Introduction

The modern spade first broke ground in the early middle ages, probably in Germany, and quickly spread throughout Western Europe. Only France resisted its adoption, claiming the traditional pointed stick was the “French” way to dig. After the Franco famine of 1274, a new consensus formed in that country that the spade was in fact just a fancy pointed stick, invented in Marseilles, and its use quickly became universal.

From digging tool, to card suit, and finally to card game, the evolution of Spades has been a tumultuous one. Yet Spades survives where other card games have long become extinct. Hearts, Bridge and Crazy Eights still enjoy a measure of popularity, but who today plays the once popular Crazy Fives, Eat Fish! or Mr. Clubs Goes To The Discard Pile? The game of Spades has flourished because of its unique blend of strategy, luck, and cooperation. Spades is now enjoyed by millions of people in every corner of the globe, except perhaps France where they continue to play a variation called “Pointed Stick”.

How does it work?

In much the same way that Santa’s reindeer are able to fly....

No actually, it’s pretty straight-forward, but it does depend on the Skill Level and Risk Level of the computer player.

Beginner level players basically just follow the rules of the game. They’ll play the correct cards and will seldom make an obviously “dumb” mistake. For example, they’d never willingly  give you a King when you play an Ace (unless that’s the only card they have in that suit). Beginner level players usually try to do one of four things: play the highest card in a suit, play their lowest card, play a card just a bit higher than any other card currently in the trick or they’ll trump. That’s about it. 

Beginner level players also know how to remember which Aces have been played. For example, unless they have no choice, a beginner level player would never lead the King of Hearts unless the Ace of Hearts had already been played.  But, being beginners, that’s about all they can remember.

Beginner level players also have very simple bids: they just count all of the Aces and Kings in their hand and that’s about it. (Although if they have a lot of Spades they may bid a bit higher). Beginners never bid nil.

Average level players can do all the things Beginners can, plus some more. For one thing, your average player can remember all of the cards played on the last couple tricks. This can be very useful. For example, if the last trick was the Ace of Hearts, King of Hearts, Nine of Hearts and Three of Hearts, your average player will know that the Queen of Hearts is the highest Heart available.  Average level players can also remember all of the Kings played in addition to the Aces. They are also much better bidders. They’ll look at how many cards they have in each suit and take that into account when bidding.

Expert level players can do all the things Average players can do, but they can remember every card played, not just the previous couple of tricks. Experts players would probably be barred from Las Vegas because of card counting!

This elephant-like memory makes Expert level players formidable, but it gets worse. Experts also count the number of Spades that have been played. They also remember which Suits other players have trumped and they’ll take that into account when playing a card.

SPADES DELUXE, like any game of chance, has a certain random factor to it. You can use the Risk Levels of your opponents to influence a variety of things, from how high they’ll bid, to the possibility of trumping when they have the chance. But, keep in mind that an aggressive player tends to be a bit cocky, and conservative players tend to be a bit timid. This can affect their bids which can affect the score!

Thanks

Thanks to the many people helped bring SPADES DELUXE into the world.

Ian Sez:
While Spades may have taken a while to finish, it's a better game for it.  I’m very proud of Spades Deluxe and I’d like to thank Bryan, Dan and Steven for that.

We’d also like to thank some beta-testers Mark Bertram, David Kosick, Terri Krebs, Kittycat, Odessa Curtis, Ray Tomecko, Jared Hughes, James Vaughn, Chris Kohuch, Brian S Helle, KipKop, Jamison Banks, Blue, Dawn MacLaughlin, James Vaughn, Gil Palen, Elizabeth Marshall, Philip and RoseMary Davis, Odessa Curtis, F. Stephen Costa, Philip Davis, Chris De Salvo, John Gallego, Brian Heller, Brian Lexvold,  Jane Larwa, Dawn MacLaughlin, Gil Palen, S. Perez, Jesse Stein, Michael Schway, Paul Smallwood, Paula E. Wade, and Dan Dickenson.

Bryan Sez:
Version 1.0 I’d like to thank my wife, Tamara, for putting up with me these past few months. With a new baby in the house, it’s been challenging finding the time to balance everything. (I still need to get outside and get some yardwork done! And I promise I’ll put that cabinet up in the laundry room soon! 

I also need to thank Ian...it’s been a long time since my original e-mail asking about a Spades game. I don’t think either of us ever imagined it’d take this long to get 1.0 out the door. <sigh> But, it’s out now!

Version 1.5 It’s been six months and that cabinet still  isn’t up, but at least we’re shipping version 1.5!)  (Three weeks after shipping version 1.5, I hung the cabinet!)

Version 2.0 Finally...network play. I’d like to thank Randy Thompson for all of his help and support in getting the netplay working. Without Randy you wouldn’t be reading this right now.  That goes double for Dan Schulman -- his excellent programming an attention to detail carried the game the final 10% necessary to put it over the finish line.

Dan Sez:
Version 2.1 is done!  I’d like to thank everyone at Freeverse, but especially Ian for being willing to hire such a clueless college student.  And, of course, I’d like to thank Danielle for putting up with me when I got into that “just one more bug to fix” mode.  Thanks to all the beta testers, Remy and Brahmama especially.

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