Taipan! Mobile Hack 1.5 + Redeem Codes

Like many other reviewers, I was in single digits when I learned to play this game on the Apple II. And this is an awesome port! I love the extremely subtle adaptations for mobile devices, which only exist to increase ease of play rather than detract from the nostalgia of the original set up. Like auto save. Like turbo mode (if you elect to skip the pirate attack animations). The only thing I'm missing is the sound. This is such an accurate port - why not include the original sounds as well? I can still hear in my head the sound that's made when the player is alarmed to Pirates, but unfortunately, not on my mute game. It's not a big thing I suppose, but it does detract from one of the things that make this simple platform such a joy to play - total immersion in the nostalgia of the original. Karateka did a bang-up job with their port, and the original music was a big part of that. Sound is the only reason I'm giving 4 out of 5 stars. Please add the sound. Please, please!

I played this game for hours on my Apple II back in the 80’s. I respect that the money lender glitch is there, too. Unfortunately, guns get hit with incredible frequency and there just isn’t a good way to keep up; not a lot of opportunities to buy a new gun. It’s also odd that you can pay a lot less for a gun than a larger ship in this game. Also, a Ma Tsu should have some bodyguards and not get beat up so often.

I was so fun at first to play this mobile recreation of the classic game Taipan! However, as at least one reviewer noted previously, the algorithm is skewed. You get too few opportunities to buy guns, they send more and more massive numbers of pirate boats against you, and the game seems to get locked into a pattern of having pirates hit your guns repeatedly. It’s predictable. Once the “buggers” hit your guns once in a big fight, they go on to hit them every time they attack and you run out of guns fast. The probability does not seem random at all once past a certain point. No matter what strategy you use, the bias in the game will bring you down. It’s too bad because it’s a fun game. But you get tired of the bias fast.

Update: it doesn't look like there was an update, but after picking this game back up and playing it a few times, I am constantly getting beaten and robbed and mobbed by pirate ships. And I almost never get a chance to upgrade my ship or buy a gun. It has been a while since I've played, but I don't remember the game being like this before or even back on the Apple ][.

Old: The gameplay is spot-on, and better.

All the one-star ratings are a little unfair to the quality since they all relate to the fact that this game utilizes Apple's in-app purchase system instead of offering free and paid options as separate apps.

I'll grant that it could be more clear during the process about how the in-app restore would work. (Happens on the same screen where you hit "buy". There'll be a new option after you reinstall.)

I was previously uninitiated with in app purchases.

There's most definitely nothing shady going on!

Played this game endlessly on my Apple II like 30 years ago. Randomly googled it today to find this app and I was stoked! Seemed odd that it was free at first but I was happy to pay the 3 bucks for ‘unlock’. They put in the effort to port it after all.
But after playing it for awhile, it’s not quite the game I remember. I remember playing for hours while I built up my shipping trade. Now I can’t get more than about 20 minutes before the game throws so much at you it pretty much kills you off. They’ve cranked up the difficulty like 2000%. But I don’t see why? You see this kind of stuff in p2p games with lots of paywalls. But this ones a flat 3 bucks. I don’t get it? Definitely needs some heavy tweaking to make it fun again.

I love this game. It takes me back to when I was in my single digits and Dad had just gotten the IIc. I used to keep the IIc running for days at a time, hoping a power failure didn't happen. I love the turbo feature, allowing the player to skip past hours of ship battle. And the auto save is a godsend. Today I essentially beat the game. I got ALL the money! Over 999 Trillion. It even displays in the bank line "All of it". I can keep playing, so now I'm going to see how big my ship can get, how many guns I can amass, and how long I can keep my shipping company "afloat."

Yepps, like nearly everyone else here. I remember this from back in the day. Was stoked to try it again and relive my High school days. But, no. I was shipping from town to town and BAM... PAY FOR AN UPDATE!!! Login with your acct info and PAY US. No, I didn't click it. No, I don't want to pay. No, I didn't restart. What I did do was stop playing. Stopped the app. Deleted the app from my phone and removed the app from iTunes. Now, I'm writing a 1 star review to state how annoying it is to have a Pay Wall for a free game. Next time, make a demo and advertise as such in case I want to buy. Hiding behind a PAY WALL is rude.

Great port of the original BASIC game I played on the TANDY 4 computers in High School. ( I am that old). The only issue with the game is the start version with 5 guns and 0 cash has 0 ability to progress. No way to earn money and elder brother Wu will not lend you a single yuan. I hope the dev team will fix this as it is nearly flawless otherwise.

I love the way of handling huge amounts of cash — “All of It.”

There’s a bug where clicking out of the game will sometimes drop you to the Leave Port screen without remembering the last purchase, but it’s great fun racing to essentially unlimited money.

Totally worth the few dollars to recreate the original’s excitement.

This is the same game my friends and I played back in 1982. It runs much, much faster now so some of the suspense is lost and it makes the game a bit easier. I am just as addicted now as I was in '82. My 12 year old and 15 year old play it, too.