MacWorld 1996 April/Macworld (1996-04).dmg/Shareware World/Entertainment/Card Games/Card Shell vol.1/The Republic/The Republic.rsrc/TEXT_128.txt

Text File | 1992-09-26 | 12KB | 231 lines

‘The Republic’. © 1992 Ralph S. Sutherland
Game #1 from the Card Shell.            v1.0.1

Contents:
Apocryphal background
The Aim
The Deck
The Layout and Deal
Moves
Special moves
Sequences
Endgame/Redeals
Scoring
Strategies
Cool features of the Card Shell games
Artwork
Legal Bits
Credits

Apocryphal background
Napoleon Bonaparte, one-time French Emperor has had more solitaire games
attributed to him than any other person in history. +Àõever it appears that
he was in fact unlikely to have been a very patient card player, one perso*Runt of a case where Napoleon miss-dealt in a social game goes:

"...I could not have conceived that so trifling an accident could have affected
any human creature so seriously - his whole countenance was lighted up with
fury, and he made a violent contortion of his features, and drew down his
mouth on one side, like one suffering an inward pang."

‘The Republic’ is based on one of the Bonaparte games called 'The Emperor', which
may have been devised by one of Napoleon’s men, Las Cases.   The computer version
allows variations in the sequence matching rules and changes the way the Talon pile
is used in the endgame.  A scoring system has been devised to allow comparison of
games, and games may be saved and then played by other played so a competition
could be formed.

The Aim
The aim is to simply build up the eight foundations from Aces to Kings, each in
strict suit order.

The Deck
A deck of 104 cards is used, comprising of two normal 52 card decks.  Solitaire
decks like this often have complementary but distinctive back patterns.   The user
can choose card back patterns using the Special menu.  The background pattern
may also be selected from a list of patterns.

The Layout and Deal
•Ten columns of three cards are dealt face down, these are the 'packets'.
beneath these, ten columns of one card are dealt face up, these are the beginnings
of the 'columns' of the tableau.
•The remaining cards for the 'stock' and are placed face down in  a single pile in the
upper left corner.  Immediately adjacent to the stock is the space for the waste cards
 or 'talon'.  There are eight 'foundation' spaces that are built on with Aces up to
Kings (in suit) as the cards become available during the game.
•All this is achieved using the New Game item (⌘N) on the File menu.

Moves
•Only one card may be moved at a time.  However, any card may be placed in an
empty column once the packet above has also been cleared,  this forms a 'vacancy'.
By using vacancies whole sequences may be moved.  The length of sequence that
may be move is limited by the number of vacancies and whether the sequence is
being moved to another column or into a vacancy. i.e.:

               Moving onto another column:
                1 vacancy   - can move 2 cards at a time.
                2 vacancies - can move 4 cards at a time.
                3 vacancies - can move 8 cards at a time.
                     and so on for more vacancies...
                ( for the math inclined you can move 2^n cards
                                      where n is the number of vacancies)

              Moving into a vacancy:
                1 vacancy   - can move 1 card at a time.
                2 vacancies - can move 2 cards at a time.
                3 vacancies - can move 4 cards at a time.
                     and so on for more vacancies...
                ( for the math inclined you can move 2^(n-1) cards)

•Cards may be moved between columns according to the sequence matching rules
in force.(see below)
•Cards may be built up on the foundations at any time.  The foundations are built
from Aces up to Kings in strict suit.
•Cards from the foundations may be played back onto the tableau if desired.
•Cards are turned up one at a time from the stock at any time.  The exposed card
may be played onto the tableau or foundations.  If no move is possible for the card
the card is played onto the talon.  This will be evaluated automatically by the
computer so that if no move is possible with the exposed card it will move to the
talon automatically.  The converse implies that if the exposed card does not immed-
iately move then some play is possible with the card.  The player may manually
move the card to the talon and not play it.
•The top card of the talon is playable, and it may be dragged at any time to reveal
next card underneath.
•When a column has been cleared then the top card in the associated packet is
exposed.  This is then available for play to other columns or foundations.
•A cleared column only becomes a vacancy (see above) once the packet above it has
also been cleared.  The last card exposed in a packet will be moved into the cleared
column below.

Special moves
•Each move made is recorded by the computer.  Using the Moves menu the player
can step back through previous steps and forward again to the most recent move.
This means that an erroneous move can be undone.  In fact the entire game can be
replayed.  Since 'The Republic' has hidden cards this has the potential to permit
cheating peeks at hidden cards.  While non-revealing use of the Forward (‚åòF)
and Backward (‚åòB) is permitted under the rules,  it left to the conscience of
the player whether to use it to peek at unexposed cards or not.  I think this kind of
restraint is an essential feature of 'real' Solitaire games, so, you can cheat, but
you have serious problems if you persist in cheating yourself like this.
•An automatic layoff option (⌘L) can be used to check for all possible layoffs from
exposed packets and columns.  It doesn't check the stock or talon.  It may be used
at any time and can save a lot of mousing around at the end of the game.
•Holding down the shift key while clicking on a card will test it for layoff onto
a foundation.
•Clicking on the empty stock will redeal the talon if the redeal is allowed under the
matching rules in force.

