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Solitaire Suite Version 1.04 Copyright 1989-92 By Randy Rasa 18215 Troost Olathe, KS 66062 Introduction ------------ Solitaire Suite is a collection of seven challenging and addictive solitaire card games. It consists of: - Calculation: Also known as "Broken Intervals", this game requires the utmost in skill and logic. It offers challenging but rewarding play, and special on-screen assistance to make things a little easier. - Concentration: This is one of the classic solitaires, popular with all ages. It is easy enough for children to play, but offers enough challenge for adults. - Idiot's Delight: Also known as "Aces Up", this game is extremely simple to play, quite addictive, but maddenly difficult to win. Success depends on skill and strategy, but even more on the luck of the cards. - Midnight Oil: Also known as "La Belle Lucie" and "Three Shuffles and a Draw", this game is one of the best solitaires, offering both challenging play and a reasonable chance to win. It is also highly addictive; once you get into it, you'll be "burning the midnight oil" more often than not. - Monte Carlo: Also known as "Weddings" and "Double and Quits", this game is easy to learn and simple to play, yet challenging and addictive as well. The game offers a reasonable opportunity for skill, yet winning often depends as much on luck as making the right moves. - Osmosis: Also known as "Treasure Trove", this solitaire offers an attractive layout and a decent chance of success, but requires skillful play and a bit of luck to win consistently. - Royal Cotillion: This is a two-deck solitaire that requires a bit of skill and a bit of luck, along with a good measure of concentration. In addition to the seven games, the package also contains a graphical front-end menu program called SOLSUITE.EXE. Solitaire Suite Documentation Page 2 Legalese -------- Solitaire Suite is shareware. As such, you can play it, copy it, and give it away as you wish. In fact, you are encouraged to distribute the program to friends, family, and strangers alike. This includes distribution via electronic bulletin board systems (BBS), user's groups, and disk-distribution services. All that I ask is that the package remains unaltered and complete, consisting of the following files: SOLSUITE.EXE SOLSUITE.DOC SOLSUITE.ICO SOLSUITE.PIF SOLSUITE.PIC SOLSUITE.PCS CARDS.CD1 CARDS.CD2 CALC.EXE CONCEN.EXE ID.EXE MC.EXE MO.EXE OSMOSIS.EXE RC.EXE BRUN45.EXE HISTORY.TXT FILE_ID.DIZ Standard Limited Warranty: This software is sold "as is", without any warranty as to performance or any other warranties whether expressed or implied. Because of the vast number of possible hardware and software environments in which this software may be used, no warranty of fitness for a particular purpose is offered. The user assumes the entire risk of using this program. Any liability of the author will be limited to product replacement or the refund of the registration fee. Registration ------------ Solitaire Suite is shareware. If you enjoy it, please support it. Registration is only $15 for all seven games, which gets you the latest registered versions on the diskette of your choice, plus a registration code good for all future updates of the programs included in this collection. The registration codes allow you to change a program from a shareware version to a registered version. Essentially, what this buys you is unlimited "free" updates. If you acquire a newer version of Solitaire Suite from a bulletin board (BBS) or through a shareware disk distributor, you can convert the shareware versions of all the games to registered versions for your own use. To register, print the registration form from the initial shareware screen and send it in. To do print the form, simply select the "Print Registration Form ..." button, then select a destination, either to a printer or a file. If you elect to send the form to a printer, make sure it is on-line and ready. The form should print on any standard 80-column printer. If you want to save the form to a file, the file "ORDER.FRM" will be created in the current directory. You can then print out the registration form by entering the following command from the DOS prompt (with your printer connected and ready): Solitaire Suite Documentation Page 3 COPY ORDER.FRM PRN Then just fill out the form and send it, along with cash, check or money order, to: Randy Rasa 18215 Troost Olathe, KS 66062-9208 Program Requirements -------------------- Solitaire Suite approximately requires 512K of memory, EGA or higher graphics capability, and a Microsoft-compatible mouse. A hard disk is recommended. The files included in the Solitaire Suite package are: SOLSUITE.EXE ... Solitaire Suite main menu SOLSUITE.DOC ... Solitaire Suite documentation (this file) SOLSUITE.PIF ... Windows PIF (Program Information File) SOLSUITE.ICO ... Windows icon SOLSUITE.PIC ... Solitaire Suite graphics SOLSUITE.PCS ... Solitaire Suite graphics CARDS.CD1 ...... Card Graphics CARDS.CD2 ...... Card Graphics CALC.EXE ....... Calculation CONCEN.EXE ..... Concentration ID.EXE ......... Idiot's Delight MC.EXE ......... Monte Carlo MO.EXE ......... Midnight Oil OSMOSIS.EXE .... Osmosis RC.EXE ......... Royal Cotillion BRUN45.EXE ..... Run-Time library HISTORY.TXT .... Program histories FILE_ID.DIZ .... Program description General Instructions -------------------- The mouse pointer will appear as a white arrow with black edges. In general, the left button is used to select the object being pointed to (a card or a button), while the right button is used to exit menus or prompts. If you have a three-button mouse, the middle button will blank the screen. This can also be accomplished by pressing the left and right buttons simultaneously. The "Options" button brings up the options menu, which you can use to set your preferences for both generic and game-specific options. The generic options are: Solitaire Suite Documentation Page 4 Sound: Select "Off" to disable the beeps, clicks, and various other noises the programs make. Select "On" to enable the sounds. Session Statistics: When this option is set to "On", the program will keep track of your statistics (games played, games won, change in average score) throughout the game and then display them when you quit. (Note: During play, you can also display the session statistics by clicking on the score box.) This option does not apply to Concentration. Background Color: Click on the up & down arrows to step through the available background colors. Card Back: Click on the card back graphic to bring up a menu of available card backs to choose from. This option does not apply to Midnight Oil. Once you've set things to your liking, you may click on the "OK" button to save your preferences to disk, or on the "Cancel" button to exit the Options menu without changing anything. The "Help" button brings up several pages of information about how to play the games, which you can view by clicking on the "Next" or "Prev" buttons to move from page to page. When you are finished reading the help, click on the "Done" button to exit. The "New Game" button will end the current game, update your statistics, and start a new game. Note that the stats will only be updated if you have made moves that increased your score. This allows you to evaluate the layout of the cards and, if you don't like what you see, to begin a new game without having it count against you. Use the "Quit" button to exit the program. If you have made any moves that increased your score, your statistics will be updated and displayed briefly before returning you to DOS. Another way to exit the game is to press the "Abort" key (F10). If you press F10 (and select the "Exit This Program" option in the pop-up dialog box or press F10 again), the program will quit to DOS without saving the data file (and thus not giving you a low score if you have to quit the program in the middle of a game). Of course you realize this is cheating, don't you? How To Play ... --------------- Calculation ----------- Calculation uses a standard 52-card deck (no jokers). To begin the game the deck is shuffled, then any ace, two, three, and four are pulled from the deck and form the start of four foundations. These foundations are built up according to the following sequence, Solitaire Suite Documentation Page 5 regardless of suit or color: A,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,J,Q,K 2,4,6,8,10,Q,A,3,5,7,9,J,K 3,6,9,Q,2,5,8,J,A,4,7,10,K 4,8,Q,3,7,J,2,6,10,A,5,9,K Cards are turned up from the deck on at a time, and can be played on the foundations or on any of four wastepiles located just below the foundations. The top of the wastepiles are always available for play to a foundation, but once a card is played to a wastepile, it cannot be moved again, except to a foundation. The game is won by building all four foundations up to king. The skill involved in playing Calculation, in addition to just keeping track of what card goes next on each foundation, is in avoiding covering up a card you'll need soon with a card that cannot be used for some time, if at all. Kings are especially troublesome, since they cannot be moved until at least one foundation has been fully built up. The general strategy is to build on the wastepiles in descending order, but the cards are seldom so kind as to allow this to any great degree. Calculation Options: Assist: When this is set "On" the next card in each sequence will be displayed above each foundation to help you keep track of what comes next. Calculation Buttons: Same Hand: By clicking on this button you can abandon the current game and redeal the same hand if you want another crack at it. Undo: This button allows you to undo (ie: take back) up to ten moves. Concentration ------------- Concentration uses a standard 52-card deck (no jokers). To begin the game the deck is shuffled, then dealt face-down in four rows of thirteen cards each. The object of the game is to remove all the cards, two at a time, by pairs. You may select any two cards. As you do so, they will be turned over (face-up). If they match (that is, if they are of the same rank, regardless of suit), then they will be removed, otherwise they will be turned back over. Solitaire Suite Documentation Page 6 Some people select cards at ramdom, others move sequentially from one card to the next in row or column fashion. Either way will work -- use whatever method helps you to remember where cards have appeared. Note that this game is the opposite of most in that a low score is desireable -- you want to be able to remove