CD Ware Multimedia 1994 November

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ CD Ware Multimedia 1994 November / Cd Ware (Nro. 2) - Epimundo.iso / DOS / GA / MONSTER.ZIP / MC.DOC < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1991-07-23 | 18.5 KB | 388 lines

-= MONSTER CARLO =- by Nikolay Soumarokov * * * OVERVIEW MONSTER CARLO is a compilation of 17 games of chance in one program. Most of them are dice games -- from very well-known such as poker, craps, and the-more-the-better to absolutely new, with original ideas. Besides, MONSTER CARLO includes such popular games of chance as roulette, horse races (with some evil creatures instead of horses), and even Russian roulette (perhaps it is the first and the only computer version of this old game!). All 17 games have one thing in common -- in all of them, player's success depends on his luck only but not on how well he plays. The game ends when one of the players wins a certain sum of money. REQUIREMENTS 1. XT/AT 286 machine (best at 12 MHz) 2. EGA (640x200, 16 colors) 3. HARD DISK recommended (although it works from a floppy disk, too) GAME IDEA The idea of MONSTER CARLO is not new. Five or six years ago I owned an old 8-bit ATARI 800XL computer. At that time, I could not program at all, but I liked to type the programs of others. Fortunately, many programs, mostly games, were published in various computer magazines and books. These games were very short and simple; however, some of them were much more playable than many today's five or six megabytes monsters. One of the best games I typed was GAMBLER (unfortunately, I do not remember the name of the author). The game was very simple in concept; it consisted of seven or eight dice games and horse races and had no graphics at all. Nevertheless, GAMBLER provided my friend and me with many hours of fun. The reason was that this game had many features that games of today lack. First, it was a multiplayer game; up to 4 players could play it at the same time. Then, too, there was a fifth, computer player. Besides, GAMBLER was a game for everyone. It did not require any special skills such as virtuoso manipulation of joystick; only one player sat before the computer, while the others just watched. There were no annoying sounds; the game was quiet and slow (in the best meaning of this word). But main of all, it was a game in which you could not foretell what would happen next. In several seconds the situation could change completely -- one who was losing could win and vice versa, so the game was exciting from beginning to end. Now, when I have an AT, the games I play have great graphics and sound, but they lack something old ATARI games had. It is strange, but I even have not found an AT version of such a simple game as GAMBLER. So, I decided to write it myself. Thus, MONSTER CARLO was created. People who played GAMBLER, will find many similarities between GAMBLER and MONSTER CARLO. And really, MONSTER CARLO includes almost all the games GAMBLER had. However, MONSTER CARLO is not the same game as GAMBLER. First, it consists of much more games. GAMBLER did not have such games as Speedy Skulls, One-by-One, Roulette, Head Cutter, etc. Second, MONSTER CARLO provides some animated EGA graphics, which in my opinion, makes the game more interesting. Finally, there are many options in MONSTER CARLO that were not available in GAMBLER: you can not only select the number of players and enter their names but also choose their portraits, change the sum of money a player should take to win, and even select the currency. IT IS FREE! MONSTER CARLO should be distributed as Public Domain. You are free to copy it, give copies to your friends (give it to as many people as possible!), and even change the program in some way (see MAKING CHANGES section) without additional payment to the author. I think it would be unfair to ask money for a game the idea of which is not original, but I will be very happy if you send me your comments on this game (or perhaps your complaints about it). However, while distributing MONSTER CARLO, please make sure that you distribute it in its original form (all files listed below are present and nothing in them was changed). MONSTER CARLO FILES LIST Name Ext Size Description ----------------------------------------------------------------- 123456 UFP 12708 Die animation ALICE GNM 12803 Portraits of Alice Cooper BANDIT RUL 118 Rules of ONE-ARMED BANDIT COIN UFP 2982 Coin animation CRAPS RUL 512 Rules of CRAPS CRAZY7 RUL 194 Rules of CRAZY SEVEN DEATH UFP 12860 Animation for HEAD CUTTER EVENWINS RUL 252 Rules of EVEN WINS GAME EXE 95312 Main program GUN UFP 6448 Animation for RUSSIAN ROULETTE HEADCUT RUL 148 Rules of HEAD CUTTER LIGHT UFP 570 Animation of cursor in the games menu LOSE RUL 411 Rules of LOSE A LITTLE LOTTERY RUL 203 Rules of LOTTERY MON1 UFP 3224 Animation for MONSTER RACES MON2 UFP 3224 - " - MON3 UFP 3224 - " - MRACES RUL 97 Rules of MONSTER RACES ONEBYONE RUL 309 Rules of ONE-BY-ONE PLMIN RUL 157 Rules of