Mad TV other - FAQ

	BRIEF DESCRIPTION


MadTV is a strategic game written during the 90's by the german software
house "Rainbow Arts". It can be found today in many Abandonware sites, 
without any form of manual. Untill now. You can kiss the pinky ring, and 
read futher...  

***************************************************************************
Note for the brainless ones: the elements of the game are random-generated
so you'll never be able to follow exactly these steps, IT'S JUST A EXAMPLE   
***************************************************************************



	DAY ONE

(Brief discussion over advertising, planning, brand image and Aunt Lizzie)

  

first thing: choose to be the green ones (Brian) ! 
In this way you'll avoid going up and down like a mad. 
Like every morning you talk with the boss; the Sammy for best news is 
tomorrow, better not to forget it.

Let's go to your office:near the door there's a painting, if you click on it 
you'll discover the load-save menu (quiet useful). Your desk is there and it
will get filled of letters from the fans, that's the success. On the right
of the room there's a map: it indicates your empire of transmitters all
over the country, or at least, it will when you'll buy them.

For now click on the computer: this is your main station, where you program
the transmissions and plan the advertising. 
Now click on the upper right button, and choose the slow-moving car. You 
don't want to miss something because the game is going to fast, no?

Look:the day is divided in this way. You have 7 hours of programs to fill, 
each one will contain 15 minutes of news and a commercial block  

Hey, wait a minute, there isn't any ad placed! As you can see all the spaces 
on the right of the screen are empty. We are a commercial TV, our first 
goal is to make money.

So let's go to the advertising agency. Get out, click on the elevator and 
click on its name.

Here we are, all the files are available advertising contracts. Let's see:
Escal AT will give 250.000$ if we transmit 7 ads in 2 days. But there are 
some rules to respect: no love stories and at least 1 million of audience.
We can't take it now, we will fail and be forced to pay a 150000$ penalty.

Let's see... Aunt Lizzie's, 27500$ for transmitting 5 ads in 5 days, and 
even better, no audience! That means that even if other channels blast us 
we always will be able to respect the contract. Let's move it on the basket
(the green space on the right). Oh, and that Lufthansa contract doesn't hurt
too.      

Ok back to the office now!
Click on the second button, the one that looks like a sheet. It's where the
contracts are stored. Click on Aunt Lizzy and a rectangle will pop up.
That's our ad block; place it on the first empty space on the top. Right, now
fill the day commercials with Lizzy and Lufthansa. Good! In this way at 
the end of the day we will earn 40000$.

Yuck, as you see it's filled of cultural junk, and our beloved TV potatoes 
don't like that. Let's get some REAL stuff. Get out and reach the Movie 
agency. Clicking on his face we get the list of the auctions: James Bond,
the Blues Brothers, that's cool but too expansive for now. Look at the stuff
on the desk. Bingo! "a Colt for all cases, whodunit series, 135000$" It costs
a lot but it will pay, zombies love that stuff. Ok, now we have 65000$ left.

We COULD buy a good movie, but who cares? We will get only 40000$ from 
today's contract, spending more would be dumb. Buy Doctor Zhivago. Ok, I hate
too that kind of movies but with only 25000$ FOUR hours of programs are 
filled. Take that "Tucker" too, you can't miss a  8000$, 2 hours movie 

Now, to the Office! To add a movie you click on the third button on the right
For today we can transmit some culturals just for sparing some money; from 
18 to 20 it will be "Living next to a nuclear power plant", from 20 to 00 it
will be our frind "Zhivago" and from 00 to 01 "Saddam Hussein, a biography" 
(who will ever see it anyway?).

Ok, programs begin. The news and... we loose the audience war, only 6%, but
we can't, for now, transmit anything better.
Click on the buttons of the TV screen (down left). MadTv transmits "Oil and
Sun" 8%, and Sun Tv "Peggy Sue got married" 16%. You want some graphs?

Click on the fourth button on the right of the "programs" screen: that's
our audience, and the arrow indicates that we lost a image point. Click on 
the "image" tab; see, we are now at 32. That's the battlefield; falling to 20
many companies will refuse to make ad contracts with us, 10 and nearby 
everyone will despise us, 0 and the company dies. 

Everything's ready. Time for a nap? No, there's the program for tomorrow to
build. Morning is the best place for series so "Colt" at 18 and "National 
Geographic" at 19. Place Tucker at 22 and a crappy cultural at 1;  that 
leaves  2 blocks empty at 20 for a good movie. We will get that tomorrow.

Now judge: how much people will look these programs? It's important to do it 
now because tomorrow many contracts may be gone. Well, National Geographic,
the cultural one and Tucker are poor stuff. Maybe 0.5 million but this kind
of contracts is hard to find, so we will search for 0.25 million ones.

