Best of Mega Games for DOS/MEGA.iso/pinocle/pinread.doc

Text File | 1993-02-17 | 6KB | 98 lines

PINOCLE GAMES INSTRUCTIONS

The game of Pinocle is thought by most to be a descendant of an old
German game that has unclear ties to the Swiss and French.  Indeed,
the 'h' in the alternative spelling of Pinochle seems to be one of those
German things!  Pinocle's popularity comes from an appealing combination
of the thrill of gambling and the demand for skilled play.

Thank you for your interest in PINOCLE GAMES!  The menu offers three
different games: BASIC - the classic game in which you play with the cards
that are dealt to you, KITTY - a variation in which the highest bidder
incorporates the four cards in a kitty into his hand (and then discards
four into his pile), and PASS - a variation in which, after the highest
bidder calls a trump suit, his partner passes him four cards, and then,
the high bidder sends four cards back to his partner.  All games are four-
handed, single deck, partnership pinocle.  You play your hand only.  The
computer plays your partner's and the two opponents' hands.  The computer
does NOT cheat!  It does not 'look' into other hands.

GENERAL RULES OF PLAY:  A pinocle deck consists of two each of the ace
through 9 in each of the four familiar suits - clubs, hearts, spades,
and diamonds.  Initially, the suits have equal rank.  After a trump
suit is called (by the highest bidder) the trump suit outranks the other
three suits which remain of equal, although now lesser, rank.  The cards
are of course shuffled and dealt for each hand by successive players
moving clockwise around the table.  Each hand consists of eleven (in
the KITTY variation) or twelve cards.

Points are earned in two ways.  First, certain combinations of cards
(meld) in each hand have value.

      meld              description                      points

    RUN               A 10 K Q J  in the same suit         150
    ACES AROUND       one A in each suit                   100
    KINGS AROUND      one K in each suit                    80
    QUEENS AROUND     one Q in each suit                    60
    JACKS AROUND      one J in each suit                    40
    PINOCLE           Q of spades & J of diamonds           40
    MARRIAGE          K & Q in same suit    in trump        40
                                           not trump        20
    NINE of trump                                           10

The RUN meld is valid only if that suit is made trump by the high bidder.
PINOCLE GAMES also allows for double melds.  You can see and/or change
their value by selecting SETUP from the PINOCLE GAMES menu.  Meld is
valid only if the partnership earns a point during the card play.

Each player, after examining his new hand for meld and suit strength
(trump suit potential), must decide how high he should bid.  In PINOCLE
GAMES, you must enter a multiple of ten as your bid.  If you are the first
player to bid (that is, you 'open' the bidding), the bid must be at least
as high as the open bid level set in SETUP and shown in the scoring
section of the screen.  If you do not open, a first bid (other than a
zero to pass) must be higher than the previous bid by at least ten points.
After the first round, you decide each time the turn to bid comes to you
whether to continue to bid or pass.  The players bid until only one bidder
remains.  If the 'bid meld?' flag for the game is turned on in SETUP, the
players' first bids will jump in the amount equal to 1/2 their meld (if
they have 40 or more meld).  The players' partners, including your
partner, then adjust the level to which they will bid.  The bid winner
declares the trump suit.  Each player must guess how much meld their
partnership will generate and how strong their hands will be in the card
play in order to calculate how high they can bid.

The second way of getting points is from winning cards during the card
play.  Again use SETUP to see and/or change the card values.  The play
begins with the bid winner leading a card.  The other players, one at a
time, clockwise from the leader, then each play a card.  They must follow
suit if they can.  They must also 'climb' - that is, play a card of
higher rank if they can.  The cards are ranked from highest to lowest as
follows: A, 10, K, Q, J, 9.  The trump suit outranks the other three
suits.  If the players have no cards of the suit led, then the players
must play a trump card if they have one, and they must climb in trump if
necessary.  The player with the highest ranking card wins those cards
and their value for his partnership and leads a card...  The process
repeats until the cards are exhausted.

The total points from meld plus card values must equal or exceed the bid
made by the bid winner in order for that total to be awarded.  If the
total of meld plus values does not equal or exceed the bid, then the bid
is subtracted from the score.  The game ends when a partnership reaches
gamepoint or has the higher score above gamepoint.  SETUP allows an
interesting option to ending the game.  Under GAME VARIABLES in SETUP
you can activate the option that ends the game only when a partnership
reaches or exceeds gamepoint AND wins a bid!

PINOCLE GAMES continuously provides you with instructions at the bottom
of the screen.  It also assists you by recommending a card for you to
play, and, similarly, it will not permit you to make an illegal choice.

Notice that most of PINOCLE GAMES' play can be conducted using just the
arrow keys!  The only time your hand needs to move away from the arrow
keys is when you make your first bid or make a menu selection.  Also
notice that SETUP on the main menu allows you to change the colors.

To print this document, enter this DOS command:  copy pinread.doc prn