Copyright: Copyright © 1998 John Roger Taraldsen


Contents

Midnight Sunitaire 2.02 for Windows 95 / NT

Copyright © 1998-1999 John Roger Taraldsen

 Introduction

 What's New?

 How to Play

 Scoring

 Find the Ghost

 Statistics

 Preferences

 Sounds

 Toolbar

 System requirements

 Acknowledgements

 Version History

 About Midnight Sunitaire


What's New?
What's New in Midnight Sunitaire 2.02?

Since version 1.01 there has been lots of changes in Midnight Sunitaire. I'll list the most important ones:

- Added four difficulty levels

- Added unlimited undo / redo

- Added the ability to turn off automoves in the game

- Added System Tray icon

- Added a Compress Layout option

- Added a Sneak Peek window

- Top Ten is now Top 100

- Added context sensitive help

- Improved almost every dialog box in the game


Introduction

Midnight Sunitaire is a classic solitaire game here in Norway. It's easy to play, but hard to win. I actually don't know the original name for it, (I don't know if it actually HAS an original name), so I had to come up with one myself. When I first started working on this game, I didn't have a clue about what to call it. Finally, I came up with the name Midnight Sunitaire. And why? Well, first of all, this game is made in Norway, the Land of the Midnight Sun. And second, it's a solitaire game. You get the point?

Enjoy the game.


How to play Midnight Sunitaire

Getting Started

The game is begun by dealing all cards to the tableau, arranged as eight stacks. The first four stacks are dealt with six cards face up. The last four stacks are dealt with six cards down and one up. Four foundation piles will be formed in the upper right corner in the main game window.

Object

The object of the game is to arrange the cards into the four foundation suits, running from ace to king.

Moving Cards

The top card of each of the tableau stacks is always available for play onto one of the foundations and they will automatically be moved to the proper foundation. Tableau piles are built down in suit and spaces in the Tableau can be filled only by Kings. Face-down cards that are exposed, will be turned over automatically.

Blocks of cards may be moved from one tableau to another, provided that the destination card is of the same suit, and one higher in value.

To reveal a partially hidden card, use the right mouse button to click it.

Winning

If you manage to move all the cards to the foundations, you win!

Losing

If you come to an impasse, where no moves are possible, select "New Game" from the "Game" menu (or click on the New Game - button in the toolbar) to abandon the current hand and start a new one.


Scoring

Scoring is based on the number of cards that are moved to the foundations and the time spent to complete a game. Scores will automatically be saved in the Top 100 score box, but only if your score is higher than 0.

There are four difficulty levels in the game. Scoring is calculated from the number of cards moved to the foundation multiplied with a factor of 1 for the easiest level, 2 for medium, 3 for hard and finally 4 for extreme level. Your highest possible score will be 208 (52 times 4).

The author's best score is a completed game (208 points) in 22 seconds.


Find the Ghost

Somewhere in the game, there is a ghost hidden. This little guy is hiding over 300 winnable games! Your mission is to find this ghost and thereby access his list of games. This is what you may call an Easteregg (An Easteregg is either something you eat during the Easter Holidays OR a hidden/undocumented function in a program. To access an easter egg you'll often have to do some pretty strange things, but that's why they call it a HIDDEN function.)

There’s also at least 5 other easter-eggs in the program. But it’s all up to you to track them down. :-)

Good luck!

PS! If you have REALLY tried, but just can't find that ghost, my fiancee will be glad to help you with a hint. Send an email to tortro@online.no


Statistics

Midnight Sunitaire keeps track of a number of game statistics. These statistics can provide you with feedback as to how well you are playing, and give you an incentive for improvement.

Statistics are saved for each player. By clicking the Easy, Medium, Hard, Extreme and Total buttons, you can view statistics for each level, and your total.

If the game once has been solved there will be another tab visible in the Statistics Dialog box; The Midnight Sunitaire Super Player. This one shows the very best player (the player that has solved the game fastest), the time used to complete the game, the date when that game was played and the corresponding gamenumber. You can also replay this game by clicking from this dialog.

