Mare Mercatus

You are in charge of a trading company in the Age of Sail.  Grow your business by establishing profitable shipping routes, building plantations and workshops, and developing little towns into bustling metropolises.

If you need help, you can read the in-game menu which is accessed through the System menu, which can be brought up by pressing the A Key / X Button while in a game level.

If the game is laggy, consider turning off Fancy Graphics when launching the game, or from the System menu.

Mare Mercatus is developed using TIC-80.  You can download the cartridge and run it on your own device if you have TIC-80 (the free version should be fine) installed locally.

Controls:

In general: Use arrow keys / d-pad to move around the map.  Z key / A button means Yes, or Confirm and X key / B button means No, Cancel, or Exit.

When in map mode:

• Z key / A button opens the Construction Menu.
• X key / B button opens the Action menu, where you can end a turn , buy ships, make shipping routes, or check existing shipping routes.
• A key / X button opens System menu, where you can read the level briefing, access the in-game manual, or abandon the level and return to the main menu.
• S key / Y button changes map mode.  The four map modes available are "Geography", "Production", "Wealth", and "Population".
  • When looking at a town, the S key / Y button changes the town info pages instead.  The pages are "Overview", "Population", "Wealth", "Production", and "Trade".