STONKS-9800: Stock Market Simulator casts you as a businessman in an imagined 1980s Japanese market, presenting its financial life through a text-based format. Rather than focusing solely on trading, it frames decisions as part of a broader attempt to build a comfortable and successful life, with market choices affecting both the business and the player’s circumstances.
The core loop brings together buying shares, collecting dividends and monitoring prices, while the market responds to decisions. Personal upkeep also matters: players must watch their health and avoid overwork, which can lead to hospitalization. Beyond stocks, the game offers real-estate and car investments, company management through a controlling interest, and a choice between legal business and shady ways to get rich quickly. Pachinko and horse-racing betting provide additional diversions.
That mix of trading, business management and life simulation gives the game a different rhythm from a narrowly defined market simulator. The retro premise and text-based presentation tie its varied systems together, from watching prices to balancing work, health and comfort.