PLUS-MINUS POKER RUL 318 Rules of POKER PORTRAIT UFP 12860 Players' portraits ROULETTE RUL 444 Rules of ROULETTE RUSSIAN RUL 295 Rules of RUSSIAN ROULETTE SKULL UFP 882 Animation for SPEEDY SKULLS THETHE RUL 126 Rules of THE MORE -- THE BETTER TRACKS DAT 298 Tracks data for SPEEDY SKULLS WIN RUL 414 Rules of WIN A LITTLE WIN5000 RUL 448 Rules of WIN 5000! MC BAT 8 Run it to start a new game MC DOC 16670 This documentation MC CFG ????? Created when you run the game for the first time GETTING STARTED It is recommended to copy MONSTER CARLO onto a hard disk before running it. If you do not have a hard disk, please make sure that the diskette with MONSTER CARLO is in disk drive when you play the game since MONSTER CARLO loads additional data during the game (rules, pictures, etc.). There are two ways to run the program. If you play MONSTER CARLO for the first time, run MC.BAT file. That will help you to enter players' names, select their portraits, choose currency etc. and create MC.CFG configuration file. However, if you want to play the game using old configuration, run GAME.EXE. This may be useful if you always play MONSTER CARLO with the same people and you do not want to enter their names each time. NUMBER OF PLAYERS MONSTER CARLO if a multiplayer game. The maximal number of players is 5, and the computer can play for one of them. The minimal number of players is 2, so you can play the game alone and let the computer be your opponent. However, by playing alone, you will lose much excitement of the game -- it is like playing poker with yourself. MONSTER CARLO is best played with 4 or 5 human players, good with 3, not very bad with 2. But if the number of human players is less then 4, it is highly recommended to play with a computer player. I found that it is comfortable if only one player sits before the computer, while the others tell him when to press a key (by a short command like "Go!") PORTRAITS Players' portraits were added just to make it easier to distinguish the players from each other. There are no "lucky" and "unlucky" portraits, so you can choose any one you like except the last, which is reserved for the computer player (you can enter the name of the computer player, but you can not select its portrait). Here are the descriptions for some portraits: Row Column Description --------------------------------------------------------------- 1 2 NOT Darth Vader, but "Sparrow," the Great Magister of M0rsels (see 3,1); half man, half computer, with sparrows inside his helmet. 1 3 Sib-Sib, inhabitant of Sibsibiya, a country on planet Reana. To be exact, one on the portrait is Sibov, the president of Sibsibiya. 2 2 Philing (do not confuse with "Feeling"), inhabitant of the Philings' Forest of Sibsibiya; resembles cat and owl but in fact, is something very different; can not fly, so falls from the tree on windy days. 2 3 Gluck (pronounced as 'GL YOU K') or ALEien, the drunkard, inhabitant of Nomoo planet. You may see a Gluck if you drink too much. 3 1 M0rsel (not "morsel"); lives in the labyrinths on planet Ion. A rather kind creature; however, eats everyone who comes to his labyrinth. 3 2 The author's school English instructor. 4 2 The computer player may have only this portrait. Please note, that the information given above about Sib-Sibs, M0rsels, Glucks, Philings, Sparrow, and Sibov is VERY brief. Sib-Sibs, M0rsels, and Glucks, as well as many other creatures not mentioned here because of the lack of space have a well-de- veloped economy, political system, habits, and many other details you do not know now. It is a very very large world, about which I am going to write my future games. So, please, do not use these characters anywhere except MONSTER CARLO. CURRENCY In this game you can select the currency of your country, so that you could play with money you got used to. But even if your country's currency is not in the list, you can play with it anyway by changing MC.CFG file (see MAKING CHANGES section). PLAY TO WIN / PLAY TO LOSE This unique option allows you choose whether the winner is a person who won a greatest sum of money or one who won a smallest sum (or lost at all). SUM OF MONEY TO WIN This option allows you to choose the sum of money a player needs to win to end the game. A game until 500 for 5 players usually lasts from 40 minutes to an hour, while for a game until 5000 you will have to play from morning till night. CONTROLS The controls in MONSTER CARLO are very simple: in most cases, the computer asks you to press any key (I prefer SPACE BAR). Sometimes you will have to press "Y" or "N" or enter a number followed by ENTER key. In the options menus, you change the options by pressing TAB, ENTER or ARROWS keys. To abort the game press ^BREAK or ESC when asked to "Press A Key." PLAYING THE GAME All the games in MONSTER CARLO are simple and you will soon understand how to play them. Besides, the program provides you with rules for each game. (The only exception is Speedy Skulls, in which there were simply no space for the rules on the screen.) MAKING CHANGES MONSTER CARLO is a program in which you can make changes using a text editor. Here are three types of files you may change: 1. Rules (all files with .RUL extension) If you do not like the way in which the rules are written, you can change them or even erase them at all. However, if you change the rules, make sure that you do not change the number of lines and columns in them; otherwise, you can spoil the nice pictures on the screen. 