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Hearts Copyright (c) 1993 by John Comeau - All Rights Reserved. Introduction Hearts is a classic card game - an all time favorite. It is a game of considerable skill, one that can hold the interest of serious card aficionados. However, luck plays a large part also, so the winner isn't always determined by card skill alone. This classic game can be enjoyed by players of all skill levels. Traditionally a four-player game, this version of hearts pits you against 3 computer opponents. Program features include: o Fast and easy play with mouse or keyboard. o On-line help - whenever you may need it o On-line playing advice - on request or automatically o Many user selectable rules & controls - tailor the game to YOUR preferences. o User selectable competition - choose the opponents YOU prefer. o On-Line odds & statistics - an invaluable aid to anyone seeking to become a better player. o All original music - Sounds great with AdLib or Sound Blaster compatible sound boards. o Digitized sound - with most popular sound boards or with your computer's internal speaker o Great color graphics - Taking full advantage of your computer's capabilities Limited Warranty & Support Hearts is copyrighted. Duplication of this software or any package contents, other than for personal convenience, without the express written consent from Villa Crespo Software is prohibited by law. See the accompanying registration card for warranty information. To receive free technical assistance you must have registered by sending the enclosed Registration Card. Telephone requests for assistance will not be honored unless you have registered. If you have trouble getting this software to run properly, please check this documentation first. If you can't find the solution to your problem, please contact us at the address/phone number below. Villa Crespo Software Technical Support Dept. 1725 McGovern Street Highland Park, IL 60035 (708) 433-0500 Equipment This IBM PC version of Hearts requires an IBM PC/XT/AT/PSx with a graphics adapter, 400k of free memory and DOS version 3.0 or later. Hearts can be run from hard drive or floppy disk, with a hard drive being highly recommended. A mouse is optional, as is a sound card. - 2 - Your display adapter Hearts will run with most popular graphics adapters, including Hercules, CGA, EGA, VGA and Super VGA. It supports both color and monochrome monitors. On start-up it examines your computer's graphics capabilities and automatically chooses the best graphics mode that your computer can support. However you can explicitly tell this program to use a lesser graphics mode. To do this add one of these command line options to the command you type to start this program: HERCULES, CGA, EGA, VGA. You also can explicitly tell this program to use either color or monochrome graphics by adding one of these options: COLOR, MONO. Note: Alas, the COLOR option can't make your monochrome monitor display in color! But in the unlikely case that the program incorrectly determines that your color monitor is monochrome you can overrule the program, and get color. For more information, see the section of this document titled "Command line arguments". There you'll find these and other options explained in greater detail User Interface - General This program's user interface allows for fast and easy play, with either keyboard or mouse. It works as follows: 1. You'll be using a small arrow-shaped 'cursor' to point to items or actions on the screen. 2. You can move the cursor using your mouse, or by pressing the left/right/up/down arrow keys on the right-hand side of your keyboard. 3. When the cursor moves onto an item or action that can be selected, the computer lights up a halo around the item. 4. Press the left mouse button, or press your keyboard's ENTER key, to 'select' the item with the halo. With this program you don't need to choose between 'keyboard mode' and 'mouse mode'. Both the mouse and the keyboard are always 'turned on', with the program ready to follow a command from either. Using your Mouse Full operation of this program is possible using your mouse alone. You needn't touch the keyboard except if you want to enter your name at the beginning of a new game. This program follows some very common, and simple, conventions for mouse use: - Movement of the mouse on the table, is duplicated on your computer screen by the movement of the cursor (a small white arrow). - The leftmost mouse button selects (or changes) the item the cursor is positioned over. - The rightmost mouse button causes you to exit from a screen. - 3 - That's all you need to know - Hearts doesn't use any of the more complicated mouse maneuvers, such as 'dragging' and 'double- clicking'. Note: To use your mouse appropriate mouse driver software must be installed on your computer. Most computer users who have a mouse have their AUTOEXEC.BAT or CONFIG.SYS file setup so that their mouse driver software installs automatically when they turn on their computer. If you routinely use your mouse with other software this is probably the case with your computer too. Otherwise, you'll find instructions for installing your mouse driver