Africa Trail ------------------------------ Section 0: Table of Contents ------------------------------ No quicksearch fanciness, no tags, just a simple TOC. Use the search button, you lazy damned kids. *shakes his cane* (Note: "Section #" should be easy enough to search.) :p Section 1 Introduction Section 2 Time Section 3 Bike Maintenance Section 4 People Maintenance Section 5 Nutrition Section 6 Visas Section 7 "No-Food" Runs Section 8 Closing ------------------------- Section 1: Introduction ------------------------- Africa Trail was a game put out by MECC in the late 90's, but it'll run on a Windows XP system. Released by the same company that did The Oregon Trail, it follows the same style of gameplay - keep your party healthy, and get where you're going as quickly as possible. I'm Epsilon. I dug this game out of my 'old games' collection. I'm not even sure if MECC is still in business, and if they are, I'm not sure if they'd even sell this game. I don't know where to find the game anymore - legally, at least. Standard disclaimers on that statement apply. I'm an experienced gamer. Not in the "I can beat Halo on Legendary" sort of way, but in the "I've been playing games for over 20 years" sort of way. I've got a knack for picking apart how the internals of games work from playing them. This means that my FAQs won't be extensive, so much as comprehensive. If I get a sense of how something works, I'll explain. If you don't like reading wordy stuff, you should probably stop here. :p Unlike most FAQs here, I assume the player knows at least the basics of how to play the game. This saves sections, saves you from my idea of "ASCII Art", and saves time if you want to read through the entire thing. Most of this is written as a series of observations. Sometimes it holds together well, sometimes it's confusing. It's all at least valid though - I point out the spots where I'm not quite sure of something, and any FAQ should be taken with a grain of salt anyway. If you've got an addition to (or feedback for) this guide, e-mail me at epsilon@etmoonshade.net - there aren't any guarantees that I'll answer you (or notice your message amongst the spam,) but it's worth a shot. You should probably put something about this walkthrough in the subject. I have a large collection of classic games - stuff from the late 80's and early to mid-90's. In my opinion, these are some of the best games out there - graphics took a backseat to good gameplay and features. Perhaps I'll do a few FAQs for those games as well. Don't hold your breath, but who knows? You might like my style. ----------------- Section 2: Time ----------------- If you're going for high scores, time is of the essence. Depending on your starting and ending locations, you want to make it in 90, 180, or 270 days. The only penalty for not making it in time is in your score. "Time" in this game bears a bit more explaining though - you spend money if you stay in a major city, and you spend money if you don't have food and are in an area where there may be restaraunts. The areas with them are typically in Northern and Southern Africa - more specifically, in areas that are less rural and more developed. Don't expect to stop for a roadside cafè in the middle of the Sahara! In any case, time is money in a very literal sense. Also, this means that money is time. Of course, this all means that you should have food in your packs as often as possible - food bought and prepared yourself is far cheaper than food you buy in a restaraunt. Also of note is the fact that you spend money when in cities - this includes when you are waiting for visas or resting! Oddly enough, you also spend money when resting outside of a city. This doesn't make sense, but this puts a theoretical upper limit on how long you can take to make the entire trip. Once you're out of money, you're done with the game - nobody dies, but it's the end of the trail for you either way. All-day travel seems to be very rough on your team. You can get by pretty much indefinitely on light rations by travelling for 3/4 day at a medium speed. Fast travel and 3/4 day at filling rations can be sustained for a while. Fast, all-day travel can be sustained for a while as well on pig-out rations, though you wear out more quickly. Your team also seems to be more injury-prone if you're going too fast. My 170-day