all cards in as few attempts as possible. Though becoming proficient at this game is dependent to a large degree on strengthening your short-term memory, luck plays a role as well. A good score requires both skill and luck. Concentration Options: Multi-Player Mode: Concentration has a option called "Multi- Player Mode", which enables up to ten people (or one person playing under ten names) to keep their statistics in the same data file. When this mode is enabled, you will be presented with a menu at the beginning of each game, from which you may select an existing player, add a new player, or delete an old player from the list. Each player's name can be up to fifteen character long. In addition to keeping separate statistics for each player, this mode allows a different setup for each player as well. This means that each player can have his or her own screen color, card back, and sound selection. When multi-player mode is disabled, the game will not bring up the player list for each new game. The configuration options set in this mode will serve as defaults for any new players which are added in multi-player mode. Quick Deal: When this is turned on the cards will be dealt a bit faster. Idiot's Delight --------------- Idiot's Delight uses a standard 52-card deck (no jokers), with aces ranked high, above kings. The game is begun by dealing four cards in a row. You may discard any card that is lower than another card of the same suit. When no more cards can be removed, deal four more cards onto the remainder of the previous deal and remove all possible cards. If a pile is completely depleted, you can move a card from the top of another pile into the space. The game continues in this way, dealing four cards at a time, then removing all possible cards. The game is won if only the four aces are left at the end of the game. Be very careful of which card you move into spaces. The natural inclination is to move aces into spaces as soon as possible, but often it is advisable to consider other possibilities, depending on what cards can be freed up with each move. Solitaire Suite Documentation Page 7 If the "Assist" option is enabled, a box will appear above the cards saying "More Moves Possible" is there is at least one more move available. It might be a good idea to enable this feature if you find yourself missing obvious moves once in a while. Note: The four cards are dealt from the deck by clicking on the card back (there is no "Deal" button). Idiot's Delight Options: Assist Option: When this option is turned "On", you will be alerted when more moves are possible. Idiot's Delight Buttons: Same Hand: By clicking on this button you can abandon the current game and redeal the same hand if you want another crack at it. Undo: This button allows you to undo (ie: take back) up to ten moves. Monte Carlo ----------- Monte Carlo uses a standard 52-card deck (no jokers). To begin the game the deck is shuffled, then dealt face-up, one card at a time, into five rows of five cards each (the tableau), with the remainder of the deck held in reserve for later play. The object of the game is to remove pairs of cards from the tableau. These cards can be any combination of colors, but must be of the same rank (eg: a 3 of hearts and a 3 of spades), and must be located adjacent to each other in a row, column or diagonal. Note that the removal of a card does not make the two cards beside it "adjacent". After removing all possible pairs, the tableau must be consolidated, which means that the remaining cards in the tableau must be "backed up" (moved to the left, then up, keeping the original order) to fill in the blank spaces created by the removed pairs. Cards from the reserve are then dealt into the newly- created spaces and the process of removing pairs begins again. The tableau can be consolidated and re-dealt as many times as necessary. The game is won when the entire deck has been removed, or lost when no more moves can be made. The Undo feature can be used to "un-remove" cards (that is, to return them to the screen sfter they've been removed). The program keeps an undo buffer that contains all the cards that have been removed since the last deal. You can pull these cards back into Solitaire Suite Documentation Page 8 play by pressing the right mouse button or clicking on the "Undo" button. The buffer is "last-in-first-out" -- the last cards you've removed from the screen will be the first cards returned. The only limitation to the undo feature is that it cannot go back further than the last deal. So once you remove some cards and press "Deal", they're gone for good. Monte Carlo Buttons: Deal: This button will initiate a re-deal, in which the cards remaining in the tableau are consolidated, and new cards are dealt from the reserve. Hint: Selecting this button will cause the program to step through all the possible pairs in the tableau. After each pair is displayed, you will be asked to continue (press the left mouse button), or exit (right mouse button). If no pairs can be made, a "No more pairs" message will be displayed. Same Hand: By clicking on this button you can abandon the current game and redeal the same hand if you want another crack at it. Undo: This button allows you to undo (ie: take back) up to ten moves. Midnight Oil ------------ Midnight