Las Vegas Classics/LASVEGAS.BIN/LASVEGAS/HEARTS20/HEARTS20.TXT

Text File | 1993-03-28 | 11.2 KB | 207 lines

Brief Description of Hearts
   Hearts 2.0 for Windows is a four player card game in
which the goal is to get as few points as possible. Cards
of the heart suit are worth 1 point and the queen of spades
is worth 13 points.  You want to avoid these 14 cards. The
highest card of the lead suit takes the four cards in the
trick and the player that does this gets to lead for the
next trick.  You must play the lead suit if you have it,
or else you can play any card. After 13 tricks are played,
the points are added up and cards are dealt again.  The game
is over when a player gets 100 points (he is the loser).



Running Hearts for Windows v2.0
   Put all the Hearts files (expecially .bmp and .hlp files) in
same directory as Hearts (preferably a 'Hearts' directory) and
run Hearts from windows.
   Hearts requires Windows 3.0 or later and runs in any Windows
mode and in as little as ~45K.  However, it runs much faster if
you have 300K or more of free memory.  You must have a mouse to
select and play the cards.  If you cannot afford a mouse, then
you probably won't have enough money to give me any for all the
trouble I went through to make this program, so I don't feel so
bad about not having keyboard support for the cards in Ver 2.0.
Sorry.
   Hearts also works on monochrome monitors, but due to the low
resolution of many monochrome monitors, you may not be able to
see the entire play space at one time.  If this is the case,
simply use the arrow keys to scroll around the play space if
you want or need to see a different part of the play space. The
'HOME' key can bring you back to the center.
   To install Hearts on your system, simply use the Windows
'Program Manager' 'New... Item' menu function to install the
program 'hearts.exe' as part of the games directory.  You may
use the 'browse' button to find the 'hearts.exe' program if you
cannot find it.  It is best (very desirable for Hearts and all
windows programs) if you copy Hearts.exe to you hard drive if
it is not already there; Any Windows program will run very slowly
if you run it from the floppy drive.  Note that only 'hearts.exe'
is truly needed to play the game; this file and the possibly
included file 'cards.ad' are not needed and you may not want
them if you are low on space.
   The 'cards.ad' file is an 'After Dark' screen saver module
that you may copy to your After Dark directory if you have that
program.  Other screen savers are now able to run After Dark
'.ad' files themselves.  'Cards.ad' will be changed periodically
by me to do different things, and may someday play card games
themselves. Different versions will have different names.



Game Options and Menu Items.
   Upon starting Hearts, you will be given a choice of who to
play against. You can choose the default players (ok players
but not the best), or you can choose from the other players
at the bottom of the dialog box.  Note that the large button
is for selecting a 'human' type player.
   The 'external player' box is for if you started an 'external
player'.  The external player is a seperate program that is a
Hearts player; one should have been included with Hearts.
You can make you own Hearts player- see the enclosed protocol:
'EXTERNAL.TXT', 'EXTERNAL.DOC', 'EXTERNAL.SAM'.
   You can keep selecting players in circles until you hit the
'OK' button.  In addition, you can use the mouse to click on one
of the player boxes to jump right to it.  Please note that if you
want to play against the computer, you must make sure at least
one of the players is 'Human'.  Also note that any or all of players
may be human, computer or external players, so if you want, you can
have the computer play itself, or you can somehow tape cardboard to
the screen or something and have two or more people play against the
computer players at once.

   On-line help is available with the usual Help menu item. The 'F1'
key will also bring up the help box. Of course, the help file,
Hearts.hlp must be present in the same directory as Hearts.
   Card backings for Hearts are selected with the 'Preferences' menu
and may also be selected with the 'F2'-'F5' (F2-F9 in the
registered version) keys.  'Custom' card designs can be added by
simply putting a 71x96 bitmap in the same directory as Hearts.  Try
putting a 256 color bitmap in there while in 256 color mode or better
under windows.  Custom bitmaps can be had from the author by just
asking for them upon registration.
   Game speed may be changed by selected that item form the
'Preferences' menu or may also be changed by striking the keys '1'-'5'.
5 is fastest (no delay).
   Players will say things that appear in cartoon-like quote boxes.
These may be turned off with the 'Preferences' item.  Other menu items
in the 'Preferences' menu will be more or less obvious.
   Other options exist in the registered version.  Some of these
are hidden in the 'non-registered' version through elaborate
tricky key sequences that are revealed upon registration!
   The 'scorecard' is a window that may be moved which shows two
things for every player: his score for this round and his total
score for the game.  You may get more information on a given
player by clicking with the mouse on him in the scorecard.
   A performance rating window is available and it tracks game
play over time and between Windows sessions.  A game history
window can be invoked to see the cards played, etc, over the
course of present or recent games. You can add your own custom comments;
see the 'Actions' menu item.
   You may select for a new game with the 'Game' menu item, switch
players at runtime or you may quit with 'quit' option.  Also, at the
end of a game, you are prompted for whether to play again.
   There are a number of improvements in Ver. 2.0 over Ver 1.2.
Some of these pertain to bug fixes, others are new additions. There
are many additions and they are listed in the 'whatsnew.txt' file
that should accompany Hearts.

