Fresh from the tables at the casino, you were feeling pretty good. Winning a lot of money does that sort of thing to you. You were obviously on some sort of roll tonight - biorhythmns, the alignment of the planets, divine intervention; whatever it was, it was certainly working for you. You were planning on heading back to your room and getting some shuteye, but the gorgeous woman#, that was currently blocking your path had other ideas. She says that she’s been watching you play all night and asks if you’d like to play a little game with her. You dip your head. You were just trying to look down her dress and check out her cleavage, but she interprets your gesture as an affirmative answer and tugs you towards the lift. Upon reaching your room, she stretches out on the sofa and your brain turns to mush.
“Want to play with me ?” she asks breathlessly. You gurgle something in response - both of you consider it a “yes”.
Suddenly she sits bolt upright, straightens her clothes and reaches for her purse. She pulls out a sheath of notes and says “Two hundred dollars”.
Her unexpected movements startle you into coherence : “What ?”
“This is the beginning of the game”, she says. “We’re playing Strip BlackJack. We both start with $200, the minimum bet is $5. I am the dealer, you give me enough credit to match your bets. When you run out of money, you lose - and I’m gone. When I run out of money I take off an article of clothing. You give me $200 from your wallet and absolve me of all debts I may have. I may choose to buy back an article of clothing for $200 whenever I please. That $200 goes back into your wallet. If, however, I run out of clothes and money - you win.”
“What do I win ?”.
“Whatever I can give you”, she purrs.
Perhaps you should have examined the rules of the game a little closer, but, you were on fire on the blackjack tables downstairs. And look at this woman in front of you. You were getting a pretty fair idea of something she could give you once you had won. Then again, that little speech she gave did sound a tad rehearsed, but, all you could possible lose is $200 - isn’t it ?
And so it begins....
# - or whatever you prefer if a woman is not your style.
The rest of the user documentation is split into several sections :
* starting Strip BlackJack
* using the menus
* using the buttons
* changing the dealer pictures
* change/adding to the sounds and other pictures
* troubleshooting
* next version
======================================
***** STARTING STRIP BLACKJACK *****
======================================
Strip BlackJack can be started the same way as all other Macintosh applications. Either by double-clicking on the Strip BlackJack icon, ( the icon isn’t very good is it ? send me one if you can do better ), or by selecting it, ( clicking on it once, etc - for more info on this method see the documentation that came with your computer ), and selecting Open from the File menu when the Finder is in the foreground. Using these methods a new game is automatically started for you.
Interesting stuff happens when you double-click on a saved game. Several things can happen depending on other mitigating factors.
• If Strip BlackJack is not open
it starts Strip BlackJack and opens the game you have double-clicked on.
• If Strip BlackJack is open but no game is in progress
control is switched to Strip BlackJack and opens the game
you have double-clicked on.
• If Strip BlackJack is open and a game is in progress
- if game in progress is the same as the game you have double-clicked on; you
continue playing the game in progress.
- if game in progress is different to the one you double-clicked and has not changed
since it was last saved; the game in progress is closed and the game you
double-clicked on is began.
- if game in progress is different to the one you double-clicked and HAS changed
since it was last saved; you are firstly prompted on what you want to do with the
game in progress. You’re asked if you want to save it or not. Choosing “yes” or
“no” does what you’d expect it to ( see ‘Using the Menus’ ), then it closes the
game in progress and begins the game you double-clicked on. If, however, you
selected “cancel”, the game in progress is continued.
Phew, did you get all that ? Believe me, it might sound difficult when written down, but in practice it’s quite intuitive.
When you start Strip BlackJack the first thing that appears on your computer monitor is the title screen - isn’t it pretty ? It gets dull reasonably quick however, so, if you want to skip it displaying this, then just hold your mouse button down as it loads.
============================
***** USING THE MENUS *****
============================
Alright let’s look at the menus now. If you didn’t know, the menus are at the very top of your screen in the white bar thing; called, funnily enough, the menu bar. I’ll assume you know how to select menu items and how to use the keyboard shortcuts to select them also. If you don’t, once more read the stuff that came with your Mac.
The leftmost menu is the Apple Menu, represented by the Apple Logo, ( I’m assuming it’s the same for the Mac clone computers, but I’m unsure ). Under this menu, the very first item is labelled “About Strip BlackJack...”, or “About Strip21...” or whatever it is. Selecting this will tell you about Strip BlackJack, namely, who I am and how to send me stuff. If you’ve forgotten already I’m Michael McClelland and you can send me stuff using my email address ( mwm01@uow.edu.au ), until I get a new one at the end of 1997; or, my postal address ( 13 Bean St Thirroul NSW Australia 2515 ).
