Gamers Delight 2/Gamers Delight 2.iso/Aminet/game/board/SmokeEmPoker13.lha/Smoke'emPoker/Smoke'emPoker.doc

Text File | 1994-11-22 | 30KB | 882 lines

===== Quick Start! =====

Smoke'em Poker is a freeware game of five-card draw
poker. You play against 5 other players simulated
by the computer.

Requires Workbench 2.04 or later, with an overscan
preferences setting of at least 704x240.
May be slow on 68000-based Amigas (turn the sound
off to speed it up). To get synthesized speech, you
need the AmigaDOS speech software from WB 2.04 or
earlier releases.

You can change the game settings at the start of
each game.

Each hand proceeds as follows:
- ante and dealing
- opening bets (no minimum hand to open)
- discarding cards (1 discard of up to 3 cards)
- closing bets
- the showdown (where you win, lose, or tie)

All standard poker hands are allowed, including
low-ace straights (A-2-3-4-5). Check-raising
(sandbagging) can be allowed or disallowed. If a
computer player runs out of money, they're out of
the game. If you run out of money, you can end the
game or let the other players continue.

For more details, see the other topics in this
documentation.

For information on what's new in this version,
see "Version History" near the end of this
documentation.

Just Deal It!


===== Introduction =====

Welcome to Smoke'em Poker. Ante up and deal it, Tex!

The game is five-card draw (for rules, see "About
Five-Card Draw"). You play against five other
simulated players who would like nothing better than
to "smoke" you on a big pot.

(Yes, this is real multi-player poker, not another
lame "video poker" game. The best thing about poker
is matching wits with conniving opponents, not
playing a glorified slot machine. So there.)

Smoke'em Poker uses a standard Amiga user interface,
although the graphics are spartan (for now).
If you've played real poker before, you should
have no problem playing Smoke'em Poker.


===== System Requirements =====

Smoke'em Poker requires an Amiga with the following:
- Workbench 2.04 or later (so upgrade, already!)
- probably at least 1 meg of memory, but I'm not sure

Smoke'em Poker uses a custom overscan screen of
704x240. Your Workbench preferences for overscan
should be set to at least 704x240 so that the
Smoke'em Poker screen can open normally. If your
Workbench isn't that big, you'll only be able to
see part of the Smoke'em Poker screen at once and
you'll have to put up with that annoying "auto-
scroll" effect.
(Sorry about this - I assumed that one could force
open an overscan screen, but apparently not.
Unfortunately, it's a major pain to rearrange every-
thing to fit on a standard (640x200) screen. Sigh...)

To get synthesized speech, you must have the
AmigaDOS speech synthesis software. This was part of
the system software in WB 2.0x, but Commodore (in
their finite wisdom) removed it from later system
releases. If you have WB 2.1 or later, you just need
to get your hands on the 2.04 speech software
(narrator.device, "Say", etc.). How you get it is
your business...  ;^)
Smoke'em Poker does speech by sending arguments to
the "Say" program, which it expects to find in the
Utilities drawer of your boot volume (sys:). So,
if your "say" program is elsewhere, move or copy
it to "sys:utilities".

While Smoke'em Poker should run on any model of
Amiga, it will probably be sluggish on slower
(68000-based) Amigas. To speed things up, turn the
sound off.


===== About Five-Card Draw =====

Poker comes in hundreds of different flavours, but
five-card draw is probably the best known and
simplest form. Here's how it goes:

After paying an initial ante, each player is dealt
five cards down (visible only to that player).

After the cards are dealt, the opening round of
betting starts with the player to the left of the
dealer. Betting continues clockwise around the table
until all players have matched the highest bet or
folded out of the hand. There is NO minimum hand
required to open the betting. If no bets are made
(that is, everyone checks), then the hand continues
normally - everyone gets what amounts to a free
discard.

All players who pay the opening bet can then discard
UP TO THREE cards from their hands. These cards are
replaced by the same number of new cards from the
deck.

A closing round of betting follows, starting with
the player who last raised in the opening round. All
players who pay the final bet then reveal their
hands in the "showdown". The player with the best
hand wins the "pot" (the accumulated money bet
during the hand). In case of a tie (which is rare),
the winners split the pot.

For more information on using Smoke'em Poker's
interface to play a round of five-card draw, see
"Playing A Round".


