Copyright: Pinochle ® 1996 MeggieSoft Games


Contents

Welcome to MeggieSoft Games' Pinochle.  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

Troubleshooting

Gin Rummy

Rummy 500


Overview

Pinochle generally refers to a  family of card games which shares some characteristics with the Rummy family and some with the Whist family.  The MeggieSoft Games implementation of Pinochle is the two-handed, single pack, game and is documented in Hoyle's Rules Of Games.  Pinochle adheres to the documented rules, but provides rule variations should you be familiar with other methods of playing.

Normally a pack of forty-eight cards is used, being the cards nine though ace of each suit twice.  Thus there are two cards of each rank/suit combination in the deck.  In the sixty-four card variation, the sevens and eights are also used.

Twelve cards are dealt to you and twelve to your opponent.  The cards are dealt in groups of three.  The remaining cards form the stock and are placed face down by the table.  The top card is turned face up and placed under the stock.  This card defines the trump suit for the round.

Each round is comprised of two phases.  During the first phase, which ends when there are no more cards in the stock, each player earns points by melding cards in their hand.
During the second phase, points are earned by taking tricks.

The first phase of a round starts with the player or the opponent playing a card from their hand to the table.  The lead on the first turn alternates between player and opponent for each game (unless the "cut for deal" option is selected), and for each round within a game.

During the first phase, the player leading wins the trick unless the other player covers it with a higher value card of the same suit, or a card of the trump suit.  Players are not required to follow suit in the first phase, i.e. any card card may be played.  The card value sequence, from the highest to lowest, is: Ace, Ten, King, Queen, Jack, Nine, Eight (64 card deck), Seven (64 card deck).

The winner of a trick may then lay down one meld from their hand if they are able to.  One or both Dix melds (the lowest trump card - nine or seven) may be made at the same time as another meld unless the "Dix Alone" menu option is selected.  Note that your melded cards are still part of your hand and may be played to the table or used to form new melds (subject to the melding rules), just like any other card in your hand.

Unless the stock is depleted, the winner of the trick then takes a new card from the stock, followed by the other player.  The former player then plays a card from their hand to the table in order to lead to the next trick.

The taker of the penultimate stock card is required to show the card.  (The other player will take the upturned trump card.)

When the stock has been depleted, all melded cards are returned to the players' hands and the second phase of the round starts.  During the second phase, tricks are played out but no further melding is permitted.  The winner of each trick leads to the next, as in the first phase.

However, during the second phase, the player of the second card to each trick must follow suit if they can, and must take a trump trick if they can.  Thus, if hearts are trumps and the opponent leads a king of hearts, you must play a ten or ace of hearts if you have one.   If you cannot follow suit, you must trump if you have a trump card in your hand.  Note that if the "Must Overplay" rule option is selected, you must play a higher card and take the trick of any suit (not just the trump suit) if you can.

A round ends after the twelve tricks of the second phase have been played.

Successive rounds are dealt and played until one of the players achieves the goal of 1000 points to win the game.

See also:

Melding Options and Scores


Melding Options and Scores

During the first phase of a round (before the stock is exhausted), players may lay down one meld after winning a trick -- with the exception of Dix melds which may be laid down in the same turn as other melds, unless the "Dix Alone" rule option is selected.

The first Dix melded will be exchanged with the trump card shown face up under the stock if it is not itself a Dix.  If the "Dix Dealt" bonus option is selected from the "Rules" menu, the dealer will automatically score 10 points if the trump card turned up is a Dix.

The melds are:

•	Dix:  Nine of Trumps (Seven of Trumps if the "64 Card Deck" rule option is selected) - 10 points

•	Pinochle: Jack of Diamonds plus Queen of Spades (Hearts if  the "Red Pinochle" rule option is selected) -  20 points

•	(Common) Marriage: Queen and King of a non-Trump suit - 20 points

•	Royal Marriage: Queen and King of the Trump suit - 40 points

•	Forty Jacks: Four Jacks of different suits - 40 points

•	Sixty Queens: Four Queens of different suits - 60 points

•	Eighty Kings: Four Kings of different suits - 80 points

•	Hundred Aces: Four Aces of different suits - 100 points

•	Flush: Ten, Jack, Queen, King, Ace of the Trump suit - 150 points

•	Roundhouse (if selected as a rule option): Four Queens of different suits plus four Kings of different suits - 220 points (240 points if selected as bonus option)

Cards already melded may form cards of a new meld subject to the following restrictions, which apply thoughout a round.

•	Each meld must include at least one previously unmelded card

•	A card which has already been melded as part of a set (Forty Jacks, Sixty Queens, Eighty Kings, Hundred Aces) may not be melded as part of another set or a roundhouse

•	A card which has already been melded as part of a marriage (royal or common) may not be melded as part of another marriage or a roundhouse

•	A card which has already been melded as part of a flush may not be melded as part of a marriage, but a card which has already been melded as part of a marriage may be melded as part of a flush

•	A card which has already been melded as part of a Roundhouse may not be melded as part of a marriage or a set.

