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GOLDMINE SLOTS - INSTRUCTIONS TOPICS Copyright Notice What is Shareware Contacting the Author How to Register Technical Support System Requirements Installing Trouble-shooting Playing instructions Screen by Screen Playing the Machines Machine Descriptions Statistics Warnings and Disclaimers Credits The Last Word DISCLAIMER - AGREEMENT By installing GOLDMINE SLOT CASINO on a computer system, you agree to accept the following disclaimer of warranty: GOLDMINE SLOT CASINO is supplied as is. The author disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, including without limitation the warranties of merchantability and of fitness for any purpose. The author assumes no liability for damages, whether direct or consequential, which may result from the use of GOLDMINE SLOT CASINO. WHAT IS SHAREWARE? Shareware gives users a chance to try software before buying it. It's a distribution method, not a type of software. The Shareware system makes fitting your needs easier, because you can try before you buy. And because the overhead is low, prices are low also. Shareware has the ultimate money-back guarantee - if you don't use the product, you don't pay for it. The essence is to provide quality software at modest prices, while giving an incentive for programmers to continue to develop new products. If you enjoy using this program and are still using it after 30 days, you should register it. GOLDMINE SLOT CASINO is copyright software which is provided to you at no charge for evaluation. Feel free to share it with your friends, but please do not charge money for it or give it away altered or as part of any package or system. Anyone wishing to distribute GOLDMINE SLOT CASINO for money must first obtain a commercial distribution agreement from the author. CONTACTING THE AUTHOR Pete Hand can be contacted by e-mail at the following locations: petehand@magicnet.net petespw@juno.com 70374.2734@compuserve.com Or by regular mail at: 637 Greencove Terrace, #138 Altamonte Springs Florida 32714, USA Or by fax at: [+1] 407-774-0070 Over the life of a product, addresses and phone numbers can change. However, at least one the e-mail addresses given above will always be valid, so if in doubt, send e-mail. HOW TO REGISTER GOLDMINE SLOT CASINO Registering GOLDMINE SLOT CASINO costs $20. I accept cash, money orders and personal checks drawn on US banks in US dollars. For personal checks, please allow 15 days for clearance. If your check bounces, subsequent registration will cost you $35, as my bank will stick me with a $15 charge. Overseas registrations, please send an international money order for 20 US Dollars, an American $20 banknote, or something equivalent in your local currency (no coins). Special offer to British users: for once here's something that's cheaper in Britain than America. It's ten pounds to you, if you send a ten pound note. WHAT YOU GET WHEN YOU REGISTER When you register, I'll send you a registration key on a 3.5 inch disk. If you'd like a 5 inch disk, please say so. If you prefer, send me your e-mail address and I'll send you the key by internet e-mail, normally the same day I get your payment. Registering will allow you to keep full records of your play, and allow you to install add-on packs of different machines. I'll also add your name to my mailing list, send you updates when available, and think of you as a Very Nice Person. For overseas orders, the customs declaration will read "Disk, value $0.50" - normally this will avoid any disagreeable customs duty or sales tax. Programs delivered by e-mail are practically guaranteed to be tax and duty free. ***** DON'T FORGET TO SEND YOUR NAME AND ADDRESS ***** TECHNICAL SUPPORT I'll do my best to fix problems and help you get the program running if you have difficulties. Please read the "Trouble Shooting" section first, though. You can contact me by mail, fax or Email (much preferred), or through the comp.shareware.author newsgroup on the Internet. Unregistered users are welcome too, but please don't bother me with a lot of questions if you don't intend to register the program. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS This program requires a 386 or better processor, a color VGA adaptor with at least 256k of memory, 512k of RAM and 1 Mbyte of hard disk space. You may run it from a floppy disk, but screen changes may be rather slow. A mouse is highly desirable, but not essential. If the program finds a Creative Labs Soundblaster or compatible sound card, it will use it, otherwise it will use the PC speaker. INSTALLING THE PROGRAM This program is intended to run under MS-DOS on a PC-compatible computer. It will run under Windows 3.1, Windows for Workgroups and Windows 95, but it will most assuredly not run under any version of Windows NT Workstation. I regret there is no Macintosh version either available or planned. Whether