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- =====================
-
- Cribbage
-
- by
-
- David A. Teach
-
- ---------------------
-
- Copyright (c) 1993-96
-
- Version 2.3
-
- =====================
-
-
- Requirements / Recommendations to play
- ======================================
-
- Requires EGA, VGA, MDA, AT&T 400, PC 3270, or Hercules graphics system.
-
- A Microsoft, Logitech, or compatible mouse is recommended.
- Three button rodents work better for the hint feature.
-
- An IBM or compatible AT computer with 8 mHz or faster CPU speed is
- also recommended.
-
-
- How to play this computer game
- ==============================
- When using the mouse, commands are selected with either the Left or
- Right mouse buttons. When in keyboard mode, the numbers or letters for
- the commands are highlighted in light green; or on monochrome displays
- the appropriate key is bright white or underlined.
-
- When the information box pops up in the middle of the screen during
- play, it will stay on the screen for 5 seconds. Hit any key or mouse
- button to clear it quicker.
-
- ***** If the mouse cursor is not present in the Options, High Scores,
- or Statistics screens, then you have a problem with your mouse driver
- not accessing the second video page. Get an updated mouse driver, or
- use the NOBLANK command line option to disable video paging.
-
- ***** Monochrome EGA/VGA and/or 64k EGA users: If the colors don't come
- out correctly or if you cannot go to the Options or Stats screens, try
- using the LAPTOP command line parameter. I set this up to force the
- program into 2 color/1 video page on these systems. With all other
- configurations the LAPTOP toggle works normally.
-
-
- The Title Screen:
-
- BEGIN GAME -
- Typing 'B' or clicking the left or right mouse button on the BEGIN
- GAME box starts the game with the shown options. Hitting ENTER will
- also choose this.
-
- OPTIONS -
- Typing 'O' or clicking on OPTIONS will bring up the game Options
- Menu. See "Options Menu" below for the list of options.
-
- STATISTICS -
- This displays the current player's cumulative game statistics. Users
- of the keyboard hit the 'S' key.
-
- QUIT -
- QUIT will exit the program. Type 'Q' from the keyboard.
-
-
- The Options Menu:
-
- MAIN MENU -
- This option will bring you back to the main menu. (Title screen)
- You can hit either the letter 'M' or the ENTER key to select this in
- keyboard mode.
-
- NAME -
- The default name is 'PLAYER'. You can change this by typing 'N'
- or clicking the mouse pointer within the red box around the name, typing
- a new name, and pressing ENTER (or a mouse button). Backspace is the
- only editing key allowed if you make an error while typing in the name.
- Upper and lower case letters, numbers 0 through 9, characters ! . , " -
- : / ?, and spaces are also allowed. The name can be a maximum of eight
- characters long.
-
- SCORE LIMIT -
- Clicking on SCORE LIMIT cycles the pegging board total between 121
- and 61 pegs. Use either mouse button, or the + or - keys.
-
- SKUNKING -
- Changing the SKUNKING option to YES will allow a skunk win. If a
- player fails to reach the skunk point (limit - 30) with at least one peg
- by the end of a game, this counts a 2 wins. When playing to 121 points,
- the skunk line is after the 90th hole; for a 61 point limit it is after
- the 30th. This may also be called a "lurch" by some players. Double
- skunk (halfway for 121 limit) is NOT implemented. Hit the 'K' key from
- the keyboard to toggle skunking on or off.
-
- TALLYING -
- This is an option to manually count the points in your hands when
- playing. If you count wrong, and are too low, you will only score what
- you specified. Stating a number that is too high will score only the
- real total minus the difference between it and the total you specified.
- No matter how high you report, you can't peg backwards with a negative
- count, just peg for zero points.
- Examples: You say 5, really is 6 ----> only peg 5
- You say 8, really is 6 ----> only peg 4 (6 minus 2)
-
- MUGGINS -
- This option is only valid if TALLYING is on. If, when you count your
- hand, the points are incorrect, the computer will score the difference.
