Station

Station is a single player, shareware game which simulates the management of an Australian sheep ranch. It is Shareware Systems' first game and it is text based.

The game consists of a single screen divided into three main areas. In the upper left is a box containing a list of keyboard commands, S - Buy/Sell Sheep, L Buy/Sell Land etc. Pressing any of these keys brings up a small window in which the player decides whether they are buying or selling and by how much. Over on the right is a status window, here the function keys F1-F4 bring up the farm's status, current buildings owned, market prices, and a capacities window that shows how many sheep, dogs, and employees can be fed, watered and housed. Game events are also posted in this area, these include good things such as investments maturing and uranium being found on the land and killing sheep.
Over on the lower left the game displays a "Welcome to Station!!" message. This is also a scrollable message area which, over time, replaces the welcome with warnings such as 'the buildings need to be maintained' or 'the employees are overworked'.

When the game is initially set up the player sets the speed at which it will run, after that it starts at the current year and gives interim status reports at the end of every season with the overall report at the end of the year. The player can both farm the sheep to sell their wool building the farm as they go and they can also invest in buying sheep, wool, buildings etc which can later be sold at a profit. It's a tough life and it's possible to lose all your sheep due to dehydration very quickly if they are not cared for.

The game is entirely keyboard controlled. It has a save/load feature with ten save slots but has no sound.