Ian & Stuart's Australian Mac 1993 September/September 93.iso/Archives/Games/Card/PNUKL202/pNukl 2.0.2/pNukl 2.0.2.rsrc/TEXT_1000.txt

Text File | 1992-06-26 | 12KB | 281 lines

The Deck:
     consists of 48 cards in the following rank
order: 9, J, Q, K, 10, A.  Two cards of each rank and suit
are present (i.e. two jack of diamonds, two queen of
spades etc.).  Each player receives twelve cards. One
suit will be the trump suit.  Any card in the trump suit
has a higher rank than a card of any of the other suits.
A trick consists of one card played by each player
during the play of the game.  A trick is won by the
player playing the highest card of the trick.

 Points:
     come from two sources: meld and tricks. Your
meld consists of specific combinations of cards
present in your hand that have point values. See the
meld reference for details.  Points also accrue during
the play of the game as each team wins tricks with
point cards (aces,tens and kings) in them.  The total
number of points gained in a given hand is the sum of
the meld and the points taken in tricks during the play
of the game by a team.  Those points may be lost in
certain situations detailed later.

 Bidding:
     starts with an assumed bid of twenty by the
dealer and continues clockwise with each active
bidder.  A player must bid at least one point higher than
the previous bid or pass.  Once having passed, a player
may not bid again.  Bidding continues until no player is
willing to exceed the previous high bid.  The player
with the highest bid then announces which suit is to be
trump. The bid represents an estimate of the number of
points a player's team can generate in with their hands.
If the dealer 'wins' the bid with a bid of twenty, that
player may opt to 'throw it in' if he player feels that
the team will not be able to generate twenty points
during the course of melding and play.  'Throwing it in'
results in a loss of twenty points for that hand to the
dealing team and a loss of each teams' potential meld.
A new hand is then started. 'Throwing it in' is an option
that can be disabled through the 'Options' menu
selection. Bidding is initiated by pressing the 'Bid'
button that appears after the deal.  Each time it is your
turn to bid a dialog will appear with an option to bid,
meld bid or pass.

 Melding:
     follows bidding provided that the dealer did
not 'throw in' the hand. Pressing the 'Meld' button when
it appears will result in each player showing the cards
of their hand that have melding point value and display
a total.  Team totals are posted on the scoreboard.  See
the melding reference for the details of meld
calculation.

 The Play:
     begins after pressing the 'Play' button with
the player winning the bid. That player leads a card,
and play continues in a clockwise fashion until all four
players have played.  The computer will wait for you to
click on the card in your hand that you wish to play.
Any card may be led while the following cards of the
trick must adhere to the following rules of precedence:

1) You must follow suit whenever possible.
2) If you cannot follow suit, you must trump.
3) You must always try to beat the previous best card in the trick.
4) If you cannot follow suit or trump then you may play any card.

    The computer will not allow you to make an illegal
play.  If you make an incorrect play, the computer will
tell you what was wrong with the play. The player that
plays the highest card in the lead suit or highest trump
card wins the trick and that team is credited with the
points accrued in the trick.  At the end of the hand, if
the bidding team has collected enough points and meld
to match or exceed their bid then they have 'made their
bid'.  Failure results in the loss of the team's meld and
trick points as well as a penalty equal to the bid.  The
opposing team keeps their meld and trick points.
     Play continues until one or both teams
exceeds the winning score.  In all human play, this is
normally 100 points but, because play goes much faster
on the computer, 200 points is recommended. The
winning score can be set through the Options menu
choice. The bidding team always counts first.
Therefore, if both teams exceed the winning score, the
bidding team wins the game even if they have the
lesser score.  This is called "bidder's out".   When the
dealing team is close to winning ('going out'), the
opposing computer players will not bid unless they are
also close to going out.  This is called "sand bagging".
If the bid is dumped on the dealer, there is a
possibility that the dealer will throw it in and take a
20 point set or be set in the play of the game.  This is
more desirable than the opposing team bidding and
playing out the hand with no hope of winning while
allowing the opponents to collect meld and points
sufficient to win the game.

 Options: The following options are available
  through the 'Options' item under the 'PNukl'
  menu.


 Winning Score:
     You can set the winning score by changing the value in
the box. If you enter the word 'reset' in this box and click
on the OK button it will reset the win totals.

 Throw It In:
    When enabled, it allows you to choose a
twenty point loss rather than risk a greater point
swing if you fail to reach a twenty point bid.
Discretion is often the better part of valor. When
disabled, the dealer must play his hand with a bid of
twenty if no other player bids.

 Beginner's Mode:
    Turning on the beginners mode option is the
equivalent of asking for hints at every opportunity.
Prior to the bid, meld counts and estimated bids are
displayed.  During the play of the hand, a suggested play
is highlighted.  While it can be invaluable in learning
the play of the game,  it can become rather mindless
after a while.

 Sound:
    Sounds can be toggled on or off. If you do not
like the supplied sounds, they can be deleted or
replaced with sounds of your choosing using ResEdit or
other sound moving utilities.  Deleting sounds will not
cause the game to crash.

