Copyright: Rummy 500 ® 1994-1996 MeggieSoft Games


Contents

Welcome to MeggieSoft Games' Rummy 500, formally known as "Five Hundred Rum".  Help is organized in the following sections.  Click on the one you require.  Alternatively, click on the search, index, or glossary button above to look for information on a specific subject.

Overview

Getting Started

The Layout

Using The Mouse

Arranging Your Cards

Playing The Game

About The Opponent

Scoring

Menus

Shortcuts

Strategies

How To...

For The Technically Curious

Glossary

Index

Gin Rummy


Overview

Rummy 500 is a member of the "Rummy" family of card games.  It is more formally known as "Five Hundred Rum" and is documented in Hoyle's Rules Of Games.  Rummy 500 adheres to the documented rules, but provides rule variations should you be familiar with other methods of playing.

Thirteen cards are dealt to you and thirteen to your opponent.  The remaining cards form the stock and are placed face down by the table.  The top card is turned face up on the table.  This card forms the beginning of  the discard pile.

The game progresses with the player and opponent alternately starting their turn by taking either the top card of the stock, or one or more cards from the discard pile.

You may always take the last card of the discard pile as an alternative to taking a new card from the stock, unless the rule variation inhibiting this is in effect.

You may elect to take another card from the discard pile only if you are able to meld the card you select.  The selected card, and any and all cards to the right of it, are added to your hand.  Your next action must be to meld the selected card.

Whether you started your turn by taking a card from the stock, or by selecting one or more cards from the discard pile, you continue your turn by playing melds to the table as many times as you wish--providing that you have the cards to meld.  You conclude your turn by discarding one of the cards in your hand, unless you have melded them all.

A round ends when: (i) a player has discarded or melded their last card or (ii) if there are no cards in the deck and the player whose turn it is elects not to take from the discard pile.  Any cards remaining in your hand then score against you.

Successive rounds are dealt and played until one of the players achieves the goal of 500 points to win the game.


Getting Started

When learning a new game, many people prefer to watch others play a few hands before diving in for themselves.  Rummy 500 caters to such wishes by means of its "AutoPlayer" mode.  Click the second line below for instructions on how to start the AutoPlayer.

Getting Started Instructions

"I'd Rather Watch First"


Getting Started Instructions

When you first start Rummy 500, you will see a "Press To Start..." button in the middle of the table.  If you wish to make any menu option changes before starting, now is a good time to do this.  Then click on the start button.  Unless you have chosen the "cut for deal" option, you will then be informed that you lead the first round of the first game.  Click on the OK button to proceed.

The first round of the first game starts with your turn, which you make by either taking a new card from the stock, or by taking the card from the discard pile.  The lead alternates on each successive round.  The initial lead also alternates from game to game, unless the "cut for deal" option (labeled "New Game Deal Cut") has been selected from the "Configuration" menu.

If you elect to take a new card from the stock, you click down on the top of the stock.  The top card will then be turned face up for you to see, and, when you release the mouse button, will be automatically added to your hand.  If the AutoMouse option is enabled, the mouse pointer will also move to your hand and point to the card was newly taken.

If you want to take the card from the discard pile, click on it.  If AutoMouse is enabled, the mouse pointer will move with the card to your hand.

If you are able to, and wish to, you may meld some of your cards at this time.

You end your turn by discarding a card from your hand by clicking on it with the RIGHT mouse button.  If AutoMouse is enabled, the mouse pointer will automatically move back to the deck.

Your opponent (the computer) will then play its turn, and so on.

At any time you can get assistance on what to do next by clicking on the "Explain" option of the "Assistant" menu.  An information window will appear describing your options at that point of play.  You may move the information window by dragging its title bar if it is the way.

When you are learning the game, you might set the opponent skill level to "Master" and discard each of your cards immediately after taking them.  In this way, you will see how melds and discards are played by the opponent.  Subsequently, you might set the opponent skill to "Carefree" (in which case the opponent will always discard) to play out your hand completely.  You might also care to check the "Show Cards" option of the "Opponent" menu while you are learning the game.  Once you have experimented with these methods, you should be ready to play in earnest!


Watching A Game Being Played

If this is your first experience of Rummy 500, you might prefer to watch a game being played before launching into reading the help information in detail.

Follow the following steps to set Rummy 500 into AutoPlayer mode.

1 	Select "AutoPlayer" from the "Assistant" menu

2 	Select a skill level for the player.  "Expert" would be a good choice.  Press "OK"

3 	Sit back and watch.

4 	Press the "Stop AutoPlay" button on the status bar when you have watched for long enough.


The Layout

The layout of the display is shown above.  You can click on any part of the graphic to learn about that item.  (To dismiss the resulting pop-up window, click on it.)

Briefly:

The stock is shown face down to the left of the table, with the discard pile arranged face up on the table, to the right of the stock.  The opponent's cards are displayed face down above the table, and the player's cards are displayed face up below the table.  Melds are displayed on the table, below the discard pile.

The scoresheet is displayed to the right of the table.

If you have bonus options selected from the "Rules" menu, these will be shown to the left of the table, under the stock.


Using The Mouse

All mouse operations in Rummy 500 may be performed by single clicking.  Double-clicking, except when the "Double-Click Discard"  option of the "Player" menu is in effect, is not supported and the second click will normally be ignored.

Most of the help documentation refers to the single clicking mode of operation.  This mode operates by clicking on the card to be operated upon and then clicking where is is to be placed.

However,  Rummy 500 also supports "Drag and Drop" operations.  Click on the hyperlink at the bottom of this section for information regarding the "Drag and Drop" method of operation.

Operations take effect when the mouse button is released, and are ignored if the mouse button is released in a different area from where it was depressed and the "No Drop" cursor is showing.  The only exception is when taking a new card from the stock - in this case the card will move to the player's hand if the mouse button is released under the "No Drop" cursor.

If you have depressed a mouse button in an area of the screen and wish to abandon the action, move (drag) the mouse away from that area until the "No Drop" cursor is displayed, and release the button.

Remember that when you have depressed the mouse button on the stock you are committed to taking the card shown to you.

Either the left or right mouse button may be used for almost all operations except:

•	The left mouse button must be used to select (highlight) cards

•	The right mouse button must be used to discard from your hand.  However, you may use the "Alt" key with the left button instead of the right button if you prefer.

The AutoMouse features may be enabled to move the mouse automatically between the stock and the player area and/or to and from the message and information windows.

See also:

Drag and Drop


Drag and Drop

"Drag and Drop" (which debuted in Version 5 of Rummy 500) provides an alternative shortcut method of mouse operation.

The original method, which is still supported and to which most of this help documentation refers, requires you to click the mouse on the card upon which you wish the operation to apply, and then often click the mouse again on the area to which it is to be moved.   When an operation requires just a single click, the destination is predetermined (e.g., when taking cards from the stock or discard pile, the destination is always the player's hand).

"Drag and Drop" permits you to click down on the card to be operated upon, drag the mouse pointer to a valid destination and then release.  This provides many shortcuts.

For example, to take a card from the stock and add it to a meld, one can click down on the stock (the card face is shown immediately), drag the mouse over the required meld on the table and release the mouse button.  Under the "click" method, the same operation is achieved by clicking on the stock to take the card, clicking on the same card after it has been moved to your hand in order to select it, and then clicking on the meld to place it.

Select one of the following hyperlinks for details on each type of "Drag and Drop" operation.

Drag and Drop from the Stock

Drag and Drop from the Discard Pile

Drag and Drop from the Players Hand


Drag and Drop from the Stock

When it is your turn to take a card and the mouse is clicked down on the stock and released, the card is moved to the player's hand.  Note that the top card is displayed face up as soon as you click down on the stock.

Alternatively, you may "Drag and Drop" the card by clicking down on the stock and then moving the mouse pointer to the required destination before releasing the mouse button.

When the mouse pointer is over an invalid destination, the cursor will change to the "No Drop" symbol - a circle with a line across it.  If the mouse button is released under this cursor, the stock card will be moved to the player's hand.  (For other "Drag and Drop" operations the result would be no action, but once you have clicked down on the stock, you are committed to take the card.)

Valid "Drag and Drop" destinations from the stock are:

The Discard Pile

The card is added to the discard pile.  This ends your turn.

The Player's Hand

The card is added to the player's hand.  If the "No Sorting" option is in effect, the card will be inserted after the card upon which it is dropped.  The card may also be dropped directly onto the player's reserve group (if in effect).

A Meld

 If the card matches the meld, it will be added to the meld and it remains the player's turn until a card is discarded or the player's last card is melded.  If the card does not match the meld upon which it is dropped, it will be added to the player's hand.

See Also:

Drag and Drop

Drag and Drop from the Discard Pile

Drag and Drop from the Player's Hand


Drag and Drop from the Discard Pile

When it is your turn to take a card and the mouse is clicked down on the discard pile and released, the card is moved to your hand together with any subsequent discards.

Alternatively, you may "Drag and Drop" the required discard by clicking down on it and then moving the mouse pointer to the required destination before releasing the mouse button.

When the mouse pointer is over an invalid destination, the cursor will change to the "No Drop" symbol - a circle with a line across it.  If the mouse button is released under this cursor,  no action will occur.

Valid "Drag and Drop" destinations from the discard pile are:

The Player's Hand

The card(s) are added to the player's hand.  If the "No Sorting" option is in effect, the card(s) will be inserted after the card upon which they are dropped.  Cards may also be dropped directly onto the player's reserve group (if in effect).

A Meld

If the card matches the meld, it will be added to the meld and subsequent discards (if any) will be added to the player hand.  It remains the player's turn until a card is discarded or the player's last card is melded.  If the card does not match the meld upon which it is dropped, it will be added to the player's hand and highlighted as having been selected for melding.

See Also:

Drag and Drop

Drag and Drop from the Player's Hand

Drag and Drop from the Stock


Drag and Drop from the Players Hand

When it is your turn to play a card you may left-click on a card to select it, or right-click to discard it

Alternatively, you may "Drag and Drop" a card by clicking down on it and then moving the mouse pointer to the required destination before releasing the mouse button.

When the mouse pointer is over an invalid destination, the cursor will change to the "No Drop" symbol - a circle with a line across it.  If the mouse button is released under this cursor,  no action will occur.

Valid "Drag and Drop" destinations from the player's hand are:

The Discard Pile

The card is added to the discard pile; this ends your turn.

A Meld

Note that a card does not have to be selected to drag and drop it on a meld.  If multiple cards are to be melded, those other than the dragged card must be selected first by clicking on them.  However, a selected (highlighted) card may also be dragged and dropped on a meld.

If no other card is selected and the card matches the meld, it will be added to the meld.

If other cards are selected, those and the dragged card will be added to the meld provided they match the other cards of the meld.

If the card(s) do not match the meld, an error message will displayed and no action will occur.  The dragged card will then be highlighted if it wasn't before.

The Table

Note that a card does not have to be selected to drag and drop it on the table. However, the other cards which form the meld must be selected first by clicking on them.

If the cards form a valid meld, they will be moved to the table.  Otherwise,an error message will displayed and no action will occur.  The dragged card will then be highlighted if it wasn't before.

See Also:

Drag and Drop

Drag and Drop from the Discard Pile

Drag and Drop from the Stock


Arranging Your Cards

By default, Rummy 500 automatically sorts and resorts the player's cards when dealt, and when new cards are added to it.  The default sortation is suit within rank.

