TERRY

You can instruct Terry to do four things:

If you've bought goods you can ask him to collect
them, pay for them and put them in the Lock-up. It's
quite simple. Just say "COLLECT TVS" or "GO
AND PICK UP THOSE TELLIES". He will get the de-
tails from the inventory and report back to you when
you next see him.
In the same way he will DELIVER goods you have
sold.
If you have some goods to GET RID OF in a hurry
you can ask him to DUMP them.
Finally you can ask him to be your MINDER, and
he will STAY WITH you all the time unless you send
him on a job.
Remember, if Terry delivers goods, you don't get
the money until you see him again, and to collect
goods you have to give him the right amount plus an
amount for his services (he'll take it!).

END

The end is Day 15. It's best to sell off your goods
as quickly as possible towards the end as the Lock-
up contents don't count towards the final score,
which is quite simply your bankroll.

There are a few surprises for you during your fort-
night which haven't been mentioned. They are for
you to discover and avoid in future!

WORDS

Although you can use a wide variety of words and
phrases, you may find the following a help in your dealings.

SELLING BUYING TERRY

INTERESTED IN.. NOT INTERESTED COLLECT..
HOW MUCH HOW MUCH DELIVER..
ASK.. OFFER.. DUMP..
NOT ENOUGH TOO MUCH ..MINDER..
YES YES BYE
NO NO
ACCEPT ACCEPT
IVE GOT.. HOW MANY
THE LOT FOR.. I WANT
NOT INTERESTED IM LOOKING FOR (different goods)
BYE BYE

Minder is a Euston Films Production for THAMES TELEVISION
Created by Leon Griffiths
Produced by Lloyd Shirley and George Taylor