Fun & Games 2 (Canada)

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ Fun & Games 2 (Canada) / Fun & Games CD-ROM (Canada).bin / games / disk162 / vegaspro.hlp < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1989-01-23 | 14.8 KB | 277 lines

STARTING UP: In the instructions, "Enter <text>" means type in the text between the angle brackets <> and press the 'Enter' key. TO START THE PROGRAM: With the program disk in Drive A:, at the DOS prompt (A>) enter <VEGASPRO>. A sign-on screen with a copyright notice will appear first. Press any key. The Main Menu will appear. Press 'G' to "Get on with the Poker Game." The keys you press next will be shown at the bottom of the screen, e.g., "i=Insert coin". TROUBLE STARTING UP: When VEGAS PRO VIDEO POKER starts up, it assumes that your computer is IBM-compatible. If when the program starts, it doesn't do anything, or "hangs" your computer, your computer isn't "compatible" enough. You may still be able to run the program, however, by starting it as follows: 1) Enter <VEGASPRO -S>. Try this if the program "hanged" your computer or nothing showed on screen. The "-S" command-line parameter prevents the program from writing directly to the screen RAM addresses. 2) Enter <VEGASPRO -N>. Try this if the program started, you saw a sign-on screen, but nothing else happened when you pressed a key to go on. The "-N" prevents the pro- gram from using sound effects. 3) Enter <VEGASPRO -T>. Try this if you reached the Main Menu, pressed 'G' to get on with the game, and strange things or nothing happened. The "-T" prevents the pro- gram from playing the game in a graphics mode even if it falsely detects a compatible EGA or VGA graphics card. 4) Enter <VEGASPRO -S -N -T>. Try it if nothing else works. MONOCHROME MONITOR: The program prints text on screen in three ways: bright, dim, and reversed. On some mono monitors, especi- ally those that are green, it may be hard to read the dim text. If so, enter <VEGASPRO -B> to start the program. The "-B" forces dim text to be bright. COLOR MONITOR: If you have a color monitor but the program does not come up in color, you need to enter <MODE CO80> at the DOS prompt. You must be in the directory containing the DOS file MODE.COM or your DOS path must include the directory. See "MODE" in your DOS manual. PLAY IN GRAPHICS: The program will run on any monitor, mono or color. No special graphics card is needed. However, if the pro- gram detects an EGA or VGA card, it will play the game with a 640x350-resolution screen in graphics mode. Even then, all other screens, e.g., the Main Menu, will be in text mode, i.e., 80x25 cells using the DOS character set for text and graphics. With an EGA or VGA, you must turn the 640x350 graphics off in order to "Test the Draw." See "Adjust the Payoffs and Table Rules", #1. GENERAL HELP, COMMAND LINES & KEYS: ALWAYS READ THE LAST ROW ON SCREEN! If you will do that, you won't need much of any other help. Except at the Main Menu, Vegas Pro uses the last row on screen to show you a command line of keys that you may press. An example command line: Esc=Exit /Up/Dn=Scroll F9=Print all F10=Print form The example is taken from the current screen. In the example, the 'Esc' key exits the current screen and activity. The up and down cursor keys scroll through the text on screen. The 'F9' key prints all, in this example all the help text. The 'F10' key prints a form for other poker programs. MAIN MENU: ╔═══════════════════════════════════════╗ ║ See License / Help for Vegas Pro ║ ║ Use the Rules from Last Night's Game ║ ║ Get on with the Poker Game ║ ║ Adjust the Payoffs and Table Rules ║ ║ Read Info on Other Games ║ ╚═══════════════════════════════════════╝ Quit for the Night At the Main Menu, press the 1st letter of your selection. The 1st letters are "SUGARQ". The selections are: 'S': See your license to use Vegas Pro Video Poker and read the instructions for the program. 'U': Whenever you "Quit" the game, the "Payoffs and Table Rules" then in effect are saved to "VEGASPRO.PKR," a disk file. The next time you start up the game, the Payoffs and Table Rules are re-loaded from the file, so you don't have to set them every time you play. If you change the "Payoffs and Table Rules," and then later want to start over with the settings you had when you started the game, press 'U' at the Main Menu to re-load VEGASPRO.PKR. 