The winning percentage are shown in a bar at the bottom of the statistics dialog. The bar color is pink if you’re female and blue if you’re male.

Clearing The Statistics:

The statistics can be cleared by clicking on the "Clear Stats" button in the Statistics dialog box. If you answer "yes" to the "Are you sure?" question, all statistics will be reset.

Note: The Midnight Sunitaire Statistics and the Top 100 Score box are independent of each other. Even if the Top 100 score box is empty there can still be statistics available and vice versa.


General Options
Preferences, General Options

Enable Automove:

Enable the Autoplay command to automatically play cards to the foundations. Autoplay is helpful at the end of the game, when all that's left is to play all the cards from the tableaus to the foundations.

Enable Autosaving

Check this to automatically save the current game when exiting. Next time Midnight Sunitaire is started it will automatically return to this position.

Compress Layout

If this option is selected, the layout will be compressed vertically (i.e. the cards will be closer together. If you find that you're running out of room, with the bottoms of stacks extending below the bottom of the screen, try this option - it'll buy you a little more space.

Allow Sneak Peek:

Check this to enable the ”Sneak Peek” option. This will allow you to peek into the tableau, by positioning the mouse cursor over a card and clicking the right mouse button.

Slow Animation on Finish:

If you manage to solve the game, you can slow down the "animation" that are being showed at that point (Cards falling down and bouncing out of the window, similar to the finish in Windows' Solitaire) by checking this one.

Toolbar - Flat Buttons:

When this is checked, the toolbar buttons is flat, similar to the Internet Explorer buttons. For example :when the toolbar is floating, you may want to use regular toolbar buttons. Just check it out.

Toolbar - Show Hints:

Check this to show toolbar hints.

Show Prompts:

Check this to show prompts when exiting game, aborting games and start a new game after finishing one.

Enable Sound:

Check this to enable the sounds in the game. If you don't have a soundcard installed on your computer this checkbox will be disabled and grayed out.

Stay OnTop:

Check this to make the Midnight Sunitaire window on top of all other windows.

Automove Delay:

Check this to add a delay (Approx. 20 ms.) for each of the moves done by the game itself.

Enter Player Name at Startup

Check this to show the "Your Name Please"-dialog box at startup. If you are the only one using this game, you can uncheck this one. If not, let the other users enter their name in case on of them reach the Top 100 Score box or maybe becomes a Midnight Sunitaire Superplayer.

Pause game when minimized:

Check this to stop the game timer each time the game is being minimized. If you play Midnight Sunitaire at work (Heaven forbid!), and the Boss is approaching, just hit the [Esc] key and if this option is checked, Midnight Sunitaire minimizes and the game timer stops. When restoring the window, you may click the Pause-button in the toolbar (or through the menu) to start the timer (and the game). Or you can simply start playing it again. (The timer start automatically when a card is being moved).

Minimize to System Tray:

Check this to add an icon in your system tray when the game is being minimized. You will now only see a ghostly image in your system tray, and your boss will never imagine that you're playing solitaire at work :-) To restore it, just doubleclick the icon, or rightclick it and restore it from the pop-up-menu.

Show Tips at Startup

Check this to show the Tip of the day-dialog box at startup.


Background/Card Back
Preferences, Background/Card Back

This tab in the preferences dialog box allows you to select a background color or a two color gradient for the game background. Just click the appropriate button to select either a solid color, or starting and ending color for the two color gradient.

It also allows you to select a suitable cardback. (use the arrow buttons)


Preferences

The Preferences dialog box allows you to set a number of options that dictate how the game operates. These options are saved to disk so that they are remembered between program runs. These are the configurable options:

General Options

Background /Card Back

The "Reset to defaults" button resets all options to settings that the author found appropriate.

The OK button closes the Preferences dialog box and saves any changes you have made.

The Cancel button closes the Preferences dialog box without saving any changes you have made.

The Apply button saves all the changes you have made without closing the Preferences dialog box.


Sounds

Midnight Sunitaire has the ability to play various sounds in response to your actions. This requires a Windows-compatible sound board.

