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The Best of Select: Games Special 4
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THE BEST OF SELECT Games Special 4 (Select CD-ROM)(1996).iso
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dosgames
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idiot
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id.doc
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1991-03-23
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Idiot's Delight
Version 1.03
Copyright 1991 By
Randy Rasa
18215 Troost
Olathe, KS 66062
What Is It? ___________
Idiot's Delight, also known as "Aces Up", is a solitaire card game
that is extremely simple to play, quite addictive, but terribly
difficult to win. Success depends on skill and strategy, but even
more on the luck of the cards.
Program Requirements ____________________
Idiot's Delight 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 (ID.EXE), the game requires that
the card definition files (ID.CD1 and ID.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 an on-screen button).
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.
Osmosis Documentation Page 2
How To Play ___________
Idiot's Delight uses a standard 52-card deck (no jokers), with aces
ranked high, above kings. The game is begun by dealing four cards
in a row. You may discard any card that is lower than another card
of the same suit. When no more cards can be removed, deal four
more cards onto the remainder of the previous deal and remove all
possible cards. If a pile is completely depleted, you can move a
card from the top of another pile into the space.
The game continues in this way, dealing four cards at a time, then
removing all possible cards. The game is won if only the four aces
are left at the end of the game.
Be very careful of which card you move into spaces. The natural
inclination is to move aces into spaces as soon as possible, but
often it is advisable to consider other possibilities, depending on
what cards can be freed up with each move.
Note: The four card can be dealt from the deck by clicking on the
card back (there is no "Deal" button).
Osmosis Documentation Page 3
Buttons _______
Along the right side 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.
Session Statistics: When this option is set to "On", the
program will keep track of your statistics (games played,
games won, change in average score) throughout the game
and then display them when you quit. (Note: During play,
you can also display the session statistics by clicking on
the score box.)
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.
Once you've set things to your liking, you may click on the
"OK" button to save your preferences to disk, or on the
"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.
Quit: Click on this button to exit the program. If you have
started a game, the score will be recorded and the statistic
file updated.
Osmosis Documentation Page 4
Statistics __________
Idiot's Delight keeps track of the score (the number of cards
you've discarded), the total number of games you've played, the
number of games you've won (expressed as both a number and a
percentage), and your average score. At the end of each game, the
statistics are written to disk, either in the default ID.DAT or in
the data file specified on the command line. The data file also
contains the preferences you set in the options menu.
To specify a data file on the command line, start up Idiot's
Delight with the following syntax:
ID filename.ext
This allows several different people to use the same copy of
Idiot's Delight on the same machine, yet keep separate statistics
for each person. For example, suppose three people (Tom, Dick, and
Harry) played the game at various times on the same machine. They
could each easily keep personalized data files, containing their
scores and preferences. Tom would use his data file by typing:
ID TOM.DAT
Likewise, Dick and Harry could have data files called DICK.DAT and
HARRY.DAT. Note that the "DAT" extension could be "SCR" or "HGH",
or whatever, as long as it is three letters or less.
Osmosis Documentation Page 5
Legalese ________
Idiot's Delight is shareware. As such, you can play it, copy it,
and give it away as you wish. In fact, you are encouraged to
distribute the shareware version of the program to friends, family,
and strangers alike. This includes distribution via electronic
bulletin board systems (BBS), user's groups, and disk-distribution
services. All that I ask is that the program remain in an archive
consisting of:
ID.EXE ............. the program
ID.CD1 ............. card definition file #1
ID.CD2 ............. card definition file #2
ID.DOC ............. documentation
ID.FRM ............. registration form
Registration ____________
Idiot's Delight is shareware. If you enjoy the game, please
support it. There are three registration packages available:
1. Basic Registration ................................... $5.00
This minimum registration will get you the latest registered
(no shareware "beg" message) version of Idiot's Delight on a
diskette of your choice, along with a registration code good
for all future upd