===== What Beats What? =====

For those of you who keep forgetting, here's the
order of poker hands (from worst to best):

Runt (nothing, nada, e.g. 2-4-7-J-K)
Pair (e.g. 2-2-7-J-K)
Two Pair (e.g. 2-2-7-7-K)
Three of a Kind (e.g. 2-2-2-J-K)
Straight (e.g. 2-3-4-5-6, but different suits)
Flush (e.g. five hearts, but not consecutive)
Full House (e.g. 2-2-2-7-7)
Four of a Kind (e.g. 2-2-2-2-7)
Straight Flush (e.g. 2-3-4-5-6, all of same suit)
Royal Flush (10-J-Q-K-A, all of same suit)

Smoke'em Poker automatically displays which of the
above hands you have. It's up to YOU to make money
with it.

(In some cases, Smoke'em Poker may tell you that
you have an inside straight, outside straight,
"baby" flush, or "baby" straight flush. For more
information on these special hands, see "Four-card
Hands".)


===== House Rules =====

Every poker gathering decides on a few "house
rules". Here are the house rules for Smoke'em Poker:

Low-Ace Straights:
Normally, aces are high (valued above kings). The
only exception to this is a low-ace straight
(A-2-3-4-5), where the ace is the "one" card.
If you get an low-ace straight, Smoke'em Poker
automatically re-sorts your hand to put the ace
before the 2.
Note that an ace can only be high OR low in a given
hand. You cannot create a "wrap-around" straight
using an ace (for example, Q-K-A-2-3).

Splitting Pots:
Once in a great while, two or more players will tie
at the showdown. For example, two players may have
the same two pair.
The "kickers" (the remaining card(s) in their hands)
are used to determine the winning hand. If the
kickers are also equal, the players divide the money
in the pot equally.
In case of tied flushes (for example, two players
with king-high flushes), the suit is NOT used to
break the tie - suits have no inherent value.

Check-Raising:
This house rule is configurable - see "Setting
Preferences".


===== Setting Preferences =====

When you start a new game of poker, the
preferences window appears, and Smoke'em Poker
automatically loads any saved game settings from
its icon. You can then set the following:

Your Name:
Enter your name (up to 12 characters).
If you don't enter a name, you'll be called
"Stranger". Defaults to blank.

Opponents:
Opens the opponents window in which you set your
opponents names, skill levels, and so on.
For more information on this window, see "Choosing
Opponents".

Starting Cash:
The amount of money that every player starts with.
Must be between $100 and $10000. Defaults to $1000.

Ante:
The amount of money that each player chips in to
play in each hand.
Must be between $1 and $100. Defaults to $10.

Maximum Raises:
The maximum number of raises (NOT including the
first bet) that are allowed in each round of betting.
Must be between 1 and 10. Defaults to 3.

Minimum Bet:
The smallest amount that a player can raise.
Must be between $5 and $50, but must be smaller than
the medium bet (see below). Defaults to $10.

Medium Bet:
The in-between amount that a player can raise.
Must be between $10 and $100, but must be larger
than the minimum bet and smaller than the
maximum bet. Defaults to $25.

Maximum Bet:
The largest amount that a player can raise.
Must be between $15 and $200, but must be larger
than the medium bet. Defaults to $50.

Allow Check-Raising (Sandbagging):
To allow check-raising (also known as sandbagging)
in the game, select this checkbox.
Check-raising means that if player A checks, then
player B raises, player A is allowed to re-raise
the bet. You typically check-raise when you have a
strong hand but want to see who else does too.
Instead of making the first raise, you check (pass)
the bet. When someone else raises, you can then
raise them more.
If you disallow check-raising, player A (in the
example above) would not be allowed to re-raise -
they would have to call instead.
Defaults to on.
Note: Call-raising (re-raising when you had
previously called) is ALWAYS allowed.

Reveal All Hands:
To show the other players' hands face-up, select this
checkbox. This option is useful for figuring out how
the simulated players bet. Defaults to off.

Show Skill:
To show each player's skill level during the game,
select this checkbox. The skill level is shown beside
the player's name in short form (for example,
"Dave (b)" means that Dave has a skill level of
"bonehead"). Defaults to off.
For more information on skill levels, see
"Choosing Opponents".

Reset To Saved:
Reloads saved values from Smoke'em Poker's tooltypes
(stored in its icon). Useful if you've mucked around
with the game settings and then decide to cancel
your changes.

Reset To Defaults:
Resets all values in the preferences window and the
opponents window to their default values.
Note: If Smoke'em Poker cannot load its game settings
      from its icon, it will automatically reset all
      values to their defaults.