full-continent run (Bizerte to Agulhas) was fraught with people managing to break themselves. I reloaded my game quite a bit in there. By contrast, I'm also in the middle of a slow and steady 'tourist' run, and major injuries (broken bones, etc.) have been minimal. Keep in mind that if YOU break a bone, the game is over. Save often if you're not patient enough to repeatedly go over the same area over and over again. ----------------------------- Section 3: Bike Maintenance ----------------------------- When you start a new game (using the file menu once you fire up the program,) you'll be presented with a list of bike parts. Some of these are absolutely vital - some will just slow you down while you're riding if they're missing. Below, I've suggested quantities that you should bring with you. Note that most of the parts don't break unless you're riding the shortcuts and take a fall - I tend to avoid taking shortcuts when I'm playing the game, so your mileage may vary if you're fond of the 'scenic route' (most of which look like crap. Stick to the main roads unless you're trying to make it in the time limit, and even if you -are- trying to make it in the time limit.) Part | Number ------------------------+---------------- Bottom Bracket (set) | 4 brake caliper | 2 brake pads(pair) | 32 cable(brake or shift) | 32 chain | 8 crank | 2 derailleur(front) | 2 derailleur(rear) | 2 freewheel | 2 hub | 2 pedal | 2 rim | 2 spokes | 320 (32 10-packs) tire | 4 chainring | 4 tube | 32 The only things that -seem- to wear out regularly are the brake pads, cables, spokes, and tubes. Always attempt to repair your bike before you start replacing parts - tubes and sticking cables can usually be repaired 2 or 3 times before they need to be replaced. Your team will maintain their own bikes for the most part, and will warn you when you're down to the last one of a particular part. The parts that wear out the most frequently can be bought in most cities and villages - many Africans use bicycles to get around, so brake pads, cables, spokes, and tubes are available in most places. Other parts may be harder to find, but you can always use "Air Express" to get any part you need - at the cost of time. Despite the fact that your teammates mostly maintain their own bikes, one thing I find useful is to replace all the shift cables at the same time. This means that you'll be able to buy the cables in lots of 16 when you think of it, and always have -just- enough. Also, when something of yours breaks down, you should look over your teammates' bikes as well - just to be on the safe side. ------------------------------- Section 4: People Maintenance ------------------------------- You have six choices for team members - 'Doc', 'Jazzy', Kimani, Tzehai, Dan, and 'Wrench'. Doc and Dan are whiners - Doc seems to be more easily fatigued than the others, while Dan bitches and whines when you're not making the best time possible (or so it seems). Despite this, Doc is very useful - he can recommend treatments for the assorted maladies you can encounter in the game. 'Wrench' is useful, presumably for bike maintenance - I'd guess that having him in your party gives you a better chance for repairing a part rather than replacing it. The team members other than Doc and Wrench appear to be there for 'flavor' - each team member appears to have a different set of dialouge for some (though not all) of the locations you'll visit. Keeping your people healthy and happy mostly involves feeding them and letting them rest when they're tired. Health can be affected by lack of food (for instance, running out halfway across the Sahara) or because of injuries. Tracking morale seems to be a bit ephemeral - morale will dip randomly, and go back up just as quickly. These temporary dips don't seem to affect anything in the long run. Larger morale dips almost invariably represent a lack of food - either you're running your team too hard for what you're feeding them, or you don't have any food at all. If morale gets down to nothing for a team member, they will 'decide to go home', and you'll have to wait for a new team member to fly in. A new team member costs money - money for the airfare and money for the time spent waiting for the new teammate. Avoid breaking your team members. Health is simpler, for the most part. Breaks, sprains, and strains seem to mean