Thus, for example, a Queen of Spades may be melded during a turn as part of a Pinochle,  as part of a set of Sixty Queens, and as part of a Marriage, in any order.


Getting Started

When learning a new game, many people prefer to watch others play a few hands before diving in for themselves.  Pinochle 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 Pinochle, 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 playing a card from your hand, by clicking on it with the RIGHT mouse button.

After you have played your card, the opponent will play a card.  If the opponent's card is a higher card of the same suit, or if it is a card of the trump suit and your card was not a trump, then the opponent takes the trick.  Otherwise you win the trick.  When you win a trick, you may meld a set of your cards.

Note that during the first phase of the game (while there are cards to be drawn from the stock) the second player does not have to follow suit, and they may trump to take a trick.  Thus the playing of cards is more akin to discarding in Rummy - except that you must win a trick prior to each meld you wish to lay down.  During this first phase, points are earned from melding - the tricks have no value.

After the trick has been taken, and any possible meld laid down by the winner of the trick, each player takes a new card from the stock - the previous trick winner taking first.

The next trick is then played, the first card being played by the winner of the previous trick.

When you 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 the opponent takes the penultimate card from the stock (before you take the last, upturned, card), it will be shown to you.

After the stock is exhausted, the second phase of the round is played.  This is more akin to a Whist game than a Rummy game in that the objective is now to make points by taking tricks.  However, unlike phase 1, players must follow suit if they are able, they must trump when possible if they cannot follow suit, and they must play a higher card than the led card if they are able.  In other words, if a player can take a trick, they must.  The round ends when all the cards have been played.

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.

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 in the way.

When you are learning the game, you might set the opponent skill level to "Master" and randomly play your cards.  In this way, you will see how the opponent plays cards and melds.  Subsequently, you might set the opponent skill to "Carefree" (in which case the opponent will never meld) 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!

See also:

Melding Options and Scores


Watching A Game Being Played

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

Follow the following steps to set Pinochle 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 upturned trump card beneath it.   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 to the right of the player's and the opponent's respective hands.

Tricks are played to the center of the table (the opponent has just led in the layout diagram) and tricks taken are displayed on the left side of the table.

The scoresheet is displayed to the right of the table.

If you have rules or 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 Pinochle 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,  Pinochle 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" provides an alternative shortcut method of mouse operation.

The basic "Click and Click" method 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 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 meld a Dix from one's hand, one can click down on the required card, drag the mouse to the right of the player's hand and release the mouse button.  Under the "click" method, the same operation is achieved by clicking on the card  in order to select it, and then clicking to the right of the player's hand 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 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 your hand 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.)

The only valid "Drag and Drop" destination from the stock is:

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.

See Also:

Drag and Drop

Drag and Drop from the Player's Hand


Drag and Drop from the Players Hand

When it is your turn to play a card to a trick you may right-click on a card to play it.  When you have won a trick and wish to meld, you may left-click of the card(s) to select them, and then click on the melding area to the right of your hand.

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 Trick Area

The card is played to the table.

A Meld

Note that the last card does not have to be selected to drag and drop it as part of a meld.  If multiple cards are to be melded (i.e., when the meld is not a Dix), those other than the dragged card must be selected first by clicking on them.  The last card to form the meld -- the one being dragged -- may selected (highlighted) or not.

If the meld is valid it will be scored and displayed as a new meld.

If the meld is invalid, 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 Stock


Arranging Your Cards

By default, Pinochle 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 displayed as dealt 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 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 melded sets of cards, if they exist, are 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.

If you are familiar with MeggieSoft Games'  Rummy 500 or Gin Rummy games, note that Pinochle does not support a "reserved" set of cards.  In Pinochle, the area to the right of the Player's unmelded cards is used to display the Player's melded cards.

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

Each round is divided into two phases.  The first phase ends when all the cards in the stock have been drawn.  Points are scored in the first phase for melding (but not for taking tricks); points are scored in the second phase for taking tricks.

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

1 	Playing one of the cards from those in your hand to lead to a trick, or follow the opponent's lead.

2 	Melding cards from your hand to the table, after you have taken a trick and if you have cards to meld.  Points are scored for melded cards.

3 	Taking a new card from the stock (first if you won the previous trick, after the opponent takes a card if the opponent won the previous trick).  When the stock is exhausted, play moves into the second phase.

The taker of the penultimate stock card is required to show the card.  Therefore the opponent will display this card if it takes the last-but-one card of the stock - i.e., before you take the upturned trump card.

During the second phase, the remaining cards are played as tricks (no further melding may take place).  Points are scored for taking tricks.

The round ends when the last (twelfth) trick of the second phase has been played.

Dealing

Playing A Card

Melding Cards

Taking The Top Card Of The Stock

Melding Options and Scores


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, Pinochle 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", Pinochle 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 player's hand after the cards have been dealt.


Playing A Card

Each turn is comprised of each player by playing any one of the cards in their hand.  Whomever won the previous trick of a round leads to the next.

