Romi lets you play games against the computer at 3 different levels. The game is played with two sets of 52 cards and with two wild cards. The purpose of this game is to form groups of 3 or more cards, which contain either consecutive cards of the same suit or cards of the same number value but of differing suits.

You can play against one to three other players and/or players simulated by Romi by using the Preferences... item of the Romi menu. All the players simulated by Romi play at the same level of difficulty that you have chosen.

Romi is available in English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch and Swedish on the Macintosh and on Windows 95/98/NT/2000/XP.

On the Romi Web page http://www3.sympatico.ca/gerard.brochu/ you will find the latest versions of Romi.

What's new in Romi 6.0

• New images for the board have been added for a better look. Some other modifications and corrections have been made.

Romi 5.8

• Unregistered users have now 15 days of evaluation for Romi and have access to more options than in the previous unregistered versions.

Romi 5.6

• Romi allows you to play against one to three other players and/or against Romi on your computer.

Romi 5.4

• Romi is now Universal Binary and run natively on Mac-Intel and on PowerPC.

Romi 5.2

• Romi now plays its cards in a logical order. Graphic modifications were made to the cards for a better visual appearance.

Romi 5.0

• New buttons have been added to the Romi window, they give a more easy access to the most often used functions of the menu Utilities.

Romi 4.8

• Some modifications were made to the strategies used when Romi plays his cards in Expert mode.

Romi 4.6

• The animations in Romi have been reprogrammed, especially when Romi plays and when you move cards on the board.

Romi 4.2

• The graphic interface of Romi has been redraw for a better look. A new option for playing Romi without any Joker has been added to the demand of several Romi users.

Romi 4.0

• Romi has new shortcuts to form groups of cards on the board by double-clicking sequentially on each card from your rack or from the board. You can also move two or more cards of a suit by double-clicking with the Option key on the first card of a suit of cards that you want to move on the board.

• Beginning with Romi version 4.0, only registered users will have access to all the options available in Romi. Unregistered users will have access only to one of the 3 levels and they will not have the option to play against 2 or 3 players. Registered users will receive an identification and a password that will allow them to register their copy of Romi to have access to all the options of Romi.

• To register your copy of Romi, use the Preferences... item of the Romi menu and click on the button "Register Romi".

This game can be played with many variations. Romi is able to use two of them, one of which is the american standard. The second is the same but with the possibility of placing an 1(Ace) after the 13(King) as in (12,13,1). Note that (13,1,2) is not allowed. The american standard rules are used by default, but this can be change by using the item Preferences... of Romi menu.

When you begin a new game, 14 cards are drawn randomly for Romi and 14 for the player. Those last are placed on the rack in sequential order.

The player opens his game by playing at least one group of 3 cards or more, using only the cards on his rack. The sum of those cards values must be 30 or more.

After the player has opened the game, he can use the cards on the board to complete groups with cards on his rack. The player can move or reorganize all the cards on the board, but the new groups must be valid and by groups of 3 and more.

The particulars rules of Romi are:

The window of Romi is divided into two principal elements: the board, with 8 rows of 23 cells where you put the cards that you play, and the rack where the player's cards are stored. The groups of cards placed on the board must be separated by one or more empty cells. The player's cards can be placed anywhere on the rack.

To move a card, the player clicks on a card, the card is selected (darkened) and the player selects the destination by clicking or dragging where he wants to move the card. Romi also support Drag and Drop of selected cards.

You can form groups of cards on the board by double-clicking sequentially on each card from your rack or from the board.

Romi does not allow you to place a card before or after a card on the board, if the group formed with this card is not valid.

The player can select a group of cards on the board by clicking with the Option key on the first card he wants to select, all the following cards are selected. He can also use the same Option-click for selecting a group of cards on his rack. In this case, only the following consecutive cards who can make a valid group are selected.

The player can select a group of cards by clicking with the Option-Shift keys on the last card he wants to select, all the preceding cards including the clicked card are selected. He can also use the same Option-Shift-click for selecting a group of cards on his rack. In this case, only the preceding cards who can make a valid group are selected.

You can cancel a selection of cards by clicking on the same card you have clicked.

If the player can't or doesn't want to play a card, he must draw a new card by clicking on the "hand picking a card" icon. The card is selected randomly in the remaining cards.

When the player has finished his turn, he clicks on the sand-glass icon. Romi checks that the game is valid and it becomes Romi's turn. When Romi plays, the sand-glass icon is replaced by a computer icon.

Shortcuts

You can form groups of cards on the board by double-clicking sequentially on each card from your rack or from the board. You can also move two or more cards of a suit by double-clicking with the Option key on the first card of a suit of cards that you want to move on the board.

Romi lets you add one or more selected cards to the end or to the beginning of a group of cards, by clicking or dragging respectively on the first or the last card of the group. If the space before or after the group is not sufficient, Romi move the new group of cards where there is enough space.

