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Calculation
Version 1.10
Copyright 1991 By
Randy Rasa
18215 Troost
Olathe, KS 66062
What Is It? ___________
Calculation, also known as "Broken Intervals", is a solitaire card
game that requires the utmost in skill and logic. It offers
challenging but rewarding play, and special on-screen assistance to
make it easier to play.
Program Requirements ____________________
Calculation requires 256K of memory, EGA or higher graphics
capability, and a Microsoft-compatible mouse. If you are not sure
you have the right hardware, just run the program. If there's a
problem, the program will let you know.
In addition to the program file (CALC.EXE), the game requires that
the card definition files (CARDS.CD1 and CARDS.CD2) be in the
current directory. These files contain the bit-maps for each
cardface in the deck.
Using The Mouse _______________
The mouse pointer will appear as a white arrow with black edges.
In general, the left button is used to select the object being
pointed to (a card or an on-screen button), while the right button
is used to exit menus or prompts.
If you have a three-button mouse, the middle button will blank the
screen. This can also be accomplished by pressing the left and
right buttons simultaneously.
How To Play ___________
Calculation uses a standard 52-card deck (no jokers). To begin the
game the deck is shuffled, then any ace, two, three, and four are
pulled from the deck and form the start of four foundations. These
foundations are built up according to the following sequence,
regardless of suit or color:
A,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,J,Q,K
Calculation Documentation Page 2
2,4,6,8,10,Q,A,3,5,7,9,J,K
3,6,9,Q,2,5,8,J,A,4,7,10,K
4,8,Q,3,7,J,2,6,10,A,5,9,K
Cards are turned up from the deck on at a time, and can be played
on the foundations or on any of four wastepiles located just below
the foundations. The top of the wastepiles are always available
for play to a foundation, but once a card is played to a wastepile,
it cannot be moved again, except to a foundation.
The game is won by building all four foundations up to king. The
skill involved in playing Calculation, in addition to just keeping
track of what card goes next on each foundation, is in avoiding
covering up a card you'll need soon with a card that cannot be used
for some time, if at all. Kings are especially troublesome, since
they cannot be moved until at least one foundation has been fully
built up.
The general strategy is to build on the wastepiles in descending
order, but the cards are seldom so kind as to allow this to any
great degree.
Buttons _______
Along the right side of the screen are a number of "buttons", which
may be selected by pointing and clicking with the mouse. The
buttons are:
Options: This button brings up the options menu, which you can
use to set your preferences for the following:
Sound: Select "Off" to disable the beeps, clicks, and various
other noises the program makes. Select "On" to enable the
sounds.
Assist: When this is set "On" the next card in each sequence
will be displayed above each foundation to help you keep
track of what comes next.
Session Statistics: When this option is set to "On", the
program will keep track of your statistics (games played,
games won, change in average score) throughout the game
and then display them when you quit. (Note: During play,
you can also display the session statistics by clicking on
the score box.)
Background Color: Click on the up-arrow and down-arrow to
step through the available background colors, until you
find one that suits your tastes.
Card Back: Click on the up-arrow and down-arrow to cycle
through the available card designs until you find one you
like. You can also click on the card back itself to bring
Calculation Documentation Page 3
up a dialog box which will show you all the available card
backs and allow you to choose one.
Once you've set things to your liking, you may click on the
"OK" button to save your preferences to disk, or on the
"Cancel" button to exit the Options menu without changing
anything.
Help: This button will bring up several pages of help screens,
which you can view by clicking on the "Next" or "Prev"
buttons to move from page to page. When you are finished
reading the help, click on the "Done" button to exit.
New Game: This button will end the current game, update your
statistics, and start a new game.
Quit: Click on this button to exit the program. If you have a
score greater than four, your statistics will be updated and
displayed briefly before returning you to DOS. Another way
to exit the game is to press the "Abort" key (F10). If you
press F10 (and select the "Exit This Program" option in the
pop-up dialog box or press F10 again), the program will quit
to DOS without saving the data file (and thus not giving you
a low score if you have to quit the program in the middle of
a game). Of course you realize this is cheating, don't you?