a game over for that particular team member. More realistic than The Oregon Trail, but way more annoying. The only thing that seems to affect when a team member is injured is speed - slower speeds appear to mean fewer injuries. Of course, as with many things, your mileage may vary. ---------------------- Section 5: Nutrition ---------------------- This section is the entire reason I decided to write this FAQ in the first place - I was noticing that every now and then, I'd suddenly find myself without food of any sort. This usually happened when I was in the middle of nowhere and away from good food sources. After a bit of fiddling around, I figured out that different foods have different amounts of nutrition they give - logical, but unexpected from a game this old. Also interesting is that some foods don't give as much nutrition as expected, and that foods will spoil if they're kept around for too long. The tables were done for "light" eating - this allowed me to figure out the nutrition value of some of the less useful foods. Filling rations consume food at between a 133% and a 150% rate compared to light. Pig-out rations consume food at up to double the speed of light rations. I suspect that some of these values are a bit different than shown below - not by much though, and the figures given should be "safe" for planning the distances between cities. I have three tables here - the first is sorted by nutrition value, the second is sorted alphabetically, and the third is sorted by -average- nutrition value. Numbers in the kg/day column seperated by slashes represent foods that are consumed at different rates. I haven't found any particular formula to determine how the lower or higher rate is chosen - sometimes it appears to alternate, sometimes it will run a couple of times in a row at the lower value and switch to the higher value, sometimes the other way around. The methodology used (in case I missed a food in here, and someone wants to submit an addition) is to empty the food packs, buy 100kg of the food in question, and rest for a day. I then noted how much was consumed, and continued to rest a day at a time until either A: the food spoiled, or B: all the food was consumed. You'll notice that some of the foods are marked with a * - this represents a food that didn't last to the next day. This may be because of a quick spoilage time or because there is minimal nutrition value in it - either way, I don't recommend buying these foods in the first place. Ambient temperature doesn't appear to affect food consumption or spoilage. 25 kilos of butter lasted my team for the trek across the Sahara, for instance. This also means that nutrition is only tracked as calories, rather than as actual nutrients. Want to live on condensed milk? You can make it to South Africa using it as fuel if you really want to. ;) Condensed milk bears a second look. I suspect that it was supposed to be sold in lots of 283g rather than 28g. It's absurdly expensive (buying 109kg will cost you just short of $9500), but it is consumed at an absolute trickle compared to any other food. If you want to do a sprint once you hit Cameroon (which appears to be the only place condensed milk is sold): buy 100kg (which amounts to 3571 cans); set your team to travel full day, fast speed, and pig-out rations; and FLY. I don't recommend buying more than 100kg - condensed milk seems to spoil after 40-50 days (despite being canned) so overbuying wastes money. You'll still lose probably about 25kg towards the end, depending on rest stops, actual consumption, etc. ----------------------------------------------------------- Food Sorted by Nutrition ----------------------------------------------------------- Food | kg/day @ light | Spoils? ------------------------+----------------+----------------- condensed milk | .5/.75 | 40-50 days butter | 4/5 | 5 mbika | 6 | dry pasta | 6/8 | groundnuts | 6/8/10 | powdered milk | 7/8/9 | halva | 8/10 | 3 days bread (992g) | 9 | 4 days raw beef | 9 | 4 days sorghum | 9 | beef | 9/12 | 2 days bread (332g) | 9/12 | 3 days cookies | 9/12 | 6 days uncooked rice | 9/12 | raw chickpeas | 9/12/15 | barley | 10/12 | beans | 10/12 | chocolate bar | 10/12 | baguettes | 11/14 | 3 days cheese | 12/15 | goat cheese | 12/15 | honey | 12/15 | mandazi | 12/15 | olives | 12/15 | 4 days raw millet | 12/15 | dates | 15/18 | red beans | 15/18 | raw lamb | 16/20 | 2 days termites | 17/22 | dry noodles | 18 | coconut | 19 | 4 days roasted termites | 20 | maize | 20/25 | raw goat meat | 20/25 | 2 days Cerulac baby formula | 21/28 | jam | 21/28 | tuna | 21/28 | garlic | 24/30 | sardines | 24/32 | eggs | 25/30 | pigeon meat | 27 | raw plantain | 27 | yam | 30/36 | ground cassava | 32/40 | potatoes | 32/40 | pounded yam | 32/40 | raw monkey meat | 36/45 | masango | 40 | beheaded black cobra | 40/50 | tomato paste | 45/55 | raw chicken | 45/55 | 2 days tomatoes | 50 | dried fish | 56/70 | guava | 65 | plums | 70 | pineapple | 80 | bananas | 85 | raw bush rat | 90 | raw okra | 96 | cabbage | * | carrots | * | cauliflower | * | custard apple | * | eggplant | * | mango | * | onions | * | oranges | * | papaya | * | squash | * | tangerines | * | turnips | * | ------------------------+----------------+----------------- ----------------------------------------------------------- Food Sorted by Name ----------------------------------------------------------- Food | kg/day @ light | Spoils? ------------------------+----------------+----------------- baguettes | 11/14 | 3 days bananas | 85 | barley | 10/12 | beans | 10/12 | beef | 9/12 | 2 days beheaded black cobra | 40/50 | bread (332g) | 9/12 | 3 days bread (992g) | 9 | 4 days butter | 4/5 | 5 cabbage | * | carrots | * | cauliflower | * | Cerulac baby formula | 21/28 | cheese | 12/15 | chocolate bar | 10/12 | coconut | 19 | 4 days condensed milk | .5/.75 | 40-50 days cookies | 9/12 | 6 days custard apple | * | dates | 15/18 | dried fish | 56/70 | dry noodles | 18 | dry pasta | 6/8 | eggplant | * | eggs | 25/30 | garlic | 24/30 | goat cheese | 12/15 | ground cassava | 32/40 | groundnuts | 6/8/10 | guava | 65 | halva | 8/10 | 3 days honey | 12/15 | jam | 21/28 | maize | 20/25 | mandazi | 12/15 | mango | * | masango | 40 | mbika | 6 | olives | 12/15 | 4 days onions | * | oranges | * | papaya | * | pigeon meat | 27 | pineapple | 80 | plums | 70 | potatoes | 32/40 | pounded yam | 32/40 | powdered milk | 7/8/9 | raw beef | 9 | 4 days raw bush rat | 90 | raw chicken | 45/55 | 2 days raw chickpeas | 9/12/15 | raw goat meat | 20/25 | 2 days raw lamb | 16/20 | 2 days raw millet | 12/15 | raw monkey meat | 36/45 | raw okra | 96 | raw plantain | 27 | red beans | 15/18 | roasted termites | 20 | sardines | 24/32 | sorghum | 9 | squash | * | tangerines | * | termites | 17/22 | tomato paste | 45/55 | tomatoes | 50 | tuna | 21/28 | turnips | * | uncooked rice | 9/12 | yam | 30/36 | ------------------------+----------------+----------------- ----------------------------------------------------------- Food Listed by Average Nutrition ----------------------------------------------------------- Food | kg/day @ light | Spoils? ------------------------+----------------+----------------- condensed milk | .625 | 40-50 days butter | 4.5 | 5 mbika | 6 | dry pasta | 7 | groundnuts | 8 | powdered milk | 8 | halva | 9 | 3 days bread (992g) | 9 | 4 days raw beef | 9 | 4 days sorghum | 9 | beef | 10.5 | 2 days bread (332g) | 10.5 | 3 days cookies | 10.5 | 6 days uncooked rice | 10.5 | barley | 11 | beans | 11 | chocolate bar | 11 | raw chickpeas | 12 | baguettes | 12.5 | 3 days cheese | 13.5 | goat cheese | 13.5 | honey | 13.5 | mandazi | 13.5 | olives | 13.5 | 4 days raw millet | 13.5 | dates | 16.5 | red beans | 16.5 | raw lamb | 18 | 2 days dry noodles | 18 | coconut | 19 | 4 days termites | 19.5 | roasted termites | 20 | maize | 22.5 | raw goat meat | 22.5 | 2 days Cerulac baby formula | 24.5 | jam | 24.5 | tuna | 24.5 | garlic | 27 | pigeon meat | 27 | raw plantain | 27 | eggs | 27.5 | sardines | 28 | yam | 33 | ground cassava | 36 | potatoes | 36 | pounded yam | 36 | masango | 40 | raw monkey meat | 40.5 | beheaded black cobra | 45 | tomato paste | 50 | raw chicken | 50 | 2 days tomatoes | 50 | dried fish | 63 | guava | 65 | plums | 70 | pineapple | 80 | bananas | 85 | raw bush rat | 90 | raw okra | 96 | cabbage | * | carrots | * | cauliflower | * | custard apple | * | eggplant | * | mango | * | onions | * | oranges | * | papaya | * | squash | * | tangerines | * | turnips | * | ------------------------+----------------+----------------- Browsing over the lists, you'll see that condensed milk is the winner for nutrition by a long shot. Past that, butter is good in the places where you can get it - seems