Loadstar 128 #41/q41.d81/t.hearts

Text File | 1993-01-01 | 7.2 KB | 155 lines

                                 H E A R T S

             Program and Instructions by Kate and Ron Slaminko

                           Text by Fender Tucker

    If I could just get the Slaminkos to churn out a dozen 80-column
programs a year, there wouldn't be all of this confusion about the future
of LOADSTAR 128. But as we all know, programming requires lots of time and
work, and the rewards aren't much anymore. But they're already working on
their next masterpiece and I, for one, can't wait.

    Just about everybody knows the game of Hearts. It's a less-stressful
form of Bridge, where there's no bidding. Here you play against three
computer-driven players. There are instructions for playing the game in the
boot program, and in case you want to print them out, they're given below.

    By now, the word is out that I've dipped a toe into the Dark Side and
bought a new, high-powered PC. Of course the first thing I did was open the
Games folder and play Free Cell and Hearts. In fact, playing the games is
about 80% of what I've done so far. Well, I'll tell you: Ron Slaminko's
HEARTS program blows the Windows version out of the water! The graphics are
not necessarily any better and the play is a little slower, even at 20 MHz,
but here's the important thing: I can always beat the MS-DOS game; Ron's
HEARTS is a killer. I swear the three computer guys are in cahoots to see
that I get stuck with the black queen, usually on the second trick.

    I finally won a game, after losing pitifuly the first four times I
played. Ron has definitely come up with some terrific Hearts-playing
algorithms for his computer players. You get to select the playing skills
of the three computer players: beginner, intermediate and advanced. So far
I've only played against three advanced players, but then I've always
considered myself an "expert". It makes me wonder just how good of a Hearts
player Ron is, to be able to program the players to play so well.

    If you know Hearts, jump right in and start playing. You can use a
mouse in Port 1, a joystick in Port 2, or the keyboard. Everything works
just as you would expect it to.

    I am extremely proud to be the publisher and editor of Ron and Karen
Slaminko's 80-column HEARTS program.


 INSTRUCTIONS
 ------------

    Hearts is a classic card game of skill and luck. The goal is to achieve
the LOWEST score among the four players. The game is played as a series of
hands with 13 rounds, or tricks, per hand. At the end of the hand, the
number of points taken by each player is counted and added to the score for
the game. The game ends when at least one player has reached 100 points.

    Each Heart is worth 1 point, and the Queen of Spades is worth 13,
making a total of 26 points in each hand. You want to take the minimum
number of points, unless you can take all of them (called Shooting the
Moon). If you Shoot the Moon, you are given a score of 0 for the hand and
all three opponents score 26.

    A hand starts with 13 cards dealt to each player. Prior to playing the
first round of the hand, each player selects 3 cards to be passed to the
player to their left. Before the start of the second hand, cards are passed
across; in the third, cards are passed right, and in the fourth, no passing
occurs. The cycle then repeats.

    13 cards are dealt and 13 tricks make up a hand. Four or more hands
(score to 100) are needed to make a game. The deuce of clubs is always the
first card played, or led, in a hand. Play then progresses clockwise until
everyone has played a card. The player who threw the highest card of the
original suit (in this case clubs), takes the round, or trick, and becomes
the first to play a card in the next round.

    There are a few rules as to what you can lead or play:

 (1) You must lead the 2 of clubs for the first trick if you have it.

 (2) You must follow suit (the suit originally led), if you can. If you
cannot, you may play any card in your hand, except on the first trick (see
rule 3).

 (3) You cannot play a point card the first trick, unless all you have in
your hand are point cards.

 (4) You cannot lead a Heart until hearts are "broken", unless that's all
you have left (and thus you are the one "breaking" hearts). Hearts are
broken when any player who has no cards in the suit which was led plays a
Heart, or, as above, when a player must lead a Heart because that's all
they still hold. Playing the Queen of Spades does not break Hearts.

    The computer controls your three opponents; you have the hand at the
bottom of the screen. You may choose to interface with the program via a
1351 mouse, joystick in port 2, or the keyboard (using the letters that
appear on the bottom left corner of the cards). If passing, select three
cards to pass (an asterisk appears under each selected card) then press
<RETURN> or click on the word <OK> if using a mouse. You can change your
mind by selecting a card again, which will remove it from the pass list.

    At the end of each hand, the point cards taken by each player are
shown, and the scoreboard is displayed (your scores are in blue). Press
<RETURN> or click <OK> to proceed to the next hand. If the game ends
(someone has at least 100 points), an option to play again will be
presented. Press Y if you want to play again.

    You can select any of three skill levels for the computer players:
beginner, intermediate, or advanced. This allows a much greater range of
difficulty settings, since a game with three advanced players is harder to
win than one with only one or two. You can even let the strength of each
computer player be randomly selected, so you won't know their skill levels.
Keep in mind that luck is at least as important as skill in this game. A
beginner with good cards can beat an advanced player with poor ones.

    Good luck playing Hearts!


 FENDER'S TIPS
 -------------

    The following tips are obvious to seasoned Hearts players but just in
case anyone's interested...

 (1) In passing cards, try to get a void in clubs or diamonds if possible,
especially if you have the Queen of Spades.

 (2) Never pass low spades or low hearts, unless you're trying to have a
void.

 (3) I keep the Queen of Hearts as long as I have at least three other
spades. Sometimes I regret it. In general, I feel safer with the Queen than
without it.

 (4) The best way to Shoot the Moon (get all the hearts and the Queen) is
to have no losing hearts. No hearts is great. Ace, ace-king, or ace-king-
queen-xxx is even better.

 (5) Because of tip (4), to prevent the person you're passing to from
Shooting the Moon, pass them a low or intermediate heart.

 (6) Count cards as much as possible. Keep tabs on which of the cards in
your hand are winners and which are probable losers. In Hearts, losers are
usually better than winners.

 (7) Lacking the small cards of a suit, the intermediate cards will kill
you just as easily as the big ones. There's nothing wrong with having four
big diamonds as long as you have some small ones to "protect" yourself. In
fact, having a long suit (six cards or more) is great, as long as you have
a couple of small ones.

    If anyone has better strategies, or disagrees with any of the above,
let me know. I'm an expert Hearts player, but as Ron's game has shown me,
there's always room for improvement.

                 \\\\\  R - Run   RETURN - Menu \\\\\