When the "Sort By Suit" option is selected from the "Player" menu, the sortation is changed to be rank within suit.

Alternatively, you may chose to arrange the cards yourself by selecting the "No Sorting" option from the "Player" menu.  In this case, the hand is sorted randomly, and new cards are always added to the right of the hand.  You then have complete freedom to arrange the cards as you wish, as described below.  You can even arrange a "reserved" set of cards separately from your main hand.  This allows you to keep potentially meldable cards aside, for example.

You may also move cards at any time even if "No Sorting" is not selected.  However, in this case,  your main hand will always be resorted when the next card or cards are added to it.  The reserved set of cards, if it exists, is never resorted.

To move a card to the left, click down on it with the left mouse button, and keep the button depressed.  Then move the mouse to the left, whereupon the mouse-pointer will change to a double-headed arrow.  When the pointer is in the desired position for the card, release the mouse button.  The card will then move to its new position - which will be before the card upon which the mouse button was released.

To move a card to the right, perform the same process as above except move the mouse-pointer to the right with the mouse button depressed.  In this case the card will be moved after the card over which the button was released.

To establish a "reserved" set of cards, move a card off to the right of the hand.  The mouse pointer will change to a square within a box.  Release the mouse pointer at this point, and the card will form the first card of the reserve, which is displayed apart from the main hand.  You may add other cards to the reserve by dragging them from the main hand and dropping them on the reserve.  Similarly you may move cards from the reserve back to the main hand.  If all the player's cards are moved to the reserve, the reserve is canceled and all cards are treated as being the main hand.  Cards can be selected, melded, and discarded from the reserve just as they can from the main hand.

Remember that if you click on the left mouse button and release the button without moving the cursor, the card will be selected for melding.


Playing The Game

After the cards for a round have been dealt, the sequence of each of your turns (and those of  your opponent) is:

1 	Taking a card from the stock, or one or more cards from the discard pile

2 	Melding cards from your hand to the table, as and if possible

3 	Discarding one of the cards from those in your hand.

The round ends when one of the players discards the last card from their hand.

Dealing

Taking The Top Card Of The Stock

Taking From The Discard Pile

Melding Cards To The Table

Discarding From Your Hand


Dealing

The first round is dealt automatically after you confirm that you will start the first round, or after the cut for deal (if this option is selected).

After the end of each round, Rummy 500 will shuffle and deal the cards for the next round.

At the end of each game, you will be asked if you want to proceed with the next game.  If you select "Yes", Rummy 500 will shuffle and deal the cards.

At any time, you may select "Redeal Game" from the Game menu.  In this case, the current game is abandoned, and the cards are reshuffled and redealt.  Alternatively, you can select "Restart Round", in which case the cards are not shuffled and the current round is restarted.

If "AutoMouse Cards" is enabled, the mouse pointer will  be moved automatically to the deck after the cards have been dealt.


Taking The Top Card Of The Stock

Position the mouse pointer over the face down card on top of the stock. (In AutoMouse mode, the mouse will have been automatically positioned over the stock after you discarded the previous card.)

Click down with either the left or right mouse button on the card.

The card will then be displayed face up for you to see it.  When you release the mouse button, it will be removed from the stock and added to your hand,  which will immediately be sorted.

If AutoMouse mode is operative, the mouse pointer will also move to your hand and point to the card taken.

See also:

Drag and Drop


Taking From The Discard Pile

If you wish to take cards from the discard pile, you do this instead of taking a new card from the stock.

Unless the "Meld Last Discard" rule option is in effect, you may freely take the last card from the discard pile by clicking on it.  It will then be added to your hand, just as taking a new card from the stock would.  However, you cannot discard the same card back to the discard pile at the end of your turn.

Alternatively, you may take any number of consecutively discarded cards, up to and including the last one discarded, and add them to your hand provided that you meld the earliest discarded (that is, the leftmost) of these cards immediately after it is added to your hand.

To take a sequence of discards, position the mouse pointer over the (first) card in the discard pile to be taken and melded.  Click the LEFT mouse button.  The selected card, and those to the right of it, will be added to your hand.

In order to execute the meld immediately after taking the discards, Rummy 500 will highlight the selected card in your hand and prohibit you from deselecting it or discarding before you have melded it.  (Use the "Undo" option from the "Player" menu if you wish to return the selected cards to the discard pile and start over.)

If required, select (by clicking on them) additional cards from your hand which are to be part of the current melding action.

The identified cards will be played to the table in the normal manner.  (See "Melding Cards" topic).

See also:

Drag and Drop


Melding Cards To The Table

You may either create a new meld of at least three cards, or you may add one or more cards to an existing meld displayed on the table.  You may add to any displayed meld, whether it originated from one of your turns or one of the opponent's.  Similarly, your opponent may add cards to melds you initiate.

At the beginning of your turn, as an alternative to drawing a new card from the stock or taking the last card from the discard pile, you may meld any number of the discarded cards together or with others from your hand.  To do this, you merely click on the leftmost card you require from the discard pile.  The selected card and those to the right of it will then be added to your hand.  Your next action must be to meld the selected card.

You then continue your turn until you discard or have melded all your cards.

See also:

Creating A New Meld

Adding To An Existing Meld

Determining Which Cards Are Melded

Drag and Drop


Creating A New Meld

First you must select which cards from your hand are to form the new meld.  You do this by identifying each of those that you wish to select.  You must select at least three cards.

To select a card:  Position the mouse pointer over the card and click the LEFT mouse button.  The card will now be highlighted.  If you just started your turn by taking cards from the discard pile, one of the cards will be highlighted already.

To deselect a card: Repeat the action (i.e., position the mouse pointer over the highlighted card and click the LEFT mouse button).  The card is no longer highlighted.  Note that you cannot deselect a card which is highlighted as a result of having been taken from the discard pile.  Such a card must be melded immediately.

When you have selected (i.e., highlighted)  three or more cards, you may meld them to the table. You do this by positioning the mouse pointer over any uncovered part of the table and clicking the LEFT mouse button.  (If the lower part of the table is filled with melds, click on the uncovered area to the right of the discard pile.)

If the meld is valid, the cards will then be moved from your hand to the table.

Alternatively, if the combination of highlighted cards does not represent a valid meld, you will receive an error message, and the cards will remain in place.

See also:

Melding Cards To The Table

Adding To An Existing Meld

Determining Which Cards Are Melded

Drag and Drop


Adding To An Existing Meld

First you must identify the card, or cards, which are to be added to the meld.

To select a card:  Position the mouse pointer over the card and click the LEFT mouse button.  The card will now be highlighted.

To deselect a card: Repeat the action (i.e., position the mouse pointer over the highlighted card and click the LEFT mouse button).  The card is no longer highlighted.  Note that you cannot deselect a card which is highlighted as a result of having been taken from the discard pile.  Such a card must be melded immediately.

To add the highlighted card(s) to a meld on the table, position the mouse pointer over any card in the existing meld and click the LEFT mouse button.

If the highlighted card(s) can be melded with those on the table, the card(s) will then be added to the meld on the table.

Alternatively, if the card(s) highlighted cannot be melded with those on the table, you will receive an error message, and the card(s) will remain in place.

See also:

Melding Cards To The Table

Creating A New Meld

Determining Which Cards Are Melded

Drag and Drop


Determining Which Cards Are Melded

Because melded cards are overlapped in columns, it is sometimes not easy to determine what a particular card is, particularly in melds of the same rank.  It may help to remember that such melds are always arranged in the order: Hearts, Spades Diamonds, Clubs (from the top).

Rummy 500 includes a facility to precisely describe which card is which in the melds.  Clicking down on the right mouse button with the mouse pointer positioned over a melded card will display a description of the card (e.g., "Jack of Clubs") in place of  the status message.  Moving the mouse over the melds with the right button down will update the display as each card is traversed.   Release the mouse button to return to the status message display and resume playing Rummy 500.


Discarding From Your Hand

You end your turn by discarding any one of the cards in your hand.  The only exceptions being:

•	if you started your turn by taking the last card from the discard pile into your hand, you cannot discard it back again on the same turn

•	if you can meld all the cards in your hand you may do so, unless the rule option specifying "Discard To Go Out" is selected.

To discard a card from your hand, position the mouse pointer over the card and click the RIGHT mouse button.   Alternatively, you may click the LEFT mouse button with the ALT key depressed.

If you have selected the "Double-Click Discard" option from the "Player" menu, a single right-click will have no effect and you will need to double-click on the right mouse button.   This option is a safety-check against unintentional discarding.

The card is then removed from your hand and added to the discard pile.

If the "AutoMouse Cards" option is in effect, the mouse pointer will move automatically to the stock.

Note that you cannot discard while cards are highlighted.  You must deselect any highlighted cards before discarding.  If you started your turn by taking cards from the discard pile, the card which was automatically highlighted must be melded and cannot be deselected.

See also:

Drag and Drop


About The Opponent

The opponent plays automatically after you have discarded, or when it is the opponent's turn to start a round.

The opponent skill level may be set at any of six levels from the "Skill Level" option under the "Opponent" menu.

When the opponent takes cards from the discard pile, it will briefly highlight the leftmost of the cards taken.  If this is not the last discard, the opponent will also briefly highlight the card when it melds it so that you can be sure that the opponent is abiding by the rules.  If desired, this feature can be turned off via the "No Discard Highlighting" option under the "Opponent" menu.

When the opponent takes a new card from the stock, it will briefly highlight the stock as confirmation.  If desired, this feature can be turned off via the "No Stock Highlighting" option under the "Opponent" menu.

The opponent also pauses briefly (about two fifths of a second) after taking a card and between each of multiple melds so that the actions of its turn can be clearly viewed.  If desired this delay can be suppressed via the "Quick Display" option under the "Opponent" menu.


Scoring

Points are earned for each card melded to the table.  The points distribution is:

•	       1 Point : an ACE when melded at the low end of a run  (See note below)

•	Face Value : a TWO through NINE   (See note below)

•	   10 Points : a TEN, JACK, QUEEN or KING

•	   15 Points : an ACE when melded with other aces, or at the high end of a run

At the end of a round, when either the player or opponent has discarded the last card in their hand, or the deck is exhausted, any points remaining in the other player's hand are deducted from their score.  Aces are always valued at 15 points for this purpose.  A player will realize a negative score if the points in their hand exceed the points played to the table.

Successive rounds are played until one of the players wins the game with 500 points.

Note:

If you have selected the rule variation to score in units of 5, 10, and 15 the following differences apply:

•	An ACE melded at the low end of a run scores five points

•	The cards TWO through NINE score five points

See Also:

Persian Jokers

Scoresheet


Persian Jokers

There is a version of the basic Rummy game involving the use of Jokers which is known as "Persian Rummy".   The essentials of that version provide the "Persian Jokers" rule variation to Rummy 500.

When this rule variation is selected, a deck of 56 cards including four Jokers is used.  The current game is therefore abandoned and the deck redealt when this option is selected or deselected.

 The rules for Persian Jokers are as for Rummy 500 with the following changes:

•	Jokers may be melded with each other as being of the same rank or value, but not as parts of runs.

•	Jokers score 20 points each.

•	Ace is always high (above the King).  A-2-3 runs are therefore not permitted and the "Ace Must Be Low" rule variation is disabled.

•	Jokers are always automatically sorted to the right of the player's hand -- irrespective of the sort order in effect -- unless the "No Sorting" option is selected.

