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1991-01-09
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"Blackjack Lab" by Dan Cogliano, Version 1.0.1 Release Notes
May 3, 1990
===========================================================================
B L A C K J A C K L A B I S A S H A R E W A R E P R O G R A M !
"Blackjack Lab" is a freely distributable, copyrighted program for posting
on bulletin boards, as long as the original LHARC file and all files within
it are included and remain unaltered, and may not be duplicated or utilized
for any commercial purposes without the expressed, written consent of the
author. No fee can be charged for this program except for implied fees due
to downloading and fees based solely on media costs and duplication
and shipping.
You now have in your possession one of the most powerful blackjack programs
available on ANY microcomputer today! This program has taken over 1 and
1/2 years to develop. If you enjoy using this program, you are encouraged to
become a registered user. Your support of high quality shareware programs
will encourage future enhancements to this product, and encourage other
programmers to continue developing more high quality shareware products.
As a thank-you gift from the author, you will receive the following
bonuses when you become a registered user of "Blackjack Lab":
- A printed user's manual (over 30 pages), which includes not only a
complete description of the program, but also explains basic strategy
and card counting techniques.
- A diskette containing the latest version of "Blackjack Lab", complete
with the save feature enabled.
- Casino rule files for 10 casinos from around the world, including Las Vegas
and Atlantic City (not to mention video blackjack!).
- Strategy files for Las Vegas and Atlantic City.
- Expanded help facility, including on-line user's manual and glossary.
- A complete course on how to learn blackjack basic strategy and card
counting, using the program's unique experiment facility.
- Advance information on future enhancements.
- And last, but not least, the author's undying gratitude.
To register, send $25 ($30 if outside U.S. or Canada) in U.S. check
or money order to:
Dan Cogliano
P.O. Box 1379
Pasadena, Maryland 21122 U.S.A.
===========================================================================
* Program Features *
"Blackjack Lab" contains the following features:
- The ability to simulate nearly any casino blackjack game in the world
(and allow for future rule changes). Registered users receive rules for
10 casinos from around the world.
- Allow the use of the most popular playing strategies (basic strategy and
card counting) and allow modification to them.
- Color-coded strategy tables to enhance the learning of the strategy.
- Tracking of play statistics (# of hands played, bankroll limits,
casino profitability and others).
- Computer monitoring of blackjack play, and informing the player when
an incorrect play has been made.
- Allowing from 1 to 7 players to play the game, and the computer can be
allowed to play any or all of the hands at the table using a user-defined
playing strategy, simulating other players at a real casino table.
- An interactive on-line help facility.
- A special practice mode, which drills the blackjack student with various
hand combinations (determined in advance by the user), keeping track of
incorrect plays and repeating them until correct.
- A self-running demo mode.
- The ability to customize the program to meet the needs and preferences of
the player.
- Digitized sound and card dealing animation.
- On-line "experiments" are available to registered users and serve as a
complete course for learning to play winning blackjack.
- Loading the program from either a floppy disk or a hard disk.
- Multitasking gracefully if there is sufficient memory.
===========================================================================
* Self Running Demo *
To start the self-running demo, type "BJL:Blackjack BJL:Demo" from the CLI,
or double-click the "Demo" icon from the workbench. To stop the demo,
toggle the "Bet Window" option under the game menu. After the current game
is finished, the bet window will appear. Press the "Current Game" gadget to
avoid starting another game. Select "Quit" from the project menu to quit
the program.
Using "Fast Demo" disables the card animation and speeds up dealer play to
allow nearly 300,000 hands to be played in a 24 hour period (make sure to put
the screen behind workbench to get best performance results).
===========================================================================
* Tour of Blackjack Lab *
1. Type "BJL:Blackjack" from the CLI, or double-click the "Blackjack" icon
from the workbench. press "OK!" gadget when the "About Blackjack Lab"
window appears. The game play table has the name of the casino and
the payout odds at the top, and the play gadgets at the bottom.