Game Play
   At the start of the game, the players must select three
cards to pass. The cards are selected with the left mouse button
and passed/played with the right mouse button.  When all have
passed, the passes are completed with the 3 cards passed to you
in the 'up' position.  You can strike a key or mouse button to put
them in your hand, or you can wait a few seconds for this to be
done for you.
   The player with the Two of Clubs must then play it.  If you
have it, you can play it (or any other card when it's your turn)
by selecting it with the left button and then playing it with the
right button, or by directly playing it with the right button.
The winner of the trick is shown by the cards sliding towards him
after all cards are played.  It's now the winner's turn to play the
first card of the next trick.  Scores are continually updated on the
scorecard so you can see who's winning.
   If you play a card illegally, you get a beep and a player tells you
what the problem was.


The Author of Hearts
   Paul Pedriana
   PO Box 271551
   Concord, CA 94527
   Compuserve ID: 70541,3223

   I am presently a poor biologist living in Northern
California in Pleasant Hill, a city 20 miles east of Oakland
I do this computer work on the side as a hobby and race bicycles
in the Spring and Summer I have a B.A.degree from U.C. Berkeley
in Biochemistry (1989).I program in C/C++ and assembly when
needed (also have done FORTRAN), and would like someday to move
into the computer world full-time.
  Let me tell you about how poor I am.  I'm so poor that I can't even
afford a Windows-capable computer.  To write programs, I actually
write the code on a 1982 DOS XT; it takes 40 minutes for the
computer to make just a single change in the code.  To test the
program, I must mail a copy of it to someone that has a Windows
computer.  I send a pencil and paper with the letter and tell that
person to tell me what happened when the program was run.  If I'm
lucky, I get the notes back in the mail a couple weeks later.  Then
I make more changes to the code and mail out the result again.  Yeah,
and I have to walk five miles in the snow to get to the nearest
mail box. (Ok, maybe this story is stretching it just a little).
   The version of Hearts I am distributing has no eliminated
parts or other 'demo' traits.  This is the complete 'unprotected'
version.  Why is this? Because I don't like those incomplete
programs; If I really like a program, I pay the author for it
even if I have an already final version of it. I've even payed a
couple authors 5$ for their programs that I never really used,
simply because I wanted to support them and encourage them to
write more. But I can't expect everyone to be like this.
Nevertheless, Hearts took considerable time to develop to its
present state.  Hearts is written in straight C++, in case anyone
is interested.

Owner Registration
   The registered version of Hearts has a number of improvements
over the unregistered version. It has twice as many card
backings, more quotes, and better opponents.  Also, it will not
fool with your player 'quote' like the unregestired version.
Also, the players in general won't nag you as much, though
some people have said they like it.  Also with registration you
get a custom card design library (with all kinds of cards in it),
101 blonde and lawyer jokes, and sound files when ready!
You can't go wrong.  You also get the BOSS button: when the boss
comes into your office while you are busy playing you simply strike
the escape key and your game instantly becomes a spreadsheet with
important company sales figures and the like - enough to make your
boss proud!
   If you send me, Paul Pedriana, 15$, I will register you as
a permanent owner of Hearts and will entitle you the future
registered versions of Hearts (see below) free and as well as
future Windows programs I do as well (I'm working on it!).  I've
done other programs for DOS and Windows, but they probably will
not be of interest to you.  5$ more registration gives you complete
pre-written code for an external player.  Just fill in the blanks!
Of course, the complete player format is documented here, so the 5$
only saves you tons of coding and debugging time.
    Also please give suggestions for new Windows programs (games or
not). I will do the ones that are most feasible and likely to
generate interest.
   Any suggestions and found bugs are always welcome from anyone.
All correspondence will be answered by me, though sometimes it takes
a couple weeks to return my answer (an other times only a couple hours).
Also- send in your own good custom 71x96 card bitmaps, so I can include
them in the libraries that everyone gets.  Be famous!  Also, future
card games and such from me will not be limited to 71x96.
   I am continuously working on new projects, with time as my
only obstacle.  It's very hard to write high quality programs for
Windows all by yourself.

Future Direction
   Hearts version 2.0 doesn't do everything anyone could ever
want, so there will someday be a version 3.0.
   Suggestions for new Windows and Windows NT programs are
welcome whether they pertain to Hearts or any other ideas.