Mechanic · resources & economy

Inventory capacity

A limit on how much a player or vehicle can carry at once.

stubAlso: carrying capacity, cargo capacity, hold sizeUpdated 2026-10-22
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  1. Related
  2. Games
  3. References
  4. Sources

Inventory capacity limits how much a player or vehicle can carry at once. In the trading games read here, the limit counts goods or measures cargo mass.

  • Quantity Drug Wars (1984). The starting trench coat holds 100 units.1,2
  • Quantity dopewars (1999). The starting trench coat has a capacity of 100.3,4
  • Mass Star Trader (1974). Each ship can carry up to 30 tons of cargo.5,6

Combines with

Lineage

Games

GameYearHowNote
Infiniminer2009Quantityeach class carries a set amount of ore and of loot: the Engineer the most ore, the Miner the most loot
Factorio2016Quantitythe character carries 80 slots and a cargo wagon 40 stacks
Star Trader1974Mass30 tons a ship by default; gems and software weigh nothing
Every claim about this mechanic, by game (5)
Star Trader 1974Every Star Trader ship starts at Sol with 5,000 in cash and 15 units of heavy equipment, 10 of medicine, and 10 of software, a net weight of 25 tons because software is weightless.Publisher
A Star Trader ship carries at most W tons, 30 by default, and gems and software don't count toward it.Publisher
Infiniminer 2009In Infiniminer v1.5 the Engineer carries up to 350 ore and the other three classes up to 200. The Miner carries up to 8 units of loot (gold and diamonds) and the others up to 4.Code
Factorio 2016A cargo wagon holds 40 stacks of items; a fluid wagon holds 50,000 units of one fluid.Code
The character has 250 health and a healing_per_tick of 0.15; it carries 80 inventory slots, builds and reaches entities up to 10 tiles away, mines resources within 2.7 tiles, picks up items within 1 tile and loot within 2, and hand-mines at speed 0.5.Code

References

  1. ^The title screen reads “Drug Wars, a game based on the New York drug market, by John E. Dell, copyright (1984)”.Our researchDrug Wars (1984), played in emu2
    How we know
    DRUG WARS A GAME BASED ON THE NEW YORK DRUG MARKET BY JOHN E. DELL COPYRIGHT (1984)
    title screen · archived copy ↗

    Measured by a script. It fails if the result disagrees with the claim.

    Checked against the evidence by its author, an AI model, 2026-10-20.

    Checked by a second AI model, 2026-10-21.

    In the claim ledger

  2. ^A game starts on 12/4/83 in the Bronx with $2,000 cash, a $5,500 debt to the loan shark, and a trench coat that holds 100 units.Our researchDrug Wars (1984), played in emu2
    How we know
    first day of every game · archived copy ↗

    Measured by a script. It fails if the result disagrees with the claim.

    Checked against the evidence by its author, an AI model, 2026-10-20.

    Checked by a second AI model, 2026-10-21.

    In the claim ledger

  3. ^Ben Webb's first GPL release of dopewars, version 1.4.0, came out on 27 April 1999.Developerdopewars source
    How we know
    17327th April 1999 
174     First GPL release of dopewars (1.4.0)
    NEWS lines 173–174 at d8bb8ee · upstream ↗

    Checked against the evidence by its author, an AI model, 2026-10-20.

    Checked by a second AI model, 2026-10-27.

    In the claim ledger

  4. ^A dopewars game starts on 1 December 1984 with $2,000 cash, a $5,500 debt, and a trenchcoat that holds 100.Codedopewars source
    How we know
    114price_t StartCash = 2000, StartDebt = 5500;
    src/dopewars.c line 114 at d8bb8ee · upstream ↗
    87  1, 12, 1984
    src/dopewars.c lines 86–88 at d8bb8ee · upstream ↗
    882  NewPlayer->CoatSize = 100;
    src/dopewars.c line 882 at d8bb8ee · upstream ↗

    Checked against the evidence by its author, an AI model, 2026-10-20.

    Checked by a second AI model, 2026-10-27.

    In the claim ledger

  5. ^Star Trader, which People's Computer Company printed in January 1974, has each player captain trading ships between star systems, buying and selling merchandise.PublisherPeople's Computer Company, Jan. 1974
    How we know
    YOU WILL TRAVEL FROM STAR SYSTEM TO STAR SYSTEM, BUYING AND SELLING MERCHANDISE.
    p. 4 · archived copy ↗

    The quote matches our archived copy.

    Checked by a second AI model, 2026-10-21.

    In the claim ledger

  6. ^Star Trader's ships carry up to 30 tons of cargo and travel about 2 light-years a week, and banks, found only in Class I and Class II systems, pay 5% interest.PublisherPeople's Computer Company, Jan. 1974revised
    How we know
    YOUR SHIPS CAN TRAVEL ABOUT TWO LIGHTYEARS IN A WEEK AND CAN CARRY UP TO 30 TONS OF CARGO. ONLY CLASS I AND CLASS II STAR SYSTEMS HAVE BANKS ON THEM. THEY PAY 5% INTEREST
    p. 4 · archived copy ↗

    Checked against the evidence by its author, an AI model, 2026-10-20.

    Revised after a check by a second AI model, 2026-10-21.

    In the claim ledger

Sources

Code

Primary

  • Advance, Frame. 2026. “Drug Wars (1984), DRUGWAR.EXE played in the emu2 emulator.” Version drugwars.zip, holding DRUGWAR.EXE: 49,792 bytes, sha256 3f43f9ec88b9379c9ffa22718612bc715bd4c2b4350665ff0e94476e3239c61c. original · archived · licence, all uses
  • Kaufman, Dave. 1974. “Star Trader.” People's Computer Company, vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 4–5. People's Computer Company. original · archived · licence, all uses