Note:

The Persian Jokers variation alters the strategy of the game somewhat.  The points value of the Jokers is sufficiently high that keeping them in hand is expensive if the opponent goes out first, but quite valuable when able to be melded to the table.   It is therefore prudent not to discard them too early in a round.  However, if held too long, they can restrict the overall flexibility of your hand and restrict your ability to score points from melding other cards.  On the other hand, discarding them later in the game -- particularly when the others haven't been seen -- increases the probability of the opponent picking them up and scoring 60 or 80 points.  Also, the flexibility of Aces is reduced a little since they can't be melded at the bottom of 2-3-4 runs when reducing the number of points in hand becomes critical..


Scoresheet

The information on the scoresheet to the right of the table is displayed as follows:

•	The scores for each completed round are added the scoresheet at the end of the round.

•	Running totals are displayed in italics.  The running totals of points melded in the current round are displayed at the bottom of the scoresheet.  After the second round of a game is completed, the running points totals for the current game are displayed under the round scores.  If "Best Of 7 Rounds" scoring is in effect, the running totals are the number of rounds won.

•	If the scoresheet is about to become full, earlier round scores will be consolidated into a single line, displayed in bold font.

Because the scoresheet is facing the player, it is maintained from the player's perspective - hence the player is "Me" and the opponent is "You".

Note:

You may click on the scoresheet to see the full details (including date and skill level) of all rounds of the current game. Round scores are always shown individually in the full details, even if  some have been consolidated on the scoresheet to make more room (see above).


Menus

The following drop-down menus are available:

Game

Configuration

Player

Opponent

Assistant

Rules

Scoreboards

Help


Game Menu

The following selections are available under the Game Menu:

AutoResume

Restart Round

Redeal Game

Exit


AutoResume

The AutoResume feature controls how Rummy 500 starts up when there are multiple scoreboards defined.

If AutoResume is checked, Rummy 500 will remember which player was playing when it exits, and will automatically start up for that player when Rummy 500 is next run.

If AutoResume is not checked, Rummy 500 will not remember which player is playing and, if multiple players are defined, will present the "Select Player" window when Rummy 500 is next run.

If only one player is defined, typically "Default", AutoResume has no effect on how Rummy 500 starts up.  It will start up for that player.

If the remembered player's scoreboard file is deleted between sessions, thus effectively undefining the player, Rummy 500 will present the "Select Player" window when next started.

The AutoResume option status is not saved in the same way as other options.  Rummy 500 automatically starts up with AutoResume set as it was when the previous Rummy 500 session exited.


Restart Round

Click to restart the current round.  Rummy 500 will abandon the current round and restart it from the beginning, without shuffling the cards.


Redeal Game

Click to start a new game. Rummy 500 will abandon the current game, reset all counters and scores, and shuffle the cards before dealing.

This action restarts only the current game.  Thus, if you are currently on game 3, the play will restart at round 1 of game 3.

If you want to start over from the beginning of game 1, select "Reset Scoreboard" from the "Scoreboards" menu.


Exit

Terminates the session and exits from Rummy 500.

Before exiting, Rummy 500 asks if you want to save the updated scoreboard for the current player, if it has changed since it was last saved.

If you respond "Yes", Rummy 500 will save the scores of all previous games and the scores of the rounds of the current game (if not yet completed) for the current player.  When this player next plays Rummy 500, this information will be restored automatically and play will proceed with the same game number and round number.

If you respond "No", the scoreboard information will not be updated and when the current player next plays Rummy 500, the situation will be as it was previously.

If, when you next play Rummy 500, you start part way through an unfinished game (e.g.,  round four) and you wish to restart from round one of the game, use the "Redeal Game" option.

Note that Rummy 500 only saves the scores of games and rounds completed.  It does not save the card distribution if you exit Rummy 500 partway through a round.


Configuration Menu

The configuration menu is comprised of selections that are mostly either checked or unchecked.  When the menu drops down, a checked item will have a check mark by it.  To select an option, click on it so that the check mark is showing.  To deselect an option, click on it so that the check mark is not showing.

The following selections are available under the Configuration Menu:

AutoStart

AutoSave All Options

Card & Font Size

Window Size

Card Design

True Corners

Colors

Sound Effects

Speak-To-Me

Music

Display Error Box

No Bell

No 3D Effects

No Status Messages

No Start Reminders

New Game Deal Cut

Quick Deal

Overlap Melds

Save Configuration


AutoStart

When selected, the "Press To Start..." button will not appear at the start of a player's session, that is when Rummy 500 starts, or after changing players.

When unselected, the "Press To Start..." button will be displayed at the start of a player's session.  This permits you to review information (such as help, or the scoreboards) and make option changes before Rummy 500 deals the first round of the session.


AutoSave All Options

When selected, all option settings under the "Configuration", "Player", "Opponent", and "Rules" menus will immediately be saved, and will subsequently be saved whenever they are changed   Also, the "Save ..." option in each of these menus will no longer appear.

When unselected, changes made to options are only saved when the "Save ..." option of the respective menu is selected.  This is the default.


Card and Font Size

Provided that the required image files exist in the same directory as Rummy 500 and your available video memory resources permit, you may select any of the four card display sizes described below.  Note that the font size displayed in Rummy 500's main window, and the size of the status bar and speed buttons, are adjusted to correspond with the card sizes larger than the regular size.  This improves the clarity and ease of playing Rummy 500 at higher screen resolution settings.  Note also that if you have "Large Fonts" selected for your Windows display mode, then Gin Rummy will counteract that setting when larger fonts would upset the integrity of displays containing card images.

Note:
You may not be able to run Rummy 500, or the cards may display as blank white rectangles, if you have selected a larger card size than can be accommodated within your currently available video memory resources.

Small

Card width is 58 pixels.  Available for all window sizes.

Regular

Card width is 72 pixels.  Not available with custom window sizes shallower than 460 pixels high .

Large

Card width is 90 pixels.  Not available with 600x480 window size or custom window sizes shallower than 580 pixels high .

Extra Large

Card width is 112 pixels.  Not available with 600x480 or 800x600 window size, or custom window sizes shallower than 748 pixels high ..

Alternatively, you may select either of the following from this menu option:

AutoSize Low

Card size varies automatically with selected window size:  Small for 600x480; Regular for 800x600; Large for 1024x768; Extra Large for 1280x1024.  (Custom window sizes will select the nearest appropriate size).  Click again on the "AutoSize Low" option to turn autosizing off.

AutoSize High

Card size varies automatically with selected window size: Regular for 600x480; Large for 800x600; Extra Large for 1024x768 and 1280x1024.  (Custom window sizes will select the nearest appropriate size.)  Click again on the "AutoSize High" option to turn autosizing off.

See Also:

Window Size


Window Size

At higher monitor resolutions, preset size options are available up to and including the current monitor resolution.  Select the window size equal to your current monitor resolution for full-screen display, or a smaller size setting for partial screen display.

The supported preset size options are: 600x480, 800x600, 1024x768, and 1280x1024.

Rummy 500 also supports custom (manual) resizing of the window for which you use the normal method of dragging an edge or a corner of the window frame - except when the AutoPlayer is running.  If you attempt to make the window too narrow or too shallow, Rummy 500 will shrink the window to the smallest permitted (590 x 400).   When the window has been resized in this manner, the "Custom Size" menu option will be checked.   If "AutoSave All Options" is selected, or when you "Save Configuration" with a custom window size in effect, the "Custom Size" menu entry will change to reflect the current window and card size.  This then remains a "Window Size" option for you to come back to (even between sessions) until the next time that the window is manually resized and saved.  Note that you cannot return to an unsaved custom size option.  Note also that maximizing the window is considered to be a temporary operation and the saved custom size is not changed.

If you change from a larger to a smaller window size, the card size may be automatically adjusted if the current card size is too large for the smaller window size, or if you have one of the AutoSize options selected under "Card & Font Size".

If you are using a "Large Fonts" resolution setting, Rummy 500 will automatically adjust its menu and window to accommodate the larger font size.

See also:

Card & Font Size


Card Design

There are six standard card back designs available.  To change to another design, select this menu option and click on the required card back from those displayed.

If you wish to, you can design your own card backs as alternatives to the standard cards.  In this case, the card design choice window will include a "Custom/Standard" button to switch between the six standard designs and up to six custom designs.

If you have previously saved your configuration with a custom card back which is no longer present on disk, Rummy 500 will default to the first of the standard designs.

See also:

Designing Custom Card Backs


Designing Custom Card Backs

Rummy 500 does not provide graphic design capabilities, so it is assumed that you are able to scan, copy, or design the image file(s) you require using other tools.

The size of the "regular" card image is 71 by 96 pixels.  If your design is larger, Rummy 500 will take the card back from the upper left part of your design.  Rummy 500 will automatically resize the card design when card sizes other than "regular" are selected.

You do not need to add the card frame (single pixel black line around the edge) or trim the corners.  Rummy 500 will do this automatically when it loads the card back image file, which will override your efforts anyway.

Card back designs should be stored in Windows Meta File (WMF) format.  If a card back is saved in bitmap (BMP) format it will likely display blank at higher color resolutions and may cause system instability.  If you already have or develop your designs in bitmap format, convert them to WMF format using an image converter program (such as Image Convert from MTE industries, available as shareware) or a graphics program (such as Paint Shop Pro from JASC, Inc. - also available as shareware).

Card back designs must be stored in the same directory as Rummy 500 as file names rumback1.wmf to rumback6.wmf.  You don't need to have all six, Rummy 500 will retrieve as many as it finds when displaying choices in the Card Design selection window.

See also:

Card Design


True Corners

When selected, Rummy 500 will display cards with rounded corners, removing the small gray corner flash.

When unselected, the default, Rummy 500 will display card images as rectangles which include the corner flash.  This method displays the cards much faster on slower systems.

While often not noticeable, the corner flash is more visible with dark custom card back designs and certain choices of background color.

Note:

When this option is selected, Rummy 500 uses more complex card display methods which will slow down the display of cards on slower systems, or those with slower graphics adaptors.

With faster systems and graphics adaptors, the difference in display speed is not noticeable and provides a much more realistic card image.


Colors

The colors option allows you to change the colors used by Rummy 500 as
follows.  Click on "Color Control"  for instructions on using the color control window.

•	Main - The outer part of the display.  Default is brown.

•	Table - The center table area.  Default is green.

•	Scoresheet  - The text color (default is black) and background color (default is gray) of the scoresheet

•	Error Message Text - The text color (default is black) and background color (default is red) of error messages displayed in the status bar.

•	Scoreboard Wins and Losses - The scoreboard text colors of games won (default is blue) and games lost (default is red).

•	Opponent Melds - The tint color for melded cards.  Default is  yellow.

•	Dialog Background - The background color of text displays in the status bar, dialog box messages, and information windows.  Default is light gray.

See Also:

Color Control


Color Control

The color control window is used to provide on-screen adjustment of the colors displayed by Rummy 500.

First, in the upper part of the window, select the target area for which you want to change the color.  The current color is displayed below the "Target" selection frame.  If the target allows you to change both the text and the background colors, select the one desired from the "Attribute" selection frame.

Second, click on the "New Color" button to select the color to which you require to change the target.  The standard Windows color selection window will be displayed.  You will return to the color control window after you have made your new selection.