Colt and the movie could reach 1 million, so it's better to search them too.
The best choice is the "Baguette" contract, one block, and you get the money
immediately.

A quick look into the advertising agency, and tomorrow ad plan is ready.

Let's think... Tomorrow there's the Sammy for the best news! Who will make
the best news will get SIX points of image; you can't miss it.
Reach the news studio (the first door on the right...). Look at the three
buttons on the left of the typewriting machine: actually we are subscribed
only to Political news (Blue). Normally it's enough, but tomorrow is a war
day,so click on Show Business (Red) and Sundry (Green) 

That's it, for today you can rest a bit....



	DAY TWO
   

(Two steps into News broadcasting, TV series and hyppopotamous ministers)



Good morning! As you can see there is no money left, so we need to sell 
something. Reach the library, and take Zhivago. Normally is better to wait
some day before selling a fresh transmitted movie, but this is a emergency.
To sell it you just need to give it to the Movie Agency guy. Now reach the 
News studio, and click on the typewriter. Choose only the best (more 
expansive) news so i'll take the blue "All America laughs at hyppopotamous 
minister" 3000$ and the green "Robin Hood conference in Tuxon" 2000$.

Now wait, and cross your fingers. The news start... Good, we are on the lead
Then the programs start, and we are still on the lead; news "push" the 
following program, so if you are afraid that some show will not reach the
planned audience, buy some news for him! 
Our friend Colt rules, a 34% share, 1,5 millions of people.
Series are essential. Colt will make nearby one million every day, and 
a safe way to complete good contracts.

A look into the news... See, a new one "Secretary resigns". Let's add it
to the programs; a fresh news calls a lot of audience.

Filled today's plan with a movie we are ready for the battle. Don't forget
to buy fresh news. To see who's winning go to the last floor, at Betty's
office.

At the end of the day don't forget to shut down the Political and Show Biz
news channel!




	DAY THREE

(How to deal with problems like excess of money and terrorist attacks) 



We won the Sammy! Yahoo! That means two things: our image jumps to 42, and 
you can ask some extra money to the boss. He's happy, ask until he's
vulnerable...

Get a new transmitter, it will make your life easier. (map near the computer)
When you have decided how much money you want to spend search until 
you get the maximim of audience: 50000$ transmitter can reach two million
people, 100000$ four million, and so on... But pay attention to your budget
(fifth button on the programs screen), because each transmittor must be
maintained; you will be compelled to make big audiences ,to get big contracts
,to pay your transmittor fees. 

Ok, now it's just routine; you add some news, get the contracts, plan the
programs... But whats that? "Attack to Free Duban ambassy planned", and why 
the names of the offices have been moved?

It looks like someone is jalous of your work... Your building hosts the 
ambassy of a controversial arabian state, the Free Duban, you can also visit
them if you like. Sometimes a terrorist will take a bomb there. One of your
sneaky competitors is trying to push him in the wrong door... Reach the 
information board and switch some names, like Free Duban and library Sun Tv,
don't you think that it looks better now?


	AND SO ON

(Winning strategies for the masses)



Now our network is enough strong to avoid day to day problems; it's time
for some planning.

Plan a movie rotation. Get a good one, transmit it at 20, keep it stored for
three days, transmit it at 22, wait again and sell it. 

Choose how to spend your money: if you buy only transmitters and cheap 
movies your image will go down, if you buy only expansive movies and no 
transmitters you will not get enough money to compensate the risks.

When you have a lot of money start producing your own series; each episode 
will cost like an average movie, but the audience can be enormous. Buy the 
format at the screenplay agency, and watch carefully: some need bigger 
studios than others. When you have choosen your junk reach the studio and 
put the file on the shelf. The next step is buying  materials for the
production: it can be done in the supermarket (2nd floor), and get top 
quality ones or your program will fail.

When your opponest are under control, and you have a enormous amount of 
cash, start thinking about the girl. To make her happy you will be forced to
transmit mainly no-audience programs. You can start by getting his "Culture 
Today" show at the auctions, then buy quality programs like "the 
Tridimentional human" (0.2 million people USING THE SATELLITE) or "the 
Everchanging ethnics" (2 blocks, beaten even by the moder painters serie). 
Good luck.


	Known bugs

(The art of no-saved-game-computer-freeze)



The show production process is totally bug ridden. At the Screenplay agency
look at the formats: some of them create 0 blocks programs, it is better to
avoid them. 

Things start to get nasty at the supermarket: try to save before getting 
there, because it freezes often. The same appends with the information 
board.

Sometimes live events are available at the auctions. Don't get them, they
can be transmitted only at 8:00 and your brodcasts begin at 18!


****************************************************************************

06/18/00

That's it, you can express your gratitude to wile.e.coyote@mail.com