During phase 1, while the stock is not exhausted, the other player may follow with any card in their hand, including their melded cards.  The trick is won by the second player if they play a higher card of the same suit or a trump card.  Otherwise the trick is won by the first player.

During phase 2 (after the stock has been exhausted), the following rules apply when  following the other player's lead:

•	If you can follow suit, you must do so.

•	When following suit and a trump suit was led (or if a non-trump is led and the "Must Overplay" option is selected), you must win the trick with a higher card if you have one.

•	If you cannot follow suit, you must play a trump if you have one.

To play 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 Play" 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 playing which cannot be undone.

The card is then removed from your hand and moved to the table.

If the "AutoMouse Cards" option is in effect: if you lost the trick or you are unable to meld, the mouse pointer will move automatically to the stock -- otherwise the mouse pointer will move to your hand so that you may lay down a meld.

Note that you cannot play a card to the table while cards are highlighted.  You must deselect any highlighted cards first.

See also:

Drag and Drop


Melding Cards

You may create a new meld whenever you have just taken a trick.  If the "Dix Alone" rule option is not selected, you may meld one or both Dixes in the same turn as another meld.  Otherwise, a Dix is treated as the single meld permitted per trick won.

The first Dix melded will be exchanged with the upturned trump card (under the stock) if it is not itself a Dix.

See also:

Creating A New Meld

Melding Options and Scores

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.  At least one of these cards must be from the unmelded cards in your hand; the others may be selected from your melded cards and/or your unmelded cards.  Note that the Dix is a single-card 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.

When you have selected (i.e., highlighted) the required card(s), you may meld them. You do this by positioning the mouse pointer to the right of your cards, or to the gap normally displayed between your hand and your other melds, and clicking the LEFT mouse button.

If the meld is valid, the cards will then be moved to the right of your hand to form the meld.

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.

Note:

You may meld one set of cards from your hand whenever you win a trick.  If the "Dix Alone" rule option is not selected, one or both Dix melds may be played in addition to a non-Dix meld as part of the same turn; otherwise Dix melds must be played separately.

The first Dix melded will be exchanged with the upturned trump card (under the stock) if it is not itself a Dix.

See also:

Melding Cards

Melding Options and Scores

Drag and Drop


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 played the previous card, if you had nothing to meld.)

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


About The Opponent

The opponent plays automatically after you have taken a card, after the opponent has taken a trick, 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 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

A player wins the game by reaching the goal of  1000 points before the other.  If both players reach the goal together, the goal is extended by 250 points (continually if necessary, until one player has won).

During the first phase, points are earned as each meld is laid down.  The points values of melds  are:

•	  10 Points : Dix (including when dealt as the turned up trump, if rule option selected)

•	  20 Points : Pinochle, Marriage

•	  40 Points : Royal Marriage, Four Jacks

•	  60 Points : Four Queens

•	  80 Points : Four Kings

•	100 Points : Four Aces

•	150 Points : Flush

•	220 Points : Roundhouse (if rule option selected, 240 points if Roundhouse bonus option is selected)

During the second phase, points are earned for each trick taken but are added to the players' scores only after then end of the round.  The points value of a trick is determined by adding together the points value of each card in the trick.  The points values of trick cards are:

•	  11 Points : Ace

•	  10 Points : Ten

•	    4 Points : King

•	    3 Points : Queen

•	    2 Points : Jack

Ten points may also be awarded for taking the last trick, if the corresponding rule option is selected.

First Dix

The first Dix melded during a round will be exchanged with the upturned trump card (under the stock) if it is not itself a Dix.

Knocking

Meld points are counted as scored, trick points are counted at the end of the round.  If one of the players reaches the goal during melding, they may knock and declare the game completed.  The opponent will knock automatically.  You may set the appropriate option under the "Assistant" menu if you wish to knock automatically; otherwise, you must  knock yourself by clicking on the table to the right of where the tricks are played.

Simplified Scoring

If you have selected the rule variation to score tricks using the simplified method, the trick cards are:

•	  10 Points : Ace and Ten

•	    5 Points : King and Queen (no points for Jack)

See Also:

Melding Options and Scores

Scoresheet


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.

•	After the second round of a game is completed, the running totals for the current game are displayed as a sub-total line under the round scores.

•	Within a round, points earned from melding are displayed in italics in color.  The running totals of points melded during the first phase of the current round are displayed under the round scores, followed by the running game totals.

•	The trick points being accumulated are reported at the bottom of the scoresheet.

•	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 Pinochle starts up when there are multiple scoreboards defined.

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

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

If only one player is defined, typically "Default", AutoResume has no effect on how Pinochle 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, Pinochle will present the "Select Player" window when next started.

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


Restart Round

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


Redeal Game

Click to start a new game. Pinochle 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 Pinochle.

Before exiting, Pinochle 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", Pinochle 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 Pinochle, 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 Pinochle, the situation will be as it was previously.