If you wish to preview the effect of the change, click the "Preview" button.  The revised color scheme will be dynamically displayed "on-screen" in the main Rummy 500 window.  Note that: (i) the scoreboard win and loss colors are not shown on-screen, and (ii) the opponent meld color will only be dynamically displayed if opponent melds are currently displayed on the table.

The effect of the other buttons are:

•	Help - Shows this help section.

•	Cancel - Cancels all changes and terminates the color control window.

•	Done - Terminates the color control window having made and saved (if automatic configuration saving is enabled) all changes.

Additionally the "Reset" selection frame allows you to select the following:

•	Start Over - Resets all colors to how they were when you invoked the color control.

•	Factory  - Resets all colors to the Rummy 500 default values encoded into the program.

•	Local  - Resets all colors to the values saved for the "Default" player

Note:

If you define custom colors in the color selection window, these will be stored in the RUMMY500.INI file so that you can use the same colors within Rummy 500 at any time in the future.


Sound Effects

Select this menu option to enable/disable sound effects and to invoke the sound effect options window.

For the sound effects, Rummy 500 permits the optional association of a wav file with each of the following eight events:

•	Start Up

•	Shuffling

•	Placing a card or cards

•	Winning a round

•	Losing a round

•	Winning a game

•	Losing a game

•	Exit

Rummy 500 does not check that you have a sound board or the speak.exe driver installed.  The speak.exe driver is a freely available Microsoft product which uses your PC speaker to play (low quality) sound.  If you do not have either of these sound capabilities installed, no error message will appear but any sounds you specify won't be heard.

Note that some systems are unable to play music and other sounds simultaneously.  In this case either do not enable the music feature, or do not enable sound-effects and Speak-To-Me features.

The sound options window is configured in the following two sections:

Sound Files Currently Defined

Select one of the eight buttons corresponding to the events which can have a sound associated.  The name of the currently assigned file name will be displayed.  (If there is no associated sound file, [none] will be displayed.)  To test the sound, press "Play".  To break the association between the file and the event, press "Cancel".

To assign a sound file, or a new sound file, with an event, use the lower part of the sound options window (see below).

Select Different File

First, ensure that the required event is selected in the above section.

Use the directory selector, and the drive selector above it, to select the directory in which the required wav file is located.  A list of all wav files in the directory will be displayed in the file list to the left of the directory selector.  Click on the required filename and use the "Select" Button to assign it to the required event.  To test the sound, use the "Test" button.


SpeakTo Me
Speak-To-Me

When enabled, and WinSpeech is correctly installed on your system, Rummy 500 will speak to you.  The spoken phrases will include prompts, error messages, confirmations, and score summaries.  The facility will work with your PC's internal speaker (provided you have Microsoft's speak.exe driver installed), but the quality is better with a sound card.

The SpeakToMe feature requires that PC Wholeware's WinSpeech program is installed on your system.  You may find a copy of WinSpeech at your usual shareware source.

A freeware copy of WinSpeech is included with the registered diskette versions of Rummy 500.  You are responsible for registering WinSpeech with PC Wholeware according to your needs.  However, this is not required if you are content to see the splash screens when WinSpeech starts.

MeggieSoft Games has no business connection with PC Wholeware.

Define

Rummy 500 needs to know about your WinSpeech installation before it can speak to you.  By default, it is assumed that WinSpeech is installed in the same directory as Rummy 500 and has the Title Bar description of "WinSpeech 2.0".

If your installation does not match these defaults, click on the "Define" option.  The resulting window will permit you to define the full path and file name (e.g. "c:\dira\dirb\winspeech.exe") and the exact Title Bar description.

If you are a registered user of a version of WinSpeech later than 2.0, it is anticipated that you will be able to add a space followed by the letter "T" (upper case) after the file name in order to suppress the WinSpeech start-up screen.  Please check your WinSpeech documentation for confirmation of this.

Enable

When checked, the opponent and assistant will speak to you using synthesized speech, provided you have PC Wholeware's WinSpeech program installed on your system.

Rummy 500 will automatically start WinSpeech when it first wants to speak, if WinSpeech is not already running.

Notes:

If you wish to change the pronunciation of a word (for example, if Rummy 500 does not pronounce your name correctly), you may do this via the "Dictionary" menu option within the WinSpeech program.

Some systems are unable to play music and other sounds simultaneously.  In this case either do not enable the music feature, or do not enable sound-effects and Speak-To-Me features.


Music

Select this menu option to enable/disable the playing of MIDI music files and to invoke the music selection window.

Rummy 500 does not check that you have a sound card installed.   If you do not have MIDI sound capabilities installed, no error message will appear but any music you specify won't be heard.

Note that some systems are unable to play music and other sounds simultaneously.  In this case either do not enable the music feature, or do not enable sound-effects and Speak-To-Me features.

When music is playing, you may also select the "Now Playing" option to display the name of the file being played and (if more than one MIDI file exists in the selection directory) to skip to another piece.  The next piece is selected on the basis of the "Cycle" or"Random" play method setting described below.  If the "Single" or "Repeat" play setting is in effect, the cycle method will be used for skipping

When the music option is enabled (and saved), music will start playing whenever you start Rummy 500 for the currently selected player, or when you switch players to the current player.  Note that each player's selection is saved separately.  Thus each of  two or more players may have their own preferred selection.

The music selection window is configured in the following two sections:

Select Different File

Use the drive and directory windows in the normal way to select the required directory where MIDI files are stored.  Click on a filename and, if you wish, press the "Test" button to play the music file selected.  The button label will then change to "Stop"; press it again to stop playing the selection.

To select the file as your music selection, press the "Select" button.  Alternatively, you may double click on the filename to select it.

Play Method

Select one of the following:

•	Single - the selected music file will be played once.

•	Repeat - the selected music file will be played repeatedly

•	Cycle - the selected music file will be played first.  When it finishes the next file in the directory will be played, and so on.   At the end of the list, the selection will move to the first.

•	Random - the music files of the current selection's directory will be played in random order, irrespective of which file is selected as the current selection.  However, one of the files from the required directory must be selected.  Note that "random" is precisely that -- the only guarantee is that the same selection will not be played twice in succession.


Display Error Box

When selected, error messages displayed by Rummy 500 are shown as dialog boxes (with an "OK" button) instead of in the status bar.  This facilitates reading on monitors where the status bar error message might be hard to read.

When unselected, the default, all error messages displayed by Rummy 500 appear in the status bar.


No Bell

When selected, the bell/beep sound associated with errors and spurious mouse clicks is suppressed.  It is recommended that the "Display Error Box" option be selected in this situation so that error messages don't go unnoticed.

When unselected, the default, the bell will sound when an error is displayed, or when a spurious mouse click is detected.


No 3D Effects

When checked, the 3-Dimensional look to the user interface is disabled.

When unchecked,  3D effects are enabled.  In this state all menus, pop-up windows and forms, dialog messages, etc., are displayed using gray backgrounds and three-dimensional highlighting.  This is the default.


No Status Messages

When checked, status messages are not displayed in the status bar during play.  Error messages will continue to be displayed as appropriate.  When unchecked, the status messages indicating the state of play will be displayed.


No Start Reminders

When selected, the reminders of who starts the next round or game are suppressed.

When unselected, the default, a reminder of who starts next is displayed at the start of each round.


New Game Deal Cut

When selected, the players will cut for deal at the start of each new game, and non-dealer will lead the first round.

When unselected, the default, the player leads the first game, the opponent the second game, and so on alternately.

The deal cut window permits you to cut any card between the first and fifty-first in the deck.  Move the scroll bar to select the cut.  The opponent will cut the remaining cards in half.


Quick Deal

When checked, Rummy 500 will deal cards such that  the player's and opponent's complete hands are not displayed until they have been completely dealt.

When not checked, the default, cards will be dealt singly with a 100 millisecond pause between cards.  This is cosmetically more realistic, but may be frustrating on slower systems.


Overlap Melds

When selected, melds are overlapped by at least 49% in order to horizontally compress the space needed to display them.  This facility reduces the need for Rummy 500 to automatically compress melds when the table width would be exceeded, since this can be time-consuming and distracting on slower systems.

When unselected, the default, melds are not overlapped unless and until  space limitations require them to be overlapped.


Save Configuration

Note: This option is not displayed if "AutoSave All Options" is selected under the "Configuration" menu.

This action copies a permanent record of the current settings under the "Configuration" menu to the computer's hard disk.  Each player's options are separately stored.

Each time that Rummy 500 is started, or players are changed, the personal configuration options for the incoming player are restored automatically.  If the player has not previously saved their personal configuration, the default configuration options will be used.

To change the default configuration settings, establish yourself as the player named "Default", make the required changes, and "Save Configuration".

See Also:

Save Opponent Options

Save Player Options

Save Rules

AutoSave All Options


Save Opponent Options

Note: This option is not displayed if "AutoSave All Options" is selected under the "Configuration" menu.

This action copies a permanent record of the current settings under the Opponent menu to the computer's hard disk.  Each player's options are separately stored.

Each time that Rummy 500 is started, or players are changed, the personal opponent settings for the incoming player are restored automatically.  If the player has not previously saved their personal options, the default options will be used.

To change the default opponent settings, establish yourself as the player named "Default", make the required changes, and "Save Opponent".

See Also:

Save Configuration

Save Player Options

Save Rules

AutoSave All Options


Save Player Options

Note: This option is not displayed if "AutoSave All Options" is selected under the "Configuration" menu.

This action copies a permanent record of the current settings under the Player menu to the computer's hard disk.  Each player's options are separately stored.

Each time that Rummy 500 is started, or players are changed, the personal player settings for the incoming player are restored automatically.  If the player has not previously saved their personal options, the default options will be used.

To change the default player settings, establish yourself as the player named "Default", make the required changes, and "Save Player".

See Also:

Save Configuration

Save Opponent Options

Save Rules

AutoSave All Options


Save Rules

Note: This option is not displayed if "AutoSave All Options" is selected under the "Configuration" menu.

This action copies a permanent record of the current settings under the Rules menu to the computer's hard disk.

Each time that Rummy 500 is started, or players are changed, the rules settings for the incoming player are restored automatically.  If the player has not previously saved their personal options, the default options will be used.

To change the default rules settings, establish yourself as the player named "Default", make the required changes, and "Save Rules".

See Also:

Save Configuration

Save Opponent Options

Save Player Options

AutoSave All Options


Player Menu

The following selections are available under the Player Menu:

Change Players

AutoMouse - Cards

AutoMouse - Dialogs

Undo

Double-Click Discard

Check Meldable Discard

No Sorting

Sort Ace Low

Sort By Suit

Stagger Hand

Save Player Options


Change Players

Select this menu option to switch to another player, to add a new player, or to remove a player.

Switch

Select the incoming player name, and press the "Switch" button.  You may select any named player except yourself (the current player).

When switching players, you will first be asked if the scoreboard for the outgoing player is to be saved, if it has changed since it was last saved.   Then the incoming player's saved options and scoreboard status will be restored.  If the incoming player does not have personal options saved, the stored defaults will be used.

Remove

Select the player name to be removed, and press the "Remove" button.  You may select any named player except yourself (the current player).    You will be asked to confirm that the player is to be removed, after which the scoreboard file and the saved options for the player will be permanently deleted from your system.

Note that if you remove the player named "Default", only the scoreboard is removed.  This is because the corresponding saved options are used as the defaults for players who do not have personal options saved.

Add

When you first use Rummy 500, the only player is "Default".  Use the "Add" button to add more players.

