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Loadstar 128 #33
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q33side2.d64
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t.sixpack
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2022-08-30
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KNEES CALHOON'S S I X P A C K O ' S O L I T A I R E S
Programs and Text by Knees Calhoon
THE SIXPACK SAGA
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It all began with KLONDIKE JONES, published on LOADSTAR 128 #32. I had
seen how addicted my wife and other IBM users have become to solitaire
games on their SVGA machines, and I wondered why no one had done something
similar for the C-128. Could it be the mouse? I've never seen anyone use a
joystick or a keyboard when playing Windows Klondike. Or could it be the
incredible graphics of the SVGA mode? Well, the 80-column mode of the C-
128, along with Jon Mattson's CONTROL80-C cards, looks pretty good, too.
It must be the mouse. Maybe no one knows how to program a mouse-driven,
80-column game? But we published Maurice Randall's superb MOUSE 80 utility
years ago! In any case, I tried converting Maurice Jones' OUR OWN KLONDIKE
from LOADSTAR 64 and, as reported last issue, it wasn't so hard. So I
converted another Jones' solitaire, FOUR SEASONS. This game has been a
favorite of mine for years and it fit nicely into the 80-column mode.
GAMES FROM SCRATCH
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After that, I wanted to see if I could write a card game from scratch
and so I picked an easy one, GOLF. I decided to call it LINKS, and it was
even easier to write than the two converted games. This game is very hard
to beat, ordinarily, so I gave it two easier levels. If you've never beaten
Golf with cards, give LINKS a shot. It's a lot more fun when you can win
every once in a while.
Next came a solitaire game I remembered from my youth but have never
seen in a solitaire book. It never had a name, as far as I knew, so I
called it ROYAL PAIN, which is very appropriate, it turns out. You will
probably develop a few new swear words by playing ROYAL PAIN. The layout of
the tableau is different from the way I learned it (because of screen size
restrictions), but you may recognize it.
AN ORIGINAL SOLITAIRE
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Four is a good round number for a collection of card games, but I knew
I wanted to come up with something truly original, a game never before
played by human hands. I also wanted to write a ROTATO game. This is a word
that can be pronounced "ro TAY to" or "ro TAH to", depending upon your
snootiness factor. A ROTATO game is a card solitaire that can only be
played on computer. Maurice Jones and I came up with the concept a couple
of years ago and I fully expect us to be listed someday in the Hall of Fame
of Game Designers for it. Here's the premise:
A ROTATO game is one in which there is so much movement of cards that if
you tried it with real cards on a table, you'd end up throwing the deck in
the trash and stomping into the living room to watch TV. But when it's
programmed into a computer WHICH DOES THE CARD MOVING FOR YOU it becomes a
fun game.
I must confess that my ROTATO game for the C-128, BEN HUR, turned out
stupendously well. It's not my first ROTATO game, but it simply makes more
sense than the others (ROTATO POKER and SLIDE POKER on LS 64 #104 and #114
respectively. SLIDE POKER was also on LS 128 #22.) I think you'll agree
that BEN HUR has more strategy and suspense than just about any other
solitaire. You can be at a point of total despair, ready to give up on a
game, and yet somehow come back from the brink of defeat to snatch a
victory.
Not only that, it is perfect for turning into a contest. Each hand of
BEN HUR has two goals: (1) solve the thing by playing all cards to the
foundation; and (2) do it with as few SPINS as possible. Play a few hands
of BEN HUR to learn how it works, then try the CHALLENGE. This is a special
shuffle of the deck that is the same for all LOADSTARites. Whenever you
beat your previous best score on the BEN HUR Challenge, you can print out
an entry blank for the contest. Send it to the address on the blank before
March 1, 1997 and if you have the best (lowest) score, you'll win your
choice of ten back issues of LOADSTAR 64 or 128.
THE FINAL GAME
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Five is a perfect handful but I worried about what to call a collection
of five games. A FISTFUL O' GAMES? LOADSTAR'S PENTATEUCH OF SOLITAIRES? The
titles just didn't seem right, although the latter one had a certain
biblical ring to it. I needed a cheap literary device, something like
alliteration or onomatopoeia. Then it hit me like the wet fist of an
undercooked manatee! Why don't I write just one more game and call the
collection a SIXPACK O' SOLITAIRES? Is there any marketing ploy more
successful than the "sixpack concept"? If you drink one beer, you're a
wimp; a real man isn't satisfied until he's guzzled a whole damn sixpack!
So I picked my least favorite solitaire; one that I've only beaten once
in my life, the dreaded ACES UP. Within a trice it was done. The SIXPACK O'
SOLITAIRES was a reality.
THE SIXPACK MENU
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Of course the SIXPACK needed a menu. That was easy. After doing six
mouse-driven card games a mouse-driven menu was a snap. All you have to do
is enter your name (for the scores files) and select one of the six games
to play. When you quit that game, you are returned to the SIXPACK menu
where you can play another one.
PLEASE ENTER YOUR NAME
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Since each of these games can be booted and played separately, there's
a copyright box and "Enter your name" prompt for each. The copyright box is
mainly there to give you something to stare at while the game loads, but
the name prompt can get annoying, especially if you like to bounce from
game to game. So I made the name business real simple.
If you boot up SIXPACK and break out with STOP-RESTORE, LIST line 2. It
defines J$ as "Calhoon". Replace "Calhoon" with your name and then scratch
and save "sixpack" by entering on a blank line, GOTO10000. Then you can
boot up SIXPACK and press the mouse button on EVERY request for your name,
even the ones in the six card game programs. It will always use the name
you've made J$ equal to.
NOTE: If the listing looks funny or illegible to you, enter FINIT on a
blank line and the custom font will be replaced by the normal font. This is
true for all programs written with Jon Mattson's CONTROL80.
If other people will be playing the SIXPACK, they will have to enter
their name at the prompt ONLY at the menu. Whatever name you enter at the
menu, that name will be used in the card games if you simply press the
button at the "Enter your name" prompts. Of course, you can still enter
your name if you want (or another name if you want to start a different
score file).
ARE YOU A MAN (OR DO YOU USE A MOUSE)?
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I sent a copy of the SIXPACK to Maurice Jones, who is the acknowledged
master of solitaire games for the C-64, and he said that he enjoyed looking
at the card layouts, but since he didn't have a mouse, he couldn't play any
of them. I debated with myself for several days how I could justify the
fact that there was no joystick or keyboard mode for the SIXPACK, and
finally gave up. For these games I simply couldn't thumb my nose at the
rodentless LOADSTARites. There HAD to be a way to add joystick and keyboard
support.
And there was. My main concern was that there were dozens of SYS calls
to the mouse ML. Anytime anything was being drawn to the screen, the mouse
had to be turned off, so there was a SYSMO+6 before practically every PRINT
or CHAR command and a SYSMO+9 after. I didn't want to replace every one of
these SYS commands with an IF MO = 1 THEN... command. Then it hit me like
another one of those wet fists I've become accustomed to. What if I simply
POKEd a 96 (or RTS in machine language) into the mouse jump table if the
user didn't have a mouse? Then, I could leave all of the SYSes in the
program just as they already are, but when they are invoked, nothing will
happen. In BASIC it would be just like GOSUBing to a line that says RETURN.
Nothing but a slight delay will occur.
It worked! I was able to add very similar code to all of the six
programs, including the menu, and now you can play the SIXPACK with
joystick or keyboard.