you install for DOS or any version of Windows, the software is the same. The only difference is that for Windows, the installer creates a program group and installs .PIF files (shortcuts, in 95-speak). INSTALLING FOR MS-DOS Unpack the distribution file in a temporary directory, then switch to this directory and run INSTALL. This will check out your system, create the necessary directories and install the program. Change to the GOLDMINE directory and run SLOT.EXE to play the game. INSTALLING FOR WINDOWS 3.1 From the File menu, select Run, then locate the distribution file and execute it to unpack it. Return to the File menu, select Run again and locate SETUP in the directory where you unpacked the files. Run SETUP, which will create a directory and a program group. Note: GOLDMINE SLOT CASINO is supplied with a PIF (program information file). The file SLOT.PIF contains the path to the default directory, C:\GOLDMINE. If during installation you change the path to something other than C:\GOLDMINE, you must use the PIF editor to change the file SLOT.PIF to the new path. INSTALLING FOR WINDOWS 95 Follow the procedure for Windows 3.1. Again, if you change the install path you will have to edit the shortcut to reflect the new path. In any case, you may want to make a few changes right after the install to make the program easier to find in future, as the Goldmine group box will disappear when you close it. Right-Click on the SLOT icon (Windows will probably have given it an MSDOS icon) and select Properties. A tabbed box will open headed "shortcut to Goldmine Slots" which will allow you to make any changes you need. In particular, you can change the Icon. Click on Change Icon, browse to the GOLDMINE directory, open SLOT.ICO and click OK. If you like, you can drag the program onto the desktop for easier access later. INSTALLING FOR WINDOWS NT Don't. CLEANING UP After installing, you can delete the files from the temporary location where you unpacked the distribution file. TROUBLESHOOTING Q. Why does my mouse works in Windows, but not in this program? A. This is an MS-DOS program, and needs the mouse driver to be loaded in DOS as well as Windows. Check to see whether a mouse driver is loaded in your AUTOEXEC.BAT or CONFIG.SYS files. Q. When I run the program in Windows, it says "invalid path". A. You probably changed the suggested directory name when you installed the program, without updating the file SLOT.PIF to match. Use the PIF editor or the Windows 95 Properties box to enter the correct subdirectory in SLOT.PIF. Q. When I run the program in Windows, it locks up. A. Occasionally the sound hardware doesn't initialize properly in Windows, and the program waits for a response from the sound card which never comes. If this happens to you, press Control-Alt-Delete. You will get a blue screen asking you if you want to press Enter to close the application which is not responding (Windows 95 will offer you a list - select the SLOT program). Press Enter, which returns you to the main Windows screen. If you now run the program again you won't have a problem until you exit Windows and re-enter. Why? Ask Bill Gates. Q. I have a soundblaster, but I don't hear any sound except for clicks coming from the PC speaker. A. Do you have a SET BLASTER line in your AUTOEXEC.BAT? Like most other programs with sound, Goldmine needs to be told where the soundblaster is. The line will look like this: SET BLASTER=A220 I7 D1 P330 (The numbers may vary) A quick way to find out is to type SET at the DOS prompt. If the Blaster variable is set, this will display it. Q. Everything runs fine in DOS, but not in Windows 95. A. The program was extensively tested on different machines running Windows 95, and in only one or two cases were problems found. It's impossible to give general guidelines, since every computer is slightly different, but one sure fix is to run the game in MS-DOS mode. Right-click the icon, select Properties, Program, Advanced, then check the box for MS-DOS mode and "ok" all the way out. The computer will then switch to MS-DOS mode whenever you run the program. It's a little clumsy running that way, but it does work in every case. Q. The reels seem to spin awfully fast! They don't look natural. A. You're probably running in Windows. Do the screens fade in and out smoothly, or do they just flash up? If they flash up and the reels spin too fast you have a problem with your video card. The game takes its timing from vertical sync, and on some Windows installations sync generates an interrupt. This prevents the game from getting its timing information. The PIF or shortcut should take care of it, so make sure you start from the PIF or the shortcut and not from SLOT.EXE itself. Q. I'm having a different problem, which you haven't mentioned. A. Talk to me about it and I'll see what I can do to help you get it sorted out. PLAYING INSTRUCTIONS