Midnight Sunitaire uses the following sound files:

Shuffle.wav:	The shuffle sound
Dealcard.wav:	Successfully moving cards
Abort.wav:	Dragging of card(s) aborted
Wingame.wav	Winning sound
Clap.wav:	Applause
Select.wav:	Select Game sound
Undo.wav:	Undo sound
Return.wav:	Return to Bookmark sound
Movecard.wav:	Moving card to foundation
Ghost.wav:	The Hidden Ghost :-)
Bookmark.wav	Place Bookmark
Fanfare.wav	The Superplayer sound
Redo.wav	Redo sound
If you don't have a way to play sounds on your computer, you may delete these files to save disk space.

If you don't like one of the sounds, you may delete it, or replace it with one of your own. To do this, simply rename the wave file you wish to use to the appropriate name above.


Toolbar

The toolbar gives quick access to functions such as New Game, Undo, Pause, and so on. Each toolbar button has an image associated with its function. This is a floating toolbar with the MS Office 97 look and feel.

The Toolbar defaults to on in resolutions of 800x600 or more, and off in 640x480.


System Requirements

General system requirements for Midnight Sunitaire:

IBM PC or compatible.

MS Windows 95 or Windows NT.

Microsoft (or compatible) mouse.

1,2 MB free disk space.

Sound card. (Optional).

At least 640x480x16 video capability. 800x600x256 or higher is highly recommended.

Midnight Sunitaire does NOT work in a Windows 3.x environment.


Players Dialog Box

Use the Players command to add, edit or delete a player.

Dialog Box Options:

- Select a player from the dropdownlist

- Add Button: Use this button to add a player.

- Edit Button: Use this button to edit a player.

- Delete Button: Use this button to delete a player. Warning: If you delete a player, you also will delete related statistics.

Note: You can add maximum 10 players.


Acknowledgments
Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the following people for making Midnight Suitaire what it is today:

Stephen Murphy for QCARD32.DLL.  The latest version of the 16 and 32 bit QCard.dll can be found at the URL: http://www.telusplanet.net/public/stevem/

Jordan Russell for the Setup program (Inno Setup). Visit his site at:

http://www.jordanr.ml.org/

My fiancee and primary tester, Torunn

My Beta testers:

Name:	Homepage:
Rebecca Chast	http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Bluffs/3612
Jaqysly	N/A
Linda Haines	N/A
Urd	N/A
Mary Jane Kail	N/A
Beth ????	N/A


Version History

v1.0	13/04/98

First public release

v1.01	20/04/98

- Minor bugfixes.

- Changed some of the sound effects.

- Added the ability to choose whether you want textured effect on the toolbar or not.

- Added more games to the Ghosts secret game list :-)

v2.0	25/01/99

See the What’s New Topic.

v2.01	27/01/99

Major bug fix.

v2.02	27/01/99

2.01 Bug fix caused another bug (Isn’t this fun?).


About Midnight Sunitaire

Midnight Sunitaire 2.02 for Windows 95 / NT

Copyright © 1998-1999 John Roger Taraldsen

DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED AS IS WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. FURTHER DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NONINFRINGEMENT. THE ENTIRE RISK ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THE PRODUCT AND DOCUMENTATION REMAINS WITH RECIPIENT. TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT SHALL JOHN ROGER TARALDSEN. BE LIABLE FOR ANY CONSEQUENTIAL, INCIDENTAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, PUNITIVE, OR OTHER DAMAGES WHATSOEVER (INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF BUSINESS PROFITS, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, LOSS OF BUSINESS INFORMATION, OR OTHER PECUNIARY LOSS) ARISING OUT OF THIS AGREEMENT OR THE USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THE PRODUCT, EVEN IF JOHN ROGER TARALDSEN HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

COPYRIGHT

This software is protected by copyright laws and international copyright treaties, as well as other intellectual property laws and treaties.

DISTRIBUTION

The software may be freely distributed provided that it is not modified and the original archive remains intact with all accompanying files, and provided that no fee is charged (except for any reasonable fees necessary to cover costs of distribution media).

The latest version and more information is always available at:

http://home.sol.no/~johnrt/solitaire

Please forward all suggestions or bug reports to

johnrt@online.no