Crypto Taipan

Inspiration

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, a video game named Taipan was released on the TRS 80 (model 2 or model 3) and later on the Apple II. It was one of the first video games that I played on a PC. I was captivated by the game and the trading strategy and how it flowed. I wanted to bring the game back to life, but with a twist. In this case Crypto, the new wild frontier.

What it does

Trade: Buy and sell cryptocurrencies and illegal contraband (like OPX) across 7 ports, each with unique economies and random events. Upgrade: Improve your ship’s cargo hold, weapons, fuel capacity, and armor in the shipyard. Manage Risk: Deal with crypto-pirates, inspections, ambushes, and fuel limits during travel. Combat: Engage in turn-based ASCII battles where you can fight, flee, or bribe your way out of danger. Finance: Borrow from a loan shark, deposit into a bank, and try to beat interest and inflation. Survive: Juggle debt, fuel, cargo space, and ambush risk while trying to grow your wealth. Win or Lose: Retire rich with 1,000,000 BTC‑P, or lose everything through bankruptcy, destruction, or bad decisions.

How we built it

I iterated through several renditions of the prompt and tweaked it as I went until I got a playable game of Crypto Taipan. This is a one shot prompted game. There were some edits to a couple of the ascii characters on the border of a couple of screens as well as an edit to add the bolt badge.

Challenges we ran into

Getting the game playable and somewhat fun. The only issue with the game is the combat is a little short and boring, but it was just one prompt.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I'm proud to have been able to build a functioning game with one shot

What we learned

There's a fine balance between too much and not enough when it comes to prompts.

What's next for Crypto Taipan

I will do some additional prompting until I can get a game more reminiscent of the game of my youth.

Built With

• bolt
• p5js
• react