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- Mack's DOMINO Parlor
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- 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.
-
-
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- Comments, questions and suggestions from any user will be welcomed.
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- 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.
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- ----------------end-of-author's-documentation---------------
-
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