The next menu is the “Game” menu. In most applications this is called the File menu, but I thought Game more appropriate as it does stuff with games. Looking at each menu item in turn, we have :
• New - this starts a new game. New is only enabled when there is no other game in
progress.
• Open - this opens a saved game. Open is only enabled when there is no other game
in progress. It’s the standard open file dialog so you shouldn’t have any
problems with it.
• Close - closes the game in progress. It’s only enabled when a game is in progress.
If the game in progress has changed since it has last been saved, or if it
has never been saved and has changed, it will ask if you want to save it
before it closes. If you click on “yes” it’d do the same thing as if you had
selected “Save”, before closing. Click on “no” and it closes straight
away. Clicking on “cancel” means you’ve had a change of heart and want
to keep playing the game in progress.
• Save - save the game in progress. Only enabled when a game is in progress, with
no hand in progress, and has changed since it was last saved. A game is
deemed to have changed when a hand of Strip BlackJack has been completed.
If the game has not been saved before, the standard save file dialog is
presented, otherwise it saves it over the top of where you had previously
saved it.
• Save as... - enabled when a game is in progress, with no hand in progress, and
you’ve played at least one hand. Choosing this presents you with the
standard file dialog.
• Revert - enabled when a game is in progress, with no hand in progress, and you
have either saved the game previously, or you have opened a saved game.
Selecting revert causes the game to restart with the values the player
and dealer had when you last saved. The cards dealt since your last save
will NOT be the same.
• Quit - this quits the current session of your Strip BlackJack play. If a game is in
progress, and has changed since its last save, you will be asked if you want
to save it before quitting.
Next in line is the Options menu, this menu takes care of gameplay options.
• Sound - this button toggles sound on/off, the default setting in on. Note that if
you have the mute button on ( set in the Sounds Control panel ) it will
play the sound, just that you won't be able to hear it. This may explain
why there may be long pauses at the completion of a hand - it is actually
playing a sound you can't hear. If you have the volume TURNED down
however, this doesn't happen. The game is smart enough to not try and
play a sound you can't hear. Why doesn't it do this for mute ? Well, I
tried, but I couldn't find out how to determine if mute was turned on or
not. If you know how, then drop me a line.
• Dealer Picture - to be used in situations where it may be inappropriate to display
the dealer picture. This button allows you to toggle drawing the
dealer picture on/off, the default is on. When it is off, the
“nudity”, of the dealer is signified by a red bar along the bottom
of the screen. No red bar means the dealer is fully clothed. A red
bar all along the bottom of the area that the dealer picture
usually occupies, means the dealer is out of clothes.
• Scale Picture - this button toggles scaling the SIZE of the dealer picture and the
POSITIONS of the other screen items on/off. What I mean by the
screen items is the buttons, where the dealer picture goes, the
cards etc. Having “Scale Picture” on, means that the dealer
picture is resized to take up more of the screen, and that the other
screen objects are spaced to better fit the screen. If, however,
you have a freaky-sized screen; like a page-sized one, it may look
a little strange. That’s where turning scaling off would help.
Turning scaling off makes the game pretend you have a
screen that is 640 x 480 in resolution. The default for scaling is
on. This option is only enabled when your screen is not set to
640 x 480 resolution already. Note that if you change your screen
depth during the game, it won't be noticed.
When scaling is turned on, some of the SCREEN OBJECTS MAY LOOK
TOO SMALL. Change them to your taste. As I wrote in "Read Me
First", what I have done is just an example of what is possible to
do with the Strip BlackJack. No doubt you could do better picture
and sound-wise. Instructions on how to change the screen items (
and sounds ) are included later in this documentation. Changing of
the dealer pictures is a little more automated, see the next menu
item description.
• Change Pictures... - this option is only enabled when no game is in progress.
Selecting this item displays a dialog box on screen that allows
you to change the dealer pictures. More on how to do this
later.
==============================
***** USING THE BUTTONS *****
==============================
There are two sorts of buttons in the game. The first sort are what I call the “action” buttons. These buttons include the “deal”, “stay”, “hit”, “split”, “double”, “insurance” and “new game”; they cause the game to perform an action. To use these “action buttons” you must click down on the mouse button, and have the mouse over the “action button” when you release it. This indicates to the game that you have not changed your mind about pressing it. If you press down the “action button”, then change your mind about pressing it; move the mouse away from the “action button” and release your mouse button. The “action button” will pop back up and no action will be performed.