GOLDMINE is a slot machine game that attempts to give as accurate a simulation as possible of the appearance and action of casino slot machines. The main difference from the real thing is you don't need real money. These machines are played with simulated credit cards, and winnings are paid out to your card. Some real casinos are adopting this scheme, but that's because they're CHEAP! They can't afford to fill the machines with real money (actually the MGM in Las Vegas tried it and found nobody played those machines, so the concept was still-born). Just to prove we're not cheap at the Goldmine, you can choose to have the machines sound like they're paying out coins and pretend you're playing with real money, but we still use the cards for keeping accounts. Every time you start the program you have $100 of credits, like a prepaid phone card. If you lose all your money, you have to go back to work - ie, exit from the program - to get more (just like real life). If you win, we assume you squander most of it on food and clothes before you come back, so no matter how much you leave with, you start again with $100 next time. Alternatively, you can open a casino account and get a Gold Mine slot club card. This is much more agreeable. For one thing, you get a credit line of $1000. For another, you can use our handy ATM, operated on our behalf by a major bank. Conveniently located in Zurich, Switzerland, our bank will respect your privacy (Americans will no doubt find this a refreshing contrast from their local financial services provider). The bank invests your funds in dubious high-yield securities that you don't want to know about, so if by some chance you completely run out of money and credit, it will pay you a small dividend to keep you going. Four different cards are provided, allowing up to four different people to play the same game, and full statistics are kept for each player. The registered version saves these details for next time you play. GOLDMINE SLOT CASINO is best played with a mouse. In order to use a mouse, you must have a mouse driver loaded in DOS. The driver is normally loaded by AUTOEXEC.BAT or CONFIG.SYS when you turn the machine on. Just because your mouse works in Windows doesn't mean you have a driver loaded in DOS, so before you request technical support because the mouse isn't working, please check your configuration. If you don't have a mouse, or even if you do but prefer to use the keys, a keyboard equivalent is available for each and every function in the program. Normally it's the letter underlined on the button you're interested in. When selecting a machine to play, the buttons are numbered 1 to 6 from top to bottom. As a general rule, the ENTER key takes you one screen further in, and the ESC key takes you one back. ALT-Q, the "boss key", takes you out of the program immediately from any screen. Everything is still saved. SCREEN BY SCREEN When you start the game, you are on a dark desert highway, cool wind in your hair, warm smell of melitas .. coming out of Pete's Gold Mine Casino. Click or press ENTER to go to the lobby. LOBBY In the lobby you may select a player, visit the ATM or the information desk, and go through to the slot machines. The four credit cards represent players. To use them, click on one that has a name on it. The name is highlighted in yellow, and all subsequent winnings and losses are charged to this card. If you do not select a player you can still use the slot machines, but you are limited to the cash in your pocket and when it is gone, you must leave. The unregistered program won't save the cards, so you'll have to re-apply every time you play. ATM The ATM is a perfectly standard automatic teller machine, as seen outside any bank. Instead of dispensing currency, it moves credits between your credit card and your bank account. The main thing to remember is your PIN, which is printed on your card (I first discovered this interesting attitude to security on my AT&T phone card). You can enter numbers by clicking on the ATM buttons, or from the keyboard. If you don't have a card selected, you can still play with the ATM but it won't let you have any money. When you leave the ATM screen, you return to the Lobby. INFORMATION DESK On the information desk is a self-service computer terminal, from which you can read the help files, apply for a credit card and look at your player statistics. Clicking on the "i" sign gives you general information about the software. Clicking on STATEMENT will tell you the playing history of the currently selected credit card. Clicking on LEAVE takes you back to the lobby. OPEN AN ACCOUNT This is how you obtain a credit card. The program will select the next available free card and invite you to fill it out. If all four cards are already in use, you will need to delete an existing name - the program will prompt you to return to the lobby and select the