If, when you next play Pinochle, 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 Pinochle only saves the scores of games and rounds completed.  It does not save the card distribution if you exit Pinochle 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

Color Melded Cards

Colors

Sound Effects

Music

Speak-To-Me

Display Error Box

No Bell

No 3D Effects

No Status Messages

No Start Reminders

New Game Deal Cut

Quick Deal

Save Configuration


AutoStart

When selected, the "Press To Start..." button will not appear at the start of a player's session, that is when Pinochle 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 Pinochle 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 Pinochle 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 Pinochle'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 Pinochle at higher screen resolution settings.  Note also that if you have "Large Fonts" selected for your Windows display mode, then Pinochle will counteract that setting when larger fonts would upset the integrity of displays containing card images.

Note:
You may not be able to run Pinochle, 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.

Pinochle 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, Pinochle 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 will 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, Pinochle 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, Pinochle will default to the first of the standard designs.

See also:

Designing Custom Card Backs


Designing Custom Card Backs

Pinochle 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, Pinochle will take the card back from the upper left part of your design.  Pinochle 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.  Pinochle 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 Pinochle as file names rumback1.wmf to rumback6.wmf.  You don't need to have all six, Pinochle will retrieve as many as it finds when displaying choices in the Card Design selection window.

See also:

Card Design


True Corners

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

When unselected, the default, Pinochle 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, Pinochle 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.


Color Melded Cards

When this option is selected, cards melded by both players will be displayed with a tinted, rather than white, card background.  This allows you to see clearly which cards have been melded and which are part of the unseen hand.  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.


Colors

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

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

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

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

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

•	Meld Scoring Text - The text color of the accumulated meld points displayed on the scoresheet (default is green).

•	Meld Flash - The background color of the Meldable Points Indicator when the player can lay down a meld (default is light blue).

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

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

•	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 Pinochle.

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 Pinochle window.  Note that: (i) the scoreboard win and loss colors are not shown on-screen, and (ii) the meld color will only be dynamically displayed if  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 Pinochle 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 PINOCHLE.INI file so that you can use the same colors within Pinochle 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,Pinochle 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

Pinochle 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.


Music

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

Pinochle 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 Pinochle 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.


SpeakTo Me
Speak-To-Me

When enabled, and WinSpeech is correctly installed on your system, Pinochle 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.

If you request it with your order, a freeware copy of WinSpeech will be included with the registered diskette version of Pinochle.  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

Pinochle 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 Pinochle 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\wspeech.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.

Pinochle 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 Pinochle 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.


Display Error Box

When selected, error messages displayed by Pinochle 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 Pinochle 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 forty-seventh card in the deck (sixty-third card if a sixty-four card deck is selected).  Move the scroll bar to select the cut.  The opponent will cut the remaining cards in half.


Quick Deal

When checked, Pinochle 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 in threes with a 100 millisecond pause between cards.  This is cosmetically more realistic, but may be frustrating on slower systems.


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 Pinochle 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 Pinochle 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  Pinochle 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  Pinochle 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

AutoKnock

Undo

Double-Click Play

Check Meldable Play

Display Meldable Points

No Sorting

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 Pinochle, 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, Pinochle 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 it is your turn to play a card from your hand, and (ii) back to the stock when it is your turn to take a new card.  It also moves to your hand after each new deal.

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


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 Pinochle.

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 Pinochle.


AutoKnock

When selected, Pinochle will knock for you automatically if you reach the required number of points to win the game during the (melding) phase of a round.

When not selected, the default, you are required to knock yourself (by clicking on the right side of the table) if you reach the goal during the melding phase.

Note that the opponent will always knock automatically when it has amassed sufficient points.


Undo

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

This option is only enabled during your turn so that you can undo a melding action if you wish to play an alternative meld.   You cannot undo the opponent's turn, nor your previous turns.  You cannot return a seen card to the stock.  Once you have played a card to a trick, you cannot take it back.  Thus, the undo feature only permits what a reasonable human opponent would permit.

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 Play
Double-Click Play

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

This option acts as a safety device against unintentional playing.  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, playing a card is achieved by a single click on the right mouse button.  This is the default.


Check Meldable Play

When this option is selected, the player's playing actions will be monitored and confirmation will be requested if the player is about to play a card which could be melded.

When this option is not selected, playing a card to the table is final.

See also:

Melding Options and Scores


Display Meldable Points

When selected, the player melding indicator will be displayed in the status bar.  When not selected, the default, the indicator will not be shown.

The indicator displays the following:

•	Undealt - when the cards have not yet been dealt

•	No meld - when the player has no meldable cards in hand

•	Meld xx - when the player holds a meld in hand (worth xx points)

•	Play Off - during the second phase of a round

When the player has won a trick and can play a meld, the indicator is displayed with a background  flash or highlight, the color of which can be changed via the "Colors" option of the "Configuration" menu.

See also:

Melding Options and Scores


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 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.

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

Skill Level

No Play Card 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 Pinochle 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.


Skill Level

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

Carefree

Novice

Standard

Expert

Champion

Master

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 plays the first card of a round, irrespective of who started the round, and is updated (if necessary) when subsequent cards are played by the player.  Therefore, be sure to change the desired skill level for a game before you play your first card.