software in the documentation that came with your mouse. Using your keyboard When running this program certain keys on your keyboard have a consistent meaning no matter what screen you are in. These keys are: ESC Pressing the key marked ESC, called 'the escape key' usually means, 'get me out of this screen'. ENTER Pressing the ENTER key (usually an oblong dark colored key marked with a crooked arrow pointing left) means 'select' or change the item the cursor is positioned over. ARROWS When you press any of the keys marked by arrows (they're on the right hand side your keyboard) it means 'move the cursor in the direction of the arrow'. F1 You can press this key anytime for help. crtl-C When a game is in progress pressing ctrl-C will cause the program to clear your screen, save your game on disk, and exit immediately to DOS. For the sake of clarity, all operating instructions that follow have the mouse users' instructions in the main text. Instructions for the keyboard appear in brackets. For instance: "Press the left mouse button [Key: ENTER]." In this case, while a mouse user would press the left mouse button, a keyboard user would press the keyboard key labeled "ENTER". Command line Options When starting this program you can follow the program name with one or more optional command line arguments (options). There are about a dozen different recognized options. One of these causes the program to give you a short report summarizing your computer's capabilities. The other options give you control over such things as sound, graphics board, monitor type and colors. On most computers this program will correctly identify the graphics and monitor - and these options are not necessary. But if you find that you need to force a particular mode, the section below describes how to do this with a command line argument. MONO Monochrome monitor attached to display. You can use - 4 - this option to force a monochrome presentation even if you do have a color monitor. COLOR Color monitor attached to display. Unfortunately you can't use this option to get color from your monochrome monitor! But in the event that this program mistakenly thinks your color monitor is monochrome, you can use this option to 'wise it up'. HERCULES Commands the program to use Hercules graphics (720*348 2 color). HGC Same as HERCULES. CGA Commands the program to use CGA graphics (320*200, 4 color) even if your computer is capable of much better. With this mode's low resolution comes a possible redeeming benefit: speed. If you are running this program on a veteran 8088/8086/PC class machine and finding EGA or VGA graphics a bit too sluggish, consider choosing this option. You may find that gaining speed at the cost of resolution is a happy tradeoff. EGA Commands the program to use EGA graphics (640*350 16 color) even if your computer is capable of much better. VGA Commands the program to VGA graphics (640*480 16 color) even though your computer is capable of Super VGA. NOVESA Commands the program to ignore your VESA driver. It will instead try to identify the chip set on your Super VGA display adapter and, if successful, talk directly to the adapter. EGA64K Commands this program run as if your system had IBM's original 64k EGA graphics board without the piggyback add-in. With this option, your display will be limited to 4 colors. If your system has no EGA or VGA capabilities, this option is ignored. SILENT Commands the program to start up quietly, without making sound or music. SYSINFO Commands the program to size up your computer's capabilities and give you a brief report. The report includes such things as your computer's approximate speed, DOS version, sound capabilities and amount of free memory. HELP Display a brief summary of all legal command line options. If conflicting options appearing on a command line, for instance MONO and COLOR, the option closest to the end of the command line takes precedence. When you start this program it looks in the directory that contains your "HEARTS.EXE' file for a file named "HEARTS.CLI". You can create an ASCII file named "HEARTS.CLI" with any text editor. Any command line options that appear on the first line of your "HEARTS.CLI" file will be recognized by the program just as - 5 - if you typed them on the command line. Any option you type in on the command line will take precedence over a conflicting option in the "HEARTS.CLI" file. The Rules of Hearts This section describes the standard rules or hearts for four players - as faithfully re-created by this program. The game of Hearts is played with a standard deck of 52 cards. The dealer shuffles the deck, and deals out all the cards. Each player receives 13 cards. The players, after examining their hands, pick 3 of their cards and pass them to an opponent. After the pass, the player the dealer's left must lead a card to begin the hand. As play proceeds clockwise around the table, players must play a card of the same suit as that led. A player who has no cards of the suit that was led can play any card they wish. After all four players have played a card, the player who played the highest card of the suit led wins the trick. The winner of the trick also wins the privilege