Hi! This the third game I have written with AMOS is based on a popular card game. Although the game has many different names and slightly different rules this is the version I prefer and I must thank my cousin Darren in Northen Ireland for introducing me to it.
The original game is for any number of players (cards permiting) but the computer version can only be played with one person and the computer (for reasons that will be obvious later!).
To start, the deck of cards are shuffled and then each player is dealt eight cards and then the card at the top of the pack is turned over to face upwards. Then you must decide who will go first, the computer does this by continuosly displaying random numbers, when the player presses a key the computer stops and the works out whether the number is odd or even. If it is even the player goes first, if it is odd the computer takes the first go. Then the game begins.
You will see on the bottom section of the screen your cards above this is the pack and next to it the upturned card. To the right of the deck is displayed how many cards you and the computer have each. The first one with no cards wins. To the right is where you type in commands and the computer gives you information about what it is doing.
The game is played simply by taking turns at placing a card on top of the upturned card the rules being that your card must have either the same suit or the same number as the upturned card. For example, you could place the six of hearts onto the six of clubs, or you could place the ten of diamonds onto the four of diamonds, but you could not put the 7 of spades onto the 3 of hearts.
Now some cards are called power cards. These are cards which have an effect on the game. All of these cards can only be placed on the upturned card if the suit or number is the same, except for the number eight which can placed on the upturned card at anytime. The power cards are:-
JACK - The next player misses a go unless he places down another jack which in this case would make the next player miss a go unless he has a jack and so on
EIGHT - The player who places down this card can choose which is to be the suit of the upturned card
TWO - The next player must pick up two cards from the deck unless he has a two in which case the next player must pick up four unless he has a two and then the next player must pick up six and so on
ACE OF
HEARTS - The next player must pick up five cards from the deck unless he has the two of hearts whereas the next player must pick up seven unless he has a two and so on
(It might be a good idea to copy the above down until you know what each card does!)
When a card is placed onto the upturned card it itself then becomes the upturned card. If either player can not put down a card or decides not to then he must pick up a card from the deck. The winner is the first one with no cards. One last rule is that your last card must not be a power card, if it is then you must pick up a card from the deck.
The names of cards are entered by typing the number and then the first letter of the suit for example, the four of spades is 4S, the two of hearts is 2H the ace of clubs is AC and the queen of diamonds is QD.When entering the number ten you should use the number one for example, 1H is the ten of hearts. The computer will write the name out in full as you enter it so that you know what you are typing. You can press backspace to corrext mistakes. To take a card from the pack press T. In some cases you are presented with a list of options, press the character which is before the bracket to select the required option.
When the game is over press a key to play another game. I hope you enjoy playing this game and if you should ever play it with a group of people it is worth mentioning that the queen is also used as a power card when playing with more than two people. It's effect is to reverse the direction of order in which people take their turns. One more rule for playing with people is that you must tell everyone that you are on your last card, if you dont then you must pick up a card from the pack on your next go.
Useless Info
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The game was written with AMOS V1.2 (Manderin Software).
The reason for its creation was to develop my skills in Artificial Intelligence.
The card game is very unpredictable and my first major problem was with getting to get the computer to plan ahead. Unfortantly for every step you take ahead in planning the way the game will go, the chances that this will actually happen are cut dramatically with each step. This would result with a very long amount of processing time to determine which card to place down and of course at no time does the computer actually use the knowledge of what cards you have to its advantage. So to plan ahead would be a complete waste of time so I took it from another angle.
What the computer actually does when it chooses which card to put down is this. It first determines how many cards of each suit it has and then looks at the upturned card. If it has a card of the same suit it decides which one would be to its advantage by looking at the other cards in its hand and then places this down. If it has no cards of the same suit it then looks at the number of the upturned card and then checks to see if it has a simular number in its hand, if it does it picks the best one and then places this down on the upturned card. At certain times when it would be advantagous to the computer to put actually put down a number instead of a suit it will do so.
If the computer cant put a card down it then picks up a card from the pack unless it has an eight in its hand and in which case if it is worth it the computer would place down the eight and then choose which suit would be most advantagous to its self.
If the player is on his last card then the computer checks through its hand to find some way of stopping the player from winning. It might for example put down a two or the ace of hearts, or even an eight to change the suit to its advantage so that it still has a chance of winning.
At all times the computer keeps a track of the game and its rules so that the player or itself cannot cheat!
The processing time for all of this is fairly small compared to the original plan of making the computer think out its possible options ahead of its go (like in a chess game). In fact the processing time is so small that the computer decides what card to use almost instantly. This provides a good speed to the game and does not make the player sit around waiting for their next go which in turn would bore them silly! In fact I beleive that this makes the computer a more formidable opponent without making it invincable. I do so hate games which are impossible to beat!!!
Credits
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Programming By ME
Graphics By ME
Sounds - there isnt any (card games always have useless sounds
fortunatly this one doesn't!)
A.I. Routines By ME
Instructions By ME
(In fact everything is by ME)
Thanks again to Darren for teaching me to play the game its a pity you could never beat me at it!!! (Maybe One day we'll have a re-match!)
All correspondonce to me at:
JKR Software
10 Pritchard Road
Southside
Gympie
4570
QLD
Australia
Thankyou for playing this game and why not have a look at other programs by me on the AMOS PD. Enjoy the game.
