1,000 Game Levels 2

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Mack's DOMINO Parlor Version 4.2, December, 1991 Copyright (c) B. J. Ball System Requirements: IBM PC or Compatible, 256K RAM, Graphics card and monitor (CGA/EGA/VGA) An asterisk denotes a feature of the registered version only. Description of game. This is a computer implementation of a two-person single-spinner domino game. The discussion below presupposes some knowledge of this game, but an appendix, adequate for one who has never played dominoes before, is included. Since domino rules tend to be quite local, even those very familiar with some version of the game might wish to scan the Appendix for possible variations from their rules. * (Some of the more common variations are included as options.) * There are three levels of play - 0,1,2 - with level 1 being the * default. Some domino games are easy, but not this one. Only a very * competent player can win consistently at level 2, and even level 0 * requires some attention. The game is intended to be challenging, * but not too difficult to be enjoyable. * When the game starts, you will be given an opportunity to make a * number of decisions, one being the level of play. The others will * be discussed in detail later, but to get the game under way * quickly, just press the Enter key once to accept all the default * settings. The game proper begins with a "Draw for Down". The machine (Mack) will randomly select a domino for you and one for himself, displaying both draws and announcing who won the first down. To continue, press the space bar. [Pressing the space bar (or the Enter key) is a recurring process, not always indicated by a prompt. Whenever the machine seems to be waiting for you to do something and you don't know what, try pressing one of these keys. Something might happen, and nothing very bad ever does.] Following the "Draw for Down", there will be a very short pause for shuffling and dealing; your hand will then be displayed, along with the current score and, if it is your down, a prompt asking you to specify a domino to be played. If it is Mack's down, a domino will be played almost immediately; press the space bar and you will be prompted to indicate the domino you wish to play. If it is your turn and you wish to play, for example, the 2-3, you simply type 23 and press the space bar. If you make a mistake on the first digit, or change your mind, you may start over by pressing X or the backspace key. After the second digit, pressing any key other than the space bar or the Enter key allows you to reenter your choice. Once you press the space bar or Enter, though, your domino is considered to have been exposed and must be played if possible. It is important to remember that the FIRST number typed is to be played against a domino on the board; even though the domino 3-2 is the same as the domino 2-3, entering 32 is NOT the same as entering 23 (notice also that to play the 2-3 you do not type 2-3 or 2 3 or 2,3; just 23 with no separator). If you type 23 as your choice and there is no place to play a 2 on the board, you will be asked to reenter your play. If there is exactly one legal place to play a 2, or if all places are equivalent, the play will be made as soon as you hit the space bar; if there are two or more inequivalent places to play a 2, however, you will be asked to indicate the "End" on which you wish to play. (There are at most four ends; here they are numbered 1,2,3,4, counterclockwise, starting with the end at the right.) When the computer chooses among equivalent ends, the one containing the smallest number of dominoes will be selected. If it is your turn and you do not have a domino that can be played, press D to draw or P to pass (or simply press the space bar without making an entry). A request to pass will not be honored if the boneyard is not empty; instead, it will be treated as a draw. Similarly, when the boneyard is empty, a request to draw will be interpreted as a pass. (Thus D and P are equivalent entries.) Neither Draw nor Pass will be accepted if you have any domino that will play; in this case, a playable domino will be briefly marked, and you will be asked to reenter your play. Each time you play a domino, the domino played will be removed from the display of your hand, and the last domino in the display will take its place. Thus your hand is continually being rearranged, which can be disconcerting. (The object is to make room for the dominoes on End 3, which will be snaking around the table and might otherwise run into the display of your hand.) *Whenever it is your * turn to play, however, you may rearrange the display of your hand. * Press A to enter the 'adjust' mode; one of your dominoes will be * marked with a heavy vertical centerline of a different color. This * mark can be moved from domino to domino in your hand with the arrow * keys. Pressing 'Ins' will "select" the currently marked domino. To * interchange two dominoes, mark both of them and press Enter. To flip * a single domino, mark it alone, then press Enter. (After each flip * or interchange, the selection marks are removed.) To return to the * game, press Enter with no domino currently selected (or press Esc). Whenever either you or Mack plays a domino, the count, if any, will be displayed. To go to the next play, after verifying the information given, you should press the space bar. Initially, since Mack plays so rapidly, you may find yourself waiting overlong before realizing that it's your turn to play. It is important, though, that you have a chance to note where Mack played and what, if anything, he made on his play, so he always waits for you to digest this information. Similarly, Mack politely waits for you to confirm that your play has been properly credited before making his own play - after your play has been made and the count, if any, credited to you, you must press the space bar again to tell Mack that he may proceed. When the first double is played, the board will be redrawn, if necessary, so that the spinner is in the center of the table. This rearrangement is necessary to allow the four ends of the