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-
-
- Klondike, a Patience Card Game for the Psion Series 3a
- Version 2.1
- Copyright (C) 1993, 1995 J Cade Roux
-
- This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
- it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
- the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
- (at your option) any later version.
-
- This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
- but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
- MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
- GNU General Public License for more details.
-
- You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
- along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
- Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
-
- * N.B. For space reasons the GNU General Public License is not
- * included with this Psion palmtop product.
-
-
- Installation
-
- This program (versions 2.0 onwards) will only run on the Psion Series
- 3a machine. Running it on a Series 3 Classic will give a warning and
- terminate.
-
- To install Klondike, copy Klondike.app it to any directory (like \APP\) and
- install it <Psion-I> from the system screen.
-
- To enable the digitized sound effects, copy the KLON*.WVE to any \WVE
- directory. These sounds are freely distributable.
-
-
- De-installation
-
- To de-install the program, press Shift-Ctrl-Delete - this causes the
- program to free all environment space it uses (currently 21 bytes) and
- exit. Then delete the .APP file and the .WVE files.
-
-
- Credits
-
- Development tools used:
-
- * The Psion SIBO SDK V2.0
- * JPI TopSpeed C 3.02 compiler
- * Multi-Edit V7.0 for DOS
- * Multi-Edit V7.0 for Windows
- * DeluxePaint IV
-
- Thanks to:
- * Zhava Glaser (Pipeline) - sorry I haven't implemented
- everything - but it's got to be released sometime!
- * Greg Friedman (CompuServe) - serious bugs in 2.0, ouch...
-
- Very special thanks for usability testing:
- * Michael Boshes (CompuServe)
-
- Rules
-
- This is the classic Klondike/Canfield/Patience/Solitaire. I quote a
- description of the game from David Parlett's Oxford Guide to Card Games
- (OUP 1990). This is an excellent book for anyone who likes card games,
- being an excellent analysis of the development and history of card
- games of all kinds and from many different cultures, and I would
- heartily recommend it.
-
- "Deal seven piles of cards face down in a row, with one in the first
- pile, two in the second, and so on up to seven in the seventh. Turn
- the top card of each pile face up. Aim to place the four Aces at the
- top of the board as and when they become available, and to build each
- one up into a thirteen-card suit-sequence headed by the King. Turning
- cards from the pack one at a time, play each one face up either to (a)
- one of the Ace-piles, provided that it goes on the next lower card of
- the same suit, or (b) on of the seven processing columns, provided that
- it goes on a next higher card of the opposite colour (e.g. Red Nine on
- Black Ten), or (c) a rubbish heap."
-
- "Throughout play, the top card of the rubbish heap may be played to an
- Ace-pile in ascending sequence of suit, or to one of the central
- columns in descending sequence of alternating colour. The topmost
- (uncovered) card of a central column may also be played in accordance
- with the same rules of following. A whole sequence of properly ordered
- cards in alternating colour may be shifted provided that the join
- follows the rule. Whenever a face-down card is exposed, turn it face
- up. Whenever the last card is played from a central column, the space
- it leaves may be filled only with a King, or with a proper sequence
- from another column headed by a King. Having run out of cards from the
- main pack, you may not (as in other patiences) turn the rubbish heap
- and go through it again. It is therefore vital to play off the topmost
- rubbish card at every opportunity."
-
- The only difference of this version from the description above is that
- cards are dealt one OR three at a time face up onto the rubbish pile,
- with only the top card allowed to be played. Also, the rubbish pile is
- recycled each time the draw pile is exhausted.
-
-
- Playing
-
- The keys used to control Klondike are as follows:
-
- Arrow keys move the pointer to the card to be lifted (the arrow points
- diagonally up from the left of the card).
-
- Using Shift and the Up or Down arrow keys allows the player to split
- the pile in order to use intermediate cards.
