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KLONDIKE.DOC
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1995-04-24
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Klondike, a Patience Card Game for the Psion Series 3a
Version 2.1
Copyright (C) 1993, 1995 J Cade Roux
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
* N.B. For space reasons the GNU General Public License is not
* included with this Psion palmtop product.
Installation
This program (versions 2.0 onwards) will only run on the Psion Series
3a machine. Running it on a Series 3 Classic will give a warning and
terminate.
To install Klondike, copy Klondike.app it to any directory (like \APP\) and
install it <Psion-I> from the system screen.
To enable the digitized sound effects, copy the KLON*.WVE to any \WVE
directory. These sounds are freely distributable.
De-installation
To de-install the program, press Shift-Ctrl-Delete - this causes the
program to free all environment space it uses (currently 21 bytes) and
exit. Then delete the .APP file and the .WVE files.
Credits
Development tools used:
* The Psion SIBO SDK V2.0
* JPI TopSpeed C 3.02 compiler
* Multi-Edit V7.0 for DOS
* Multi-Edit V7.0 for Windows
* DeluxePaint IV
Thanks to:
* Zhava Glaser (Pipeline) - sorry I haven't implemented
everything - but it's got to be released sometime!
* Greg Friedman (CompuServe) - serious bugs in 2.0, ouch...
Very special thanks for usability testing:
* Michael Boshes (CompuServe)
Rules
This is the classic Klondike/Canfield/Patience/Solitaire. I quote a
description of the game from David Parlett's Oxford Guide to Card Games
(OUP 1990). This is an excellent book for anyone who likes card games,
being an excellent analysis of the development and history of card
games of all kinds and from many different cultures, and I would
heartily recommend it.
"Deal seven piles of cards face down in a row, with one in the first
pile, two in the second, and so on up to seven in the seventh. Turn
the top card of each pile face up. Aim to place the four Aces at the
top of the board as and when they become available, and to build each
one up into a thirteen-card suit-sequence headed by the King. Turning
cards from the pack one at a time, play each one face up either to (a)
one of the Ace-piles, provided that it goes on the next lower card of
the same suit, or (b) on of the seven processing columns, provided that
it goes on a next higher card of the opposite colour (e.g. Red Nine on
Black Ten), or (c) a rubbish heap."
"Throughout play, the top card of the rubbish heap may be played to an
Ace-pile in ascending sequence of suit, or to one of the central
columns in descending sequence of alternating colour. The topmost
(uncovered) card of a central column may also be played in accordance
with the same rules of following. A whole sequence of properly ordered
cards in alternating colour may be shifted provided that the join
follows the rule. Whenever a face-down card is exposed, turn it face
up. Whenever the last card is played from a central column, the space
it leaves may be filled only with a King, or with a proper sequence
from another column headed by a King. Having run out of cards from the
main pack, you may not (as in other patiences) turn the rubbish heap
and go through it again. It is therefore vital to play off the topmost
rubbish card at every opportunity."
The only difference of this version from the description above is that
cards are dealt one OR three at a time face up onto the rubbish pile,
with only the top card allowed to be played. Also, the rubbish pile is
recycled each time the draw pile is exhausted.
Playing
The keys used to control Klondike are as follows:
Arrow keys move the pointer to the card to be lifted (the arrow points
diagonally up from the left of the card).
Using Shift and the Up or Down arrow keys allows the player to split
the pile in order to use intermediate cards.
When no card is currently being held, the TAB key picks up wither the
current card, the current pile, or turns the hand pile onto the rubbish
pile.
If the TAB key is pressed when a card or cards is being held, the cards
will attempt to be dropped onto the current pile, the best pile, or the
suits pile, depending on what the program thinks is best.
When holding cards which can't be dropped anywhere, the TAB key will
return them to their rightful place. The Esc key serves the same
purpose.
Quick-Pile Controls
The Quick-Piles keys are designed to make play as fast as possible,
eliminating the cursor keys altogether.
A single key represents each pile on the screen:
1 - Hand Pile
2 - Rubbish Pile
5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0, + - Tableau Piles
Q, W, A, S - Foundation or Suit Piles
For instance, pressing <1> will cause a singlet or triplet to be played
off the Hand.
Pressing <2> will cause the topmost Rubbish card to be
played first to the tableau, and if that is not possible, then onto the
foundation.
Pressing <Q> will attempt to play the topmost foundation card of
Hearts onto the tableau.
Pressing <5> will attempt to move the whole of pile 5 onto the most
suitable tableau pile, otherwise, attempting to play the topmost card
of pile 5 onto the foundation.
I think the experienced player will find Quick-Piles to be very
intuitive, and, after a few games, VERY fast.
Users of other keyboard layouts will have difficulties, which I should
be able to easily accomodate through incorporating different keyboard
layouts into the program's resource file. Please contact me at the
below address.
Menu Functions
* New Game - Starts a new game.
* Win Game - Attempts to win the current game and start a new
one.
* Options - Play options
* Sound - Digitized sound can be turned on or off.
* Deal Type - The user can choose 1 or 3 cards - the choice
applies immediately.
* Cursor Wrap - Is the cursor allowed to wrap at edges
of screen
* Auto-win - Computer determines a win if all cards are
face up - and if playing triplets, you can have no
cards in the hand or rubbish pile
* Quick-Piles - Enables the Quick-Piles keys
* Statistics - Shows statistics of past game play
* Number of games played
* Average number of cards onto foundation piles
* Average number of face down cards remaining on the
tableau
* Number of games won
* Exit - Quit Solipeg
Compiling
Klondike V2.0 was largely re-written as an OO HWIM application for the
Series 3a. Source code is freely available from the author.
Problems/Bugs
No known bugs.
Author
V2.0 is being released not as a finished product, but as the vanguard
in a new generation of Klondike - to get some more suggestions.
You can tell there are a few things left to do - like undo, scoring,
and improved responsiveness and smoother redraws. The documentation
and online help are not as complete or accurate as they c