Save & Start:
Exits from the preferences window, saves your game
settings, and starts the new game.
Note: If Smoke'em Poker cannot save its game settings
      to its icon, an error window will warn you of
      this before starting the new game.

A Note About Icon Tooltypes:
Smoke'em Poker saves your game settings by storing
them as tooltypes in its icon (.info file).
To change the game settings, I recommend that you
take the easy route and use the controls in the
preferences window and opponents window.
However, if you choose to manipulate the tooltypes
directly in Workbench (using the "Information"
command), note the following:
- If Smoke'em Poker doesn't find or understand a
  tooltype, it uses the appropriate default value.
- If a numeric tooltype (like StartingCash) contains
  a value outside its legal range, Smoke'em Poker
  uses the appropriate minimum or maximum value
  instead.


===== Choosing Opponents =====

From the preferences window, you can open the
opponents window to set up the computer players
for the next game.

In this window, the computer players are arranged as
they will appear in the game. For each player, you
can set the following:

Active:
To include the player in the game, select this
checkbox. If you de-select it, the other controls
for the player are automatically disabled.
This option makes it possible for you to play
a game with fewer than five opponents.

Male:
Determines the sex (male or female) of the player.
This helps Smoke'em Poker to supply appropriate
names for unnamed players, and to set appropriate
male/female voice settings.
(Socially Correct Disclaimer: Having a Male/notMale
 checkbox is NOT intended to be chauvinistic - it
 simply saves some room in the window.)

Name:
Enter the name of the computer player. If you supply
a name of your own, make sure that you have set the
Male checkbox to agree with the name (so that the
voice matches the player's sex).
If you leave the Name field blank, Smoke'em Poker
will supply a random name each time you start a
new game. The name will be male or female depending
on the Male checkbox.

Skill:
To set the skill of the computer player, click
repeatedly to cycle through these skill levels:
- Bonehead - Can barely distinguish good hands from
             bad ones, but bets anyway (duh).
-     Fair - Bets based on the value of his/her own
             hand only.
-     Good - Bets based on the value of his/her own
             hand and the amount of betting so far
             in the round.
- (Random) - For each new game, this selects a random
             skill level (Bonehead, Fair, or Good).
             The random skill level is only revealed
             if you select the Show Skill checkbox
             in the preferences window.
In upcoming releases of Smoke'em Poker, I hope to add
higher skill levels - see "Future Enhancements".

Done:
Exits the opponents window and returns to the
preferences window.

Note: The settings in the opponents window are saved
      automatically along with the settings in the
      preferences window.


===== Playing A Hand =====

Paying The Ante And Dealing:
To deal a new hand, click the "Deal" button. Each
player will automatically pay the ante for the hand,
and the cards will then be dealt by the next dealer.
The dealer is outlined in pink while dealing, and
the dealer's name is highlighted in pink throughout
the hand.
Note that, even if a player's cards are shown
face-up on the screen (using the "Reveal All Hands"
option), players can NEVER see each other's cards
(except at the end of a hand).

Opening Bets:
When the betting comes around to you, you can do
one of the following:
- "Check" (or pass) your bet if no one else has bet
  yet. The "Check" button does not appear if
  someone has made a bet before you.
- "Fold" your hand to get out of the current hand
  without matching the current bet. The "Fold"
  button does not appear if no one has made a bet
  yet.
- "Call" the current bet by paying enough to match
  it.
- "Raise" the current bet by matching it and then
  increasing it by a certain amount.
  To raise, click the "Raise" button and choose
  from one of the three fixed amounts in the Raise
  window.
  These amounts are determined by the preferences
  that you set for the game - see "Setting
  Preferences".
  The "Raise" button does not appear if the
  maximum number of raises has already been
  reached, or if this would be a check-raise in a
  game where you had prohibited check-raising - see
  "Setting Preferences".

Discarding Cards:
To drop UP TO THREE cards from your hand, click the
"X"-shaped discard pointer on the unwanted cards,
then click the "Discard" button. The new cards are
dealt from the deck and automatically sorted into
your hand.
To "stand pat" (that is, to keep all of your cards),
make sure that no cards are selected, then click the
"Discard None" button.

Closing Bets:
Betting in the closing round is done exactly like it
is in the opening round, except that it starts with
the player who last raised in the opening round.

The Showdown:
When all players reveal their hands, the winner of
the hand is outlined in gold (the colour of money)
and collects the money in the pot.
At this point, if a simulated player is out of
money, they leave the game. If you are the last
player left, you win the game. If YOU run out of
money, the game ends (see "Running Out Of Money").