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:    82  - 12   (Standard scored 24% more points)

•	Expert vs. Standard:      66 - 34   (Expert scored 7% more points)

•	Champion vs. Expert:    61 - 39   (Champion scored 6% more points)

•	Master vs. Champion:   69 - 31   (Master scored 8% more points)

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


Carefree Skill Level

The opponent plays cards at random (subject to the rules for following suit and trumping during the second phase of a round).  The opponent never lays down a meld, and only scores points for tricks taken during the second phase.


Novice Skill Level

The opponent will lay down melds and attempt to win points from tricks during the second phase, but is relatively unsophisticated in selecting cards to play to tricks.


Standard Skill Level

The opponent will lay down melds and attempt to win points from tricks during the second phase.

The standard skill is more sophisticated than the Novice in selecting cards to play to tricks.


Expert Skill Level

The opponent plays similarly to the "standard" opponent, except that it remembers which cards have been played and uses  probability estimates to determine which cards are worth holding in the hope of making a meld.


Champion Skill Level

The Champion plays similarly to the Expert, but is more calculating regarding which cards to play in the first phase and which to hold for advantage in the second phase.


Master Skill Level

Master skill level is designed to be the hardest to win against.  It is an enhancement of the Champion skill level in terms of calculating which cards to play in the first phase, and which to hold for the second phase.

The Master skill level also remembers every card played during the first phase and therefore deduces exactly which cards the player is holding in the second phase.  It optimizes its play during the second phase to take maximum points advantage of this knowledge.


No Play Card Highlighting

When checked, suppresses the highlighting of a card played to the table during the opponent's turn.

When unchecked, the opponent will highlight a card when it plays it.  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, Pinochle 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, has melded cards, and has played a card.  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

Analyze Player Hand

Show Player Meld Types

Show Opponent Meld Types

Explain

Suggest

Recall

Review Tricks

Show Distribution

Swap Cards


AutoPlayer

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

AutoPlayer has  been included as an option into Pinochle 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, Pinochle returns to the previous player's game.


Analyze Player Hand

Select this option if you wish the assistant to analyze your hand.

The resulting display will indicate:

•	Discardable cards - those which are unmeldable

•	Holdable cards - those which may be held in the hope of picking up a card from the stock which will complete a meld

•	Meldable cards - those which could be melded the next time that you win a trick


Show Player Meld Types

Select this option if you wish to be reminded of the meld types (pinochle, marriage, set, etc.) of the cards displayed which have been melded by the player.

The resulting display will indicate which meld type each set of cards was melded as.


Show Opponent Meld Types

Select this option if you wish to be reminded of the meld types (pinochle, marriage, set, etc.) of the cards displayed which have been melded by the opponent.

The resulting display will indicate which meld type each set of cards was melded as.


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, Pinochle will examine your hand and display a reasonable action for you to take.  Pinochle 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 merely inform you to take a new card from the stock.

When it is your turn to play a card, Pinochle will suggest which card you should play and towards what goal (discard, attempt a trick, win).  If you could meld a card or cards from your hand, the display will include the suggestion to lay down the meld with the highest points value (if there are alternative melding choices) displayed.

You may select the "Do It" button when the suggestion box is displayed, and Pinochle will play the suggestion(s) for you.  If you select "Do It" and the suggestion includes a playing recommendation and a meld, then if the trick is not won, the meld obviously won't be executed.

Pinochle 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 three parts: those melded in your hand that the opponent can see, those melded in the opponent's hand that you can see, and those that have been played as tricks.

"Unseen" cards are all those cards which are: not in your hand, not played in tricks, and not melded by the opponent.  They are therefore the content of the stock and the unseen portion of the opponent's hand - but who knows which is where?


Review Tricks

Select this option to review the cards which comprise the tricks taken during the current phase of the round.


Show Distribution

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


Swap Cards

Select this option if you wish to swap cards with the Opponent.  Pinochle 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  Pinochle are those documented in "Hoyle's Rules Of Games".  Variations to these rules, as listed below, are available to support other reported variations.

Score By Round

Simplified Scoring

Must Overplay

Dix Alone

Roundhouse

64 Card Deck

Red Pinochle

Bonuses

Show Rules/Bonuses

Save Rules


Topic1
Score By Round

When selected, all points earned during a round are added to each player's game total at the end of a round.

When not selected, the default, meld points during the first phase are added to the player's game total as they are earned.  This permits a player to knock during the first phase if they have attained the points goal necessary to win the game.

In both cases, trick points accumulated during phase two are not scored until the end of the round.


Simplified Scoring

Simplified scoring is an alternative scoring method applied during the second phase of a round.

When this option is selected, Queens and Kings are scored with a trick points value of five; and Tens and Aces are scored as worth ten points.

When this option is unselected: Jacks are scored with a trick points value of two; Queens as three; Kings as four; Tens as ten; and Aces are scored as worth eleven points.  This is the default and corresponds to the published rules.