When you select the "Add" button, a sub-window will appear, into which you will enter the name for the new player.  Press "OK" to create a scoreboard for the new player.  You may have up to 12 named players at any time

Enter players' names as 1-8 letters and numbers.  Spaces, punctuation marks, and special characters are not permitted.  Valid examples are: Jane, Charles, Dave2.  Irrespective of how you specify upper and lower case, Rummy 500 will always display the player names in lower case with the first letter capitalized.

Note:

You can also invoke the "Change Players" window by clicking on the current player name on the left scoremast.


AutoMouse Cards
AutoMouse - Cards

When checked, the mouse pointer automatically moves: (i) to your hand when you take a new card from the stock or you take one or more cards from the discard pile, and (ii) back to the stock when you discard.  It also moves to the stock after each new deal.

This facility reduces mouse movement and potential carpal tunnel strain for avid players of Rummy 500.


AutoMouse Dialogs
AutoMouse - Dialogs

When checked, the mouse pointer automatically moves to any message or information windows which are displayed and, if "AutoMouse - Cards" is also selected, back to the player's hand or the stock (depending where it was previously) after the window is dismissed.

This facility is intended to be used as an addition to "AutoMouse - Cards" to further reduce mouse movement and potential carpal tunnel strain for avid players of Rummy 500.

Note:

Some mouse drivers and add-in utilities also perform this function on some user's systems.  Therefore this is a separately selectable option within Rummy 500.


Undo

Select this option to undo your current turn and start it again.

This option is only enabled during your turn.   You cannot undo the opponent's turn, nor your previous turns.  You cannot return a seen card to the stock.  Once you have discarded, you cannot turn back.  Thus, the undo feature only permits what a reasonable human opponent would permit.

If you started your turn by taking a new card from the stock, that card will not be returned to the stock (because you have already seen it).  You will restart your turn from immediately after you took the card.

If you started your turn by taking from the discard pile, that card, or those cards, will be returned to the discard pile and you will restart your turn by taking a new card from the stock, or selecting from the discard pile.

If you have highlighted cards in your hand, the undo option will deselect them - even if there is nothing else to undo.

A shortcut to this action is to click on the Undo symbol in the status bar.


Double Click Discard
Double-Click Discard

When selected, the discard action requires a double-click on the right mouse button rather than a single click.

This option acts as a safety device against unintentional discarding.  When selected, a single click (of the right mouse button) has no effect, and two subsequent single clicks will display a reminder that a double-click is required.

When this option is not selected, discarding is achieved by a single click on the right mouse button.  This is the default.


Check Meldable Discard

When this option is selected, the player's discarding actions will be monitored and confirmation will be requested if the player is about to discard a card which could be melded - either with an existing meld, or with other cards in the player's hand.

When this option is not selected, discarding is final.

This option provides the equivalent of an "Are you really sure you want to do that?" comment which might be made by a human opponent during an informal game.


No Sorting

When selected, the player's hand is not automatically sorted as cards are added to it.  This permits the player to manage all arrangement of the cards in hand to their own preference.

When unselected, the default, the sortation of the player's cards is automatically maintained in the desired order (sorted by rank by default, by suit if selected under the "Player" menu.).

A shortcut to this option is to click with the right mouse button on the "Sort Order" speed button in the status bar.  When this shortcut method is used, the change is not saved when "AutoSave All Options" is in effect.

See Also:

Arranging Your Cards


Sort Ace Low

When checked, the sort criterion is set such that aces will be sorted low in the player's hand (and the opponent's hand, if visible), before twos.

When unchecked, aces are sorted high, after kings.

This option is automatically set and the menu option disabled when the "Ace Must Be Low" rule option is selected.  It is automatically unset when that rule option is deselected.

All sorting is performed in the order: Clubs, Diamonds, Spades, Hearts.  This improves differentiation of the suits by color.


Sort By Suit

When checked, the sort criterion is set such that cards will be sorted by rank within suit.  For example, all hearts will be grouped together.

When unchecked, cards are sorted by suit within rank.  For example, all kings are grouped together.

All sorting is performed in the order: Clubs, Diamonds, Spades, Hearts.  This improves differentiation of the suits by color.

A shortcut to this action is to click on the sortation symbol in the status bar.   When this shortcut method is used, the change is not saved when "AutoSave All Options" is in effect.


Stagger Hand

When selected, the cards in the player's hand will be displayed such that the suits are vertically offset from each other.  This makes it easier for some players to scan their hand for runs of cards in the same suit.

When unselected, the player's cards are displayed in alignment.

A shortcut to this action is to click on the alignment symbol in the status bar.  When this shortcut method is used, the change is not saved when "AutoSave All Options" is in effect.

Note that display update operations (such as highlighting and removing cards) for a staggered hand may be noticeably slower than for the aligned method on some systems.


Opponent Menu

The following selections are available under the Opponent Menu:

Show Cards

Show Remaining

Skill Level

Color Melded Cards

No Discard Highlighting

No Stock Highlighting

Quick Display

Save Opponent Options


Show Cards

When checked, shows the opponent's cards face up.  This facility was required when Rummy 500 was being developed and tested.  It remains part of the finished application so that you can determine for yourself whether there is any truth in the assertion that most people will occasionally cheat when nobody is watching them.

If you just want to see the remaining opponent cards at the end of each round, use the "Show Remaining" option.


Show Remaining

When checked, any cards remaining in the opponent's hand will be turned face up at the end of each round.

When not checked, any cards left in the opponent's hand will remain face down at the end of each round.  This is the default.


Skill Level

The following skill levels are available, in ascending order of difficulty:

Carefree

Novice

Standard

Expert

Champion

Master

Expert, Champion and Master modes are the most time consuming of the skill levels, and may be frustrating on a slow processor.  However, they make for the most challenging game and are relatively hard to beat.

Scoreboard Records

When rounds and games are recorded on the scoreboard, the skill level of the opponent is also saved.  If the opponent skill level is changed during a round or game, then the skill level recorded is the highest that was used during the round or game.  The skill level is noted when the player makes the first discard of a round, irrespective of who started the round, and is updated (if necessary) when subsequent discards are made.  Therefore, be sure to change the desired skill level for a game before your first discard.

Relative Performances

The scores from 100 game test series for each combination of skill levels are shown below.  These results should be taken as an approximate guide only.

•	Standard vs. Novice:    89  - 11   (Standard scored 47% more points)

•	Expert vs. Standard:      66 - 34   (Expert scored 12% more points)

•	Champion vs. Expert:    69 - 31   (Champion scored 12% more points)

•	Master vs. Champion:  50 - 41   (Master scored 6% more points)

Carefree never wins because it never melds.  It is therefore not included in the above.


Carefree Skill Level

The opponent always picks up a new card from the stock, and immediately discards at random.  The opponent never plays a meld, and never scores any points.  This setting is useful when you are learning the game and wish to play out your own hand completely.


Novice Skill Level

The opponent will consider whether to pick up any of the last 25% of the discard pile for melding, or take a new card from the stock.  The opponent will play melds, and discards at random.


Standard Skill Level

The opponent will consider whether to pick any of the last 50% of the discard pile for melding.  Otherwise it will decide whether to take the last discard or take a new card from the stock.

The opponent will play melds, and discards intelligently.  It avoids discarding potential members of future melds, and considers your previous discard in this decision.

When in "standard" mode and higher, the opponent will make two passes of its meld analysis of each combination - the first considering runs before same-kind melds, and the second vice-versa, to determine the better potential.


Expert Skill Level

The opponent plays similarly to the "standard" opponent, except that 75% of the cards in the discard pile will be considered for melding.

Additionally, a more complex risk analysis regarding the taking of discards is performed with emphasis upon: how many rounds have been played, how many cards the other player is holding, and how many unmeldable cards are already in the hand.

The analysis of which card to discard is deeper than for the "standard" opponent.


Champion Skill Level

All of the cards in the discard pile will be considered for melding.

The primary difference between Champion and the lower skill levels is that Champion will hold meldable cards in hand for a time (instead of playing them to the table) when it calculates that this is beneficial.

The risk analysis regarding the taking of discards extends beyond that for the "expert" skill level, with additional emphasis upon: how many melds are on the table, the differences between the players' score, and how many unmeldable cards will be added to the hand.

The analysis of which card to discard is deeper than for the "expert" opponent.

Note: You might find Champion mode easier to beat than Expert mode, depending upon your particular style of play.


Master Skill Level

Master skill level is designed to be the hardest to win against.  It is an enhancement of the Champion skill level, and includes even deeper analyses regarding the risks of taking from the discard pile and holding back from melding.

Note: The Master skill level is the most aggressive of the skill levels.  Because of this, you might find Master mode easier to beat than Champion mode, depending upon your particular style of play.


Color Melded Cards

When this option is selected, cards melded by the opponent will be displayed with a tinted, rather than white, card background.  This allows you to see clearly which cards on the table were melded by the opponent, and which by the player.  The option is selectable to display coloring all the time, or only at the end of a round.  The tint color is selectable via the "Colors" option under the "Configuration" menu.

When not selected, melded cards are always displayed normally, with white backgrounds.  This is the default.

A shortcut to this action is to click on the tinting symbol in the status bar.   When this shortcut method is used, the change is not saved when "AutoSave All Options" is in effect.


No Discard Highlighting

When checked, suppresses the highlighting of cards taken from the discard pile during the opponent's turn.

When unchecked, the opponent will highlight the card in the discard pile that it is taking and again as it is melded.  This is the default.


No Stock Highlighting

When checked, suppresses the highlighting of the stock when the opponent takes a new card at the start of its turn.

When unchecked, the opponent will highlight the stock when it takes a new card.


Quick Display

When checked, Rummy 500 does not pause when the opponent is playing.

When not checked, the default, there will be a 400 millisecond pause after the opponent has taken a card (or discards), or has melded cards to the table.  This is to allow you to more clearly see the opponent's actions, particularly on faster processors.


Assistant Menu

The following selections are available under the Assistant Menu:

AutoPlayer

Explain

Suggest

Recall

Show Distribution

Swap Cards


AutoPlayer

The AutoPlayer is a capability used during the development and enhancement of the Rummy 500 skill levels.  AutoPlayer puts Rummy 500 into a fully automatic mode whereby both the opponent's and the player's hands are played alternately by the computer.

AutoPlayer has now been included as an option into Rummy 500 because it is a valuable learning facility for new users who wish to watch the game being played before playing it themselves.

When the AutoPlayer option is selected, you may be asked if the updated scoreboard for the current player is to be saved.  Respond "yes" if you wish to recover to the current state after AutoPlayer has finished, otherwise recovery will be to the point that the scoreboard for the current player was last saved.

You will be asked to define which of the six skill levels is to be used by the player.  You may cancel at this point by pressing "Cancel".  Note that the opponent will play at the skill level in operation when AutoPlayer is selected.  Therefore you should change this before selecting AutoPlayer if and as necessary.

Once the player skill level has been selected and you have selected "OK", just sit back and enjoy the view.  When you have seen enough, press the "Stop AutoPlay" button in the middle of the status bar.

When it is stopped, AutoPlayer will permit you to display the game scoreboard for the AutoPlay session, if at least one game was completed.

After the AutoPlayer is dismissed, Rummy 500 returns to the previous player's game.


Explain

When this menu entry is selected, the "Assist!" window will appear.