Oil uses a standard 52-card deck (no jokers). To begin the game the deck is shuffled, then dealt face-up, one card at a time, into seventeen piles of three cards each. The last card is placed by itself as an eighteenth pile. These piles are also known as "fans". The object of the game is to move all of the cards from the eighteen fans into four new piles, arranged by suit, in order from Ace (low) to King (high). These four destination piles are known as the "foundations". Only the top card of each fan is available for play. In addition to moving cards from fans to foundations, cards can also be moved from one fan to another, building down in suit. In this way submerged cards can be freed up for play to the foundations or to other fans. Once a fan becomes empty (which will be represented my a dashed line where the fan was), no moves can be made to that fan. When you have made all the moves you can, from the fans to the foundations and from fan to fan, the remaining cards in all the fans may be reshuffled and re-dealt in the same manner as at the beginning of the game (three cards to a fan). In all, the deck may Solitaire Suite Documentation Page 9 be shuffled three times (once to begin the game, and twice more during the game). At some point during the game, you may draw one submerged card from a fan and play it on any valid foundation or fan. It is generally better to save this draw for as long as possible. You can point to one of the foundations and click the mouse button to initiate "manual-auto" mode. This function is, as the name inplies, a cross between manual mode and automatic mode. When you click on a foundation, the fans are scanned for possible moves, and any valid moves to that foundation will be made automatically. Midnight Oil Options: Auto Mode: When this is set to "On", the program will attempt to move cards from the fans to the foundations automatically. This will relieve you from having to worry about missing obvious moves, so that you can concentrate on strategy. When this is set to "Off", the game is essentially in manual mode, and you will need to make all moves to the foundations by yourself. This option is provided for those traditional- minded souls who might consider auto mode to be cheating. Auto Speed: This allows you to adjust how fast the cards are played in auto mode. Click on the left and right arrows to move the pointer along the scale from "Slower" to "Faster". At the fastest setting, cards are moved as fast as possible (a blur of action). The slowest setting is "single-step" mode, in which you will be prompted before each automatic move. You will need to experiment to find an acceptable setting for your computer. Trefoil Option: 'Trefoil' is the name of a variation of Midnight Oil in which all the aces are placed on the appropriate foundations at the start of the game. This is supposed to make the game a little easier to win, since there are four fewer cards to move to foundations. If you change the Trefoil option while a game is already in progress, you'll have to finish the current game before the change takes effect. Replay Option: When this option is turned "On", you will have the choice of whether or not you want to replay a game that you have lost. Easy Mode: When this option is set "On", then a special algorithm will be used when shuffling the deck. Essentially, it will prevent lower cards of a particular suit from being buried by higher cards of the same suit. This will have the effect of removing most of the potential blocks in the game. in this mode you will still not win every game, but it's the closest thing I've seen to a sure thing. This mode is set as Solitaire Suite Documentation Page 10 the default the first time the program is run. Midnight Oil Buttons: Shuffle: This button will initiate a shuffling of the deck, in which all of the cards in the fans are picked up, shuffled, and then re-dealt. If no shuffles are left, the program will display the message "No shuffles left". Draw: When you select this button, you will be asked to select a pile (fan) to draw from. When you select a fan, it will be displayed in the lower right corner of the screen, and you will be allowed to select one card from that fan to draw. If you change your mind and decide that you don't want to draw a card after all, press the right button to exit draw mode. If you select a card, it will be removed from the fan and displayed in the lower right corner of the screen, and you will be prompted to select a destination. Point to the desired fan or foundation and press the left mouse button to move the drawn card to the selected fan or foundation. Peek: This is similar to a draw, in that an entire fan will be displayed in the lower left corner of the screen, but you are only allowed to look, not touch. To exit peek mode press the right mouse button twice. You can also peek at a pile by clicking the right mouse button while pointing at the desired pile. Undo: This button allows you to undo (ie: take back) any number of moves from one fan to another, from a fan to a foundation, or a draw. You cannot undo a shuffle. Osmosis ------- Osmosis uses a standard 52-card deck (no jokers). To begin the game the deck is shuffled, then four piles of four cards each are dealt at the left. The piles form the reserve, and