Aztec Shareware Collection/AZ_096.ISO/pyramid/pyramid.hlp

Text File | 1990-02-12 | 14KB | 296 lines

PYRAMID RULES
=============
Deal twenty-eight cards in the form of a pyramid. The first
row has one card, the second two cards, and so on. The last
row has seven cards, and each row overlaps the previous
one, so that each card (except in the seventh row) is
partly covered by two cards of the next row. At the begin-
ning of play, the seven cards of the last row are avail-
able. The removal of any two adjacent cards uncovers one
card in the row above. Each card wholly uncovered becomes
available. From the available cards, discard pairs of cards
that total thirteen (aces are worth one, jacks eleven,
queens twelve, and kings thirteen). Discard kings singly.
Turn cards from the Pack one at a time, putting unplayable
cards in a Waste Pile. The top card of the Waste Pile is
always available, and may be paired with the next card
turned up from the Pack or with any released card in the
pyramid. The game is won if you remove all cards from the
pyramid, Pack, and Waste Pile.

Par Pyramid
-----------
Par Pyramid is a method of scoring that establishes degrees
of victory. Two redeals are allowed. If you win the game in
one deal, score 50 points. If you clear away the pyramid on
the first deal, use the redeals to deplete the Pack, if
possible, and score 50 less the number of cards left in the
Waste Pile. Similarly, if you clear away the pyramid on the
second or third deal, score 35 or 20 respectively, less the
number in the Waste Pile. If you do not clear away the
pyramid, subtract from your score the total number of cards
left undiscarded. Par is a net score of zero in six games,
and any net plus may be considered a win. Par Pyramid may
be played competitively by two or more, each playing six
games with his own deck. The best final score wins.

This implementation of Pyramid can be played in two ways.
On the first, 'Standard Play', a single game is played,
with two redeals allowed. On the second, 'Tournament Play',
a series of six games, with two redeals, is played either
by a single player, by two competing players, or by a
player competing against the computer.
GAME PLAY - MOUSE
=================

To select a card, place the mouse cursor over it and press
the left mouse button. The selected card will be high-
lighted. Notice that when the cursor is over a card that
can be selected it will change from an arrow shape to a
pointing hand. If you select a card by mistake, place the
mouse cursor over it and press the left button again to
deselect it. After you select the first card, select the
second one. If the two selected cards total thirteen, they
will be removed from the board, otherwise a beep will sound
and an error message will be displayed. To move a card from
the Pack to the Waste Pile, press the right mouse button.
The mouse cursor does NOT need to be over the top card of
the Pack.
Standard Play
-------------

The following commands are available during play, and can
be issued by placing the mouse cursor over the correspond-
ing 'command button' (on the lower right hand corner of the
screen) and pressing the left mouse button:

  HINT: highlights two cards that total thirteen and that
  can be removed from the board. The cards remain high-
  lighted as long as you keep pressing the left mouse but-
  ton; when you release the button the highlights will
  disappear. If no cards can be removed, a beep and a
  message will tell you so.
  NEW: interrupts the current game and starts a new one.
  You are asked to confirm by selecting either 'Yes' or
  'No' from a dialog box. Use the left mouse button to
  enter your selection.

  TOUR: switch to Tournament Play. Select 'None' for no
  opponent, 'Human' to play against another player, or
  'Computer' to play against the computer. You can also
  select 'Restore' to resume a previously saved game.
  CONFIG: brings up the Configuration menu. This allows you
  to customize your copy of Pyramid. The first option,
  Mouse, can be set to 'Yes' (always use the mouse; this
  option is ignored if a mouse driver is not found when you
  start Pyramid), 'No' (always use the keyboard, even if a
  mouse driver is present), or 'Ask' (if a mouse driver is
  found, asks at the beginning of each game whether or not
  you want to use the mouse). The second option, Sound, can
  be set to 'Full' (songs and beeps are enabled), 'Partial'
  (songs disabled, but error beeps enabled), or 'Off' (both
  songs and beeps disabled). The third option, Speed, con-
  trols the speed of the computer controlled player, and
  can be set to 'Slow', 'Medium', or 'Fast'. The fourth
  option, Error Messages, can be set to 'Yes' (displays a
  context-sensitive error message each time an error
  occurs), or 'No' (does not display the error messages,
  errors are indicated by beeps if Sound is either Full
  or Partial). Finally, the fifth option, Use Same Deck,
  can be set to 'Yes' (the same deal is used for both
  players during each game of a Tournament), or 'No'
  (the deck is redealt for each player). To select an
  option, place the mouse cursor over it and press the left
  mouse button. Currently selected options are highlighted.
  Press the right mouse button when done. If you are
  playing from a floppy-disk, do NOT write-protect the disk,
  otherwise Config will not be able to write the config-
  uration information.