2. MC.CFG file (created when you run MC.BAT) The data are stored in this file in the following format: Example 1. Two-player game Line# Text Description ---------------------------------------------------------- 1 2 ; number or players 2 2 ; first player's portrait # 3 Sparrow ; first player's name 4 10 ; second player's portrait # 5 Computer ; second player's name 6 dollars ; currency 7 1000 ; maximal sum of money 8 W ; Play to win Example 2. Four-player game Line# Text Description --------------------------------------------------------- 1 4 ; number of players 2 9 ; 1st player's portrait # 3 Dracula ; 1st player's name 4 4 ; 2nd player's portrait # 5 Ghost ; 2nd player's name 6 10 ; 3d player's portrait # 7 IBM PC AT ; 3d player's name 8 7 ; 4th player's portrait # 9 Mr.Smith ; 4th player's name 10 golds ; currency 11 500 ; maximal sum of money 12 L ; Play to lose You may want to change the configuration file in order to correct a misspelled name, to alter the maximal sum of money (changing it to 200 or 300 will make the game much faster), or to select the currency which is not in the list (tugriks, for example). 3. TRACKS.DAT (tracks data for Speedy Skulls) You may change the names of tracks and tracks themselves. Note, that each track must be 36 digits long and the last six digits should be 6's. The meanings of the digits are the following: 0 - empty 1 - miss a turn 2 - make an extra move 3 - return to start 4 - +20 roubles/dollars/etc. 5 - -20 roubles/dollars/etc. +----------------------------------------------------------+ ! However, although you may alter the rules, MC.CFG, and ! ! TRACKS.DAT files, please distribute MONSTER CARLO in its ! ! original form, without your changes. ! +----------------------------------------------------------+ NO WARRANTY I can not offer a warranty for this game. The only assurance to the user is that much has been done to improve the program and to correct the errors that were found during the testing period. MONSTER CARLO was tested on several computers, and it worked on all of them, but I can not guarantee that it will work correctly on your particular computer. Besides, this is the first version of the game and it is likely to have some small mistakes. If you find any bugs in MONSTER CARLO, please write to me about them (my address is at the end of this documentation). OTHER PROGRAMS BY THE SAME AUTHOR TROFF -- a combination of old SNAKE and BLOCKADE games. Play against the computer on 5 levels of difficulty. EGA required. TROFF II -- A completely different version of TROFF. Has new rules, many game options, "boss key," and better EGA graphics. GNOOM -- Colorful images editor for use in Turbo Pascal 5.5 programs. Allows to edit up to ten images and to animate them. (All graphics in MONSTER CARLO was made using GNOOM). EGA required. You can write your comments and suggestions to: Nikolay Soumarokov Erzherzog Karl Str. 182 1220 Vienna, Austria ----------------end-of-author's-documentation--------------- Software Library Information: This disk copy provided as a service of Public (software) Library We are not the authors of this program, nor are we associated with the author in any way other than as a distributor of the program in accordance with the author's terms of distribution. Please direct shareware payments and specific questions about this program to the author of the program, whose name appears elsewhere in this documentation. If you have trouble getting in touch with the author, we will do whatever we can to help you with your questions. All programs have been tested and do run. To report problems, please use the form that is in the file PROBLEM.DOC on many of our disks or in other written for- mat with screen printouts, if possible. PsL cannot debug pro- programs over the telephone, though we can answer questions. Disks in the PsL are updated monthly, so if you did not get this disk directly from the PsL, you should be aware that the files in this set may no longer be the current versions. Also, if you got this disk from another vendor and are having prob- lems, be aware that some files may have become corrupted or lost by that vendor. Get a current, working disk from PsL. For a copy of the latest monthly software library newsletter and a list of the 3,000+ disks in the library, call or write Public (software) Library P.O.Box 35705 - F Houston, TX 77235-5705 1-800-2424-PSL MC/Visa/AmEx/Discover Outside of U.S. or in Texas or for general information, Call 1-713-524-6394 PsL also has an outstanding catalog for the Macintosh.