Command-Line Options ____________________
/LCD -- This option may improve the screen display on monochrome
LCD displays. This option simply changes a few color
combinations to improve contrast on LCDs.
/Rxxxxxx -- This option is used to convert a shareware version of
the program to a registered version. Refer to "A Note
To Registered Users" at the end of this document for
more information.
/SW -- This option is used to convert a registered version to a
shareware version.
filename.ext -- This option is for alternate data files (see
discussion below).
Calculation Documentation Page 4
Statistics __________
Calculation keeps track of the score (the number of cards you've
played to the foundations), the total number of games you've
played, the number of games you've won (expressed as both a number
and a percentage), and your average score. At the end of each
game, the statistics are written to disk, either in the default
CALC.DAT or in the data file specified on the command line. The
data file also contains the preferences you set in the options menu
(sound on/off and background color).
To specify a data file on the command line, start up Calculation
with the following syntax:
CALC filename.ext
This allows several different people to use the same copy of
Calculation on the same machine, yet keep separate statistics for
each person. For example, suppose three people (Tom, Dick, and
Harry) played the game at various times on the same machine. They
could each easily keep personalized data files, containing their
scores and preferences for sound and background color. Tom would
use his data file by typing:
CALC TOM.DAT
Likewise, Dick and Harry could have data files called DICK.DAT and
HARRY.DAT. Note that the "DAT" extension could be "SCR" or "HGH",
or whatever, as long as it is three letters or less.
Calculation Documentation Page 5
Legalese ________
Calculation is shareware. As such, you can play it, copy it, and
give it away as you wish. In fact, you are encouraged to
distribute the program to friends, family, and strangers alike.
This includes distribution via electronic bulletin board systems
(BBS), user's groups, and disk-distribution services. All that I
ask is that the program remain unaltered, and be distributed in an
archive consisting of:
CALC.EXE ............. the program
CALC.DOC ............. documentation
CARDS.CD1 ............ card definition file #1
CARDS.CD2 ............ card definition file #2
Registration ____________
Calculation is shareware. If you enjoy the game, please support
it. There are three registration packages available:
1. Basic Registration ................................... $5.00
This minimum registration will get you the latest registered
(no shareware "beg" message) version of Calculation on a
diskette of your choice, along with a registration code good
for all future updates.
2. Package Deal #1 ..................................... $10.00
This package consists of the latest registered version of
Calculation, plus shareware versions of my other games, along
with a menu program to tie them all together. Note that all
of the additional programs are unregistered versions (with
shareware "beg" screens). You will also receive a
registration code good for all future updates of Calculation.
3. Package Deal #2 ..................................... $15.00
This package consists of the latest registered versions of
Calculation, plus registered versions of my other games,
along with a menu program to tie them all together. Note
that all of the additional programs are fully registered
versions (no shareware "beg" screens). You will also receive
registration codes good for all future updates of Calculation
and the other programs.
Basic registration is available on a 5.25", 360K disk or on a
3.50", 720K disk. The package deals are available on two 360K
disks (with the programs ZIPped (with the PKZIP compression
program) to pack as much as possible onto each disk), one 720K disk
(ZIPped), or one 5.25", 1.2M disk. If you do not have access to
PKZIP, you'll need to order the package deals on a 1.2M disk.
Calculation Documentation Page 6
No matter what option you choose, you'll be getting a lot of
quality software for just a little dough. Please consider
registering.
The programs that you will get with the package deals are:
Midnight Oil: An EGA solitaire card game, otherwise known as La
Belle Lucie and Three Shuffles and a Draw. In this game the
deck is dealt into seventeen fans of three cards each. Cards
are moved from the fans to four foundations, which are then
built up in suit from Ace to King. Midnight Oil is one of
the best solitaires, affording great opportunity for skillful
play. The game keeps statistics in a disk file, and has a
special auto mode that makes the game especially easy to
play.
Monte Carlo: An EGA-based solitaire card game in which you try
to remove pairs of cards from a 5 x 5 matrix. This easy-to-
play game offers hours of relaxing fun. It keeps statistics
in much the same way as Calculation, has selectable card
designs, and a "hint" button that makes the game especially
easy to learn.
