Game Factory 2

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Text File | 1987-04-08 | 15.0 KB | 359 lines

Mack's DOMINO Parlor Copyright (c) B. J. Ball, 1984 This program is distributed under the "shareware" concept. It may be freely copied and distributed for private use only; satisfied users are asked to send a contribution of any amount ($15 suggested) to: B.J.Ball, 2551 Antioch Ch. Rd., Watkinsville, Georgia 30677. Comments, questions and suggestions from any user will be welcomed. Mack's DOMINO Parlor Copyright (c) B. J. Ball 1984 Requires: IBM PC or Compatible, 128K, disk drive, graphics card. Operation: Start the system, but do not load BASIC. Put the game disk in the default drive, type DOMINO and press the ENTER key. Description of game. At Mack's Domino Parlor, you have a choice of nickel, dime or quarter games (Levels 0,1,2). There is also a game for high rollers in the back room, but it is by invitation only; to be invited, you have to win a dime or quarter game by a big margin. The back room characters are unsavory, to say the least, and you probably won't want to go there more than once or twice, even when invited. After you choose the level desired, you will be presented with a sequence of options. These will be discussed in detail later, but to get the game under way quickly, just press the Enter key once in response to each of the queries. The only game played at Mack's place is the two-person draw game. The discussion below presupposes some knowledge of this game, but an appendix, adequate for one who has never played dominoes before, is included. (Since domino rules tend to be somewhat local, even those quite familiar with some version of the game might wish to scan the Appendix for possible minor variations from their rules.) The game proper begins with a "Draw for Down". The machine (Mack) will randomly select a domino for you and one for himself, displaying both draws and announcing who won the first down. To continue, press the space bar. (This is a recurring process, not always indicated by a prompt. Whenever the machine seems to be waiting for you to do something and you don't know what, try pressing the space bar. Something might happen, and nothing very bad ever does.) Following the "Draw for Down", there will be a very short pause for shuffling and dealing; your hand will then be displayed, along with the current score and, if it is your down, a prompt asking you to specify a domino to be downed. If it is Mack's down, a domino will be played almost instantly and you will then be prompted to indicate a domino to be played from your hand. If it is your turn and you wish to play, for example, the 2-3, you simply type 23 and press the space bar. (If you make a mistake or change your mind, you may reenter your play by typing X before hitting the space bar. Once you press the space bar, though, your domino is considered to have been exposed and must be played if possible.) It is important to remember that the FIRST number typed is to be played against a domino on the board; even though the domino 3-2 is the same as the domino 2-3, entering 32 is NOT the same as entering 23 . If you type 23 as your choice and there is no place to play a 2 on the board, you will be asked to reenter your play. If there is exactly one legal place to play a 2 , or if all places are equivalent, the play will be made as soon as you hit the space bar; if there are two or more inequivalent places to play a 2 , however, you will be asked to indicate the "End" on which you wish to play. (There are at most four ends; here they are numbered 1,2,3,4 , counterclockwise, starting with the end at the right.) Among equivalent ends, the computer will choose the one containing the smallest number of dominoes. If it is your turn and you have no domino that will play, enter D to draw or P to pass (or press the space bar). A request to pass will not be honored if the boneyard is not empty; instead, it will be treated as a draw. Similarly, if the boneyard is empty, a request to draw will be interpreted as a pass. Neither Draw nor Pass will be accepted if you have any domino in your hand that will play. In case you are dealt five doubles (four if the initial draw is 7 or 9) and do not wish to play them, you may enter F (on your first turn only) and get a redeal. In case Mack has made a score on his down - before you have had an opportunity to ask for a redeal - it will of course be cancelled if you have too many doubles. Each time you play a domino, the domino played will be removed from the display of your hand, and the last domino in the display will take its place. Thus your hand is continually being rearranged (which can be disconcerting). This is done to make room for the dominoes on End 3, which will be snaking around the table and might otherwise run into the dominoes in your hand. Whenever either you or Mack plays a domino, the count, if any, will be displayed. To go to the next play, after verifying the information given, you should press the space bar. Initially, since Mack plays so rapidly, you may find yourself waiting overlong before realizing that it's your turn to play. It is important, though, that you have a chance to note where Mack played and what, if anything, he made on his play, so he always waits for you to digest this information. Similarly, Mack politely waits for you to confirm that your play has been properly credited before making his own play - you must press the space bar a second time to tell Mack that he may proceed. (When you Down, Draw, or Pass, however, the play is made without waiting for the second spacebar press.) When the first double is played, the board will be redrawn, if necessary, so that the spinner is in the center of the table. This leads to a special House Rule, the only deviation from conventional play: one of the first fourteen dominoes played must be a double. Since it is virtually impossible to play fourteen dominoes without a double, this rule very seldom comes into play. If it arises, though, a misdeal is declared, scores revert to what they were at the beginning of the hand, and a redeal is made. During the course of play it may happen that so