- Of course you also still score only real total minus the difference also,
- so this is almost like a double penalty.
- Examples: You say 5, really is 6 ----> only peg 5, computer pegs 1
- You say 8, really is 6 ----> only peg 4, computer pegs 2
-
- ***** Programming note about the above two options:
- (I'm getting the tallying and muggins rules out of a book, so it might
- not be exactly how some people score. If I only gave an error on high
- totals and let you do it over again, some might just start high and keep
- decrimenting until it was right. I could just bump the high counts to
- the correct total, but again that would have people just inputing 99
- points every time. This doesn't play very well, so there is a penalty
- which might not be how it is used in real life games. If I'm wrong,
- or you are unhappy with this, please let me know.)
-
- DELAY -
- Changing the value of DELAY will allow you to control how long the
- message boxes remain on the screen before clearing. Valid values are
- from one to nine, and the infinity symbol. Click the right or left
- mouse buttons to increase or decrease the delay in seconds. To leave
- the message boxes up until a keypress or mouse click, choose the symbol
- that looks like two zeros next to each other. (infinity)
-
- BIG CARDS -
- The default card set has more realistic-looking cards, but the suits
- may be a little small for some people to see clearly. If this is so,
- or you just like the one pip better, changing this option to YES will
- give you cards with one big number and one big symbol for the suit.
- Hit the letter 'B' to switch this option to YES or NO.
-
- POINTER -
- Clicking on this option will change the shape of the mouse pointer.
- There are seven different shapes to choose from. Obviously, this will
- not have any effect if you are not using a mouse, but 'P' still toggles.
-
- SAVE -
- Selecting SAVE will save all options to the CRIBBAGE.CFG file. This
- file is loaded when the program is run, so your name and your favorite
- options are already set. If this file is not present, or is corrupted,
- it will be created with the default options. At present, the NOBLANK
- option is not saved in this configuration file. 'S' from the keyboard.
-
-
- Player Statistics Screen:
- Clicking within the Main Menu box will bring you back to the main
- menu. (Title screen) You can hit the letter M or the ENTER key to
- select this in keyboard mode.
-
-
- Rules of the Game - Taken from "Official Rules of Card Games",
- ================= 62nd edition, U.S Playing Card Company, 1968
-
- Rank of cards:
- (High) K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, A.
-
- The Deal:
- Each player receives 6 cards. The players then choose two cards to
- discard. The four cards discarded by the two players constitute the
- CRIB, which always belongs to the dealer.
-
- After both players have discarded their two cards, the deck is cut
- and one card is placed face up from the deck. This card is the STARTER.
- If the STARTER is a JACK then the dealer PEGS (scores) 2 points.
-
- Game play:
- After the STARTER has been turned, play begins with the non-dealer
- laying down a card face up on the table. The dealer then next exposes
- a card with the play alternating between the two players, except for
- GO's as noted below. Each time a player lays down a card he announces
- the sum of all the cards that have been laid down so far.
-
- During play, the sum can never exceed 31. If a player cannot play a
- card without exceeding 31 he must say GO and his opponent pegs 1 point.
- Before pegging his 1 point the player gaining the GO must lay down all
- the cards he can without exceeding 31. If a player reaches exactly 31
- then he pegs 2 points instead of 1 point for the GO. The player who
- said GO starts off the next round of play, and sum is reset to zero.
-
- The object in play is to score points by pegging. In addition to the
- GO, a player may peg points in the following combinations:
-
- Pegging Combinations:
-
- FIFTEEN
- You peg 2 points for adding a card that makes the sum equal to 15.
-
- PAIR
- You peg 2 points if you match the value of the previously played card.
-
- TRIPLET
- Adding the third card (in a row) of the same rank scores 6 points.
-
- FOUR
- Adding the fourth card (in a row) of the same rank pegs 12 points.