Osmosis: In this EGA solitaire card game you have four
foundations to build, but a card can only be played to a
lower foundation if it has also been played to an upper
foundation. This addictive game is simple to play but
difficult to win, with success often depending as much on
luck as skill. It keeps statistics on-disk, offers
selectable card backs and has a "peek" option to give you an
extra edge.
Idiot's Delight: An EGA version of "Aces Up", a simple but
addictive game of luck and skill. This is one of those games
that leave you saying "just one more game" time after time
after time. As in my other EGA games, it keeps a statistic
file and offers selectable card backs.
Royal Cotillion: This is a two-deck EGA solitaire in which you
must build up eight foundations in suit by twos. It offers
good opportunity for skillful play, a pleasing layout, and
hours of engrossing fun. It keeps a statistics file, has
selectable card backs, and a time-saving auto mode.
Concentration: An EGA graphics version of the classic memory-
stretching solitaire. It keeps a statistics file, features
selectable card backs, and offers a unique multi-player mode.
Calculation Documentation Page 7
You can print the registration form from the initial shareware
screen. Simply select the "Print Registration Form" button, then
select a destination, either to a printer or a file. If you elect
to send the form to a printer, make sure it is on-line and ready.
The form should print on any standard 80-column printer. If you
want to save the form to a file, the file "CALC.FRM" will be
created in the current directory. You can then print out the
registration form by entering the following command from the DOS
prompt (with your printer connected and ready):
COPY CALC.FRM PRN
Then just fill out the form and send it, along with cash, check or
money order, to:
Randy Rasa
18215 Troost
Olathe, KS 66062
Revision History ________________
1.00 01-03-91 First Public Release.
1.01 01-11-90 Added "Session Statistics" option.
Cosmetic changes.
1.02 02-15-91 More cosmetic changes.
1.03 03-12-91 Added registration procedure.
1.04 03-23-91 Modified registration procedure.
1.05 04-23-91 Added option to print registration form.
Changed card definition filenames to CARDS.CD*.
1.06 05-17-91 Fixed problem with equipment test.
1.07 07-01-91 Added Abort (F10) feature.
The program now exits to DOS after running the
registration procedure, and the program date and
time are set correctly.
1.08 08-21-91 Added /LCD command-line switch.
Added /M command-line switch.
Clear message line for Help and Options menus.
1.09 09-02-91 Rewrote mouse initialization routine.
Removed /M command-line switch.
1.10 10-28-91 Added dialog box to select card back.
Improved parsing of command-line arguments.
Modified the "abort" sequence so that pressing F10
once will bring up the abort dialog box, and
pressing F10 again will exit the program.
Calculation Documentation Page 8
A Note To Registered Users __________________________
The registration procedure allows previously-registered users to
update to the new registered version of the program by entering a
special 'registration code' that was included as part of your
order. Run the shareware version of the program with the "/R"
command-line switch, followed by the registration code, like this:
CALC /Rxxxxxx
You would, of course use the proper registration code in place of
the "xxxxxx". Note also that there should be no space between the
"R" and the registration code. After running the program with /R
switch and the proper code, you'll have a brand-spanking new
registered version of the program. What this essentially amounts
to is unlimited, free updates with each registration.
The registration procedure comes with the following limitations:
1. The name your EXE file must be CALC.EXE.
2. You cannot perform the registration procedure on a compressed
version (ie: an EXE file processed with PKLite, Diet, or
LZEXE). The EXE file may be compressed after the
registration procedure, but not before.
3. Please do not distribute registered versions of the program.
4. Since the registration procedure is a new feature, there are
a number of people who have registered earlier versions that
won't be able to take advantage of it just yet. But if you
send me a self-addressed stamped envelope, I'll be happy to
send you the registration code.
Note: You can also change the program back to the shareware version
by using the "/SW" command-line switch. This function is
subject to the same limitations as with the registration
procedure (ie: the program must be properly named and
uncompressed). Please use this option to "un-register" the
program if you wish to pass it along to anyone. Also, please
include all of the files listed under the "Legalese" section
of this document. Thanks.