Must Overplay

This rule option affects the rules for following a led card during the second phase of a round.

When this option is selected, the following player must not only follow suit if possible, but must also play a higher card of that suit, if possible, irrespective of the suit led.

When this option is unselected, the requirement to overplay (if possible) applies only to the trump suit.  This is the default.


Dix Alone

When selected, a Dix may not be melded in the same turn as another meld.

When unselected, the default, either or both dixes may be melded in the same turn as another meld.

See also:

Melding Options and Scores


Roundhouse

When selected, either player may meld a Roundhouse - a meld usually associated with four-handed Pinochle.

When unselected, the default, players must meld marriages and sets as separate melds.

A Roundhouse is a combination of a set of queens and a set of kings (eight cards) melded together.  It also represents four marriages.  Played separately, these melds would earn a maximum of 220 points however played (e.g., two normal marriages for 20 each, a royal marriage for 40, sixty queens, eighty kings).  Therefore the score for a Roundhouse is normally 220 points.

If the Roundhouse bonus option is also selected, a Roundhouse will be scored as 240 points.

See also:

Melding Options and Scores


64 Card Deck

When selected a deck of sixty-four cards, which includes the Sevens and Eights of each suit (twice), will be used.

When unselected, the default, the deck is comprised of forty-eight cards -- Ace down to Nine of each suit (twice).


Red Pinochle

When selected, a Pinochle comprises a Queen of Hearts and a Jack of Diamonds.  This variation is a common protocol in some circles.

When unselected, the default, a Pinochle comprises the more common combination of a Queen of Spades and a Jack of Diamonds.


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.

Dix Dealt

When in effect, 10 points for melding a Dix is awarded to the dealer when the upturned card is a Dix.

Roundhouse

When in effect, and the "Roundhouse" rule option is selected, a Roundhouse is awarded 240 points instead of the normal 220 points.

Last Trick

When in effect, 10 points are awarded to the winner of the last trick of a round.

See also:

Melding Options and Scores


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 Round

This Game

Game History

League Table

Hall Of Fame

Reset Scoreboard

Save Scoreboard


This Round

Displays the scores of the player and the opponent for each of the melds and tricks of the current round.


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.

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.

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 Pinochle (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  Pinochle and don't want to wait until you exit  Pinochle, 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 Pinochle help window.

Screen Layout

Explains the screen layout of Pinochle.

Index

Displays the index to Pinochle help.

Glossary

Displays the glossary of Pinochle 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 Pinochle.

Enter Registration

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

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

Should the Pinochle options data on your hard disk ever become corrupted or is missing, Pinochle 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, Pinochle 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 Melds

Click on the tint symbol to switch between white backgrounds and tinted backgrounds for cards melded by each player.  (Equivalent to the "Color Melded Cards" option under the "Configuration" 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 Pinochle 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.)

Game Scores

Click on the game total under either the player name or the opponent name (skill level) to display the game history.

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.)

Rules/Bonuses Display

Click on the Rules/Bonuses display to toggle between the display of rule options in effect, and the display of bonuses in effect.


Strategies

Phase 1 - Selecting which card to play

If you need to take the trick in order to lay down a meld, do so when prudent.  If it is early in the round, you may benefit from taking an opponent-led trick rather than leading a possibly unnecessary high card.  Even if you lead a high card, the opponent may not follow suit and may trump it.  The high cards are valuable for winning tricks during the second phase.

If you are not seeking to win the trick in order to meld, use the opportunity to discard your least valuable card.  Note that Tens have little melding value since only the Ten of Trumps can be melded (as part of a flush), but they can be valuable for taking tricks in either phase.

If you suspect that the opponent has high potential to play melds, you might be more aggressive in taking tricks (even if you cannot meld) as a blocking measure.

Melding

Play your highest value meld if you have a choice.  Use as many already melded cards as possible to avoid letting the opponent see more of your hand than is necessary.  Unless the "Dix Alone" rule option is in effect, meld Dixes in the same turn as another meld.

Phase 2 - Selecting which card to play

Points are awarded for the cards in the tricks taken.  You will only benefit from your higher cards' points values if you take the tricks to which you play them.  Therefore, ensure you take as many early tricks from your Aces and Tens as possible -- otherwise the opponent will amass points from them.

Lead an Ace when you believe the opponent can follow suit, especially if you believe that the opponent is holding the other Ace of that suit.  Remember that the leader wins a trick that is comprised of matching cards.

Remember that each player must overplay if a trump is led (or any suit if the "Must Overplay" rule option is selected), and must trump if they cannot follow suit.  If you have some Aces and Tens of Trumps, or if you believe you have more trump cards than the opponent, use this knowledge to draw out trump cards early.


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 Pinochle or changing players.  If you have reset your scoreboard and would have preferred not to have done so, just exit Pinochle and respond "No" to the prompt "Save updated scoreboard...?"  When you restart Pinochle, your previous scoreboard will be active.

How to speed up the display

The MeggieSoft Games 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, Pinochle is set to use the configuration settings for these slower systems.

