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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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osmosis
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osmosis.doc
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1991-10-28
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Osmosis
Version 1.10
Copyright 1991 By
Randy Rasa
18215 Troost
Olathe, KS 66062
What Is It? ___________
Osmosis, also known as "Treasure Trove", is a solitaire card game
that requires skillful play and a good portion of luck, but rewards
as an enjoyable and addictive diversion. When played with actual
cards, it requires a lot of dealing and shuffling, but this
computer version makes the game simple and fast.
Program Requirements ____________________
Osmosis 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 (OSMOSIS.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 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 ___________
Osmosis uses a standard 52-card deck (no jokers). To begin the
game the deck is shuffled, then four piles of four cards each are
dealt at the left. The piles form the reserve, and the top card of
each is available for play.
One card is dealt to the right of the first reserve, forming the
first foundation. As the other cards of the same rank become
available, they may be played in a column below the first
foundation, forming the other three foundations.
Cards are dealt from the deck three at a time, with only the top
card available for play to the foundations.
Foundations are built in suit, regardless of order. On the first
foundation, any card of the same suit may built as soon as it
becomes available. On each lower foundation, a card may be built
only if a card of the same rank has been built on the foundation
above it.
For example, if the first foundation card is a three of hearts,
then any heart can be played on the first foundation as soon as it
becomes available, say, for illustration, the seven and nine. Now
suppose the second foundation is the three of clubs. If the seven
or nine of clubs become available, they can be played on the second
foundation, but no other club can be played until the corresponding
heart has been built.
When all cards have been dealt from the deck, you may redeal as
often as you like, until either the game is won (by moving all
cards to the foundations) or lost (no more moves can be made.
When the "peek" option is enabled, the reserves will be spread out
so that all of their cards can be seen. This allows you to spot
any potential blocks before beginning the game. The situation to
look out for is two cards of the same rank in the same reserve
pile, especially is the lower card is of the first foundation suit.
If this is the case then the game is hopeless, at least as far as
winning, though you can still play it and perhaps even reach a
respectable score.
Note: to deal cards from the deck, simply click on the card back.
When the deck is exhausted, click it again to gather the cards back
up in preparation for a redeal.
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.
Peek: When this is set "On" the reserve piles will be spread
out so that all cards can be seen, thus helping you spot
and perhaps avoid blocks.
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. 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
"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 one. This
allows you to evaluate the layout of the cards and, if you
don't like what you see, to begin a new game without having
it count against you.
Quit: Click on this button to exit the program. If you have a
score greater than one, your statistics will be updated and
displayed briefly before returning you to DOS. Another way
Osmosis Documentation Page 4
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 (and thus not giving you
a low score if you have to quit the program in the middle of
a game). Of course you realize this is cheating, don't you?
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