-
- When no card is currently being held, the TAB key picks up wither the
- current card, the current pile, or turns the hand pile onto the rubbish
- pile.
-
- If the TAB key is pressed when a card or cards is being held, the cards
- will attempt to be dropped onto the current pile, the best pile, or the
- suits pile, depending on what the program thinks is best.
-
- When holding cards which can't be dropped anywhere, the TAB key will
- return them to their rightful place. The Esc key serves the same
- purpose.
-
-
- Quick-Pile Controls
-
- The Quick-Piles keys are designed to make play as fast as possible,
- eliminating the cursor keys altogether.
-
- A single key represents each pile on the screen:
- 1 - Hand Pile
- 2 - Rubbish Pile
-
- 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0, + - Tableau Piles
- Q, W, A, S - Foundation or Suit Piles
-
- For instance, pressing <1> will cause a singlet or triplet to be played
- off the Hand.
-
- Pressing <2> will cause the topmost Rubbish card to be
- played first to the tableau, and if that is not possible, then onto the
- foundation.
-
- Pressing <Q> will attempt to play the topmost foundation card of
- Hearts onto the tableau.
-
- Pressing <5> will attempt to move the whole of pile 5 onto the most
- suitable tableau pile, otherwise, attempting to play the topmost card
- of pile 5 onto the foundation.
-
- I think the experienced player will find Quick-Piles to be very
- intuitive, and, after a few games, VERY fast.
-
- Users of other keyboard layouts will have difficulties, which I should
- be able to easily accomodate through incorporating different keyboard
- layouts into the program's resource file. Please contact me at the
- below address.
-
-
- Menu Functions
-
- * New Game - Starts a new game.
-
- * Win Game - Attempts to win the current game and start a new
- one.
-
- * Options - Play options
- * Sound - Digitized sound can be turned on or off.
- * Deal Type - The user can choose 1 or 3 cards - the choice
- applies immediately.
- * Cursor Wrap - Is the cursor allowed to wrap at edges
- of screen
- * Auto-win - Computer determines a win if all cards are
- face up - and if playing triplets, you can have no
- cards in the hand or rubbish pile
- * Quick-Piles - Enables the Quick-Piles keys
-
- * Statistics - Shows statistics of past game play
- * Number of games played
- * Average number of cards onto foundation piles
- * Average number of face down cards remaining on the
- tableau
- * Number of games won
-
- * Exit - Quit Solipeg
-
-
- Compiling
-
- Klondike V2.0 was largely re-written as an OO HWIM application for the
- Series 3a. Source code is freely available from the author.
-
-
- Problems/Bugs
-
- No known bugs.
-
-
- Author
-
- V2.0 is being released not as a finished product, but as the vanguard
- in a new generation of Klondike - to get some more suggestions.
-
- You can tell there are a few things left to do - like undo, scoring,
- and improved responsiveness and smoother redraws. The documentation
- and online help are not as complete or accurate as they could be - a
- lot of logic goes into Quick-Piles and SmartTAB.
-
- The game has been
- extensively tested, but as with all software, there will be defects,
- and the sooner any defects are reported, the sooner they can be
- fixed...
-
- I expect to have for 2.1:
-
- * Multiple level undo
- * Scoring
- * Timed games - now Quick-Piles will be real useful!
-
-
- Suggestions for improvements are always welcome. Please contact me
- (eMail virtually guarantees same day response):
-
- Cade Roux
- P.O. Box 513
- Boutte, LA 70039 USA
-
- 73733.1014@compuserve.com
- cade@ix.netcom.com
-
-
- Revisions
-
- 2.1: Bug fixes related to Spacebar use and redraws...
-
- 2.0: Series 3a-Only Version:
- Smart-TAB invented
- Quick-Piles invented
- Sounds added
- Triplets/Singlets option
- Cursor Wrap option
- Auto-Win feature
- Pile splitting
- Sprites for cursor
- HWIM rewrite
-
- 1.0a: Initial release for S3