spinner to played on normally. During the course of play it may happen that so many dominoes have been played on a particular end that no more can be played there without (possibly) interfering with other parts of the display. When this happens, subsequent plays on that end will be indicated with half-size dominoes. To further save space in such instances, doubles will not be played crosswise, in the usual fashion, so some care is involved in remembering the count value of these ends. This situation arises relatively infrequently, and should not cause any difficulty. * Special Features. * There are eight choices which may be made at the beginning of each * game. Some are obvious, but others require some explanation. * The first option, the level of play, needs no comment. * The second choice is for the initial draw, which can be 7, 9 or 11 * dominoes. This has a major effect on the game; the 11-draw game * seems to offer the best balance between luck and skill, but many * players prefer the smaller hands. * The next two choices allow the use of two special, and somewhat * unusual rules. One of these allows a player to ask for a redeal if * his hand contains 'too many' doubles (five or more in an 11-draw * game, four or more in a 7- or 9-draw game). The redeal must be * requested at the player's first opportunity to play in that hand, * and is inplemented by pressing 'F' instead of naming a domino. * The other special rule, 'Highest Double Downs', requires that the * the player holding the highest double at the beginning of a game * (or after a blocked hand) must play that domino to start the next * hand. In all other cases, the down is made by the person who last * dominoed, with no restrictions on what he downs. The rule is not * entirely clear as to the procedure in case neither player has a * double; as implemented here, if neither has a double, there is a * redeal and the process is repeated. * The first four options are toggles: pressing the correspong number * key causes the option to change to the next in line (level from 0 * to 1 to 2, hand size from 7 to 9 to 11, Doubles or DoubleDown from * Yes to No). The other options request input from the user. * The fifth option is an obvious one, the number of points * constituting a complete game. This should be at least 250 points to * allow for the effects of luck to even out somewhat, and probably * should be 300 or more in an 11-draw game. In the registered version, * any number up to 999 is acceptable. * The final three options affect the computer implementation, not the * game rules themselves. * One useful option is that of having a complete record of the game * written to a disk file. This will include every domino dealt, every * play made, every score credited. This record can then be examined * in case there is any question as to Mack's play. This slows down * the play a bit, but many users find it helpful. (Selecting this * option and giving 'PRN' as the filename causes the game to be * printed out as it is played, provided the printer is currently on * line. Hence you could cheat by looking at Mack's hand during the * game, but of course no one would do that.) * Another option is that of repeating a previously played game. At * the conclusion of each game, you will be given the opportunity to * save the game just played for replaying later. (This is NOT a * complete record, as described above, but is essentially just a list * of the hands dealt.) The purpose of replaying a hand is to see * whether you can improve your play the next time, or if you can do * better than another player with the same deals, or (by switching * hands) to see if you could have done better than Mack with the same * dominoes. (If you name saved games "game0", "game1", ... "game9" * the program will list the games available (up to 10) when you ask * to repeat a game. You may use any names you like for saved games, * but if the names do not begin with "game" you will have to remember * the name of the game you wish to repeat.) Once you have chosen to * repeat a game, you will be asked whether you wish to switch the * hands this time. The various options in effect when that game was * played will be restored, but you can change these before starting * play if you wish. The program detects which graphics adapter is installed and active, and distinguishes between the CGA and the EGA/VGA. *Both versions * allow choices of colors; with the EGA/VGA there are many useful * combinations, but with the CGA only a relatively few choices are * usable. In either case, if you do not like (or cannot see) what * comes up when the game starts, press R to restart the program, and * choose a different color combination. * After choosing a set of options you like, you may save them to a * configuration file (DOM.CFG for the CGA version, DOM.CNF for the * EGA/VGA program) to be automatically used as defaults on subsequent * invocations of DOMINO. (All options except Record and Repeat * are saved.) To save the current options AFTER finishing a game, type * R to bring up the options window again, press S to save, and then * press Q to quit or Enter to play again. If you prefer, you may use the Enter key whenever the space bar is called for. Moreover, if you get fed up with a game, you may start over by pressing R to Run the program again, or quit by pressing Q or Esc. These entries may be made whenever the machine is waiting for a response from you. One of the queries presented to you at the end of a game is "Another game now ?". If you answer with Y, the next game will have the same parameters (level, game score, etc.) as the one just played, and Mack will keep a running total of the number of games won by you and by him during the current session, to be displayed at the end of the last game in the series. (If you wish to play again but want to change some of the parameters, use R to replay.) Mack is totally honest in his play, and uses his knowledge of the dominoes in your hand only for checking purposes - to determine whether you do indeed have too many doubles, whether you own the domino you wish to play, and whether you actually have