The Assist! window is context sensitive and will describe your alternatives at the current state of play.

You may move the Assist! window by dragging its title bar.

You may click on the Assist! icon in the status bar as a shortcut to displaying the Assist! window.


Suggest

When this menu entry is selected, Rummy 500 will examine your hand and display a reasonable series of actions for you to take.  (Rummy 500 does not compromise its integrity by taking advantage of this knowledge when determining subsequent turns for the opponent.)

When it is your turn to take a card, the display will start with a suggestion as to whether you should take a card from the stock or from the discard pile.  If the suggestion is to take a new card from the stock, that will be the entire suggestion.  (If you elect to "Do It", then the remaining suggestions will be given after the new card has been taken into account.)

If you could meld a card or cards from your hand, instructions to this effect will be displayed, together with the point value for each suggested meld.

Finally, if there would be a card or cards remaining in your hand, the display will suggest which card to discard.

You may select the "Do It" button when the suggestion box is displayed, and Rummy 500 will play the suggestion(s) for you.  If you select "Do It" and the first suggestion is to take a new card from the stock, then another suggestion box will be displayed after the new has been added to your hand (in case the addition of this previously unknown card has created additional melding opportunities).

Rummy 500 employs the same logic for providing the suggestion as it does for playing the opponent's hand.  The method employed is the "Expert" skill level.

A shortcut to this action is to click on the Light Bulb symbol in the status bar.


Recall

The Recall facility is a powerful aid to those who cannot remember which cards have been seen during play.  It is not intended to be used frequently as an alternative to concentration, but may help you develop improved powers of recall.

When this menu entry is selected, you will be asked if you wish to recall "Seen", "Unseen", or "Both".

"Seen" cards are listed in two parts: those in your hand that the opponent has seen you take from the discard pile, and those that you have seen the opponent take.

"Unseen" cards are all those cards which are: not in your hand, not in the discard pile, not melded, and not among those of the oppnent's cards that you have seen.  They are therefore the content of the stock and the unseen portion of the opponent's hand - but who knows which is where?


Show Distribution

Select this option to see a map of all the cards and their current locations (discard pile, melded, seen taken to opponent hand, etc.)  The display does not identify the location of cards that the player has not seen which are in the stock or in the opponent's hand.


Swap Cards

Select this option if you wish to swap cards with the Opponent.  Rummy 500 will then swap the cards currently in the player's hand with those in the opponent's hand.

The purpose of the option is as a learning tool.  It is not intended to be used to distort your true scoring ability relative to your peers, as might be reported by the League Table and the Hall Of Fame.


Rules Menu

The default rules of Rummy 500 are those documented in "Hoyle's Rules Of Games" for the game formally known as Five Hundred Rum.  Variations to these rules, as listed below, are available to support the methods employed by earlier versions of Rummy 500, and to support other reported variations--many from our own customers.

Ace Must Be Low

Best Of 7 Rounds

Deal 7 Cards

Score 5-10-15

Discard To Go Out

Meld Last Discard

Born To Meld

Persian Jokers

Bonuses

Show Rules/Bonuses

Save Rules


Ace Must Be Low

When this option is selected, Aces may only be melded by the player or the opponent as part of run including the Two and the Three of the same suit, or as a meld of three or four Aces.  This is consistent with basic Rummy rules.

When this option is unselected, Aces may also be melded as part of a run including the King and Queen of the same suit.  This is the default and is consistent with the documented rules of Five Hundred Rum.

When this option is selected the "Sort Ace Low" option of the "Player" menu is also automatically selected and disabled.  When this option is unselected again, the "Sort Ace Low" option is automatically unselected and enabled.


Best Of 7 Rounds

When this option is selected, each game is won by the first player to win four rounds, irrespective of the points score.  Under these conditions, the display of previous points totals shown to the right of the table becomes a display of previous rounds won.

When this option is unselected, each game is won by the first to win 500 points.  This is the default and the normal way of scoring a game.

The option is disabled if either player has already won four or more rounds of the current game.


Deal 7 Cards

When this option is selected, the player and opponent are dealt seven cards each, as is documented as the rule for three or more players.

When this option is unselected, the player and opponent are dealt thirteen cards each.  This is the default and is the documented rule for the two-player game.


Score 5 10 15
Score 5-10-15

When this option is selected, the cards 2 through 9 are scored with a points value of five, as is an Ace melded as part of an Ace-Two-Three run.

When this option is unselected, the cards 2 through 9 are scored at their face value, and an Ace melded as part of an Ace-Two-Three run scores one point.  This is the default and corresponds to the published rules.

In both cases, the cards 10 through King score ten points and an Ace scores fifteen points except when melded as part of an Ace-Two-Three run.


Discard To Go Out

When this option is selected, the player or the opponent must discard a final card in order to "go out" and end the current round.

When this option is unselected, either the player or the opponent may meld their last card and not have to play a final discard.  This is the default and conforms with the documented rules.


Meld Last Discard

When this option is selected, the last card played to the discard pile may be taken only if it can be melded immediately (as is the case for all earlier discards).  In this case, selecting the last card highlights it in preparation for melding.

When this option is unselected, the last discard may be freely taken as an alternative to taking a new card from the stock.  This is the default.


Born To Meld

When enabled, this interesting rule variation requires that you must take discards before you can play the first meld of a round.

In other words, you may not meld if your only actions during the current round so far have been to take new cards from the stock and from the end of the discard pile (unless the "Meld Last Discard" options is selected).

When you take any other card from the discard pile, you are said to have been "born".  Of course, you must meld the card you took from the discard pile immediately.  You may then freely meld throughout the remainder of the round.

This variation permits a strategy of attempting to block or delay the opponent from taking potentially meldable discards, and therefore from being able to score points from melding.  (Naturally, the higher opponent skill levels understand this!)


Bonuses

You may assign the following bonuses from the "Rules" menu.  If any are selected, a display frame will be shown under the stock indicating which bonuses are in effect.  This frame will also note that players have to be "Born To Meld", if this variation is also in effect.

Two Of Clubs

When in effect, the Two of Clubs is worth 50 points - both when melded and when left in a player's hand at the end of a round.

Queen Of Spades

When in effect, the Queen of Spades is worth 50 points - both when melded and when left in a player's hand at the end of a round.

Four Of A Kind

When in effect, melds of four of a kind (for example, four Jacks or four Fives) score double points.  There is therefore value in not laying down a three-of-a-kind meld if it is possible the fourth card might be forthcoming.

Going Out

When in effect, a 50 point bonus is awarded to a player who ends the round by exhausting their hand.  If a round ends because the stock is depleted, then no bonus is awarded.


Show Rules_Bonuses
Show Rules/Bonuses

When rule options or bonuses are selected, this option toggles the frame displayed below the stock between showing the selected rules and the actve bonuses.

You may click on the display frame as a shortcut to this menu selection.

This menu selection does not appear if no rule options and bonuses have been selected.


Scoreboards Menu

The following selections are available under the Scoreboard Menu:

This Game

Game History

League Table

Hall Of Fame

Reset Scoreboard

Save Scoreboard


This Game

Displays the winner, and the scores of the player and the opponent, for each of the previous rounds of the current game.

The display includes the date and opponent skill level for each round.  If the player's scoreboard was started with an earlier version of Rummy 500 which did not record dates and skill levels, the scoreboard will be automatically converted to the new format.  For these records, the opponent will be displayed as "Unknown" and the date will be displayed as "1/1/94".

The text colors (blue for wins, red for losses) may be changed via the Configuration menu.

See also:

Skill Level


Game History

Displays the winner, and the scores of the player and the opponent, for all previous games played by the currently active player.

The display includes the date and opponent skill level for each game.  If the player's scoreboard was started with an earlier version of Rummy 500 which did not record dates and skill levels, the scoreboard will be automatically converted to the new format.  For these records, the opponent will be displayed as "Unknown" and the date will be displayed as "1/1/94".

A selection pad permits the display of the game history against the opponent at a particular skill level.

The text colors (blue for wins, red for losses) may be changed via the Configuration menu.

See also:

Skill Level


League Table

Displays the following information for all players for whom a saved scoreboard file exists: Games Won, Games Lost, Points For, Points Against, Average (points for divided by games played)


Hall Of Fame
Hall Of Game

From examination of all saved scoreboards, displays statistics such as highest and lowest scores for and against, narrowest and widest winning margins, etc.


Reset Scoreboard

Select this option to reset your game scoreboard to zero.  The game counter will return to game number 1.

If you are partway through a game, the scores of the previous rounds of the game are not cleared.  Thus you can make the current game the first of your new scoreboard.

The previously saved copy of your scoreboard is not erased by this action.  You must use the "Save Scoreboard" option to replace the previous scoreboard with the new one.

If you clear the scoreboard and decide you would have preferred not to have done so, exit Rummy 500 (or change players) and respond "No" when asked if the updated scoreboard is to be saved.


Save Scoreboard

Select this option to perform an immediate save of the current scoreboard status (games and rounds) for the current player.

This option is useful if you are enjoying an extended session of Rummy 500 and don't want to wait until you exit Rummy 500, or change players, before your updated scoreboard status is safely saved to disk.


Help Menu

Using This Menu

Displays this help window.

Main Contents

Displays the main Rummy 500 help window.

Screen Layout

Explains the screen layout of Rummy 500.

Index

Displays the index to Rummy 500 help.

Glossary

Displays the glossary of Rummy 500 terms.

Search...

Displays the topic search window.

Order Form

Displays a form for you to enter your name and address and print the order form to register Rummy 500.

Enter Registration

Permits you to enter or re-enter your registration number.

While Rummy 500 is unregistered, the five-second shareware notice will appear before each game.  Registering Rummy 500 both makes your copy legal and removes this notice.

Should the Rummy 500 options data on your hard disk ever become corrupted or is missing, Rummy 500 will return to the unregistered status.  In this case, you will need to re-enter your registration details.

About

Displays information about the version number and author, and the registration confirmation.

Note:

Like many other Windows programs, Rummy 500 supports the "F1" function key to provide context sensitive help.  You may press "F1" at any time to get help about the specific facility you are using.  For example, pressing "F1" when in the sound options window will display the help information for setting the sound options.


Shortcuts

You may click on the parts of the status bar described below in order to achieve the associated actions.

Error Messages

Click on an error message to clear it and see the underlying status message.

Query

Click on the query symbol to get assistance on what you can do at this point of your turn.  (Equivalent to the "Explain" option under the "Assistant" menu.)

Light Bulb

Click on the light bulb to get a hint.  (Equivalent to the "Suggest" option under the "Assistant" menu.)

Undo

Click on the undo symbol to undo your current turn and start over.  Note that you cannot undo taking a new card from the stock.  (Equivalent to the "Undo" option under the "Player" menu.)

Card Alignment

Click on the card alignment symbol to switch between normal and staggered display of the player's hand.  (Equivalent to the "Stagger Player Hand" option under the "Player" menu, except that the change is not automatically recorded when "AutoSave All Options" is in effect.)

Sort Order

Left-click on the sort order symbol to switch between rank sortation and suit sortation of the cards in the player's and opponent's hands.  (Equivalent to the "Sort By Suit" option under the "Player" menu, except that the change is not automatically recorded when "AutoSave All Options" is in effect.)

Right-click on the sort symbol to inhibit automatic sorting of the player's cards.  The symbol will then be dimmed with an "X" over it.  Right-click again to re-enable automatic sorting.   (Equivalent to using the "No Sorting" option under the "Player" menu, except that the change is not automatically recorded when "AutoSave All Options" is in effect.)