to be mostly before you hit Niger. Dry pasta is always a good food to get - it tends to be relatively inexpensive, and is in the top five as far as nutrition goes. Mbika (apparently, a flour that veggie burgers are made from) is technically better, but it is also $15+ per kilo - too much to spend, really. Groundnuts (peanuts) are readily available on the cheap in Central Africa - the part from Lagos to Nairobi, roughly. ------------------ Section 6: Visas ------------------ Any time you cross a national border, you need a visa. The only ones you get for 'free' are the Algerian and Tunisian visas - all the others must be bought. Visas are available in any capital city (and some other cities,) and require one to wait for between 1 and 30 days. Not all visas are required - you can collect them all if you're one of the 'completionist' sorts, but you only actually pass through 14 countries. Note that if you don't start in Bizerte, the "Best Time" marks don't necessarily apply - with that said, you'll usually be able to get a good time, just not a good price. Legend: ----------------+-------------------------------------------------------- * = Needed | Visas sold -after- you've passed through the country | aren't starred. ----------------+-------------------------------------------------------- # = Best Time | This is a more worthwhile gauge of a visa than price - | money is peanuts, but time spent waiting for a visa | will cost you more than any of these visas alone. If | multiple visas take the same amount of time, price will | be the tiebreaker. ----------------+-------------------------------------------------------- C.A.R. | Abbreviation for the Central African Republic. ----------------+---------------+-----------------------+-------+-------- | | Wait | Location | Visa to |(days) | Cost --------------------------------+-----------------------+-------+-------- Tunis, Tunisia | Libya | 4 | $5.65 |*Nigeria | 1 | free --------------------------------+-----------------------+-------+-------- Algiers, Algeria | Burkina Faso | 1 | $2.29 |*Cameroon | 21 | $45.00 |*C.A.R. |#1 | $35.00 | Chad | 1 | $4.90 | Mali | 1 | $20.00 |*Niger | 3 | $1.83 |*Nigeria |#1 | free --------------------------------+-----------------------+-------+-------- Tamanrasset, Algeria | Mali | 1 | $30.00 |*Niger |#2 | $3.67 --------------------------------+-----------------------+-------+-------- Niamey, Niger | Algeria | 1 | $14.00 | Benin | 1 | $24.00 | Burkina Faso | 1 | $12.00 | Côte de Ivorie | 1 | $12.00 | Mali | 2 | $26.00 |*Nigeria | 2 | $24.00 | Senegal | 1 | $24.00 | Togo | 1 | $12.00 --------------------------------+-----------------------+-------+-------- Lagos, Nigeria | Algeria | 4 | $3.87 | Benin | 1 | $5.00 |*Cameroon |#1 | $40.00 |*C.A.R. | 1 | $35.72 | Niger | 1 | $7.00 |*Tanzania |#1 | $0.82 |*Zaire |#1 | $16.00 --------------------------------+-----------------------+-------+-------- Yaoundé, Cameroon |*C.A.R. | 1 | $35.71 | Chad | 1 | $17.86 | Congo | 1 | $89.29 |*Kenya | 1 | $58.93 |*Malawi | 1 | $58.93 | Nigeria | 3 | free |*Uganda | 1 | $58.93 |*Zaire | 1 | $83.93 |*Zimbabwe | 1 | $58.93 --------------------------------+-----------------------+-------+-------- Bangui, Central African Republic| Cameroon | 1 | $42.86 (C.A.R.) | Chad | 1 | $17.86 | Congo | 3 | $17.86 | Nigeria | 1 | free | Sudan | 1 | $53.57 |*Zaire | 1 | $64.29 --------------------------------+-----------------------+-------+-------- Zaire-Uganda Border |*Uganda |#1 | $20.00 --------------------------------+-----------------------+-------+-------- Kampala, Uganda |*Kenya | 1 | $2.70 | Sudan | 25 | $10.00 |*Tanzania | 2 | $9.30 | Zaire | 1 | $70.00 --------------------------------+-----------------------+-------+-------- Uganda-Kenya Border |*Kenya |#0 | $10.00 --------------------------------+-----------------------+-------+-------- Nairobi, Kenya |*Malawi |#1 | free | Sudan | 30 | $9.09 |*Tanzania | 2 | $27.27 | Uganda | 1 | $20.00 | Zaire | 1 | $7.27 | Zambia | 2 | $9.09 --------------------------------+-----------------------+-------+-------- Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania | Kenya | 1 | $3.36 |*Malawi |#1 | free | Uganda | 1 | $25.00 | Zaire | 2 | $90.00 | Zambia | 1 | $6.31 |*Zimbabwe |#1 | free --------------------------------+-----------------------+-------+-------- Blantyre, Malawi |*Mozambique |#2 | $6.00 --------------------------------+-----------------------+-------+-------- Harare, Zimbabwe | Kenya | 1 | $4.93 | Malawi | 1 | free | Mozambique | 2 | $3.94 |*South Africa |#6 | $2.96 | Tanzania | 1 | $6.51 | Zaire | 3 | $5.92 | Zambia | 0 | $6.90 --------------------------------+-----------------------+-------+-------- Johannesburg and | Kenya | 1 | $5.00 Pretoria, South Africa | Malawi | 1 | free | Mozambique | 2 | $4.00 | Tanzania | 2 | $10.00 | Zaire | 3 | $6.00 | Zambia | 0 | $6.90 | Zimbabwe | 1 | free --------------------------------+-----------------------+-------+-------- ------------------------------ Section 7: Interesting Trips ------------------------------ There are a couple of places in the game where you'll go for long stretches with access to either minimal or no food. This section outlines the 'last chance' spots before the long stretches and recommended purchases in those spots. There aren't many, but they're surprising if you're not paying enough attention. There are also a few places where the path either isn't obvious or is hidden from you until you get on the proper map. These are detailed below as well. Tamanrasset to Ingal --------------------- Buy all the food you can in Tamanrasset, and set your meals to light, travel to 3/4 day, and speed to medium. Your morale will suffer a bit, and you'll arrive tired, but you'll run out of food -just- as you arrive at Ingal. You'll be able to restock there. Strictly speaking, this is the only 'dangerous' stretch without any food - it's easy to lose a team member to morale troubles if you're not careful. Piste to Mali and Desert Road to Niger --------------------------------------- Just don't take these unless you save first. If you try to go to Mali, you'll have to backtrack, and it's slow going. If you persist in trying to make it through to Niger, you'll "have to be rescued" - yet another instant game over. Titule to Komanda ------------------ This one depends on your food choices - it's not so much a -lack- of food here as a long stretch without -good- food. Most of what's available is down towards the bottom of the nutrition chart, so you'll be continually restocking. Buy stuff when you can. As always, I suggest taking dry pasta - otherwise, buying the food along the way can get pricey. Titule to Poko --------------- There is a trail through the forest here - what looks like an unbroken stretch of road actually has two stops along the way, going deep through the forest. It's not necessarily faster or slower, despite that you're told that you shouldn't take the trail during the rainy season - there's some nice scenery in there, though. Masai Mara National Reserve ---------------------------- Despite that you're on a 'tour bus' going through this area, you still need to make sure you bring a full load of food. As usual, stocking up on dry pasta in Nairobi is recommended here - if you tour the entire reserve, you'll spend 4 or 5 days inside the park. You might run out anyway, but you won't be out for long enough to cause any permanent damage. Kilmanjaro National Park ------------------------- If you don't have condensed milk left over (assuming you decided to stock up on it), your best bet is to work on dry pasta bought earlier and fill the rest of your space with powdered milk. The trip up the mountain will take six to eight days, and I don't think I've ever made the trip without losing a teammate (or two) to altitude sickness. While the trip is awesome and scenic, don't make it if you're trying to get a high score. -------------------- Section 8: Closing -------------------- One thing I suggest against doing is using the condensed milk 'bug' - I made it from Cameroon to South Africa drinking nothing but the 100kg of condensed milk I had, going at fast speed and travelling all day, only resting when I had to. While a 95 day cannonball run from Ekok to Agulhas is fun for the score it nets you, you miss a whole lot of stuff. Most people thank people in the last section of the FAQ. I have nobody to thank. If you want to use this on your site, go ahead. I'll be absolutely impressed if you're managing to make money off a craptastical Oregon Trail knockoff from the late 90's. Thumbs up to GameFAQs for hosting this - I figured it was time to give something back to 'em, since I use the site all the time. -Epsilon, 27 October 2010