However, more modern systems are much faster and generally include graphics accelerators.  Therefore Pinochle includes some advanced options that are only acceptable to many people when used on a faster system.  If you find Pinochle 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 is the coloring of melds.  Therefore, turning off coloring (if you have it selected under the "Opponent" menu) is another way 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 played card 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

Pinochle is programmed in Microsoft Visual Basic, Version 3.

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

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.

Pinochle was developed and tested on a  Pentium 60 with 24MB of RAM.  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.


Third Party Components

Although Pinochle 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 Pinochle as it provides an extremely full set of 3-D capabilities to Visual Basic programs.

The Pinochle 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.  If you request it with your order, a freeware copy of WinSpeech will be included with the registered diskette version of Pinochle.  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 Games and PC Wholeware.

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


Windows 95 Considerations

Pinochle is designed to run under Windows 95 and  Windows 3.1 (including Windows for Workgroups 3.11) and is "Windows 95 Friendly".  This means that the 3-D effects have been constructed 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 Pinochle'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  Pinochle sessions as follows:

Registration

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

AutoResume

When AutoResume is active, the name of the last player is maintained in the [Pinochle] section of PINOCHLE.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 PINOCHLE.INI identified as pertaining to the player.  For example, Jane's options will be saved in the section of PINOCHLE.INI named "[Jane]".  If a player has not saved personal options, the defaults stored in PINOCHLE.INI under "[Default]" are used.

Personal Scoreboards

Each player's scoreboard is saved in the Pinochle directory as xxxxxx.psb, where xxxxxx is the player's name.  Pinochle 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 PINOCHLE.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 psb file with any text editor, such as Notepad.  Each line of the psb 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

E

error message

G

game

goal

H

hand

highlighted

K

knock

M

meld

melded

melding

menu option

O

opponent

options

P

phase

player

R

round

S

scoreboard

skill

status bar

stock

T

table

trick

trump

W

wav file


Index

#

64 Card Deck

A

About The Opponent

Analyze Player Hand

Arranging Your Cards

Assistant Menu

AssistIcon

AutoKnock

AutoMouse Cards

AutoMouse Dialogs

AutoPlayer

AutoResume

AutoSave All Options

AutoStart

B

BonusDisplay

Bonuses

C

Card and Font Size

Card Design

CardSortOrder

CardStagger

Carefree Skill Level

Champion Skill Level

Change Players

Check Meldable Play

Color Control

Color Melded Cards

ColorMelds

Colors

Configuration Menu

Contents

Context Sensitive Help (F1)

Creating A New Meld

D

Dealing

Default Colors

Designing Custom Card Backs

Display Error Box

Display Meldable Points

Dix Alone

Double Click Play

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

GoalPoints

H

Hall Of Fame

Help Menu

How To ...

I

Index

L

Layout

League Table

LightBulb

M

Master Skill Level

MeldedCardShading

Melding Cards

Melding Options and Scores

MenuBar

Menus

Mouse

Music

Must Overplay

N

New Game Deal Cut

No 3D Effects

No Bell

No Play Card Highlighting

No Sorting

No Start Reminders

No Status Messages

No Stock Highlighting

Novice Skill Level

O

Opponent Menu

Opponent

OpponentGames

OpponentInHand

OpponentMeldedCounter

OpponentMelds

Overview

P

Player Menu

PlayerGames

PlayerInHand

PlayerMeldedCounter

PlayerMeldIndicator

Playing A Card

Playing The Game

PlayingArea

PriorRoundScores

PriorRoundsTotals

Q

Quick Deal

Quick Display

R

Recall

Red Pinochle

Redeal Game

Reset Scoreboard

Restart Round

Review Tricks

RoundCounter

Roundhouse

Rules Menu

RulesDisplay

Rummy 500

RunningGameTotal

S

Save Configuration

Save Opponent Options

Save Player Options

Save Rules

Save Scoreboard

Saved Information

Scoreboards Menu

Scoresheet

Scoring

Shortcuts

Show Cards

Show Distribution

Show Opponent Meld Types

Show Player Meld Types

Show Rules_Bonuses

Simplified Scoring

Skill Level

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 The Top Card Of The Stock

Technical Construction

Technical

The Layout

TheScoresheet

Third Party Components

This Game

This Round

Topic1

Topic1

TrickArea

TrickPointsCounters

TricksTaken

Troubleshooting

True Corners

TurnCounter

U

Undo

UndoIcon

UpturnedTrump

Using The Mouse

V

VBCtl3D

W

Watching A Game Being Played

Window Size

Windows 95 Considerations


Troubleshooting

Most problems encountered are a result of one of the following:

•	VBCTL3D.VBX version conflict.  Ensure that the version provided is in your windows/system directory and check that this is the only version of VBCTL3D.VBX on your system.

•	Graphics driver conflict, usually manifested by the display of blank white cards.  Check that you have the latest drivers from your graphics card manufacturer.  Otherwise configure your system to use a graphics setting with fewer colors (256 or 16).