Note that when "No Sorting" is selected, the ability to switch between rank and suit sortation is disabled.

Color Opponent Melds

Click on the tint symbol to switch between white backgrounds and tinted backgrounds for cards melded by the opponent.  (Equivalent to the "Color Melded Cards / Always" option under the "Opponent" menu, except that the change is not automatically recorded when "AutoSave All Options" is in effect.)

You may also click on the following parts of the main Rummy 500 display:

Player's Name

Click on the player name to invoke the "Change Player" selection window.   (Equivalent to the "Change Players" option under the "Player" menu.)

Opponent's Name (Skill Level)

Click on the skill level to invoke the "Opponent Skill" selection window.  (Equivalent to the "Skill Level" option under the "Opponent" menu, except that the change is not automatically recorded when "AutoSave All Options" is in effect.)

Scoresheet

Click on the scoresheet to display the details of the round scores of the current game. (Equivalent to the "Current Game" option under the "Scoreboards" menu.)


Strategies

Taking A Card

Provided that the "Meld Last Discard" rule variation inhibiting the practice is not active, you should consider taking the last card from the discard pile as an alternative to a new card from the stock if the card increases the number of potential meld possibilities in your hand.

Remember, however, that the next unseen card from the stock may be equally or more useful.  At champion skill level, the opponent rates the usefulness of the last discard based upon its proximity to other cards in the opponent's hand.  The opponent will then only take the last discard if the rating is higher than a specified guideline,. You might consider a similar strategy for your own play.

Selecting Discards

Select and meld discards from the discard pile rather than taking a new card if the result will leave you with more net points (those you have melded less those left in your hand).

If the opponent has more than a few (say, five) cards in its hand, you might choose to end up with a worse net situation from taking the discards if there are a number of melds on the table to play to in subsequent turns.

Note that if the opponent only has one or two cards, there probably won't be many subsequent turns, and the excess cards in your hand will score against you.

The opponent, at average skill level and above, employs the same logic as described above.

As a general rule, it is better to take and meld discards than to not do so.  You cannot score more than 100 points (four aces and four others at ten points, with no discard) in a round if you only take from the stock.

Melding

The advantage of melding is that you get cards out of your hand to count for you, which would count against you if the opponent empties its hand first.

The disadvantage of melding is that you provide the means for the opponent to empty its hand faster, as and when it can play to your melds.

Except when employing "Champion" or "Master" skill level, the opponent always melds when it is able to.  At "Standard" skill level and above it takes cards from the discard pile with consideration to how many points it will have melded, how many left in its hand after melding the ones selected, and how many cards remain in your hand.  Thus the opponent is more likely to pick up discards when you have more cards in your hand.

Discarding

Select which card to discard based upon which is the least useful in comparison to others in your hand, and which is probably less useful to your opponent.

Remember, if the opponent has only one or two cards left, that aces will count fifteen points against you if the opponent melds its remaining cards on its next turn. Tens, Jacks, Queens and Kings remaining in your hand will score ten points against you.

See also the strategy note for:

Persian Jokers


How To ...

How to change the default settings

1 	If you are not playing as "Player: Default", change to player "Default"

2 	Make the setting changes you require to the menu choices

3 	Select "AutoSave All Options" from the "Configuration" menu.  This will save all option settings under the Configuration, Player, Opponent, and Rules menus.

4 	Unless you wish it to be the default option, deselect "AutoSave All Options" from the "Configuration" menu and then select "Save Configuration".

NOTE: The default settings are used when a player does not have options settings saved under their own player name - for example when a new player is added - or when colors are reset to the local default settings.  Default option settings are not used if a player has their own personal options saved.

How to save personal color and sound choices

All options changed via the "Configuration" menu are saved by the "Save Configuration" option.  Even though the color and sound settings are altered via their own setting forms, they are saved when "Save Configuration" is selected.  If "AutoSave All Options" is selected under the "Configuration" menu, the changes to choices are always saved as they are changed.

How to recover a reset scoreboard

Scoreboards are only permanently saved when you select "Save Scoreboard", or when you  respond "Yes" when exiting Rummy 500 or changing players.  If you have reset your scoreboard and would have preferred no to have done so, just exit Rummy 500 and respond "No" to the prompt "Save updated scoreboard...?"  When you restart Rummy 500, your previous scoreboard will be active.

How to speed up the display

The Rummy 500 and Gin Rummy user interface was originally developed for use on Intel 386-based systems.  Considerable effort went into making the display of cards as fast as possible.  By factory default, Rummy 500 is set to use the configuration settings for these slower systems.

However, more modern systems are much faster and generally include graphics accelerators.  Therefore Rummy 500 and Gin Rummy include some advanced options that are only acceptable to many people when used on a faster system.  If you find Rummy 500 slow to display, check that the "Trim Corners" option is not selected, and don't use the "Stagger Player Hand" option more than you need to.  Both of these features are much more intensive of graphics processing.

Also intensive on graphics processing are the coloring of opponent melds and the automatic overlapping of melds.  Therefore, turning off coloring (if you have it selected under the "Opponent" menu) and selecting the "Overlap Melds" option of the "Configuration" menu are other ways to speed up processing.

Also, consider selecting the "Quick Display" option under the "Opponent" menu if the opponent is too slow for your liking.  This will remove the 0.4 second delay between the opponent's actions.  However, you might then find it too fast!  Selecting the respective "No Highlight" options under the "Opponent" menu will inhibit discard and stock highlighting and the associated 0.2 second delay.


Technical
For The Technically Curious

Technical Construction

Third Party Components

Windows 95 Considerations

Saved Information


Technical Construction

Rummy 500 is programmed in Microsoft Visual Basic, Version 3.

Rummy 500 works from a bitmap of all the card images and makes extensive use of the Windows API Bitblt function.  Because of this, Rummy 500 is fast, but consumes approximately 2 Megabytes of RAM and 18% of the GDI resource stack depending upon the card and window size selected.

Starting with version 3.5, the bitmap is stored externally to Rummy 500 and is loaded at run time.

Alternative methods of managing the user interface proved to be more processor intensive and less conducive to fluid play.  The trade-off was made for performance at the cost of resource consumption.

Rummy 500 was originally developed and tested on a 20MHz 386SX system with 5MB of RAM.  Performance and fluidity of play was very satisfactory on this configuration.  Since version 3.7, development has moved to a Pentium 60 with 8MB of RAM, subsequently enlarged to 24 MB.  Testing is performed both on this system under Windows 95, and on a 486-33 class system with 8MB of RAM under Windows 3.1.

When in Expert, Champion and Master modes, the opponent will often "think" for up to thirty seconds on an Intel 386SX class processor.  "Thinking" is almost instantaneous on an Intel Pentium processor.


Third Party Components

Although Rummy 500 does not use a dll for card drawing (for performance reasons), Stephen Murphy's excellent freeware "qcard.dll" was used to create the bitmaps which Rummy 500 uses.  The card back designs included in qcard.dll were created by Daniel Di Bacco.  Acknowledgments are extended to each of them.

3-D effects are provided using "VBCtl3D" by Bernd Beekes and Jeff Simms.  This utility was selected for Rummy 500 as it provides an extremely full set of 3-D capabilities to Visual Basic programs.

The Rummy 500 help file was created using Firas Bushnaq's powerful "Visual Help".

The "Speak-To-Me" feature uses PC Wholeware's WinSpeech program.  You are responsible for obtaining this program separately from your normal shareware sources.  A freeware copy is included with the registered diskette versions of Rummy500, version 5 and later.  If you wish to register WinSpeech in order to avoid the start-up splash screens, you must do this direct with PC Wholeware.  There is no business connection between MeggieSoft and PC Wholeware.

VBCtl3D, Visual Help, and WinSpeech are shareware products licensed by the author.


Windows 95 Considerations

Rummy 500 is designed to run under Windows 95 and  Windows 3.1 (including Windows for Workgroups 3.11).

Beginning with version 5.0, the program has been updated to be "Windows 95 Friendly".  This means that the 3-D effects have been upgraded to look good with both Windows 95 and Windows 3.1.

While some speed improvement may be realized from a 32-bit version, most of Rummy 500's work would not be significantly impacted.  Therefore, in the interests of minimizing our overheads and maintaining a low price for registration, we will continue to maintain a single 16-bit version of the program for the present time.


Saved Information

Information is saved between Rummy 500 sessions as follows:

Registration

If you are a registered user, your name and encoded registration are stored in the [Rummy 500] section of RUMMY500.INI (in your windows directory).

AutoResume

When AutoResume is active, the name of the last player is maintained in the [Rummy 500] section of RUMMY500.INI.  The status of AutoResume is not saved independently . On start up, AutoResume is deemed to be enabled or disabled depending upon whether the name of the last player was saved.  Thus AutoResume always recovers the state that it was when the previous session exited.

Personal Options

The options (configuration, player, opponent, and rules) for each player are saved in a section of RUMMY500.INI identified as pertaining to the player.  For example, Jane's options will be saved in the section of RUMMY500.INI named "[Jane]".  If a player has not saved personal options, the defaults stored in RUMMY500.INI under "[Default]" are used.

Personal Scoreboards

Each player's scoreboard is saved in the Rummy 500 directory as xxxxxx.scb, where xxxxxx is the player's name.  Rummy 500 considers a player to be currently defined by whether a scoreboard file exists for the player, irrespective of whether options are saved for that player in RUMMY500.INI.  An empty scoreboard file is created for a player when their name is added via the "Add Player" menu option.

If you wish to erase disastrous games from the scoreboard, you may edit your scb file with any text editor, such as Notepad.  Each line of the scb file represents the scores for one game (stored in the order played) until the line that starts "-1,-1...", after which each line represents the scores for each round of the currently stored game (if any).  To clear the scoreboard completely, use the "Reset Scoreboard" option of the "Scoreboards" menu.


Glossary

#

3-dimensional

A

author

AutoMouse

D

defaults

discard pile

discarded

discarding

E

error message

F

Five Hundred Rum

G

game

H

hand

highlighted

M

meld

melded

melding

menu option

O

opponent

options

P

player

R

reserve

round

Rummy 500

S

scoreboard

skill

status bar

stock

T

table

W

wav file


Index

A

About The Opponent

Ace Must Be Low

Adding To An Existing Meld

Arranging Your Cards

Assistant Menu

AssistIcon

AutoMouse Cards

AutoMouse Dialogs

AutoPlayer

AutoResume

AutoSave All Options

AutoStart

B

Best Of 7 Rounds

BonusDisplay

Bonuses

Born To Meld

C

Card and Font Size

Card Design

CardSortOrder

CardStagger

Carefree Skill Level

Champion Skill Level

Change Players

Check Meldable Discard

Color Control

Color Melded Cards

ColorMelds

Colors

Configuration Menu

Contents

Context Sensitive Help (F1)

Creating A New Meld

D

Deal 7 Cards

Dealing

Default Colors

Designing Custom Card Backs

Determining Which Cards Are Melded

Discard To Go Out

Discarding From Your Hand

DiscardPile

Display Error Box

Double Click Discard

Drag and Drop from the Discard Pile

Drag and Drop from the Players Hand

Drag and Drop from the Stock

Drag and Drop

E

Error Messages

Exit

Expert Skill Level

Explain

F

F1 Function Key (Help)

G

Game History

Game Menu

GameCounter

Getting Started Instructions

Getting Started

Gin Rummy

Glossary

H

Hall Of Fame

Help Menu

How To ...