one you wish to delete. You will then be asked for your name. Any name will do, since our Casino is in the VGA, not the USA, and we've never even HEARD of a 1099, W-4 or Treasury Regulation 6A. The only rule is that your name can't begin with a space. Once you enter a name the program allocates you a PIN number, opens a bank account with some money in it, and selects the new card for play. PLAYING THE MACHINES In the Lobby, clicking PLAY (or pressing the Enter key) takes you to a machine selection screen. On the right are six icons which represent the machines available. These may vary, depending on what packages you have loaded. Clicking on a machine icon (or pressing numbers 1 through 6) displays a picture of the machine, in which you can study the payoff schedule and look at the meters to see how loose or tight it's been lately. When you've selected a machine you can click its box again, or press its number again, or press the Enter key, or click PLAY, any of which will put you right in front of the actual game. Clicking QUIT takes you back to the Lobby. CONTROLS ON THE MACHINES Each machine has a row of push buttons at the bottom, which are based on the buttons found on the real thing. They light up or go out according to what you are doing. In general, they only do something when they are lit. Each one has a keyboard equivalent, in case you don't have a mouse. CHANGE (keyboard: $) When this is lit, click it to put $20 in the machine from your credit card (or pocket, if you didn't select a card). If you don't have $20, it will take what you have. CREDIT/CASH (keyboard: X) This button toggles on and off. When it is lit, the machine will pay out to the credit meter. When it is not lit, the machine will drop coins in the tray with a satisfying noise. Clicking CHANGE turns this button on by default. PLAY 1 CREDIT (keyboard: C) When lit, this button plays 1 credit from the credit meter. It goes out when the maximum coins (2 or 3) have been played or when you don't have any more credits. SPIN (keyboard: Space) This button lights up when at least 1 coin or credit is played. Pressing it runs the machine. PLAY MAXIMUM (keyboard: M) When lit, this button play credits from the credit meter up to the maximum number for this machine. If you have enough credits to play the maximum, the machine will start automatically. If not, it gives you a chance to get more change or insert coins from the tray, or you can just play what you have with the SPIN button. COINS IN TRAY (keyboard: D) When the CASH/CREDIT button is off, any coins on the credit meter, and any winnings, are paid out to the cash tray. The number of coins in the tray is displayed, if there are any. To play coins from the tray, just click on it. We can't actually take and pay real coins, but if you close your eyes and listen you'll believe you're using real silver dollars. EXIT (keyboard: Esc) Clicking this button takes you back to the pick screen, saving any coins and credits remaining. If you exit with coins in the tray, they will be put back in the tray of the next machine you play; but they are cashed out to your credit card when you go to the Lobby. ALT MENU Pressing the ALT key displays another menu on the bottom line. The mouse doesn't function on this line, but you have the following keyboard options: ALT-Q Quit the game instantly (your credit will be saved) ALT-S Turn the sound on and off ALT-T Display the payoff tables for this machine ALT-A Auto-play maximum credits until they run out Also on this line are the current values of the Coins In, Coins Out, and Total Play meters for this session. These totals are cleared every time you restart the main program, but permanent accumulating totals are kept for each machine and may be viewed from the Select Machine screen. MACHINE DESCRIPTIONS (SLOTPAK 1) The program is in two parts - a "manager", which comprises the lobby area and player services, and a machine pack. If there are multiple game packs in the game directory, and a registration key, the game will automatically find them and offer them for play, using the same player cards and record keeping for all of them. One pack is supplied with the distribution version, featuring my interpretation of six popular (and recognizable) Casino slots. JUMPIN' JEWELS A one-line, 3-coin multiplier. This is the Super version, with moving bars .. a personal favorite. The Jumpin' Jewels symbol is wild. Each Jumpin' Jewel symbol on a winning line doubles the payoff. For example, 2 blue bars and a JJ pays twice the amount that 3 blue bars would pay; 1 blue bar and 2 JJ's pays four times the amount. The payoff is multiplied by the number of credits you played. RED, WHITE and BLUE What slot game is complete without this one? Any combination of symbols pays something .. more if the colors or symbols match, and more if the colors are in the order red, white, blue. The payoff is multiplied