  AUTO: the computer finishes the current game for you.
  INFO: displays Copyright and Version information, and
  your registration number if you have a registered copy.
  Press any mouse button to return to the game after you
  are done viewing the information.

  ? HELP: displays a help file. Use the mouse buttons
  (left button = page down, right button = page up) to
  move around the file, and press both buttons when you
  are done viewing it.
  QUIT: quits Pyramid. You are asked to confirm by select-
  ing either 'Yes' or 'No' from a dialog box. Use the left
  mouse button to enter your selection.

Tournament Play
---------------
Once you start Tournament play, you stay in Tournament
mode until you select EXIT to get back to standard play.
NEW will start a new Tournament match, using the same
settings (number of players, human or computer opponent,
and player names) of the current match. All other commands
work as described above, except for HINT, TOUR, AUTO and
QUIT. These three commands are not available during Tour-
nament Play, and are replaced by the following commands:

  TOP 10: displays the Top 10 scores. A list of the ten
  best Tournament scores (that is, the net score of a
  series of six games) is maintained. The score must be
  greater than zero to enter the Top 10 list.

  SAVE: saves the current game to the file PYRAMID.SAV. The
  game can be resumed later by selecting RESTORE from the
  TOUR menu.
  SCORE: displays the current score.

  EXIT: exits Tournament mode, getting you back to Standard
  mode.

GAME PLAY - KEYBOARD
====================
To select a card, press the number corresponding to the ROW
of the card you want to select (1 to 7), and then the
number corresponding to the COLUMN of the card (again, 1 to
7). Note that the top card of the Pyramid is 1,1; the left-
most card at the bottom is 7,1; and the rightmost card at
the bottom is 7,7. Row numbers are displayed in light green
to the left of the Pyramid; and column numbers are disp-
layed in yellow at the top of the cards. The selected card
will be highlighted. After you select the first card,
select the second one. If the two selected cards total
thirteen, they will be removed from the board, otherwise a
beep will sound and an error message will be displayed. To
select the top card of the Pack, press [P]. To select the
top card of the Waste Pile, press [W]. To move a card from
the Pack to the Waste Pile, press [D] (for Discard). Note
that you can use the numeric keypad to play; use 1-7 for
row and column numbers, 8 for Pack, 9 for Waste, and 0 for
Discard.

Standard Play
-------------
The following commands are available during play, and can
be issued by typing the highlighted letter from the corre-
sponding 'command button' (on the lower right hand corner
of the screen):

  HINT: highlights two cards that total thirteen and that
  can be removed from the board. Press any key to remove
  the highlights and go back to normal play mode. If no
  cards can be removed, a beep and a message will tell you
  so.
  NEW: interrupts the current game and starts a new one.
  You are asked to confirm by selecting either 'Yes' or
  'No' from a dialog box. Press either [Y] or [N] to enter
  your selection.