Information on specific action buttons, ( eg. deal, stay, etc ), is included in the file "How to Play Blackjack". Information given includes their function, when they're enabled and other nifty things like that.
The second sort of button I think I’ll call : “alter buttons”. They alter a condition of the game. The “alter buttons” in this game are the up and down arrows that alter your bet. Pressing once on the up or down buttons causes your bet to go up or down by $5. You can’t go pressing on it really fast, ‘cause the button must have popped back up again before it can register your press. “But what if I want to change my bet by a lot ?”, you ask, “It’ll take ages if I have to wait for it to pop up each time”. This is what makes the “alter” buttons differ from the “action” buttons. By holding down your mouse button, on the up or down arrow, it is equivalent to pressing the “alter button” many times. To stop your bet rising or falling, release the “alter button”. This is accomplished by either releasing your mouse button, or by moving your mouse from over the arrow you are pressing. Note that once you press an “alter button” it stays pressed, unlike an “action button” where you are able to retract an action.
A little more on the up and down arrow alter buttons themselves. The up arrow button disappears when you cannot bet anymore; that is, when your bet equals your remaining balance, or is the highest number divisible by five, that is less than your balance. The down arrow button disappears when you bet the minimum bet of $5. Both of the arrow buttons disappear during a game, as you can only alter your bet before you are dealt a hand of cards.
Now here’s a little shortcut with the arrow buttons. If you have caps lock down, or whilst you press the shift key, if you click on the up arrow; your bet will increase to the dealer’s balance or your own balance, whichever of the two comes next after your current bet. With the same conditions, excepting you press the down arrow; the bet decreases to the dealer’s balance, if it’s less than your balance, or the minimum bet ( $5 ). You may find this easier to understand if you experiment with this during a game.
There are keyboard shortcuts you may use, if you don’t want to use the mouse. They are : return - deal
space - stay
h - hit
s - split
d - double
i - insurance
n - new game button
up arrow - increase bet
down arrow - decrease bet
Case is not important - “h” is treated as “H”, etc. For the action buttons, if you use the keyboard shortcut, you lose the ability of changing your mind after pressing down. The alter buttons retain all of their capabilities.
==========================================
***** CHANGING THE DEALER PICTURES *****
==========================================
There are two methods. The first method is described here, the second method is the same as what you’d have to do if you want to change or add to the sounds or other pictures, described in the next section.
To change pictures close any game in progress and select “Change Pictures...” from the Options Menu. A dialog box will appear. The picture displayed in the dialog box on the left, is the first picture in the sequence of dealer pictures. There are five pictures in the sequence, ( my thinking was : fully-clothed, pant-less, shirt-less,
bra-less, nude ). To select which picture in the sequence you wish to change use the arrow buttons below the picture. Note that here the sequence of pictures is circular, ie., pressing the left arrow when the first picture is displayed, causes the last picture in the sequence to be displayed.
Once you have chosen the existing picture you wish to change, you have to select the picture you wish to change it to. Click on the “Select Picture” button, this presents the standard open file dialog. Find the picture you want to change it to. Note that you may only select PICT picture types. Most pictures from the Internet aren’t in this form, you’ll need an image viewer sort of application to change it to the correct format; I recommend JPEGView, ( all you do is open the picture, select "Save as..." from the File menu and change a pop-up menu labelled "Output File Format" to read "PICT" ). If you’ve found your picture and opened it, it will now be displayed on the right of the “Change Picture...” dialog box.
The “change” button is now enabled. Note that the picture on the left resides in part of the application called the resource fork. This is where the application stores such info as sounds, pictures, window sizes, dialog sizes and contents; I'll refer back to this shortly. If you are sure you want to change the pictures then click on change. The picture that was on the right is now displayed on the left, the button that said “cancel” now says “finished”. Note that you CANNOT reverse this operation now, the picture that used to be in the resource fork has been totally deleted and replaced with the new picture. You should keep a copy of each picture you use if you don’t want to lose it forever, ( this means : don't delete the PICT file - the one you choose from the dialog box presented by clicking on the "Select Picture" button - if you ever want to use it again ). The PICT you selected to replace the desired dealer picture is naturally unchanged during this operation.
Keep changing dealer pictures to your hearts content, when you’re finished, click on “finish”. Play a new game and your new pictures are in there.
Note that if a picture does not fit in the available screen area, it will be scaled proportionally, ( and centred ), so it does so. You can determine the size of the screen area available for displaying the dealer picture on your monitor, by clicking on the dealer picture during a game. A red border displays where the dealer picture is situated, the figures in the upper left display how many pixels wide by how many pixels high the area is.