many dominoes have been played on a particular end that no more can be played there without (possibly) interfering with other parts of the display. When this happens, there will be a beep, and the last domino properly displayed on that end will be printed in red (if you have a color monitor). Subsequent plays will be indicated either by numerals (ends 1 and 3) or by overprinting the last domino in a different color. In either case, but especially the last one, some care is involved in remembering the dominoes on these ends. Fortunately, this arises relatively infrequently, especially with ends 2 and 4. Special Features. The first of the sequence of options mentioned above is the Initial Draw, the number of dominoes dealt to each player at the start of a hand. The default is 11, which seems to give the best balance between luck and skill. Here (and for each of the other queries) the indicated default value may be accepted by pressing the space bar. The other options allow an initial draw of 7 or 9, both of which are popular is some parts of the country. The next choice to make is the number of points which will constitute a game. This is customarily set at 250, but you may use any multiple of 10, starting with 100, the minimum allowable game score. You are then given the option of making a printout (hardcopy) of the hands and plays as the game progresses. To select this option, press Y (not Yes) and be sure the printer is turned on and ready. The final initial choice you have to make is whether or not you wish to repeat a (previously saved) game; if you choose to do so, you will have to give some additional information, as described in the next paragraph. At the conclusion of each game, you will be given an opportunity to save the game just played for later replay. Saved games are written to the DOMINO disk as GAME-1, GAME-2, ..., GAME-9; if any games have been previously saved, you may, at the beginning of a succeeding game, exercise the option of replaying one of these. If you choose to do so, a list of the games on file will be displayed, and you will be asked to enter the number of the game to be repeated. You will then be given the option of switching hands this time around, with you playing the hands given to the computer the first time. If you can consistently beat Mack playing the same game both ways, clearly you are the better domino player. On the other hand, ... When you choose to save a game for later replay, you will be shown a list of the games already on file, and asked to enter a number for the current game. If you enter the same number as a game already on file, the current game will replace that game. At most 9 games may be on file at any one time. At least one game must be on the DOMINO disk, or the program will abruptly terminate when you ask to save or repeat a game. This is the reason for the dummy file "GAME-0" on the original disk; if the program is copied to another disk, be sure to copy GAME-0 along with it. All responses may be made with single keystrokes (except the choice of the number of points for a game), and letter responses may be either capital or lower case. In responding to Y/N questions, use the letters, not the words Yes or No. You may, if you prefer, use the ENTER key whenever the space bar is called for. Moreover, if you get fed up with a game, you may start over by pressing R to Run the program again, or Q to Quit. These entries may be made whenever the machine is waiting for a response from you (which is most of the time). One of the queries presented to you at the end of a game is "Another game now ?". If you press Y in response, the next game will have the same parameters (level, initial draw, etc.) as the one just played, and Mack will keep a running total of the number of games won by you and by him to be displayed at the end of each subsequent game. If you wish to change any parameters, press R instead of Y in response to this question. Mack is totally honest in his play, and uses his knowledge of the dominoes in your hand only for checking purposes - to determine whether you do indeed have too many doubles, whether you own the domino you wish to play, and whether you actually have no legal play when you ask to draw or pass. His decisions as to his own play are based only on legitimate information - the dominoes in his hand, those on the board, and the number of dominoes remaining in your hand and in the boneyard. This is due not so much to scruples as to ineptitude in crime. Mack always plays levels 0,1 and 2 - the up front games - but when a live one shows up and shows off, he is invited to play with the boys in the back. The back room is run by Mack's cousin Maxie, who is equally unscrupulous but a lot more skillful. Maxie can make mincemeat of almost anybody. (Try him and see.) Of course the back room game is a joke, not to be taken seriously, in which Maxie is allowed to cheat badly - not as badly as possible, but flagrantly enough to win easily against most competition. The fact that he will not allow a printout of a Level 3 game (don't put anything in writing, you know) is something of a tipoff. ----------------end-of-author's-documentation--------------- Software Library Information: This disk copy provided as a service of The Public (Software) Library Disks in the library are updated monthly. For a copy of the latest monthly software library newsletter and a list of the 800+ disks in the library, call or write The Public (Software) Library P.O.Box 35705 K Houston, TX 77235-5705 (713) 721-6104 We are not the authors of this program, nor are we associated with the author in any way other than as a distributor of the program in accordance with the author's terms of distribution. Please direct shareware payments and specific questions about this program to the author of the program, whose name appears elsewhere in this documentation. If you have trouble getting in touch with the author, we will do whatever we can to help you with your questions. All programs have been tested and do run. To report problems, please use the form that is in the file PROBLEM.DOC on many of our disks or in other written for- mat with screen printouts, if possible.