===== Four-card Hands =====

As a convenience, in the opening round of betting
(before you discard), Smoke'em Poker will check your
cards for the following four-card hands:

- baby straight flushes - four-card straight
  flushes with no gaps
- baby flushes - four-card flushes (gaps or not)
- outside straights - four-card straights with no
  gaps (a.k.a. two-sided straights)
- inside straights - four-card straights with a
  gap between two of the cards, or one-sided
  straights (ace-low or ace-high)

These hands, while worth nothing in themselves, only
need one card to make them into excellent hands.

Smoke'em Poker points out these promising hands for
you, but only points them out BEFORE the discard
(while you still have a chance to complete them).

When deciding how to label your hand BEFORE the
discard, Smoke'em Poker follows these rules:
- inside straights are better than runts,
- outside straights are better than pairs,
- baby flushes are better than outside straights,
- baby straight flushes are better than baby flushes.

For example, suppose that you started with a hand of
3-4-4-5-6. Before you discarded anything, Smoke'em
Poker would label your hand as an outside straight,
since this is POTENTIALLY worth more than your pair.
If you had this same hand AFTER the discard,
however, the outside straight would no longer have a
chance of becoming a real (five-card) straight, so
Smoke'em Poker would label it as just a pair.


===== Controlling Sound =====

To turn sound on or off, click the Sound checkbox at
the upper left corner of the screen (duh).

In this release, sound is implemented as synthesized
speech. For example, your opponents will speak up
when betting ("I call", etc.). Their voices are
matched to their sex - see "Choosing Opponents".

To get speech, you must have the AmigaDOS 2.0x
speech software. For more information, see "System
Requirements".

Sound is another part of Smoke'em Poker that I plan
to improve in an upcoming release - see "Future
Enhancements".


===== Getting Help =====

To get help at any time during the game:
- Click the Help button, or
- Press the Help key (what a concept!)

This opens a help window that shows a list of topics.
Click on a topic to show the corresponding help text.

To exit from the help window, click the close box
at the upper left corner of the window.

Smoke'em Poker's on-line help is the same as the
text file (Smoke'emPoker.doc) included with this
distribution. In fact, the on-line help is generated
from the text file at run-time.

Note: If Smoke'em Poker cannot find its help file
      (Smoke'emPoker.doc) in the same directory as
      Smoke'em Poker, it will ask you to find the
      help file using a standard file requester. If
      you can't find the help file, it will close the
      help window and return you to the game.


===== Generating Stats =====

For each poker game that you play, Smoke'em Poker
keeps track of various statistics that can help you
analyze your play (and your opponents' play).

To examine the stats for the current game, click
the Stats button. This opens a stats window that
shows a list of categories. Click on a category to
display the corresponding stats.

To exit from the stats window, click the close box
at the upper left corner of the window.

Note that you can't look at stats in the
middle of a hand. The Stats button is only
available between hands.

Statistics can be very useful in computer poker,
since you typically play many more hands in a
given time that you would in normal poker. This
can help point out weaknesses in your play (for
example, discovering that you are in too many
showdowns, which is a losing habit in the
long run).


===== Running Out Of Money =====

A player can keep playing until they run out of
money. More precisely, a player can play a hand if
they can afford the ante. They are permitted to go
into debt (showing negative cash) while betting on
a hand.

When one of your simulated opponents doesn't have
enough money left to ante up for the next hand, they
leave the table, and their name is shown dimmed.
If you bankrupt ALL of your opponents, the game
ends with you as the new poker champion (woohoo!).

If YOU run out of money, you can do the following:
- Start a new poker game (everyone gets a fresh
  bankroll), or
- Crawl into a hole and die (quit, that is), or
- If there are at least two other players left, you
  can let them continue the game without you (see
  "Watching The Game").


===== Watching The Game =====

Instead of playing in every hand, you can sit out
for a while and watch the other players go at it.

To watch the game, click the Watch button. The other
players will continue the game without you until you
interrupt them or until one of them bankrupts all of
the other players.

To interrupt a game that you're watching, click the
Stop Watching button. Once the players finish the
current hand, you can then continue.

You can also watch a game if you lose all of your
money AND there are at least two other players left.
In the "losing" window that appears, click the
"Let Other Players Continue" checkbox. When you
exit from the window, the remaining players will
continue the game as described above.

Note that you can't start watching the game in the
middle of a hand. The Watch button is only
available between hands.