I

Index

L

Layout

League Table

LightBulb

M

Master Skill Level

Meld Last Discard

MeldedCardShading

Melding Cards To The Table

Melding

Melds

MenuBar

Menus

Mouse

Music

N

NetPointsCounter

New Game Deal Cut

No 3D Effects

No Bell

No Discard Highlighting

No Sorting

No Start Reminders

No Status Messages

No Stock Highlighting

Novice Skill Level

O

Opponent Menu

Opponent

OpponentArea

OpponentGames

OpponentMeldedCounter

Overlap Melds

Overview

P

Persian Jokers

Player Menu

PlayerArea

PlayerGames

PlayerMeldedCounter

PlayerReserve

Playing The Game

PointsInHandCounter

PriorRoundScores

Q

Quick Deal

Quick Display

R

Recall

Redeal Game

Reset Scoreboard

Restart Round

RoundCounter

Rules Menu

RunningGameTotal

S

Save Configuration

Save Opponent Options

Save Player Options

Save Rules

Save Scoreboard

Saved Information

Score 5 10 15

Scoreboards Menu

Scoresheet

Scoring

Shortcuts

Show Cards

Show Distribution

Show Remaining

Show Rules_Bonuses

Skill Level

Sort Ace Low

Sort By Suit

Sound Effects

SpeakTo Me

Stagger Hand

Standard Skill Level

Status Bar (Shortcuts)

StatusDisplay

Stock

StockCounter

Strategies

Suggest

Swap Cards

T

Table

Taking From The Discard Pile

Taking The Top Card Of The Stock

Technical Construction

Technical

The Layout

TheScoresheet

Third Party Components

This Game

True Corners

TurnCounter

U

Undo

UndoIcon

Using The Mouse

V

VBCtl3D

W

Watching A Game Being Played

Window Size

Windows 95 Considerations


Gin Rummy

Gin Rummy was first released by MeggieSoft Games in February 1995, and is the stablemate to Rummy 500.

From the early days of the Rummy family, the derivatives developed along two distinct paths.  One path, which includes Gin Rummy and its variations, emphasizes going-out.  The other path, of which Five Hundred Rum (or Rummy 500) is a well-known example, emphasizes the accumulation of points through melding.

Therefore, whereas Rummy 500 is oriented towards building the highest possible score from creating melds, Gin Rummy is oriented towards who goes out (knocks) first and who has the lesser amount of unmeldable points remaining in their hand (deadwood).

A round of Gin Rummy starts with each player being dealt ten cards.  As the round progresses, each player picks up and discards similarly to Rummy 500, with the following differences:

•	Only the last discard may be picked up as alternative to taking a new card from the stock

•	Melds are only played when a player knocks.  A player must have ten or less points of deadwood in order to knock.  The knocking player then lays down their melds, and the other player follows by laying down their melds and "laying off" any other meldable cards they may have onto the knocker's melds.  This ends the round.

•	The points scored are based upon the difference in deadwood points between the players; plus bonuses for knocking, undercutting (having less deadwood than the knocker), and winning a game (first player to reach 100 points).

Gin Rummy supports all well documented variations including: Hollywood Scoring, Oklahoma Gin, and 11 Card Gins.

Gin Rummy uses the same basic Graphical User Interface (GUI) as Rummy 500.  Thus the display and the use of the mouse is similar in both games.


AssistIcon
The Assist Icon

Click on this symbol to get assistance regarding what to do next.  This is a shortcut to the "Explain" action under the "Assistant" menu.


Bonus Display

The bonus display is shown when special bonus points are applicable, or rule options are in effect, as selected via the "Rules" menu.  You may click on this as a shortcut to the "Show Rules/Bonuses" toggle option of the "Rules" menu.


Card Sort Order

Left-click on this symbol as a shortcut to changing the "Sort By Suit" option under the "Player Menu".   When the cards are sorted by rank, the symbol represents the four suits.  When the cards are sorted by suit, the symbol shows numbers (representing rank order).

Right-click on this symbol as a shortcut to changing the "No Sorting" option under the "Player Menu".  The symbol will be dimmed, covered with an "X", and disabled until right-clicked again to renable automatic sorting.


Card Stagger

Click on this symbol as a shortcut to changing the "Stagger  Hand" option under the "Player" menu.   When the player's hand is normally aligned, the symbol is a staggered hand, and vice versa.


Color Melds

Click on this symbol as a shortcut to changing the "Color Melded Cards" option under the "Opponent" menu.   When the opponent's melded cards are displayed normally, the symbol is a tinted card; when the opponent's melded cards are displayed tinted, the symbol is a white card


DiscardPile
The Discard Pile

This is where each of the Player and Opponent discard a card at the end of their respective turn, and from where cards may be taken as an alternative to taking a new card from the stock.


GameCounter
The Game Counter

The top of the scoresheet shows the current game number.


LightBulb
The Light Bulb

Click on the Light Bulb (indicating an idea) as a shortcut to the "Suggest" option of the "Assistant" menu in order to receive a hint.


Melded Card Shading

Click on this symbol as a shortcut to changing the "Color Melded Cards" option under the "Opponent" menu.   When the opponent's melded cards are being tinted , the symbol represents a clear white card .  When melded cards are not being tinted, the symbol represents a tinted card.


Melds

Melded cards which have been played to the table by either player.


MenuBar
The Menu Bar

Click on one of the menu items on the layout diagram to see what choices you have.


NetPointsCounter
The Net Points Counter

This counter displays the current net points position of the Player.  This is the difference between points melded and points left in hand, and would be the Player's score for the round if the round finished on the next turn.


OpponentArea
The Opponent's Hand

The cards currently in the Opponent's hand.


OpponentGames
Opponent Games Total

This counter shows the skill level of the opponent and the total of completed games won by the opponent.

You may click on the opponent's skill level as a shortcut to the "Skill Level" option under the "Opponent" menu.  You may click on the game count as a shortcut to the "Game History" option under the "Scoreboards" menu.


OpponentMeldedCounter
The Opponent Melded Counter

This counter displays the number of points earned by the Opponent for melding cards in the current round.


PlayerArea
The Player's Hand

The cards currently in the Player's hand.  Note the "reserved" set of cards (the three twos) to the right of the hand in the layout diagram.


PlayerGames
Player Games Total

This counter shows the name of the player and the total of completed games won by the player.

You may click on the player's name as a shortcut to the "Change Players" action under the "Player" menu.  You may click on the game count as a shortcut to the "Game History" option under the "Scoreboards" menu.


PlayerMeldedCounter
The Player Melded Counter

This counter displays the number of points earned by the Player for melding cards in the current round.


PlayerReserve
The Player Reserve

These cards are part of the player's hand, but have been dragged to the right of the hand to form the "reserve" which will be maintained separately from the main hand.  See "Arranging Your Cards" for details on how to do this.


PointsInHandCounter
The Points-In-Hand Counter

This counter displays the total points value of the cards in the Player's hand.


Prior Round Scores

These counters show the player and opponent point totals from the prior rounds of the current game.


RoundCounter
The Round Counter

This counter indicates the number of the current round within the current game.


Running Game Total

When italicized these counters show the running sub-totals for the rounds completed of the current game.

When the game is completed, they will be displayed in normal font showing the final points totals for the game.


StatusDisplay
The Status Display

This area shows the current state of play, prompting the player what to do next.  Error messages are also displayed here.  Error messages will disappear as soon as play continues, or if you click on the message.


Stock
The Stock

The group of undealt cards.


StockCounter
The Stock Counter

This counter shows the number of cards remaining in the stock.


Table
The Table

The area where melds are played and  cards are discarded.


The Scoresheet

The scoresheet shows scoring information for the current game.  Click on any part of it in the layout diagram for specific detail.

When playing Rummy 500, you may click anywhere on the scoresheet as a shortcut to the "This Game" option under the "Scoreboards" menu.


TurnCounter
The Turn Counter

This counter indicates the number of the current turn within the current round.


UndoIcon
The Undo Icon

Click on this symbol to undo your turn.  This is a shortcut to the "Undo" action under the "Player" menu.


3-dimensional

A particular style of visual user interface which displays sunken and raised effects using shades of gray, black, and white to provide shadows.


author

Rummy 500 © 1994,1995  MeggieSoft Games


AutoMouse

The capabilities whereby the mouse pointer automatically moves between the deck and the player's hand as cards are taken and discarded, and/or to and from messages and information windows.


defaults

The saved option settings for a player named "Default".  These are used if a player does not have their own saved default options.  If the "Default" settings are not found on disk, Rummy 500's factory defaults will be used.  The default settings are changed by changing the current player to "Default", setting the options, and saving them.


discard pile

The cards which the player and opponent have discarded from their respective hands.


discarded

Having moved a card from one's hand to the discard pile.


discarding

The act of moving a card from the player's hand on to the discard pile.  This concludes the player's turn.


error message

Error messages are displayed, with red highlighting, in the status bar.  An error message will disappear as soon as you play on, or if you click on it.  Alternatively you may elect, under the "Configuration" menu, to have errors displayed as message boxes.


Five Hundred Rum

The formal name for the game referred to herein as "Rummy 500" for short.


game

In Rummy 500, a series of rounds which is concluded when either the player or the opponent has scored more than 500 points and the scores are not equal.


hand

The cards displayed above the top of the table (the opponent's hand) and below the bottom of the table (the player's hand).


highlighted

A card displayed in reverse-color (black as white, etc.).


meld

A set of matching cards played to the table.  A meld can be either a run of cards of the same suit, or three or four cards of the same rank (or value).  For example, the 8-9-10 of hearts would a valid meld, as would three jacks.


melded

Played to the table as part of an existing or new meld of three or more cards (either a run or of the same value).


melding

The act of moving cards from your hand to the table in order to form a meld.  A meld is a run of cards of the same suit or three or four cards of the same rank (or value).


menu option

One of the entries in one of the drop down menus.  Click on a menu entry to select it.


opponent

The opponent is the computer.


options

The custom selections which can be made by a player and stored as their personal defaults.  Options include: colors, sounds, card design, opponent skill level, rule variations.


player

A person who has been defined by name to play against the opponent.  Only one player can participate at a time.  Each player's personal options and scoreboards are stored independently from each other.    (Depending on the context the term "player" may also include the opponent.)


reserve

A group of cards set apart from the player's main hand.  This is useful, for example, to set potentially meldable cards aside from the rest of the cards.  See "Arranging Your Cards" for information on how to use this facility.


round

A series of turns (alternating between player and opponent) which is concluded when the player or the opponent has either melded or discarded the last card from their hand, or when there are no more cards remaining in the stock.


Rummy 500

The name used by MeggieSoft Games for the game of "Five Hundred Rum".


scoreboard

The record of a particular player's scores and the opponent's scores for games and rounds completed to date.


skill

"Carefree", "Novice", "Standard", "Expert", "Champion", "Master".


status bar

The area along the bottom of the Rummy 500 window where status messages, error messages, shortcut "buttons", and counters are displayed.


stock

The undealt cards from which the player and the opponent take a new card to start their turn.


table

The area in the center of the display where the discard pile and melds are shown.


wav file

A file of a particular format defined for storing sounds.  Rummy 500 can play sound files which are stored in wav file format.