Copyright Borland International
ObjectWindows (C) 1995

Title: BLAKJACK Example

Keywords: Game;Blackjack

This is a subset of a standard blackjack game. It uses a card VBX control
to display the cards.


[Objective]

One player and one dealer can play this game.

The player enters amount of money using the "Bankroll" button at the
begining of the game. After entering the bankroll amount, the player can
go on pressing "Hit" button until the score is near 21. If the player
scores more than 21, he looses. The trick is to hit "Stand" button when
the score is near 21. After you loose or win, you can bet again using the
"Bet" button. Player plays the game until the bankroll is exhausted, at
that time he can input more money in bankroll.


[Buttons And Their Explanation]


[Bankroll]

Hit this button and enter the amount you want to play (Max 9999)


[Bet]

Hit this button when you want to bet part of the money from
bankroll. No letters, negative numbers are allowed in the input dialog, it
will not accept the input at all.


[Play]

After you hit the bet button it toggles to a 'Play' button. Pressing this
button starts the game. At start, immediately after betting, the player and
the dealer are issued 2 cards. If any one of these hand add up to 21 the
party wins immediately. If both are 21, the game is draw. Dealer shows only
one card face up all the time, along with the points.


[Hit]

Player receives one card from dealer when he hits this button. The issued
card is immediately displayed with the new total points. At this point
dealer may choose a card if his total point is less than 17, which is not
displayed as usual (dealers algorithm to hit a card).


[Stand]

This button is hit when the player no longer wishes to play. At this point
dealer may deal a card to himself if his points are less than 17. At the
end dealers hand is displayed and the scores are announced.


[Help]

Shows help|About dialog.




[Design Overview]

First the Bankroll is entered by the user and stored in the "Bankroll"
class. The increment and decrement of the bankroll is done by the
member funtions in that class.


52 cards are "new"-ed  of type "TVbxMhCardDeck" and stored in  the
array "TBlackjack::ppVBXCard[]" in the constructor of
"TBlackjack" class.
"TVbxMhCardDeck" type of cards are VBX controls.
The "Card" object stores only the Suit and Number information.
("Card" object is defined in blakjack.h)


When a "Card" is displayed the Suit and Number informations are
taken from the "Card" object, the displayable VBX card is taken from
"TBlackjack::ppVBXCard[VBXCardCount]" array. Each VBX card can have 52
possible values. The VBX card is displayed according to the
above Suit and Number information.


"TBlackjack::VBXCardCount", points to the next VBX card in the
"TBlackjack::ppVBXCard[]" array which is available.
eg: Count 12 means, cards from ppVBXCard[0] through ppVBXCard[11]
have already been dealt and displayed, and ppVBXCard[12] is
the next VBX card available.


Suffling and dealing are done using "Card" and "Deck"
objects. "TBlackjack::ppVBXCard[]" array only holds the
displayable VBX cards. Each "Card" object stores an
array index of the "TBlackjack::ppVBXCard[]" array in "Card::pVBXCard"
data member.
The VBX card at this index( in "TBlackjack::ppVBXCard[]" array)
is used to display that particular "Card" object.
This keeps the engine and UI part seperate.


Dealer is assumed to have infinite amount of money.


The cards in a particular suit are numbered from 0 - 12
eg: Ace->0, Two->1..., Jack->10, King->11, Queen->12
These numbers have nothing to do with the actual blackjack
points, it is used only to keep track of the cards.