'G': Play the game. 'A': Change the payoffs, your stake, the speed of the game, etc. 'R': The WorkWare Company publishes other poker games. To read about them, press 'R'. 'Q': Quit the game, return to DOS. PLAYING THE GAME: After you press 'G' at the Main Menu to "Get on with the Poker Game," the following command line appears in a pop-up window: ╔═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗ ║ Esc=Exit F1=Help 1..5/i/+=Insert coin Any other key=Deal ║ ╚═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝ The same command line appears at the bottom of the game screen, both at the start of the game and whenever the game is between hands. Press '1', '2', '3', '4', '5', 'i', or '+' to insert coins. Then press any other key except 'Esc' and 'F1' to deal the hand. MOVING THE BUCK: After the hand is dealt, the "buck" and the following last-row command line appear: Esc=Exit F1=Help ─ ─/SpaceBar=Move buck F2=Test ─┘/+=Deal NOTE: "F2=Test" does not appear in EGA/VGA graphics mode. On Mono or CGA monitors, or on EGA/VGA's in text mode, the "buck" is a highlighted rectangle. In EGA/VGA graphics mode, it is a circle. The buck looks something like: ┌─────────┐ │ H=Hold │ │ D=Draw │ │ ─┘=Deal│ └─────────┘ The ─ ─ arrow keys or the space bar will move the buck. Move the buck until it is beneath a card you want to throw away for the draw. Now press 'D' or the down arrow to turn the card down. The buck automatically advances to the next card. To turn a card back up, move the buck to it, then press 'H' or the up arrow. To turn all cards back up, press the 'Del' key. When you have turned down the cards you want to throw away, press '─┘' or '+' to deal. See "Testing the Draw" below for details on "F2=Test" command. See "Quick Draw" for use of the 'Ins' key and hints for speedy play. QUICK DRAW: There are several features that enable you to play the game more quickly. For #2 and #3, NUM LOCK must be off. 1) After playing a hand, it is not necessary to re-insert coins in order to play the next hand. Just press any key except the Escape and coin-insert keys ('Esc', '1..5/i/+') to deal the next hand. The game will use the same number of coins you previously used. 2) After the cards are dealt, and before you draw, you may press the 'Ins' (insert) key either to see more clearly what your hand is or to turn down throw-away cards quickly. If your hand is High Card, One Pair, Two Pairs, Trips, or Fours, the cards irrelevant to the score will be turned down. For example, if you have a Pair, every card not in the pair will be turned down. If you have a "pat hand," i.e., a Straight, Flush, Full House, or Straight Flush, pressing 'Ins' will have no effect. 'T' (for "turn down") works like 'Ins'. 3) After the cards are dealt, and before you draw, you may press the 'Del' (delete) key to turn face up any cards that you have turned down. Do this when you want to re-select which cards to throw away for the draw. 'R' (for "re-select") works like 'Del'. 4) If you win a large payoff, the payout may take a few seconds because of "coins dropping." To make an instant payout, press a key when you hear the coins dropping. TESTING THE DRAW: Since poker, even video poker, has a great number of possible situations, The WorkWare Company can't write out a strategy for every possible hand you might get. You can read a book on Video Poker for general strategies. (You can get a free catalog of 1000 books about gambling by calling The Gambler's Book Shop toll-free at 1-800-634-6243. In Nevada, 1-382-7555) For strategies in complex situations you encounter during the game, you may want to "Test the Draw." That is, you may want to see what would happen over 1000's of times if you threw away certain cards and kept others in your hand. Vegas Pro Video Poker lets you do so. Note: If you have an EGA or VGA, you can not "Test the Draw" with- out first turning off the 640x350 game-playing screen; see the section "Adjust the Payoffs and Table Rules", entry # 1. Tests must be in 80x25 text mode for speed. After the cards have been dealt and you have selected which cards to throw away for the draw, you may "Test the Draw" by pressing the F2 key. Pop-up screens will appear and your screen will look something like the following example: │Pair Jk, Qn, Kg, Ac 1 for 1 # Occurrences: ... Odds to 1: ... │ │ ............ ........... ......... │ │Straight Flush 1000 for 1 # Occurrences: ... Odds to 1: ... │ └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ ┌──────┐ ┌──────┐ ┌──────┐ ┌──────┐ ┌──────┐ │10░░░│ │10 │ │Q │ │J │ │9 │ │░░░░░░│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │░░░░░░│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ └──────┘ └──────┘ └──────┘ └──────┘ └──────┘ Before draw: One Pair, Tens, come straight ╔════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗ ║ Stake $ 485.00 Previous Test 1010... ║ ║ #Test hands: 0 #Test hands: 1000 ║ ║ Won: 0 0.00% Won: 294 29.40% ║ ║ Lost: 0 0.00% Lost: 706 70.60% ║ ║ Test Stake $ 485.00 Gain $ 665.00 ║ ║ # Test hands to deal: 1000 ║ ╚════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝ Esc=Exit F1=Help F2=Run Test F9=Clear Press F2 again to run the test. Press F9 if you want to clear the current test results, those on the left. To change the number of "Test hands to deal," enter <1> to <999999999>. 'Esc' exits. In the above example, the user is testing 9, 10, J, Q, a 4-card come straight, to find out if drawing to it wins more often, or wins more money, than drawing to the pair of 10's. The program "tests your draw" by dealing cards to your hand over and over until the "#Test hands" equals the "# Test hands to deal." Here, "dealing to your hand" means replacing the cards that you threw away (turned down, discarded) for the draw. The program compiles statistics for each kind of winning hand: how often it occurrred and the odds-to-1 against its occurrence. For speed, the dealt test cards are not shown and statistics are not displayed until the testing stops or you interrupt it. You may interrupt the testing at any time by pressing 'Esc'. ADJUST THE PAYOFFS AND TABLE RULES: Use the up & down arrow keys to move to a field (an entry or section of the screen) that you want to change. Type in your entry. The entries that you may make are numbered in parentheses below. (1) TURN GAME GRAPHICS ON [Y/N]? If you do not have an EGA or VGA, this question should not appear, but enter <N> if it does. If you have an EGA or VGA, enter <N> to turn off the 640x350 game-playing screen. The next time you "Get on with the Poker Game," the game- playing screen will be in 80x25 text mode, which will run faster and allow you to "Test the Draw." (2) REAL-TIME DELAY FACTOR [0..10]? Enter a number to speed up or slow down the speed of the card dealing. Zero is the fastest. Ten is the slowest. Usually 1-4 is right. Zero turns off sound too. (3) SOUND EFFECTS ON [Y/N]? The sound effects are card-dealing and coin-dropping sounds. To turn them off, enter <N>. In video poker, you need a hand of Jacks paired or higher to win. A pair of Jacks, Queens, Kings, or Aces pays off 1 coin for each coin played. You may set the other winning-hand payoffs. (4) TWO PAIRS = enter <0> to <99999> (5) THREE OF A KIND = " (6) STRAIGHT = " (7) FLUSH = " (8) FULL HOUSE = " (9) FOUR OF A KIND = " (10) STRAIGHT FLUSH = enter <0> to <99999> (11) JACKPOT ROYAL FLUSH PAYOFF = enter <0> to <9999999.99> (12) COIN TO PLAY = $ enter <.25> <.50> <1> <5> <10> or <100> (13) YOUR STAKE = $ enter <0> to <9999999.99> Note: Press F9 to have the program set the Payoffs and Table Rules for you. A window will pop up, asking whether you want "Stingy" or "Generous" payoffs. Press 'S' if you want payoffs to be stingy (tight) as in a casino. Otherwise, press 'G'. MAKING THE CARDS "WORDY": When playing the game on a Monochrome or CGA monitor, or on an EGA/VGA in text mode, some players may prefer to have cards drawn on screen with a text description of the Rank & Suit, as follows: ┌──────┐ │Q │ │Queen │ To make the text description appear on cards, │of │ enter <VEGASPRO -V> to start the program. The │Spades│ "-V" (for verbose) turns on the text. └──────┘