The instructions for Black Jack Drop are quite simple:
But of course, the cards don't always turn up the way you'd like them to! The challenge is to make the most of what you're dealt and still beat the dealer on every stack. Playing the odds, building versatile stacks, and making judicious use of the space bar are the keys to success!
Unlike most forms of Solitaire, in Black Jack Drop you can stack cards of all suits and ranks on top of each other. You do not need to alternate colors, go in ascending order, or stick to a single suit. However, the only way cards will collapse is if they add up to a number greater than or equal to the dealer's total (displayed below each stack) without going over 21. Cards are added up just like the casino game Blackjack -- face cards count as 10, aces count as either 1 or 11, and all other cards count as their face value. For easy reference, the current sum of each stack is displayed above the stack, as shown in the image below:
Example of a stack in Black Jack Drop
A crucial, strategic aspect of Black Jack Drop is the ability to swap your card for another one. By pressing the space bar, you can exchange the card that's currently falling for the next one in the deck. This is sort of like the "preview" mode in many Tetris games, except here you get to choose which card you want to play! You can swap cards 3 times. After the 3rd time, you end up right back where you started, and no matter how many times you hit the space bar, you'll keep seeing the same 3 cards until you finally drop one of them onto a stack. At that point, play continues and you can cycle through the next 3 cards in the deck.
When you begin a game of Black Jack Drop, your card starts dropping at a rate of once per second. However, the more you play, the faster it drops. After every 52 cards, you reach a new "level" and the rate of dropping increases by 100 milliseconds or so. If you're still learning the game (or you just can't take the pressure!) you can use the Game Options dialog to keep things at a leisurely pace by un-checking the box labeled "Drop cards faster as level gets higher". In any case, the score you receive for collapsing a stack depends (in part) on the current level.
In Black Jack Drop, you lose $5 for every card that falls from the sky. But you make $10 for every card that collapses when you beat the dealer of the stack, so it's not too hard to get ahead! You also get a 50% bonus whenever you stack a "natural" (i.e. one ace and one face card, totalling 21 exactly). And you get a 100% bonus whenever you use 6 or more cards to beat the dealer. Blackjack afficionados will recognize that this matches the typical casino payoff rates for 21 -- one times your bet if you win, one and a half times your bet for a natural, and twice your bet for using 6 or more cards.
In addition, you get extra payoffs for each of the levels you have reached, as well as an overall bonus for the difficulty setting you've selected. After 4 levels on the the "Hard" and "Vicious" setting, you'll get about twelve times the regular payoff -- if you can make it that far!
To help you gauge your progress, Black Jack Drop keeps track of the top 10 high scores it has encountered. You can see the current top ten by selecting High Scores... from the Game menu. If you have registered your version of Black Jack Drop, your own scores will be added to the list whenever your score exceeds one of those already on the top ten. For the unregistered version, you will be notified whenever your score would have made it into the top ten; however, you won't be able to add your own great name and comment. :-)
There are many different ways to play Black Jack Drop, and you can use the Game Options dialog (shown below) to control the way you'd like to play.
By default, Black Jack Drop will deal from a single deck of 52 cards. Every time you collapse a stack, the cards are thrown away. When the deck is empty (i.e. at the end of each level) a new deck is shuffled and play continues. However, this isn't the only way to play! For instance, casinos typically use multiple decks at their Blackjack tables to discourage card-counting. By un-checking the "Deal from a deck of 52 cards" option, you can make Black Jack Drop deal from an infinite number of decks!
Or, if it bothers you to see the same card twice, you can check the "Stuff collapsed cards back into deck" option. With this rule, every time you collapse a stack, its cards are recycled and returned back to the deck in a random location. This is a really intuitive way to play, since cards aren't repeated (i.e. there's only one King of Clubs) and you can keep playing forever without having to reshuffle.
The Game Options dialog
Of course, the ultimate goal in Blackjack is to beat the dealer. And on its easiest setting, Black Jack Drop helps you out by displaying exactly what the dealer's total is. This takes all the guess-work out of the problem, and lets you focus on beating his score.
At the medium setting, Black Jack Drop plays more like a real Blackjack table -- you can see the dealer's up card, but you have to guess at his total. The dealer always follows the same rules when playing his hand. He draws two cards. If they add up to 17 or higher, he stays. If they add up to 16 or less, he draws additional cards until they add up to 17 or higher. That's it, pretty simple. But you won't know what his total is until you beat it with your own cards! Maybe 17 is good enough to beat him... or maybe it'll take a perfect 21!
At the most difficult setting, the dealer cheats. He always gets exactly 21. There's no tougher rule than this one, since you have to get a perfect 21 on every stack before the cards will collapse!
And finally -- just to up the ante a little bit -- all three of the difficulty settings offer a "Vicious" mode. When playing viciously, you must never bust. If you do, the stack that busts will be removed from play. Bust five times and the game is over (since there aren't any stacks left!).
The controls for Black Jack Drop are even simpler than the rules. And they're very similar to most of the Tetris games out there. You can either use the arrow keys and space bar to manipulate your card or, if your keyboard has a numeric keypad, you can use it to move and swap the card. Check out the table below for a list of each key and its function.
| Keystroke | Result |
| Left Arrow (or keypad 4) | moves your card to the left |
| Right Arrow (or keypad 6) | moves your card to the right |
| Down Arrow (or keypad 2) | drops your card onto the stack you're over |
| Up Arrow (or keypad 8) | swaps your card for another one |
| Space Bar (or keypad 5) | swaps your card for another one |
| F3 | pauses or un-pauses the game |
Keyboard Controls for Black Jack Drop
Q: Sometimes pressing the space bar doesn't swap my
current card. Why?
A: If you are using one deck and there's only one card left in
the deck, it is simply not possible to swap your card for another one. There
aren't any left! In this case Black Jack Drop just leaves you with your
current card.
Q: When I run Black Jack Drop, I get an
error message about CARDS32.DLL. What's up?
A: The file CARDS32.DLL contains the images of all 52 playing
cards. Clearly, Black Jack Drop needs this file in order to play a game,
but if you're getting an error message, chances are that Black Jack Drop simply
cannot find it. CARDS32.DLL should have been included in your download of Black
Jack Drop, and should have been installed when you extracted the rest of the Black
Jack Drop files from JACKZIP.EXE. So the first thing you should do is check to
be sure it is located in the same folder as your JACKDROP.EXE file. If it's not, try
downloading and installing Black Jack Drop again. However, if
CARDS32.DLL and JACKDROP.EXE are in the same directory, but Black
Jack Drop still doesn't work, try copying CARDS32.DLL to your Windows System
directory (e.g. C:\Windows\System). This
works for most people. But if it still doesn't, send email.
Q: Why should I register my copy of Black Jack
Drop?
A: Because it's the right thing to do!
A: Because it helps to support this site!
A: Because it helps us improve the game and write others like
it!
A: Because it gives you a chance to offer feedback and
suggestions for the game!
A: Because it gets rid of the download timer and enables the
high score list!
A: Because it supports the shareware game industry, which
brings you low-cost, high-quality, non-corporate games like this!
A: Because it's so darn cheap!
Copyright � 1998-2000 Susan Brooks. All rights reserved.