-
- RUN (Sequence)
- For adding a card that forms with previously played cards a sequence
- of 3 or more, in any order, you peg 1 point for each card in the sequence.
- Runs are independent of suits and can be played in any order.
- Example: 3-4-5, 3-5-4, 5-2-4-3, etc.
-
-
- Scoring Hands:
- When play ends, the three hands are counted in order: non-dealer, then
- dealer's hand, then CRIB. This order is important, since toward the end of
- a game a player might be able to reach a winning score before his opponent
- has a chance to count his hand. The STARTER is considered a part of each
- hand, so all three hands contain five cards when scored.
-
- The following describes the basic formations for scoring the hands:
-
- FIFTEEN
- 2 points for each combination of cards that total 15.
-
- PAIR
- 2 points for each pair of cards of the same rank.
-
- RUN
- Each combination of 3 or more cards in sequence counts 1 point for
- each card in the RUN.
-
- FLUSH
- Four cards of the same suit (not including the STARTER) is 4 points.
- If the STARTER is also the same suit, count 5 points instead of 4.
- Only a 5 card flush counts in the CRIB.
-
- JACK
- Holding a JACK of the same suit as the STARTER counts as 1 point.
-
- **** Note: EACH and EVERY combination counts separately. ****
-
- Example:
- A hand (with STARTER) of 8,7,7,6,2 will score 16 points. How ???
- For four combinations that total FIFTEEN: the 8 with one 7 and also with
- the other 7, and the 6-2 combined with the two 7s will score 8 points.
- It also scores 2 for the PAIR of 7s, and 6 points for the two RUNS of
- three: 8-7-6, using each 7 in turn.
-
- (If you can't remember all this, don't worry; the computer does all the
- laying-off, counting, and rule enforcement for you. Unless you have
- manually tallying on, then it's up to you to get it right.)
-
-
- Winning and Losing:
- The game ends the moment a player reaches the agreed score limit
- whether by pegging during play or when counting his hand. Once a player
- reaches the last peg hole, no further points are counted.
-
-
- Hints -
- The center button (recommended), or both left and right buttons
- pressed simultaneously will ask the computer for a hint. When using
- the keyboard, the letter H brings up the hint suggestion.
-
- CAREFUL: If you are using both left and right mouse buttons to ask for
- hints, you must make sure that the mouse pointer is NOT OVER a regular
- choice area, (deck, card in hand, quit, etc.) or else the game will
- usually think that you made a normal choice with a single button. If
- you have a center button, use that instead; this will work for hints
- ANYWHERE on the screen, even over normal choice areas.
-
- IF YOU HAVE A THREE BUTTON MOUSE, BUT THE CENTER BUTTON DOESN'T DO
- ANYTHING, you probably are using a different mouse driver than the one
- which came with your mouse. A three button mouse MUST be driven by a
- three button mouse driver. Most of the Microsoft mouse driver programs
- are for two button rodents. They seem to work fine for all operations
- of the mouse except for the center button. If you have a problem, look
- around the BBS's for a newer mouse driver, (I use Logitech mouse driver
- version 6.24) or contact the company where you purchased your mouse.
-
-
- The Screen Saver -
- If no keyboard or mouse input is detected for a certain amount of
- time during the game, the screen will blank out to prevent burn-in. The
- time limit for this is set by the game score limit. The time of waiting
- is 5 minutes for a score limit of 61, and 10 minutes for a score limit of
- 121. If your favorite score limit does not match your wanted screen saver
- time, learn to live with it.
- To activate the screen blanker immediately, move the mouse cursor
- into the upper right hand corner and the screen will automatically blank
- out. This can be handy for the traditional use of a "Boss key" function.
- In keyboard mode, the ESCAPE KEY is the activation key.