Romi also allows you to make two groups of cards with one group of 5 cards or more, and another card which is identical to one of this group. The two new groups must each form groups of 3 cards or more. For example if there is a group of cards like (4,5,6,7,8,9) and if you have an other 6, you can make the following two groups (4,5,6) and (6,7,8,9). The shortcut works by selecting your 6 and by clicking on the 6 of the group (4,5,6,7,8,9).

• Preferences... allows you to change and save your preferences. Some items can be changed only before you begin to play a game. If you have received your password from the author of Romi, you can use this menu to register your copy of Romi, so you will have access to all the options available in Romi.

• Quit quit Romi and ask you if you want to save your game.

• New game begin a new game.

• Open... open a game that has been previously saved.

• Demonstration play a demonstration game of Romi.

• Save save your game to continue it another time.

• Save as... save your game to continue it another time.

• Pause defer your game because you have other important things to do.

• Continue continue a game that has been previously deferred.

• Beginner (when checked), tells Romi to use the lowest level of strategy when he play against you. At this level, you can see the Romi's cards and you can ask Romi to play for you by choosing Help from Romi, from the Utilities menu.

• Intermediate (when checked), tells Romi to use intermediate level of strategy against you.

• Expert... (when checked), tells Romi to use the highest level of strategy against you. When you choose this menu item, Romi asks you to select a time limit for your turn. At this level, the time limit decreases and when the remaining time indicated by the sand-glass reaches zero, Romi takes control of the game and does one of the following things: 1) If you have played one or more cards, Romi checks if the game is valid. If so, Romi plays his turn. If not, Romi restores the game as it was before your turn and draws a new card for you and then plays his turn. 2) If you have not played any card, Romi draws a new card for you and he plays his turn.

• See Romi's cards (when checked), allows you to see the Romi's cards at his turn. This option is only available at beginner's level.

• Sounds (when checked), plays sounds when some events occurred. You can choose specific sound events by using the Preferences... item of the Romi menu.

• Landscapes... allows you to choose between different landscape boards.

Speed menu allows you to change the display speed for animated moves and messages.

Utilities menu

• Sort by suit rearranges the player's cards on the rack by suit.

• Sort by number rearranges the player's cards on the rack by number.

• Help from Romi asks Romi to play for you. This item is available only if you are at the Beginner level.

• Cards played shows you the cards played by Romi on his last turn or the cards played by you during your turn.

• Validate check that the groups of cards played on the board are valid.

• Restore the board restore the game as it was after the last turn of Romi.

• Clean Up the board rearranges the cards on the board in a special order like below:

  

• Score... displays your score and the number of games that you have won against Romi. You can cumulate your performances against Romi by saving your game when you quit Romi and by opening the last game played when you use Romi another time.

THANKS

I would address special thanks to my son Charles and Bryan Pietrzak for their help in programming this game and to Pierre Lachance and Jurjen N.E. Bos from Netherlands for their many suggestions and their help in debugging and translating this program in English. I want to thank Marcella Chiovaro, Amalie Rothschild and Claudio Jacomelli for translating this program in Italian, Henrik Huber and Rolf Schindler for the German translation, Adrien Dion and Ricardo Trenard for the Spanish translation, Harold Bouwmeester and Fred Kelder for the Dutch translation, Gustavo S. Duarte Garcia for the Portuguese translation, Benkt Steentoft and Anna Ekman for the Swedish translation. I also want to thank those of you who send comments and their registration fee.

DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY:

IN USING THIS SOFTWARE, YOU UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. THE AUTHOR DOES NOT MAKE ANY WARRANTIES, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, WITH RESPECT TO THIS SOFTWARE.

IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY CONSEQUENTIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR SPECIAL DAMAGES WHATSOEVER (INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF CRITICAL DATA, LOSS OF PROFITS, INTERRUPTION OF BUSINESS, AND THE LIKE) ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THIS SOFTWARE.

        Romi Registration Form

Name : _____________________________________________

Mail address : _______________________________________

___________________________________________________

Country : ___________________________________________

E-mail : _____________________________________________

Romi version : 6.0

Comments : ________________________________________

___________________________________________________

___________________________________________________

 

To register Romi, you can register online on the Romi Web page http://www3.sympatico.ca/gerard.brochu/ or you can send me a 15 $US or a 15 $CDN check by mail at the address below.

Users who have the Euro as their only currency, can contact me by eMail at Gerard.Brochu@sympatico.ca to know the amount of Euros and the methods of payment for the registration fee. You can also pay securely using your credit card on the Romi Web page, the amount of Euros will be calculated automatically to correspond to 15$US.

If you send your e-mail address with your registration, you will receive by e-mail your password for the full version of Romi. You will also be notified when new Romi versions will become available.

Mail your $15 registration fee to:

Gérard Brochu
1188 Rue du St-Brieux
Québec QC, Canada
G1Y 2B8