by the number of credits played. (The name Red White and Blue is copyright IGT. Note: I haven't named the machine that, just described the colors on the screen. "De minimis non curat lex", guys) LUCKY 777 A one-line, 3-coin multiplier. The payoffs on this machine are relatively large, but less frequent than the other machines. If you play 3 credits, the minimum win is 30. GRAND SLAM This is a little different - it's a 3-coin buy. Payoffs are NOT multiplied by the number of credits you play. Instead, the first credit buys the first few win combinations, the second buys some more, and the third buys the rest. The machine will not pay off on winning combinations you didn't buy, so if you only play one coin and hit 7-7-Shield, instead of a nice jackpot you'll get zilch. That'll teach ya - ALWAYS play the max. If you can't afford to play maximum coins in real life, choose a cheaper machine. AVALANCHE Another 3-coin multiplier with familiar Bar-5 and Bar-7 symbols, and wild symbols. Wilds pay off on their own, but they don't multiply. ANARCHY Just to be different, this is a 2-coin multiplier. The ANARCHY symbol is wild, and each one on a winning line doubles the payoff. Look out for some unusual moves when you hit a winner! Things can get a bit haywire sometimes. STATISTICS AND STUFF Our slots are the loosest you'll find anywhere. That doesn't mean you'll hit the jackpot on every visit, but it does mean that on average, you'll leave with the money you started with. Actually, things vary. Sometimes you'll find a machine set for high frequency - lots of small payouts, but not many big ones. Sometimes you'll find one set for frequent jackpots, in which case you won't hit so many small payoffs. Sometimes they'll be loose, and sometimes they'll be tight. To keep life interesting, these settings change every time you play. If the game had a thousand different machines we could scatter them around, like in Casinos (where saying "99.5% SLOTS!" means they have one or two in a corner somewhere, and the rest are more like 85%), but this is the best we can do with six. If you think a machine is tight, go back to the Pick screen and select it again; it will probably be different next time. If you're a smart player, you can always find a loose machine and end up a winner. FURTHER WARNINGS AND DISCLAIMERS This program is guaranteed to do absolutely nothing. It may burn your monitor, corrupt your hard disk, give you Carpel Tunnel Syndrome from excessive use of the mouse, get you fired for playing when you ought to be working, or cause other unspecified loss, damage, pain and/or suffering. Don't even THINK of sueing me. If you install and/or use this program, you assume full responsibility for any consequences and agree to hold the author and distributors free of all liability for any loss or damage, however caused. This program is not a gambling device. It is an educational resource produced for the sole purpose of demonstrating the evil and addictive effects of so-called "slot machines" on weak persons of a venal disposition. In fact, our psychic tells us that Carrie Nation approves of it. CREDITS It's become the fashion in computer games to put long, boring movie-style credits at the end. Not wishing to be thought unfashionable, and having a number of people to honor ... A PETE'S PLAYWARE PRODUCTION copyright (c) MCMXCVI Peter E. Hand, all rights reserved Programming: Pete Hand Artwork: Pete Hand Testers: Pat Armitage, Chris Matthews, (in order of appearance) Elliott Shapiro, Steve Peters, Al Krigman, Steve Samuels, Charles Bemis, Ric Goldenberg and a host of extras. Best Boy: Tim Hand Gaffer: The Reverend George Hand Key Grip: Linda Olds Clapper Loader: Sally Hand Main Squeeze: Marcia Rogers Sound Recordist: Pete Hand Inspiration: Charles August Fey, 1862-1944 Inventor of the Bell slot machine Further inspiration: Mickey Wichinsky Assistant to Mr Hand: Lisa McCracken Assistant to Ms McCracken: Jamie Gallagher Mr Hand's hairdresser: King's Head Mr Hand's wardrobe: Levi Strauss Transportation: Wrecks'R'Us Catering: Guido's Pizza and Massage Beverage services: Samuel Adams Produced and Directed by Pete Hand -= PUBLISHED BY PETE'S PLAYWARE =- "Avaricia radix malorum" (God knows I don't do it for the money) HISTORY GOLDMINE SLOT CASINO was written entirely in Assembler, using the editor in Xtree Gold and MASM. The artwork was prepared using a pencil and squared paper, and PC-Paintbrush for Windows. The first sketches were made on May 18th 1995 and the program was first published in July of that year. This revision was released on May 18th 1997 to mark the second anniversary of its conception. THE LAST WORD Finally, for the million or so people all over the world who have a copy of his 1991 shareware classic VGA SLOTS, Mr Hand would like to show his appreciation to those who sent money to register the program. "To all thirty of you: THANKS!"