•	Corrupt scoreboard file.  Under the "Player" menu, remove the player for whom the problem occurs and re-add.  Alternatively, exit Pinochle and delete the corresponding xxxxxx.psb file from the directory where Pinochle resides and then re-add the player in Pinochle.

If all else fails, delete the directory where Pinochle resides, remove all copies of VBCTL3D.VBX from your system, delete PINOCHLE.INI from your windows directory, and reinstall.


Gin Rummy

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

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.

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 MeggieSoft Game's Rummy 500 and Pinochle.  Thus the display and the use of the mouse is similar in all three games.


Rummy 500

Rummy 500 was first released by MeggieSoft Games in 1994, and is a stablemate to  Pinochle and Gin Rummy.

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 melding.

Rummy 500 supports all well documented variations including: discarding to go out, treatment of Aces (high and/or low), melding of the last discard, plus other rule and scoring options suggested by our customers.

Rummy 500 uses the same basic Graphical User Interface (GUI) as MeggieSoft Games Gin Rummy and Pinochle.  Thus the display and the use of the mouse is similar in all three 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 "Configuration" menu.   When melded cards are displayed normally, the symbol is a tinted card; when melded cards are displayed tinted, the symbol is a white card


GameCounter
The Game Counter

The top of the scoresheet shows the current game number.


GoalPoints
Goal Points Indicator

The number of points needed to win the current round.


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 "Configuration" menu.   When 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.


MenuBar
The Menu Bar

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


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.


OpponentInHand
The Opponent's Hand

The cards currently in the Opponent's hand which are not melded.


OpponentMeldedCounter
The Opponent Melded Counter

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


OpponentMelds
The Opponent's Melds

The cards currently in the Opponent's hand which have been melded.


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.


PlayerInHand
The Player's Hand

The cards currently in the Player's hand which have not been melded.


PlayerMeldedCounter
The Player Melded Counter

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


PlayerMeldIndicator
The Player Meld Indicator

This indicator (which is selectable via the "Player" menu) shows the points value, if any, from the highest possible meld currently in the player's hand.


Topic1
The Player's Melds

The cards currently in the Player's hand which have been melded.


PlayingArea
The Playing Area

The area where cards are played to form tricks.


Prior Round Scores

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


Prior Rounds Totals

The total points scored by each player in the prior rounds of the current game..


RoundCounter
The Round Counter

This counter shows the number of the current round within the current game and indicates the trump suit of the current round.


Rules Display

The rules display is shown when rule variations or bonuses are in effect, as selected via the "Rules" menu.  You may click on this when playing Pinochle in order to toggle between the displaying the rules and the bonuses.


Running Game Total

When italicized, these counters show the running sub-totals for the rounds completed of the current game, including points melded in the current round.

When displayed in normal font, these counters show the running sub-totals for previous rounds of the current 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.  One card is turned face up and placed under the stock to denote the trump suit.


StockCounter
The Stock Counter

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


Table
The Table

The area where cards are played and  tricks are accumulated.


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


TrickArea
The Trick Area

This is where each of the Player and Opponent play a card at each turn, and  where the tricks are accumulated.


Trick Points Counters

The counters show the accumulation of points from tricks taken during the second phase of a round.

Note that the layout example shows the first phase of a game, during which these counters would not be displayed.  They are included on the layout diagram for illustration purposes only.


Tricks Taken

The previous tricks taken during the current phase of the round.


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.


UpturnedTrump
The Upturned Trump

The card in the stock that was upturned at the end of dealing in order to indicate the trump suit for the round.


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

Pinochle © 1996  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, Pinochle's factory defaults will be used.  The default settings are changed by changing the current player to "Default", setting the options, and saving them.


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.


game

In Pinochle, a series of rounds which is concluded when either the player or the opponent if first to score more than the goal of 1000 points, unless extended because both players reached the goal in the same round.


goal

The number of points required to win the current game. Initially 1000 points, increasing by 250 points for each time that both players exceed the current goal together.


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.).


knock

To click on the table to the right of the playing area inorder to signify that the player has reached the points goal for the game during the melding phase.


meld

A set of cards laid down by the side of the rest of the hand.  Points are scored during the first phase of a round for melds laid down.


melded

Laid down to the side of the hand in order to score points during the first phase of a round.


melding

The act of laying down cards to the side of the hand in order to score melding points.


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.


phase

A round is comprised of two phases.  During the first phase, points are scored for melds laid down.  During the second phase, after the stock is exhausted, points are scored for tricks taken.


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.)


round

A series of turns (alternating between player and opponent) played A series of turns played in two phases.  The first phase is concluded when there are no more cards remaining in the stock.  The second phase is concluded when both players have played all of the cards from their hands.


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 Pinochle 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.  During the first phase of a round the trump card is upturned and displayed underneath the stock.


table

The area in the center of the display where the tricks are played and accumulated.


trick

A pair of cards, one from each player, played to the table.


trump

A card of the suit designated as the trump suit for the current round.


wav file

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