===== Restarting The Game =====

To end the current poker game and start a new
poker game, click the Restart button. This opens
the preferences window again and lets you set
your preferences for the next game. It also
resets each player's cash to the starting cash
amount, and resets the game statistics.

Note that you can't restart the game in the middle
of a hand. The Restart button is only available
between hands.


===== Quitting The Game =====

To quit Smoke'em Poker at any time and return to
the Workbench, click the Quit button. A confirmation
window will ask whether you really want to quit.


===== Future Enhancements =====

Here's what I'd like to add to future releases of
Smoke'em Poker (in no particular order):

- An option for digitized sound for each player.
  I like the idea of playing sound files from
  external directories, so you could supply your
  buddies' voices and make Smoke'em Poker feel more
  like your own weekend poker game.

- More skill levels and selectable playing styles
  (loose or conservative) for the computer players.
  Also, computer players that learn about your
  betting tendencies and adjust their play
  accordingly.
  Eventually, I'd like to open up Smoke'em Poker
  to external players that play via ARexx. This
  would allow you to code your own computer
  players and hook them into the game. This would
  make for an interesting my-player-will-smoke-
  your-player "tournament".

- More poker variations, of course, starting with
  the more common games like five-card stud, seven-
  card stud, hold'em, high/low splits, and so on.
  This would also open the door for dealer's choice.
  I'm not a big fan of wild-card games, so don't
  hold your breath for "pregnant threes"... ;^)

- An option for playing over a network, modem, or
  direct connection. This would fill one or more of
  those other spots at the table with live people
  using Amigas linked to yours.

- An Odds button that shows you the odds of
  improving your hand vs. the odds offered by the
  pot.

- An Ask button that shows you what the various
  levels of computer players would do if they had
  your hand. Useful when you're just learning.

- Better graphics and animation, perhaps including
  a graphic pot that grows as more money is bet,
  animated dealing and discarding, player graphics
  (with an option to supply your own), choice of
  cardback graphics, and so on.
  I can barely draw stick-men, so if you want to
  do some better graphics, let me know - see
  "About The Author".

- A more robust user interface, including key
  shortcuts for common functions (pressing "F" to
  fold, etc.), and voice control using a sound
  digitizer.

- Hooks to David Braben's Frontier(tm). Just imagine
  cruising the galaxy, docking your Cobra Mark III
  at the nearest orbiter, and challenging those
  Imperial scum to a fast-and-loose game of
  Follow-the-Emperor, no limit. Hmmm. Maybe next
  release...

Any other enhancements or changes that you'd like to
see? Let me know - see "About The Author".


===== Acknowledgments =====

Here's the section where I admit who I've ripped off
for ideas  ;^)

Namely:

- "Poker Pete" on my old TRS-80 Model III.
  When you had beaten Pete out of all his money, he
  got up, pulled out his six-gun, and plugged you.
  Now THERE'S a way to end a computer game!

- "Vegas Johnny Draw Poker" by Top Score Software
  on MS-DOS (boo, hiss!).
  Pretty it ain't, but the keyboard interface is
  simple and the play is easy to follow. Some
  good betting algorithms, too.
  This is the game I was looking for on the Amiga,
  but the existing Amiga poker games either had
  brain-dead interfaces or were just "video" poker.
  Smoke'em Poker owes a lot to Vegas Johnny.

- The book "Poker According To Maverick" (from the
  original TV series with James Garner). This is
  the most useful how-to poker book that I've come
  across. Lots of entertaining anecdotes written in
  that easy-going cowpoke style, plus a practical
  list of ten poker "commandments" to help you
  improve your play.

- The players in my local Saturday-night game
  (Gina, Paul, Rob, Karen, Lou, and Gord) who play-
  tested Smoke'em Poker, and without whom it
  would have taken half the time to program.  ;^D
  Thanks to Rob, especially, for losing some
  huge real-life pots and thereby providing me
  with a name for my program ("What a smoke! What
  an incredible burn!"). Sorry that I couldn't
  include an animation of the famed Dance-Of-
  The-Unbelievably-Smoked in this release.

- Finally, thanks to INOVAtronics for CanDo, an
  easy-to-use authoring system that made it
  possible for a C-hater like me to produce
  Amiga programs.