  TOUR: switch to Tournament Play. Select 'None' for no
  opponent, 'Human' to play against another player, or
  'Computer' to play against the computer. You can also
  select 'Restore' to resume a previously saved game.
  CONFIG: brings up the Configuration menu. This allows you
  to customize your copy of Pyramid. The first option,
  Mouse, can be set to 'Yes' (always use the mouse; this
  option is ignored if a mouse driver is not found when you
  start Pyramid), 'No' (always use the keyboard, even if a
  mouse driver is present), or 'Ask' (if a mouse driver is
  found, asks at the beginning of each game whether or not
  you want to use the mouse). The second option, Sound, can
  be set to 'Full' (songs and beeps are enabled), 'Partial'
  (songs disabled, but error beeps enabled), or 'Off' (both
  songs and beeps disabled). The third option, Speed, con-
  trols the speed of the computer controlled player, and
  can be set to 'Slow', 'Medium', or 'Fast'. The fourth
  option, Error Messages, can be set to 'Yes' (displays a
  context-sensitive error message each time an error
  occurs), or 'No' (does not display the error messages,
  errors are indicated by beeps if Sound is either Full
  or Partial). Finally, the fifth option, Use Same Deck,
  can be set to 'Yes' (the same deal is used for both
  players during each game of a Tournament), or 'No'
  (the deck is redealt for each player). You will be
  prompted to enter the desired option for Mouse, Sound,
  Speed, Error Messages, and Use Same Deck, in that order.
  Press either [Y], [N] or [A] for Mouse; [F], [P] or [O]
  for Sound; [S], [M] or [F] for Speed; [Y] or [N] for
  Error Messages, and [Y] or [N] for Use Same Deck. Press
  [Enter] after selecting each one. Currently selected opt-
  ions are highlighted. If you are playing from a floppy-
  disk, do NOT write-protect the disk, otherwise Config
  will not be able to write the configuration information.
  AUTO: the computer finishes the current game for you.

  INFO: displays Copyright and Version information, and
  your registration number if you have a registered copy.
  Press any key to return to the game after you are done
  viewing the information.
  ? HELP: displays a help file. Use the cursor keys (Up
  Arrow, Down Arrow, PgUp, PgDn, Home, and End) to move
  around the file, and press [Esc] when you are done view-
  ing it.

  QUIT: quits Pyramid. You are asked to confirm by select-
  ing either 'Yes' or 'No' from a dialog box. Press either
  [Y] or [N] to enter your selection.
Tournament Play
---------------

Once you start Tournament play, you stay in Tournament
mode until you select EXIT to get back to standard play.
NEW will start a new Tournament match, using the same
settings (number of players, human or computer opponent,
and player names) of the current match. All other commands
work as described above, except for HINT, TOUR, AUTO, and
QUIT. These three commands are not available during Tour-
nament Play, and are replaced by the following commands:
  TOP 10: displays the Top 10 scores. A list of the ten
  best Tournament scores (that is, the net score of a
  series of six games) is maintained. The score must be
  greater than zero to enter the Top 10 list.

  SAVE: saves the current game to the file PYRAMID.SAV. The
  game can be resumed later by selecting RESTORE from the
  TOUR menu.
  SCORE: displays the current score.

  EXIT: exits Tournament mode, getting you back to Standard
  mode.

COMMAND-LINE OPTIONS
====================
The following command-line options can be specified when
you load Pyramid:

-mouse         selects the mouse as the input device. This
               option is ignored if a mouse driver is not
               found when you load Pyramid.
-nomouse       selects the keyboard as the input device.

-ask           asks whether or not you want to use the
               mouse. This option is ignored if a mouse
               driver is not found when you load Pyramid.
               [Default]
-fullsound     turns full sound (both songs and error
               beeps) on. [Default]

-partsound     turns partial sound (error beeps, but no
               songs) on.
-nosound       turns both songs and error beeps off.

-slow          selects slow auto play speed.
-medium        selects medium auto play speed. [Default]

-fast          selects fast auto play speed.
-errormsgon    turns error messages on. [Default]

-errormsgoff   turns error messages off.

Note that the command-line switches have precedence over
the settings selected through the Config command. So, if
you have Pyramid currently configured to use the mouse and
with full sound on, but you load it as
            pyramid -nomouse -partsound

the keyboard and partial sound will be used.

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