-
- *** NOTE: NO SCREEN BLANKING WILL OCCUR IF THE NOBLANK OPTION IS ON. ***
-
- *** To get out of the blank screen, press any key or mouse button. ***
-
-
- The Statistics file -
- Also at the end of each game, the program checks for a stats file
- called CRIBBAGE.STA in the current directory. If it is not there, it
- is created. This file saves cumulative totals for average score in your
- hand and in your crib, the total number of games won and lost, the total
- number of hands played and the player's name. If your stats file is
- corrupted, or you just want to clear the list and start over, erase (or
- rename) the CRIBBAGE.STA file. You can have up to 20 different names
- currently running in this stats file. If the current player name is not
- found in this file, it is added to the top of the file with zero totals.
- WARNING, if this addition makes more than 20 names, the name on the
- bottom of the list (the oldest) is truncated.
-
- ******* If you quit a hand before the END of the game, the statistics
- file WILL NOT be updated for the hands that were played. *******
-
- ******* If you are playing Cribbage on a write-protected or read-only
- drive, the stats will start from zero when you start the game; they will
- be kept for when you are in the program, but cannot be saved upon exit.
- Use the command line path function to read and save to a writable drive.
-
-
- Notes on the Computer player -
- The computer does NOT "cheat" when playing. It does not look at your
- crib when discarding, it does not look at your hand, or do any other
- thing that a human player cannot do. The computer chooses its cards by
- a set of fixed formulas that do not have any room for human "intuition"
- or for many of the different possible arrangements of the hand that might
- make a good human player choose a different discard than the computer.
-
- The "Hint" function uses about the same formulas for choosing the
- player's card(s) that the computer uses for its moves. This means that
- if you depend too heavily on the hints, you will end up winning only
- about half of your games.
-
-
- Command Line Options:
- The default setting for the two options NAME and SCORE LIMIT can be
- set from the command line, overriding (but not overwriting) the
- configuration file settings. This can be handy to set up some batch
- files for different players on one machine.
-
- At the DOS prompt, you can do the following:
-
- To get a quick help screen for the command line options, type CRIBBAGE
- followed by /? or ? or help or HELP. This must be the first parameter.
-
- To list all of the contents of the statistics file from the DOS prompt,
- (in case you forget who is in there) type: CRIBBAGE list
-
- To list the contents of this documentation file from the DOS prompt,
- (in case you can't view it any other way) type: CRIBBAGE view
-
- **** NOTE: The previous three command line parameters (help, list, view)
- must be the FIRST parameter given, and all will exit to DOS when done.
-
- To set the SCORE LIMIT, type: CRIBBAGE 61 or CRIBBAGE 121
-
- To have the game use your name instead of the default name, you can
- state it as a command line option. ex. CRIBBAGE Dave
-
- For the Command line option of Player Name, the length limit is 8
- characters and the name must be ONE word. You can use BobSmith, or
- Ron_Hill, etc., but typing Paul Schoenberger will give you Schoenbe for
- your name. If you want a space in your name, you can put one in only
- with the Name Change from the options menu.
-
- The name used is the LAST word on the command line that is NOT otherwise
- recognized as a command, so be sure not to have any gibberish on the
- line when you start the game: CRIBBAGE Mike ASDF will make your name
- ASDF not Mike.
-
- NODISK
- This option will disable all disk access that the program uses. That
- includes loading and saving both statistics and options. All the options
- will be set to default when first running the program, and the statistics
- will still work for the current session (starting at zero), but will not
- be saved upon exit of the program (or when changing the player's name).
-
- NOBLANK
- To disable the screen saver function, use the word NOBLANK in your
- command line options. This parameter will also disable the manual
- screen blanking (boss key), since both are really the same function.
- This option is automaticly used when a single page video card is
- detected.
-
- NOANIMATION
- If your computer or video card is too slow to display the animation
- (movement) of the cards, use this option from the command line.
