**Ultimate Bid Whist**

                                    **by**

                               **Arthur Crump**

 **Table of Contents**
 **=================**
        1. Getting Started
                a. How to Play Bid Whist
                b. Requirements
                c. Installation & Setup
                d. Starting Ultimate Bid Whist
        2. Troubleshooting & Technical Support
        3. How to Contact Us

 **1. Getting Started**
 **==================**

 **a. How to Play Bid Whist**
 **------------------------**

        There are many variations of the game of Bid Whist,
        Ultimate Bid Whist is one variation. While classical
        Bid Whist is played with four players, this is a two
        handed version with a human player playing against a
        computer opponent.

        Each player is dealt 12 cards. The Human player is
        allowed the first bid, or pass. The player who wins
        the bid, also wins the six card 'kitty'. The player
        then chooses six cards from either the kitty or
        their hand to 'throw away'.

        Bid Whist is played with both the jokers, if your
        playing uptown, the Big Joker is the highest card in
        the trump suite, followed by the Little Joker. If your
        playing downtown, the Big Joker is the lowest card in
        the trump suite, followed by the Little Joker.

        The goal of Bid Whist is to obtain a score of +7 or
        force your opponent to score -7. Points are made by
        bidding on the number of 'books' or winning hands
        you feel you will be able to turn above the first
        6 books.

        For example, if you bid 3 uptown Hearts, your
        guessing that you can win 9 hands out of a total
        13. If you win the 9 hands, you gain 3 points,
        however, if you don't win the 9 hands you lose 3 points.
        You win 1 additional point for each point over your
        bid, so if a player bids 3 and wins 10 hands, they
        win a total of 4 points.

        If a player has, for instance, more Heart cards than
        any other trump then it would be advantageous to bid
        in the Heart suite. If a player has a lot of face cards
        then they would want to bid high, or uptown.

        A player also has the option of bidding No Trump suite.
        This means that the player has many low (Ace, 1, 2, 3)
        or high (Ace, King, Queen) cards spread out over many
        suites. With No Trump the bidding is doubled. If a
        player bids 4, downtown, No Trump and wins 10 hands
        then 8 points will be added to their score. Likewise
        if a player does not win 10 hands, their score will be
        subtracted by 8 points.

        The player who wins the bid automatically is given one
        point and becomes the lead player, and the other player
        must play whatever suite the lead player starts with.
        Afterwards, the player who wins the hand gets to choose
        the lead suite, and the other player must play that
        suite.

        If you run out of cards in the suite the lead player
        has played, you have an option of putting out a card
        from another suite. You can win the hand by playing a
        card from the trump suite, otherwise the lead player
        wins the hand.

 **b. System Requirements**
 **----------------------**

        To run Ultimate Bid Whist, you'll need the following system:

                An IBM-compatible, 386 or better computer
                Two Megabytes of RAM
                A VGA monitor
                Windows 3.1, or Windows 95
                Hard Disk with two Megabytes free
                Mouse

        You'll have more fun with these recommended additions:

                Pentium processor
                Four Megabytes of RAM

 **c. Installation and Setup**
 **-------------------------**

        1. To get started with Ultimate Bid Whist on a hard disk:
                a. Insert the Ultimate Bid Whist disk in your
                        floppy disk drive ('A', or 'B')
                b. From Windows 'run' A:\setup or B:\setup" and press
                        Enter.
                c. Follow the screen directions.

 **d. Starting Ultimate Bid Whist**
 **------------------------------**

        To start the game, double click on the Ultimate Bid Whist
        icon in Windows.

 **2. Troubleshooting & Technical Support**
 **======================================**

        If you have a problem, chances are you can fix it without
        needing to get help. Try the following:

        If the game says you have insufficient memory, or if it crashes,
        try rebooting without loading any TSR programs, such as your
        disk cache.

        If the screen is to dark to see, try turning up the brightness
        on your monitor.

        If you are unable to fix your problems, try contacting us via
        electronic mail: **ao545@lafn.org**. Make sure you include
        your computer configuration and what you were trying to do when
        you encountered the problem. Also include any error messages
        that were displayed.

 **3. How to Contact Us**
 **====================**

        Write to:

                **AGCrump**
                **P.O. Box 8216**
                **Inglewood, CA 90308**

        E-mail:

                **ao545@lafn.org**

 Ultimate Bid Whist is Copyright (c) 1996-1997 Arthur Crump