the top card of each is available for play. One card is dealt to the right of the first reserve, forming the first foundation. As the other cards of the same rank become available, they may be played in a column below the first foundation, forming the other three foundations. Cards are dealt from the deck three at a time, with only the top card available for play to the foundations. Foundations are built in suit, regardless of order. On the first foundation, any card of the same suit may built as soon as it becomes available. On each lower foundation, a card may be built only if a card of the same rank has been built on the foundation above it. Solitaire Suite Documentation Page 11 For example, if the first foundation card is a three of hearts, then any heart can be played on the first foundation as soon as it becomes available, say, for illustration, the seven and nine. Now suppose the second foundation is the three of clubs. If the seven or nine of clubs become available, they can be played on the second foundation, but no other club can be played until the corresponding heart has been built. When all cards have been dealt from the deck, you may redeal as often as you like, until either the game is won (by moving all cards to the foundations) or lost (no more moves can be made. When the "peek" option is enabled, the reserves will be spread out so that all of their cards can be seen. This allows you to spot any potential blocks before beginning the game. The situation to look out for is two cards of the same rank in the same reserve pile, especially is the lower card is of the first foundation suit. If this is the case then the game is hopeless, at least as far as winning, though you can still play it and perhaps even reach a respectable score. Note: to deal cards from the deck, simply click on the card back. When the deck is exhausted, click it again to gather the cards back up in preparation for a redeal. Osmosis Options: Peek: When this is set "On" the reserve piles will be spread out so that all cards can be seen, thus helping you spot and perhaps avoid blocks. Darken Filled Foundations: When this option is set to "On", a filled foundation will be "darkened", otherwise, if it is set "Off", the foundation will be overwritten by the word "COMPLETE". Either way, the purpose is to show that all necessary cards have been moved to that foundation. Which method you want to use is up to you. Move Alert: When this option is turned on, the program will alert you to any available moves by displaying a message above the deck saying "Move Possible". Note that this is only an information message -- you are not required to make a move when one is available. The lay of the cards in the reserve piles may make some available moves ill-advised; use your own judgement. Osmosis Buttons: Same Hand: By clicking on this button you can abandon the current game and redeal the same hand if you want another crack at it. Undo: This button allows you to undo (ie: take back) up to ten Solitaire Suite Documentation Page 12 moves. Royal Cotillion --------------- Royal Cotillion uses two standard 52-card decks (no jokers) dealt together. The game is begun by dealing twelve cards in three rows of four cards each, forming the left tableau. The right wing of the tableau is formed by dealing four rows of four cards each. The foundations are formed in two columns between the left and right tableau. Foundations are formed in the following sequences for each suit: A,3,5,7,9,J,K,2,4,6,8,10,Q 2,4,6,8,10,Q,A,3,5,7,9,J,K In the left wing of the tableau, only the bottom card of each column is available for play, and spaces are never filled. In the right wing, all cards are available, and spaces are filled immediately from the wastepile, or, if there is none, from the deck. Cards are turned up from the deck one at a time, and may be played either to the foundations or the wastepile. The top card of the wastepile is always available for play. The game is one if all eight foundations are completed, or lost if a block is reached. It is advisable, if you have a choice, to play from the left wing first, thus freeing up additional cards. In the right wing, you should not make a move merely because you can. It is better to wait to make a space until a desirable card to save turns up. Royal Cotillion has a "semi-automatic" mode that you can invoke by clicking on one of the foundations when no card is selected. The program will then look through the left and right wings of the tableau, plus the wastepile and top card of the deck, and make any moves it can to the foundation you select. Take care when using this feature, though -- the program may not always make the optimal choice. Royal Cotillion also has a "peek" feature, which can be used to view the contents of the deck or wastepile. Simply position the mouse pointer over the deck or wastepile and click the right mouse button. Royal Cotillion Options: Automatic Dealing: If this is set "On", then cards will be turned from the deck automatically. Otherwise, if this Solitaire Suite Documentation Page 13 option is "Off", you must click on the deck to turn up new cards. Move Alert: When this option is turned on, the program will alert you to any available moves by displaying a message next to the deck saying "Move". Note that