This is a really cool idea. Like deep space trawling. Any chance of getting the occasional 'mystery' bonus in the catch?

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10 PRINT "Bad Monkey ";
20 GOTO 10

Yeah, that could be fitted into the mechanic. Some "extra rare" resources can be in the game that only come up on very infrequent occasions. There's also the potential for not-so-good stuff, too -- maybe mining a material that is known to cause some horrible, contagious disease; or unwittingly tapping into a nest of plasma scorpions.

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What most people don't understand about "enlightenment" is that it is not an end-goal; but where you find yourself just before taking a new "first step."