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The Best 100 Games for DOS 6
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The Best 100 Games for DOS Vol. 6 (Eureka Software).iso
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1991-10-28
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Concentration
Version 2.03
Copyright 1990-91 By
Randy Rasa
18215 Troost
Olathe, KS 66062
What Is It? ___________
Concentration is one of the classic solitaires, popular with all
ages. It is easy enough for children to play, but offers enough
challenge for adults. This version of Concentration uses a
graphical user interface for an especially colorful and appealing
game.
Program Requirements ____________________
Concentration requires 256K of memory, EGA or higher graphics
capability, and a Microsoft-compatible mouse. If you are not sure
you have the right hardware, just run the program. If there's a
problem, the program will let you know.
In addition to the program file (CONCEN.EXE), the game requires
that the card definition files (CARDS.CD1 and CARDS.CD2) be in the
current directory. These files contain the bit-maps for each
cardface in the deck.
Using The Mouse _______________
The mouse pointer will appear as a white arrow with black edges.
In general, the left button is used to select the object being
pointed to (a card or a button), while the right button is used to
exit menus or prompts.
If you have a three-button mouse, the middle button will blank the
screen. This can also be accomplished by pressing the left and
right buttons simultaneously.
Concentration Documentation Page 2
How To Play ___________
Concentration uses a standard 52-card deck (no jokers). To begin
the game the deck is shuffled, then dealt face-down in four rows of
thirteen cards each.
The object of the game is to remove all the cards, two at a time,
by pairs. You may select any two cards. As you do so, they will
be turned over (face-up). If they match (that is, if they are of
the same rank, regardless of suit), then they will be removed,
otherwise they will be turned back over.
Some people select cards at ramdom, others move sequentially from
one card to the next in row or column fashion. Either way will
work -- use whatever method helps you to remember where cards have
appeared.
Note that this game is the opposite of most in that a low score is
desireable -- you want to be able to remove all cards in as few
attempts as possible. Though becoming proficient at this game is
dependent to a large degree on strengthening your short-term
memory, luck plays a role as well. A good score requires both
skill and luck.
Buttons _______
Along the bottom of the screen are a number of "buttons", which may
be selected by pointing and clicking with the mouse. The buttons
are:
Options: This button brings up the options menu, which you can
use to set your preferences for the following:
Sound: Select "Off" to disable the beeps, clicks, and various
other noises the program makes. Select "On" to enable the
sounds.
Multi-Player Mode: Refer to the section of this document
entitled "Multi-Player Mode" for information on this
option.
Background Color: Click on the up-arrow and down-arrow to
step through the available background colors, until you
find one that suits your tastes.
Card Back: Click on the up-arrow and down-arrow to cycle
through the available card designs until you find one you
like. You can also click on the card back itself to bring
up a dialog box which will show you all the available card
backs and allow you to choose one.
Once you've set things to your liking, you may click on the
"OK" button to save your preferences to disk, or on the
Concentration Documentation Page 3
"Cancel" button to exit the Options menu without changing
anything.
Help: This button will bring up several pages of help screens,
which you can view by clicking on the "Next" or "Prev"
buttons to move from page to page. When you are finished
reading the help, click on the "Done" button to exit.
New Game: This button will end the current game, update your
statistics, and start a new game. Note that the stats will
only be updated if you have a score greater than zero. This
will allow you to select a new player (if Multi-Player mode
is enabled).
Quit: Click on this button to exit the program. If you have a
score greater than zero, your statistics will be updated and
displayed briefly before returning you to DOS. Another way
to exit the game is to press the "Abort" key (F10). If you
press F10 (and select the "Exit This Program" option in the
pop-up dialog box or press F10 again), the program will quit
to DOS without saving the data file.
Command-Line Options ____________________
/LCD -- This option may improve the screen display on monochrome
LCD displays. This option simply changes a few color
combinations to improve contrast on LCDs.
/Rxxxxxx -- This option is used to convert a shareware version of
the program to a registered version. Refer to "A Note
To Registered Users" at the end of this document for
more information.
/SW -- This option is used to convert a registered version to a
shareware version.
filename.ext -- This option is for alternate data files (see
discussion below).
Concentration Documentation Page 4
Statistics __________
Concentration keeps track of the score (the number of attempts
you've made to remove pairs of cards), the number of games you've
played, your best and worst games, and your average score. At the
end of each game, the statistics are written to disk, either in the
default CONCEN.DAT or in the data file specified on the command
line. The data file also contains the preferences you set in the
options menu (sound on/off, auto mode on/off, and background
color).
To specify a data file on the command line, start up Concentration
with the following syntax:
CONCEN filename.ext
Multi-Player Mode _________________
Concentration has a option called "Multi-Player Mode", which
enables up to ten people (or one person playing under ten names) to
keep their statistics in the same data file. When this mode is
enabled, you will be presented with a menu at the beginning of each
game, from which you may select an existing player, add a new
player, or delete an old player from the list. Each player's name
can be up to fifteen character long.
In addition to keeping separate statistics for each player, this
mode allows a different setup for each player as well. This means
that each player can have his or her own screen color, card back,
and sound s