 Meld Bids:
     Meld Bids are a form of cheating that is
winked at by some players. On occasion, you may have
significant meld (defined here as 7 or more) but feel
that you cannot make the current bid.  As an
alternative, you can bid one higher than the required
bid as a signal to your partner that you have good meld.
He will assume he has at least 7 more meld than before
and will bid accordingly.  It's a risky percentage play
that can backfire if, even with the added meld, he still
can't beat the current top bid. You will be stuck with
your bid and will have to play it out.  It is best used to
keep your partner from throwing it in.  If allowed, all
players will use it when appropriate.  Keep an eye out
for meld bids from your partner. Meld bids are only
given and recognized during the first round of bidding.
Don't give a meld bid to your partner if he has already
passed!

 Fast Play:
    Fast play speeds up the pace of play. If you prefer a
more leisurely pace, turn this off.

 Picture:
    You can select between a background picture or a
background pattern for the PNukl window. For a small fee
I can supply you with a version that will allow you to put
your favorite GIF in the background.

 Other PNukl menu commands:

 Replay Hand:
    If you played the wrong card by mistake,
wondered what would have happened if you had bid just
once more or just like to cheat your way through life
you can choose Replay Hand from the pNukl menu. Once
you press the 'Bid' button the past hand is gone and the
current hand is saved. Replay Hand will not be valid
again until the first card is played.

 Hint:
     Prior to pressing the 'Bid' button and during
the play of the cards you can obtain hints from the
computer. Bid hints show the meld count and estimated
bid for each suit. The recommended suit is highlighted
with an asterisk.

 That Box in the Corner:
     has your score at the bottom.  The teams are
labeled E/W and N/S (East/West, North/South). The
dealer has a hyphen over his initial.  The top box
displays each team's meld in the top line.  During the
play of the game,  the second line of the box displays
the points accrued by each team's  tricks.  The lower
box displays the winner of the bid, trump and the
winning bid for this hand. Clicking on it during the play
of the hand will give you card counting information
that you should have in your head anyway ;^).

 Notes:
     The best way to understand all of this is to
play.  Just try to explain your favorite card game
succinctly!  In normal play, you are required to count
your own meld.  Undercounting your meld would result
in lost points and lost opportunities to bid. In the
interest of speedy and smooth play, I don't require you
to count your own meld.  If you expect to keep up,
however, you will have to count meld well in order to
bid effectively.
     Purist pinochle players will find this game
only very familiar.  This is the reason for the
misspelled rubric.  The game I programmed was taught
to my wife and me by friends who learned it from their
parents etc.  When I was nearly finished with it, I
looked up the rules (when all else fails, read the
instructions!).  I liked our version better.
    The Pnukl prefs file can be stored in the same
folder as the game or in the system file. If you erase
it you will lose your background picture and a new
prefs file will be created.

 Technical Stuff:
     This was written in LSP 4.0 so I suppose
certain portions are copyrighted by Symantec or Think
Technologies or whoever.  I'm not even sure you have to
say that anymore. The game never cheats or looks at
any other hands during the play or formulating the bids.
It does take some liberties during the bidding process.
If a computer player can overbid the current high bid
and that high bid is his partner's bid, the game will
peek at his partner's bid data.  He will only bid if his
top bid is higher than his partner's.  With real people,
you will rarely bid up your partner, but the computer
partners will bid each other up until one drops out.  I
built in a little table talk to prevent that.  Your
partner, however,  will only overbid you once
regardless of his bidding potential.

 Thanks:
 *  to Jon Wind for the About... box utility your using to
read this message.
 *  to Tom Hedges and Mark Zimmer (Fractal Software)
for letting me steal the art work for the cards.

Questions, comments and complaints should
be directed at :
    Jim Margarit
    3015 Hillrise Dr.
    Las Cruces, NM 88001

    GEnie :    j.margarit
    AOL:    JimDDS
    Internet:    [e-mail]

Everyone who plays the game has a different version it
seems ( "your game would be much better if it had a
double deck, card passing between bid winning partners
and a walrus". Don't hold your breath).

     This game is freeware. That means that I
retain ownership rights but I don't require payment for
personal use of the game.  For those that would like to
send a little something, donations to The Computer and
Golf Widow's Fund care of my wife Susan are always a
treat. My thanks to those that have already contributed.
Permission is hereby granted to those who wish to
include it in share/free/PD ware collections. For
$15.00 I will send you a disk with the latest version
and the resources necessary to replace the background
picture with your favorite GIF picture. The disk will
also have as many GIF's as will fit.

     And finally, ( jeez, this was supposed to be a
simple game and it's turned into an epic already)
version notes.

     Version 2.0 changes:
 * Color! (and what a bitch it was...)
 * Multiple monitor support.
 * A much more intelligent end game.
 * Hints, Replay, Fast Play and Picture options.
 * Replaced S7 hostile pop-up menus with buttons.
 * Replaced card rank font with icons to eliminate font
conflicts.