The lower right corner shows the number of cards and the equivalent
number of 1/4 decks in the discard pile. This information is
useful to the card counter. When the discard pile turns yellow, the
deck will be shuffled after completion of the current game. The deck
of cards is spread across the table, signifying this table is open
and is ready to receive players.
2. Select "New Game/Bets" under game menu. Click at "Player 4", then
again at the edit box. Change the name to your own name, and press
<RETURN>. Click at the Bet total for Player 4, then the top half
of the blue chip. This will increase your bet by $10. Clicking on
the lower half of the chip will decrease your bet by the same
amount. If you hold down the mouse button when you click on a chip,
the chip amount will repeat. Modify your bet to show $25. Press
the "New Game" gadget, and the dealer will begin a new game, discarding
any current game in progress. The "Current Game" option is used if
you wish to modify the parameters and return to the current game.
3. Play a few hands, by pressing the gadgets at the bottom, or by
using the function keys on the keyboard (F1 for Stand, F2 for Hit,
etc.). In a two person game, one person can use the mouse while the
other person uses the keyboard. Now, click on the monitor gadget for
player 4 the next time the bet window appears. Now, if you do not
pick the best play, the computer will inform you what the best play
is for that hand. You can find out what the best play is anytime by
choosing "Hint" from the game menu. Choosing "Shuffle" from the game
menu will force a shuffle of the cards after the current game, not
immediately. You should notice that the discard pile has turned yellow,
signifying a shuffle will occur.
4. Select "Preferences" from the project menu. Choose one of the card
backs and press the USE gadget. Play a few more hands.
5. We will now change casino rules. From the function menu, select
"House Rules". Then from the project menu, choose Open, switch
to the Rules drawer, and pick the "Hard Luck Casino" rules, and press
the OK! gadget.
6. Switch back to the Game Play Screen using the function menu. The casino
name will change to "Hard Luck Casino" and both the surrender and
split gadgets will disappear the following game. This is so because the
Hard Luck Casino does not have either the surrender or split rule, so
there are no gadgets for them.
7. From the Bet window, enter $25 bets for players 3 and 5. Toggle
the HUMAN gadgets to ROBOT for these two players and press "New Game".
Now, you have two robot players playing on either side of you!
The program will pause when it is your turn, and will play the
robot hands automatically. This closely simulates a real casino
where other players are seated at the same table with you. Toggle
the ROBOT gadget for your seat, and the computer will play all
three hands. Toggle the Bet Window option in the game menu to
disable the bet window, and the computer will play indefinitely
until you re-enable the Bet Window option.
8. Press "Current Game" from the Bet Window, and choose Game Stats from
the game menu. Blackjack Lab has been watching you! This screen shows
the maximum and minimum bets and bankrolls for each player,
as well as the number of hands played and the casino
profitability.
9. Select the Practice option in the function menu, then select the
"New Drill" option from the drill menu. The computer will test you
with various play combinations, remembering your mistakes and
repeating problem hands. Use the Drill Stats option in the
drill menu to check on the problem hands and to see how well you are
doing.
10. From the function menu, select "Help". Blackjack Lab contains an
easy to use, interactive help facility. To find an index of the topics
available, click on the words "Help Index" at the top left of the
help window. If a topic is longer than one screen can display, you
can "turn the page" by clicking on the page gadgets in the lower
right of the help window. Click on "Quit" to quit the help facility.
11. Other features of the program include customizing the casino rules,
playing strategy and card counting (card counting is for the advanced
player), which you may want to check out.
===========================================================================
* General Notes *
Rule changes do not take effect in game play until the next round. Rule
changes for the deck (for example, number of decks) do not take effect
until the next time the deck is shuffled. Shuffling can be forced by the
user, however.
Although not tested fully, I ran this program for about 5 minutes on a beta
version of the Amiga 3000 running workbench 2.0. It worked fine, and boy,
was it fast too! Try the Fast Demo on this machine!
Refer to the on-line help for more information about the program.