-
- LAPTOP
- If you have a monochrome monitor, like on many older LCD laptops,
- the switch LAPTOP will use a brighter shade for some of the colors
- and for any highlighted letters to make them easier to see. If a
- monochrome graphics card is detected by the game, this option will
- be used automatically, so this switch is only necessary when you have
- a monochrome monitor hooked up to a color graphics card.
-
- PAUSE
- If you want the dialogue boxes not to dissappear after the set delay
- so that you can look at the point counting of the hands, use the PAUSE
- command line switch or set the delay to infinity on the options screen.
- This may help when trying to learn how to count the points for beginners.
-
- NOKEYBOARD
- This option will disable all keyboard input for the game except for when
- changing the player name in the options menu. This option will only work
- if there is a mouse detected, otherwise what's the point.
-
- GO
- To go directly into the game, bypassing the intro screen, use the
- command GO from the DOS prompt. Example: CRIBBAGE John B:\ go
-
- If you want to have the configuration and save files read and saved
- from or to a different drive or directory, you may specify a file path
- on the command line. Valid paths must start with a backslash (\)
- or a drive letter and colon (B:) or parent directory dots (..)
- Valid path examples are:
- CRIBBAGE A:
- CRIBBAGE \GAMES\MYSAVE
- CRIBBAGE D:\WORK\
- CRIBBAGE \
- CRIBBAGE ..
- CRIBBAGE ..\STUFF
- If just the drive letter is given, then the current path is used on
- that drive. (meaning if you are in D:\GAMES and then change to drive C:
- and run "CRIBBAGE D:" then your game files will be saved in D:\GAMES.
- If a path is given, it is tested at game startup, and if it is invalid
- for any reason, the current directory will be made the default path.
- As always, if a path not is specified, the current directory is used.
-
- Since the game looks only at the first eight parameters given, too
- much garbage on the command line might miss a legitimate option.
- Example: CRIBBAGE 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 GO will NOT execute the GO command.
-
- These options can be put in any order and are all case INsensitive
- except for the Player Name.
-
-
- ======================================================================
- This SHAREWARE program is written in Turbo Pascal Version 7.0
-
- The Mouse unit is from the book "Turbo Pascal Advanced Programmer's
- Guide" by Stephen K. O'Brian. This unit was slightly modified by me.
-
- Please feel free to call or write to me if you have any questions,
- comments, improvements, or find any bugs.
-
- If you like this program and want to support the efforts of a shareware
- programmer, please send cash or check for any amount that you feel my
- Cribbage game is worth to you to:
-
- David Teach
- 12708 Bruce B. Downs Blvd.
- Apt. #216
- Tampa, FL 33612
-
- Phone: (813) 975-1099
- CompuServe ID: 70743,2753
- E-mail: d.teach@ix.netcom.com
- Homepage: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/dteach/
-
- If you send in the registration fee for CRIBBAGE, I will mail to you
- my latest version and will also give you my other card game, GINRUMMY.
-
- By default, I send out 3.5 disks, if you need 5.25 please specify so.
-
- When writing to me please tell me where you obtained Cribbage, and be
- sure to include the version number of the game that you currently have.
-
- Version history is in the separate file: CRIBBAGE.NEW
-
- ======================================================================
-
- What is Shareware Software?
-
- Shareware, or user-supported software, is a popular way of marketing
- software for the program's author. Shareware software is copyrighted.
- The authors encourage you copy their software and share it with friends.
-
- If you like the program and continue using it, you should send in the
- "registration fee". This is a wonderful deal for the consumer. If you
- try a program and don't like it, you owe the author nothing.
-
- However, if you find you are using the program, then it is only right
- to pay the "registration fee" which usually ranges from $5.00 to $50.00
- depending on the program. Please support these authors. They have
- worked hard to give you their products and can only do so in the future
- if you encourage them. Shareware software will then continue to flourish
- and everyone will benefit. Where else can you "TRY BEFORE YOU BUY".
-
- =========================================================================
-