===== Version History =====

1.3 - November 22, 1994
    - fixed nasty little bug that hung the game
      when you were down to a single opponent
    - fixed stats bug where restarting did not
      reset # of games won or lost by each player
    - added applause when you win (hey, I had to
      add something other than bug fixes...)
    - remembered to reset options to defaults
      before releasing (unlike 1.2 - duh)
    - thanks to Bruce Elrick and John Hanley for
      bug reports and suggestions
    - posted to CRS, Aquilonia, Aminet, and Fred Fish

1.2 - November 13, 1994
    - added selectable sex, names, and skill levels
      for opponents, and selectable # of opponents
    - added preference settings for check-raising
      and showing skill levels of opponents
    - preferences are now automatically loaded and
      saved (stored as tooltypes in icon)
    - changed betting status text to show total bet
      AND net amount owed by player
    - added text during final betting to show # of
      cards drawn by opponents (in case you forget)
    - changed Max.Raises setting to NOT include
      first bet (for example, MaxRaises=3 means a
      maximum of 1 initial bet and 3 subsequent
      raises)
    - changed stats so that %Won and %Lost for
      each player is percentage of hands shown
      instead of total hands played
    - made speech asynchronous (no waiting) where
      possible, made speech smarter, added phrases
    - changed the help window to handle a renamed or
      relocated help file, and to reject files that
      are not valid help files
    - updated and tested under KS/WB 3.1
    - for bug reports and suggestions, thanks to
      Terry Smallwood, Gina Grimshaw, Lou Spada,
      Gordon Paul, and Peter van Campen
    - posted to CRS and Aquilonia

1.1 - October 8, 1994
    - added Stats button for assorted statistics
    - added Watch button for auto-play mode
    - made computer players a bit smarter (for
      example, they're now much less likely to fold
      in the face of aggressive betting)
    - added more phrases for speech
    - increased default ante from $5 to $10
    - dealer is now outlined when dealing
    - names of bankrupt players are now dimmed
      (instead of erased)
    - in the showdown, the called player is first
      to reveal their cards (used to start left
      of dealer)
    - fixed a bug where computer players didn't
      draw to inside straights when given a free
      opportunity
    - fixed a bug that prevented "kickers" from being
      shown in the labeling of very close hands
    - changed inactive-window pointer from "busy"
      pointer to "prohibit" pointer
    - tested on more machines - no surprises
    - for bug reports and suggestions, thanks to Lou
      Spada, Gordon Paul, Lam Bui, Terry Smallwood
    - posted to CRS, Aquilonia, and Aminet

1.0 - July 30, 1994
    - tested on my 3000 (WB 2.04, 6 megs)
      and Lou's 2000 (WB 2.x?, 3 megs)
    - posted to Canada Remote Systems (CRS-Online)


===== About BeerWare =====

Smoke'em Poker is BeerWare:
if you like it, have a beer!

BeerWare is FREE, so keep it, play it, and make
copies of it for your friends.

(A long time ago, in an interview far, far away,
a games programmer remarked that he and his rivals
were competing for the user's beer-money.
Hence the happy concept of BeerWare - you can play
this game AND still afford beer.)

While this software is freely redistributable,
it is NOT public domain, meaning that:
- I retain the copyright (1994 Dave O'Brien)
- You shouldn't change the program and then
  redistribute it yourself.
  If you discover bugs or think up improvements,
  let me know and I'll try to oblige you - see
  "About The Author".

Distributors: don't be wankers and try to charge
anything for this, except for nominal copying
fees.

Fred Fish: feel free to put this on an upcoming
Fish disk, and thanks for all the great software
you've supplied us with for so many years.

More BeerWare coming soon (?):
- Battle Grid - two players pit their knights,
                assassins, clerics, and sorcerors
                against each other on a 8x8 grid
- Net Runner  - expand and conquer a computer network
                using viruses, trojan horses, and
                worms to punch through your
                opponents' I.C.E.

By the way, this documentation is also BeerWare: if
you've read this far, have another beer!


===== About The Author =====

I'm a technical writer by trade (paid by the word -
can you tell?), and I do my work on Macs and PCs,
but the Amiga is still my favourite for having fun.

I've been fooling with Amigas for a long time now,
but only recently tried programming them (thanks to
CanDo for making this part easier).

My two other favourite things to do are playing poker
and riding recumbent bikes (usually not at the same
time).

If you have suggestions for Smoke'em Poker, or ideas
for other thinking games that you'd like to see (but,
um, not the high-speed arcade sort - remember, I use
CanDo, not AMOS), send me mail at one of the
following addresses:

 Canada Remote Systems: "dave obrien"
         Aquilonia BBS: "Rogue Cheddar"
              Internet: "[e-mail]"
            Snail-mail: Dave O'Brien
                        13 Homewood Ave.
                        Kitchener, Ontario
                        Canada, N2M 1X1