The Queen of Zapanalia, for the first time in 1,000 years, has decided to open up the islands' economy to import/export. You, as manager of one of six import stores, compete to corner the market in your unrelenting quest for commercial empiredom. In the game you establish prices, set advertising expenditures, make investments, and search the surrounding islands for treasure and magic. Your decisions and subsequent actions will eventually determine your wealth as well as reputation. The person at the end of the game with the most money - wins

Big fans of Dr. Seuss, Lavamind's Steve Hoffman and Naomi Kokubo admit Zapitalism is a parody of society and that their own political views are definitely reflected in the game. They have slipped in their "little messages" - about environmental issues, for example, but have consciously avoided being heavy handed.

Their own political views are not the only ones reflected in the game. An array of other "types" are represented. A player can begin to understand various points of view by playing the part of an employer who possesses them.

News reports and events texture this richly colored world with life. In the game you, as a store manager, face many issues and must make decisions based on that information as well as such things as your current profits, losses, employee morale, etc. For example - you have the option of raising employee morale by increasing salaries. But this isn't as clear cut as it sounds. If you increase salaries, you're lowering your profits. But perhaps by accepting lower profits for a limitted time, you will gain in the long run. Who knows. Is it worth gamble? Perhaps you'll raise company morale by feeding your employees mystic figs from one of the surrounding islands. Known the to be hallucinogenic and very pleasing, mystic figs may make your employees more indebted to you and thus increase their willingness to work long and hard. But then again, the plan may backfire. The employees may see through your manipulative strategy. They may even strike.

Another issue is reputation. An important one. Players compete to go first, a strategic position. And it is the player with the best reputation that gets to do that. This is the employer who gets first shot at buying out products, stealing top ranking employees from other companies, etc. Reputation is judged from various categories - public service, store image, maintenance, advertising. But again it's not as simple as it looks. An employer may be judged a terrific businessman because of high profits, but may be judged very poorly in the reputation department because he underpays his employees and keeps his store looking a mess.

In the process of playing the game you'll visit other islands, run into lots of interesting characters. Some by choice, some not. The Ronic Warriors, for example, are a marauding band of ex-accountants turned pirates. An Insultant is a consultant who insults you. Perhaps you or someone you know belongs to the Humangistic Church, whose members believe in taking lots of holidays. As you can guess - employers aren't strong supporters. You'll visit Zable Exchange, the Wall Street of this world or Outer Reboundrum, an idyllic getaway place, where unfortunately you can also get into a lot of trouble.

The store owners want particular qualities in the managers they hire to run their businesses. And you get to play them. Wali J. Spinniker, for example, is a slick salesman who wouldn't hesitate to sell his own mother if the price was right. Know the type? Not surprising that he's looking to hire a fast talking, fast walking individual to take his already established store into an even faster track.

An individual can play alone with the computer, which will play all the other parts. Creating personalities for the computer players presented an interesting challenge for Steve and Naomi. They didn't want them to behave in a strictly logical fashion (which people rarely do), nor did they want these characters to be too predictable. Randomness was built in to keep it interesting.