Club Amiga de Montreal - CAM/CAM_CD_1.iso/files/167.lha/SpiteAndMalice/Read.me

Text File | 1988-04-27 | 8KB | 139 lines

                           Spite And Malice


Rules and Strategy:

     Spite and Malice is a card game which involves both luck and strategy.
The object of the game is to play all of the 25 cards in your pile.  These
cards must be played to the center four stacks in numerical order from ace
to queen. Both the king and joker are wild cards, and may be played on top
of any other card.  Your hand consists of five cards, which may be played to
the center or the discards.  Cards that have been discarded may be played to
the center, but may not be moved from one discard pile to another.  Your
turn ends when you take a card from your hand and put it into one of the
discard piles.  Several strategies may be used to defeat your opponent.  You
may wish to maximize playing of your cards with little regard for the
ability of your opponent to play.  Alternatively, you may attempt to prevent
your opponent from playing his cards, even to the detriment of your ability
to play cards from your pile.  The computer attempts to win through
intimidation and by maximizing his ability to play cards from his pile.

Program Options:
                        Spite And Malice Menus
____________________________________________________________________________
|Game________|Player_1_____|Player_2_____|Spite_Level_________|Malice_Level|
|New       | |  Computer | |\/Computer | |\/None            | |\/None      |
|Open      | |\/Human    | |  Human    | |  Low             | |  Mean      |
|Save      | |Diff Factor| |Diff Factor| |  Moderate        | |  Nasty     |
|Save As...| `-----------' `-----------' |  Cut off nose to | |  Terrible  |
|Speech On |                             |  spite face      | `------------'
|Slow Play |                             `------------------'
|Rules     |
|Quit      |
`----------'
"Game" Menu:
    The game menu controls file saving and retrieval, and most play
parameters.
New: Begins a new game.  If the current game is not finished and has not
been saved, then you will asked if you wish to save the current game first.
Open: Opens a saved game file and begins play from the point that the game
was last saved.  Currently there is no option for replay or taking back of
plays.
Save: Saves the current game status under the current file name.  If no file
name exists, then you will be prompted to enter one.
Save As: Prompts you to enter a file name and save the current game status
under that file name.
Speech On (Off): Toggles between speech and no speech.  If the computer
becomes too obnoxious (try to pick up one of his cards), you can tell him to
shut up.  The default setting is "Speech on".
Slow Play (Fast Play): Toggles between slow and fast movement of cards.
Slow play allows you to watch as the computer makes his moves.  With fast
play on, is not possible to watch all the cards being thrown around by the
computer to make certain that he doesn't cheat.  The default setting is
"Slow Play".
Rules: When selected, the computer will tell you the rules.  To cancel at
any time, press the "Shut up!" button.
Quit: Ends the current game.  If the current game is not finished and has
not been saved, then you will asked if you wish to save the current game
before exiting the program.

"Player 1", "Player 2" Menus:
     These menus select the playing characteristics of each player.  Each
player may be either human or computer.  The type of opponent for each
player may be changed at any time during the game.  If both opponents are
human (much more easily played with real cards, but still an option in this
program) you will be asked to enter a secret code, which may be any
combination of letters or numbers.  This secret code must be entered on
every turn (prevents your opponent from looking at your cards).  Once you
have entered your secret code, you may turn over your cards by clicking on
them.  When you discard, your remaining cards will be automatically turned
face down.  "Diff Fact" brings up a window in which you are to select the
difficulty level of your computer opponent (easy, difficult, and very
difficult).  The default setting is "very difficult".

"Spite" and "Malice" Menus:
     These menus control how nasty you want your computer opponent to be.
Default settings are "None".

Mode of play:

    To move a card, place the mouse cursor above a card, then click and hold
the left button.  Move the mouse in the direction you wish to move the card
and let go of the button when it is at the appropriate place.  The card
doesn't have to be exactly centered on the location when released, and if
not, it will be moved to the proper location.  If a card is moved illegally,
then the computer will say an appropriate (?) message and return the card to
its original location.

Technical considerations:

    This program was developed using standard AmigaBasic (copyright
Microsoft Corporation) and compiled using AC/Basic (copyright Absoft Corp).
The program may be opened from either Workbench or CLI.  To open from
Workbench, double click on the Spite and Malice "Game" icon or the "Cards"
or "CardTable" icons.  To open from CLI, make sure that the game program is
in the current directory type the following:

                             Stack 9000
                             Game

When opened from CLI, the program uses a file requestor subprogram which
reads the disks directly and allows the user to scroll the window to select
files for saving and opening.
    When copying the program to other disks, is is best to copy the entire
drawer, since there are several files that need to be present for the
program to run.  If the appropriate files are not present the program will
produce a message telling the user which file is missing before exiting.
The following files are necessary:

                        Game ........... The main program
                        CardTable ...... The playing table
                        Cards .......... The deck of cards
                        dos.bmap ....... AmigaBasic library
                        exec.bmap ...... AmigaBasic library
                        graphics.bmap .. AmigaBasic library

    In addition to these files, the Workbench disk must have the
translator.library in the LIBS directory and the narrator.device in the DEVS
directory.  If the program is run from CLI and game files are saved or
loaded, then Ram-Handler must be present in the L directory and the DOS
command "Execute" must be present in the C directory.
    This program is completely event driven, responding to menu selections
and mouse clicks.  User input is via buttons and text string gadgets
(typing is required only for saving of files and entry of the user's name).
Buttons are selected with the left mouse button.  Alternatively, highlighted
buttons may be selected by pressing the "RETURN" or "ENTER" keys.  If a
"cancel" button is present, it may be selected by typing the "ESC" key.
Text gadgets may be selected by clicking the left mouse button within the
box.  If more than one text gadget is present, pressing the cursor up or
down keys will move to the next text gadget.  The program uses three decks
of cards (standard decks with two jokers per deck) which are shuffled
randomly and dealt without replacement.  When a stack of cards in the center
is completed (ace through queen) it is removed and put into a leftover pile
(off screen).  When all cards have been used from the initial three decks,
then the cards in the leftover pile are shuffled and reused.  The program is
designed for two players, which may be any combination of computer or human
opponents.