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- ‘The Chance’. © 1992 Ralph S. Sutherland
- Game #3 from the Card Shell. v1.0.4
-
- Contents:
- Apocryphal background
- The Aim
- The Deck
- The Layout and Deal
- Moves
- Special moves
- Sequences
- Endgame
- Scoring
- Strategies
- Cool features of the Card Shell games
- ArtWork
- Legal Bits
- Credits
-
- Apocryphal background
- This game is essentially Klondike, perhaps the most popular, if frustrating,
- solitaire of all.
-
- The Aim
- The aim is to simply build up the four foundations from Aces to Kings each in
- strict suit order.
-
- The Deck
- A deck of 52 cards is used, comprising of a normal deck Ace Low.
-
- The Layout and Deal
- •Seven columns are dealt. The first with one card, the second with two
- and so on up to 7 cards in the final column. The cards are face down except
- the top cards which are face up.
- •As many cards as possible are layed off before play starts.
- •The remaining cards form the 'stock' and are placed in one pile, face down.
-
- Moves
- •Entire sequences may be moved at one time.
- •Spaces may only be filled by Kings.
- •Cards that can be layed of onto foundations are automaticly laid off as soon
- as they become available. This is different to Klondike, and can make the game
- a little harder.
- •The stock cards are revealed three cards at a time by dragging the top cards
- over the talon pile immediatle adjacent to the stock.
- •When the stock is exhausted, the talon can be turned over and used to replace the
- stock. This is done by clicking in the empty stock. The stock may be redealt this
- way as many times as required.
-
- 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 Chance' has hidden cards this has the potential to permit
- cheating peeks at hidden cards. This feature is intended to allow the player
- to correct inadvertant moves.
-
- 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 one suit only.
-
- Endgame
- •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
- and the number of cards that have been laid off:
-
- Rule Win Loss
- Match any suit (#cards-20) / 4 (#cards-20) / 4
- Match alternating colour 2*(#cards-10) / 2 (#cards-10) / 2
- Match same suit only 4*(#cards-5) (#cards-5)
-
- It is possible to score some points with a losing game if enough cards have been
- laid off.
-
- 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.
-
- Strategies
- •Keep trying, fortunately this is quite a quick game.
-
- 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.
-
- 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.
-
- For other commercial usage please contact me for negotiations.
-
- Please make postal orders and Bank Drafts payable to:
-
- Ralph S. Sutherland
- c/o- E. B. Newell
- RMB #3 Knox Close
- New South Wales 2620
- AUSTRALIA
-
- Personal cheques and credit cards NOT accepted.
-
- Email address:
- ralph@zwicky.colorado.edu
-
- Credits
- Special thanks to Neville Smythe for brave and dedicated Alpha testing.
- Artwork with Colour MacCheese, thanks to Baseline and the MacCheese gang.
- Help Text with Imaj from the Data Suite.
-
-