Why didn’t I put in pictures myself ? Well, mostly because I didn’t want to get charged with distributing pornography. Also because it increases the size of the application and takes longer to download, and, because I don’t want to foist my ideas of a beautiful dealer on you. Some may argue that having the person who uses the game, do the pictures, is kind of pointless : “Why play the game to see a naked dealer, when they can just look at the pictures instead ?”. They have a good point, but there’s nothing I can do about it. Get a friend to find a series of pictures for you and try and stop yourself from browsing through them using the “Change Pictures...” option.
No easy option to change the sounds like there is for changing the dealer pictures sorry. You have to play with the resource fork. To do this you need a piece of software called “ResEdit”. This is from Apple software archives I think, it’s pretty cool, I recommend you getting it. However, I don’t recommend you using it if you don’t know what you’re doing.
Start ResEdit, and open Strip BlackJack from within it. Double-click on the ‘ snd’ icon, ( it has a picture of a load speaker thing above it ). On screen, in a new window, there is a list of all the sounds in the game. If they aren't displayed in numerical order by their ID, then select "by ID" under the "View" menu.
The titles I’ve used for the sounds are pretty self-explanatory. You should see the titles I’ve made for the sounds that are played at the completion of a hand : “Dealer Wins Sounds”, “Dealer Loses Sounds”. "Dealer Wins Sounds" start from the ID of 200. "Dealer Loses Sounds" start from the ID of 300. The actual titles themselves don't do anything and are just there for show. You can have up to twenty sounds in each section, I’ve only included ten or so. The game selects which Dealer Wins Sound to play using the following method :
if someone has won a hand ( without splitting )
then pick a random number between 200 and 219 inclusive.
if there is a sound in the resource fork with that ID
then play it.
It selects which Dealer Loses Sound using a similar method.
If you fill each ID with a sound, then it's going to play a sound every time the dealer loses or wins a hand ( not on split hands though ). This can get annoying, I recommend leaving a few IDs blank.
Here is a list of the other sounds in the game, along with their respective IDs :
128 card being dealt to a player
129 deck of cards being shuffled
130 button being pressed down
131 " " " " released
140 what "player" says when dealer takes off a layer of clothes
141 what "player" says when dealer puts back on a layer of clothes
142 what "player" says when player wins the game
143 what "player" says when player loses the game
144 what "player" says when they're dealt a blackjack
1000 played before title screen appears
1001 played when title screen is up and just before it fades away
Note, I very much recommend giving your sounds a name so that you can remember when they are played. Enter a name by selecting "Get Resource Info" from the "Resource" menu and filling in the "Name" field of the dialog box that pops up.
Now that you know which sounds live where I suppose you may like to know how to put your own ones into the game. First capture your sound.
To capture a sound from another application or game -
open the application or game through ResEdit, double click on the ' snd' icon to get a
list of sounds it has, highlight the one you want ( click on it ), and select "Copy" from
the "Edit" Menu - your sound is "captured".
To capture your own sound -
perhaps the easiest way, for sounds of duration less than 10 seconds or so, is to use
the Sound control panel. Open the Sound control panel, get it to display a list of the
alert sounds ( figure this bit out for yourself as I only have System 7.1 where it
came up automatically ). Look at the docs that came with your system software if
you can't quite figure it out. Then click on the "Add..." button. Record your sound using
the microphone that comes with your Mac ( usually ). Save it and go back to the list
of alert sounds. Click on the one that you just made and select "Cut" from the "Edit"
menu. You have captured your sound. Note that your alert sound may have changed,
change it to what you want if it bothers you.
We have our sound, now :
1) To alter an existing sound
Select the sound you want to change by clicking on it. Select "Paste" from the "Edit"
Menu. It's done. Note that the sound that was there disappears forever once you save
the changes.
2) To add a new sound
Select "Create New Resource" from the "Resource" Menu. A little window will pop up
titled "snd ID = 132 ......". We don't want it to be this ID 'cause it'll never get played.
Select "Change Resource Info" from the "Resource" Menu. Alter the "ID" field to have
the ID of the sound you wish to add ( see above list ). Click OK and then paste your
sound in as above. It's done.
Save the resource file when you're done otherwise all the changes you have made won't take effect.
You can change the pictures doing the same sort of thing as above. Here is a list of the PICTS used in the game.
128 First Dealer Picture
129 Second
130 Third
131 Fourth
132 Final
200 2 of spades
201 3 of spades
202 4
..... ( etc )
209 Jack of spades
210 Queen of spades
211 King of spades
212 Ace of spades
213 2 of clubs
....