this is only an information message -- you are not required to make a move when one is available. Royal Cotillion Buttons: Undo: This button simply "takes back" one move (deck-to- wastepile, tableau-to-foundation, etc.). The number of times that this can be done defaults to ten. A command-line option can be used to set the number of undo levels to any number up to 200, though you may run out of memory at higher values. Use the command-line option "/Uxxx", where "xxx" is a number from 1 to 200. For example, to set Royal Cotillion to use a 100-level undo, use "/U100" on the command line. Same Hand: By clicking on this button you can abandon the current game and redeal the same hand if you want another crack at it. Running Under Windows --------------------- Solitaire Suite, while not a Microsoft Windows program, can be run from Windows. The program must be run in full-screen mode and if you're running in 386 enhanced mode the "High Graphics" (under Advanced Options ... Display Options ... Monitor Ports in the PIF editor) should be turned off. The included SOLSUITE.PIF file should help. In addition, adding the following two line to the [386enh] section of the SYSTEM.INI file may help improve performace of Solitaire Suite under Windows: TrapTimerPorts=off SyncTime=on I've also included a Solitaire Suite icon (SOLSUITE.ICO) which you can use in the Program Manager. There's not room for all the details of setting up this program for Windows, but you should be able to figure it out. Command-Line Options -------------------- All of the individual games share common command line options: /NC -- "No Cheat" option disables the F10 (abort) key. Use this if you find yourself unable to resist temptation. /LCD -- This option may improve the screen display on monochrome LCD Solitaire Suite Documentation Page 14 displays. This option simply changes a few color combinations to improve contrast on LCDs. /Rxxxxxx -- This option is used to convert the shareware version of a program to a registered version. Refer to "A Note To Registered Users" at the end of this document for more information. /SW -- This option is used to convert a registered version to a shareware version. filename.ext -- This option is for alternate data files (see discussion below). Statistics ---------- Each of the games keeps track of the score (the number of cards you've moved to foundations) and the number of shuffles and draws you have left during the course of the game. Also displayed are the total number of games you've played, the number of games you've won (expressed as both a number and a percentage, and your average score. At the end of each game, the statistics are written to disk, either in the default filename.DAT (where "filename" is CALC, CONCEN, ID, etc.) or in the data file specified on the command line. The data file also contains the preferences you set in the options menu. To specify a data file on the command line, start up a game with the following syntax (for example, using Calculation): CALC filename.ext This allows several different people to use the same copy of the game on the same machine, yet keep separate statistics for each person. For example, suppose three people (Tom, Dick, and Harry) played the game at various times on the same machine. They could each easily keep personalized data files, containing their scores and preferences. Tom would use his data file by typing: CALC TOM.DAT Likewise, Dick and Harry could have data files called DICK.DAT and HARRY.DAT. Note that the "DAT" extension could be "SCR" or "HGH", or whatever, as long as it is three letters or less. A Note To Registered Users -------------------------- The registration procedure allows previously-registered users to update new versions from shareware to registered versions by entering a special 'registration code' that was included as part of your order. Run the shareware version of the program with an "/R" command-line Solitaire Suite Documentation Page 15 switch, followed by the registration code, like this: CALC /Rxxxxxx You would, of course use the proper registration code in place of the "xxxxxx". Note also that there should be no space between the "R" and the registration code. After running each of the games with /R switch and the proper code, you'll have brand-spanking new registered versions of the programs. What this essentially amounts to is unlimited, free updates with each registration. The registration procedure has the following limitations: 1. The name of the EXE files must be correct (i.e. as specified at the beginning of this document). 2. You cannot perform the registration procedure on a compressed version (i.e. an EXE file processed with PKLite, Diet, or LZEXE). The EXE file may be compressed after the registration procedure, but not before. 3. Please do not distribute registered versions of the programs. Note: You can also change the programs back to shareware versions by using the "/SW" command-line switch. This function is subject to the same limitations as with the registration procedure (ie: the programs must be properly named and uncompressed). Please use this option to "un-register" the programs if you wish to pass them along to anyone. Also, please include all of the files listed under the "Legalese" section of this document. Thanks. >>> THE END <<<