Sequences
•Sequences in columns may be built up according to the rule currently in force.  The
rules may be selected using the Moves menu with the Sequences… item.
•The standard rule says that sequences are built in descending rank sequences of
alternating colour.  This may be changed to be simple descending rank, regardless
of suit, or descending sequence in the some suit only.   The choice of matching rule
affects the way the talon is handled in the endgame.(see below)
•In general the simple rank rule is easiest and the strict suit rule is hardest.

Endgame/Redeals
•With the simple descending rank rule in force, no redeals of the talon are allowed.
once the stock is exhausted, play may only continue using the talon, foundations
and movement within the tableau.
•With the alternating colour descending rank rule in force, the talon may be reused
once.   Once the stock is exhausted, the talon may be redealt using the Re-Deal
item on the Moves menu (‚åòD).  After the redeals the menu item remains disabled.
•With the strict suit descending rank rule in force, the talon may be redealt as often
as desired.
•The talon can also be redealt by clicking in the empty stock.
•The game is lost if no further foundation layoffs are possible.  Scoring is done
after choosing New Game (‚åòN)from the File menu, before the new game is
dealt.

Scoring
The scoring is a points system that depends on the rules in use for a given game
according to the following table:

               Rule                                       Win             Loss
               Match any suit                         1pt        -4pt
               Match alternating colour          2pt        -2pt
                             Match same suit only               4pt        -1pt

The scores are recorded along with some other statistics such as winning/losing
streaks and game move counts.  Overall points and winning percentages as well
as a breakdown by rule type is given at the end of each game and at any other time
using Scores… from the Special menu.
•Bonus points may be scored if no redeals are used with the alternating colour
rule or less than  two redeals are used with the same suit rule.

Strategies
•Don't build up columns indiscriminately, vacancies are the key to the successful
completion of a game.  This is particularly true with the two harder rule sets.
•Beginners may like to use the simple descending rank matching rule.
•In the simple game, try not to let low ranking cards go into the talon.  On the other
hand, a few vacancies can allow mass layoffs and the talon can be emptied quite
quickly.

Cool features of the Card Shell games
•Automatic saving means that you can quit at any time and when you restart
the game is restored as it was left off.
•All the games from the card shell can simultaneously share the same 'Cards' file.
This contains the sounds and cards pictures.  This saves duplicating ~400k of
common data for each new game.  The games themselves come out about 50k each.
•The very first time a Card Shell game is started, it looks for the Cards file in the
same folder as the game.  If it cannot find it the user is prompted to find it.  Once
found its location is recorded along with identification and search info. so that
the 'Cards' file can subsequently be moved anywhere else on the disk and still be
found.
•The card graphics have be optimised to work equally well on B&W monitor settings
as well as 4,16,256,thousands and millions of colours.  The layout will fit (just) on
the small 9" monitor of an SE/30, and on larger screens the window can be moved
anywhere on a multiple monitor set-up.

Artwork
•The court cards are quite symbolic.  I have included motifs of the original
card suits: Staffs, Cups, Swords and Coins on their modern counterparts:Spades
Hearts, Diamonds and Clubs.  This means that I have moved the characteristic
'oops I've just stuck a sword though my head!' from the King of Hearts to the
King of Diamonds, and given the King of Hearts a nice drink (cup) instead.
•The  other common convention in the court cards is the identities of the
one eyed cards: Jack Hearts, Jack Diamonds and King of Diamonds.  This will
permit the playing of some obscure Poker variants that actually depend on this.
•The cards are in the form of colour icons in the 'Cards' file.  The cicns
also contain modified B&W versions that will look better in mono than just letting
quickdraw do it's stuff.

Legal Bits
©1992 Ralph S. Sutherland.
Written with THINK Pascal,  ResEdit and MPW Pascal & Asm.
Portions © Symantec Corp.

This software is freeware, it may not be sold or resold.

If you enjoy it send a postcard from your home town, or drop an email
note to let me know what you think!

Source code for THINK Pascal 4.0 and MPW Pascal/Asm is available for
US $50 which includes licence to use the code to make and distribute
freeware and/or shareware applications that depend in essence on this code
as long as suitable credit is given for the origins of the code.

For commercial usage please contact me for negotiations.

Please make postal orders and Bank Drafts payable to:

Ralph S. Sutherland
#9 Mt. Stromlo Observatory
Private Bag Weston P.O.
A.C.T. 2611
AUSTRALIA.

Personal cheques and credit cards NOT accepted.

Email address:
[e-mail]
Voice:
[phone]  (Australia AEST after hours)

Credits
Special thanks to Neville Smythe for brave and dedicated Alpha testing and
Kim Holburn through the turbulent Beta stages as well.
Artwork with Colour MacCheese, thanks to Baseline and the MacCheese gang.
Help Text with Imaj from the Data Suite.