no legal play when you ask to draw or pass. His decisions as to his own play are based only on legitimate information - the dominoes in his hand, those on the board, and the number remaining in your hand and in the boneyard. Having a game recorded will give a partial check of this, but you have to have faith that Mack does not peek at your hand or finagle boneyard draws. He doesn't. DOMINO RULES The following description of the "Draw Game" of dominoes incorporates a complete set of rules for the two-person game; there may be minor variations from other sets of rules, but the game described is a very common version. Everyone knows that a domino is a small tile, about 1 inch by 2 inches by one-quarter inch thick, with a plain back and a face divided into two halves, each marked with some number of dots from 0 to 6. (The two halves of the face are sometimes called "ends" of the domino.) A set of dominoes consists of 28 such tiles, with each possible combination from 0-0 to 6-6 occurring exactly once. A domino is referred to as the 2-3, the 4-6, etc., according to the numbers of dots on the two halves of its face. A domino having the same number of dots on each end is called a "double". In the two person draw game, each player selects a "hand" of 11 (sometimes 9 or 7); the usual process is to place all the dominoes face down on the table, shuffle them around a bit, and then draw the hands at random. The dominoes left over are placed to one side and are designated as the "boneyard", which may come into play later. Customarily, each player will set his dominoes upright on the table before him, with their faces visible to him but not to his opponent; this arrangement is not mandatory, but each player is entitled to know at any stage of the game exactly how many dominoes are left in his opponent's hand (and in the boneyard). Before play begins it must be decided which contestant plays first. This is done by lot, usually by each player drawing a single domino from the shuffled set, with the player drawing the largest total number of spots being the designated lead off man for the first hand. This player is said to "have the down". The dominoes are then reshuffled, and hands are drawn as described above. (In some versions of dominoes, the down is determined quite differently. See the discussion of the 'Highest Double Down' rule above.) At the beginning of play, the player having the down places any one of the dominoes from his hand face up on the table. If the sum of the spots on this domino is a multiple of 5 , the player is awarded that many points,or "count"; if the sum is not a multiple of 5, no score is given. Thus the 0-5, 1-4 and 2-3 each score 5 points, while the 4-6 and 5-5 score 10 points. No other dominoes make any points on the the down. After the initial play, the next player places one of his dominoes on the table adjacent to the first one, in such a way that the numbers on the abutting ends match. For example, if the 3-4 is downed, then the 4-2 could be played, with the two 4's adjacent to each other, 3-4:4-2 . The exposed ends of the "board", the 3 from the 3-4 and the 2 from the 4-2, now total 5, and the second player is awarded 5 points. Only multiples of 5 count, so a play of the 3-2, for example, would score nothing in this situation. Scoring after each play is similar - the sum of the exposed ends of the board is calculated and if this sum is a multiple of 5, the player receives that number of points, but otherwise he scores nothing. Doubles must be played crosswise, and if a double forms an exposed end of the board, both halves of the double count toward the sum used in scoring. For example, if the 3-4 is downed and the next player places the 3-3 (crosswise, since that is required) against the 3 of the 3-4 , then his score is 10, counting 6 for the double 3 on one end and 4 for the exposed 4 on the other end of the board. The FIRST double played is designated as the "spinner". After (but not before) both of the long sides of the spinner have been played on, the other two ends become available for play. For example, if the 3-3 is downed, followed by the 3-4 and the 3-6, then (since both long sides of the spinner are now covered) the 3-5 could be played against either of the 3's of the spinner (for a count of 15). Subsequent plays could be made on the 5 or on the other end of the spinner, as well as on the 6 or the 4. Since the spinner is the only double that can be played on in this manner, the board will never have more than four ends. Note that the short ends of the spinner are not counted until they have "sprouted" (unless the spinner still has at least one long side uncovered, in which case both ends are included in the count). On his turn, a player is required to play a domino from his hand if he has any legal play. Otherwise, he must draw from the boneyard (repeatedly, if necessary) until either he obtains a domino that will play or the boneyard has been exhausted. A player who succeeds in playing all the dominoes from his hand is said to have "dominoed"; the hand is then over, and the one who dominoed scores (to the nearest multiple of 5) the sum of all the spots in his opponent's hand (in addition to any score made on the last play). If it should happen that neither player has a legal play and the boneyard is empty, the hand is "blocked". In this case, the players compare the sums of the spots in their respective hands, and the player with the lowest total receives (to the nearest multiple of 5) ALL the points in his opponent's hand. A game normally consists of 250 points. Several hands are required to complete a game, so the dominoes must be reshuffled and redrawn at the end of each hand. During a game, the Down alternates, so that if Player 1 downed the first hand, then Player 2 would down the second, Player 1 the third, and so on. (This process is greatly modified if the 'Highest Double Downs' option, described above, is used.) The rules of dominoes are simple enough that anyone can easily remember them after playing only a few hands. Learning to play well is another matter, though, and the game is surprisingly challenging.