226 2 of hearts
....
239 2 of diamonds
....
252 card back
2000 stay button up
2001 hit button up
2002 split button up
2003 double button up
2004 insurance button up
2005 deal button up
2006 increase bet button up
2007 decrease bet button up
2008 new game button
2010 stay button depressed
2011 hit button depressed
2012 split button depressed
2013 double button depressed
2014 insurance button depressed
2015 deal button depressed
2016 increase bet button depressed
2017 decrease bet button depressed
3000 title screen ( DON'T CHANGE THIS ONE PLEASE )
Notes -
1) Dealer pictures can be made up of how ever many colours you like, HOWEVER, they
will only be displayed in the game as if they had up to 256 colours. This is because
I use on offscreen graphics world ( don't ask ) to make drawing and redrawing them
look pretty. To store more than 256 colour pictures takes ALOT of memory. If
there is any support for a feature that allows you to turn off "offscreen graphics
drawing", thereby allowing pictures of more than 256 colours, I will consider
including it in a future version.
2) Dealer pictures are resized to fit in a defined area. To find the size of the area,
during a game click on the dealer picture. A rectangle will appear that will tell
you the breadth by height of the available area on your monitor, ( under the current
resolution setting )
3) It is VERY IMPORTANT YOU PUT CARDS IN THE CORRECT ORDER. I determine which
card is what in my game by its resource ID. Weird scoring will apply if you mess
up the order.
4) The cards and buttons are not scaled. They are displayed on screen as the size
they are in the resource file. Note that all groups of buttons ( the deal and new
game buttons are one group, the arrows are one group, the rest form another ) must
be of the same size. Also, that a button that is up, is the same size as the
corresponding button depressed. Now, you can understand how much "fun" I had
making my buttons.
FINALLY,
ALWAYS WORK ON A COPY !!!!!!!!!! YOU DON'T WANT TO STUFF IT UP AND NOT BE ABLE TO
PLAY IT ANYMORE. BE CAREFUL........
=============================
***** TROUBLESHOOTING *****
=============================
* if for some reason the program crashes - not that it ever does, and the screen is
black, it stays black. You’ll have to restart, remember to save all your files.
Increasing the memory should stop this problem - not that it ever occurs.
* if after changing the dealer pictures, you start a new game and the picture isn’t
displayed, increase the memory. Still doesn’t work ? Then check there’s a picture
in the resource fork where there should be one. Test this by selecting “Change
Pictures...”, cycle through. If there are five different pictures there, keep
increasing memory. Otherwise, a picture is missing. Use ResEdit to put a picture
where it belongs, the five pictures should have the identifiers 128 through to 132.
* if you ever save a game and try and open it again to be told that the file is corrupt,
here is how to fix it :
Open ResEdit. Select "Get File/Folder Info" from the file menu. Change the type
field from "s21d" to "TEXT", and the creator field from "s21a" to "ttxt". Save it.
Now open the saved game through TeachText. The saved game should consist of
several numbers. The first is the user's balance, the second is the dealer's
balance. The third is the nudity level of the dealer ( ranging from 0 to 4
inclusive ). Next is whatever your bet was when you saved. The final number
counts how many times you've used the cheat - you may only use it 5 times per
game ( more than enough ). "Cheat ?" you say. Yeah, there's a cheat. Press some
keys in the correct sequence during the game and wallah ! "Wallah what ?", well
you'll just have to find out.
Anyway, each number must be on a line by itself and there must be a carriage
return AFTER the final number. Once you've saved it change the type and creator
fields back to what they were using the method described previously.
Now you know how to cheat. Use this knowledge well.
* for any other problems try increasing the memory. That's the magic cure-all. The
memory required for the game is very dependent on the sizes of the pictures and
sounds.
* notify me of any bugs you find. You shouldn’t find any, ( that’s confidence talking
not stupidity - geez I'm just asking for trouble now aren't I ? ). But, remember this
is the first release, so don’t think little of me if there is a mistake or two. If you
do notify me of a bug, then please describe it in much detail as possible, ( what
happens, what you were doing just before it happened, does it happen all the time,
what computer you are using, system software version, ..... ), that way I can try and
recreate it and test to find out if I've fixed it or not.
=========================
***** NEXT VERSION *****
=========================
• I'd like a better ending. Suggestions ?
• Maybe an ability to display PICTS of more than 256 colours if I'm picketed.....
• Non-playing of sounds when mute is turned on in the sounds control panel.
What will make me spend my valuable time writing another version ? You sending your shareware fee along of course....