Overview
Valdez is a supertanker simulation. The objective of the game is to take the helm of a supertanker and navigate the vessel from the North Pacific into the port of Valdez, Alaska, a journey of approximately 62 miles (100 km). Due to the many parameters that need to be taken into account, this can prove a very difficult task. A successful crossing of Prince William Sound to Valdez narrows down to .5 miles (900 m) and ends by docking the ship with the floating unloading station at Prudhoe Bay oilfields. The supertanker dimensions are a length of 980 ft (300 m) and a width or beam of 167 ft (51 m).
As captain of the roughly 300,000-ton vessel, the player navigates by instrument, controlling the rudder and two engines through textual input. They must avoid many obstacles such as sailing vessels, supertankers downstream, running aground, tides, and icebergs. They are aided only by the Collision Avoidance System (CAS) radar which has several resolutions to aid in fine-grained control.
The game has two modes: open seas navigation and full simulation. The first allows navigation practice with no coastline or islands but will still overlay vessels and icebergs. The latter is the full simulation with all of the aforementioned challenges in place. The 256x256 radar map is loaded into memory and can be recalled at any turn event.