of leading next trick. This is repeated 12 times. At this point all cards will have been played, and the hand is over. It's time to tally up the score. In hearts certain cards are worth points against the player who captures them in a trick. The queen of spades is worth 13 points. All cards of the heart suit are worth one point each regardless of rank. Remember, you want to avoid taking these cards in a trick, because points count against you. The game ends when, at the end of a hand, one or more players has 100 or more points. The player with the lowest score is the winner of the game. During play of a hand, a player whose turn it is to lead a card may lead any card they wish. The only exception to this is that a heart may not be led unless a point card has been played on some previous trick. A player who holds nothing but point cards is exempt from this rule. At the beginning of the first hand all players pass 3 cards to the opponent on their left. On the second hand all pass 3 cards to the opponent on the right. On the third all pass 3 cards to the opponent across the table. On the fourth hand there is no pass. On the fifth hand, the cycle begins again with a pass to the left. Optional rules This section describes optional variations to the standard rules of hearts. Each of these options has a control on the Rules screen. You can use this control to turn the option on and off. A common variation of the rules of hearts, concerns what happens if it's your turn to play and you cannot follow in the suit that was led. In some circles you are required to play the queen of spades if you have it. If you want this rule to be in effect for your game, go into the Rules screen and select it using the control labeled "Must Play QS". - 6 - Another common variation concerns who leads on the very first trick. The standard rules call for the player to the left of the dealer to lead a card. But in some circles the player holding the 2 of clubs must lead it. If you want to require that the 2 of clubs be the first card led on the first trick, go into the Rules screen and select this option using the control labeled "2C must lead". A standard game of hearts ends when, at the end of hand, one or more players has 100(or more) points. However this program lets you choose games of different lengths: 50, 100, 200, 500 points, plus games with no limited. If you want a limit other than 100, go into the Rules screen and choose your limit using the control labeled "End of game". The Main Playing screen After you've selected a new or restarted game, and had a chance to set up options & opponents, you go into the Main Playing screen. All the real action happens here. Pictured on the top portion of the screen is the playing table, with players positioned around it. In the bottom portion of this screen is your play menu. Here you see a display of the cards in your hand, plus various icons and status information. The most important piece of status information here is the large-sized 'prompt' text at the top of this area. Here you'll see messages such as "Your turn to Lead", or "Pass 3 cards now", messages that let you know what's going on. There's also a smaller prompt message at the bottom left hand side of the play menu. The message here changes as the cursor moves from item to item - it tells you what happens if you select the item. If you place the cursor on a card it might say, "click now to play the KH". If you place the cursor on the 'ODDS' icon, this message would change to "Click now for odds information". Finally two boxes on the far right hand side of the play menu show whose deal it is, and how many hands you've played. Passing cards When it's time for players to pass 3 cards, the play menu will activate with a large prompt message reading: "Select 3 cards to pass". Pictured beneath this message are the cards that were dealt to you. To select a card for passing, move the cursor onto it, then press the left mouse button[Key: ENTER]. The card will darken, to show that it is selected. You can deselect the card in the same way if you change your mind. The pass is completed when you've selected 3 cards. On completion of the pass, a window appears that shows you the 3 cards you passed and the 3 cards that you received. Your resulting hand is displayed in the menu area at the bottom of this screen. To begin play of the hand, select the "Continue" icon. Anytime during this passing process you can select one of the options represented by the icons on the right side of the play menu. These icons are: DOCS View on-line document HELP Get help on operating this screen TUTOR Get advice on what cards to pass. ODDS Go to the Odds screens, where you can view odds and statistics for the hand in progress RULES Go to the Rules screen, where you'll be able to view - 7 - and change house rules and program controls QUIT Stop this game. The program will ask if you want to save to resume later. Playing a card When it's your turn to play a card, the play menu will activate with a large prompt message reading "Your play. Select a card". Pictured beneath this message are the cards that you hold in your hand. To play a card move the cursor onto it, then press the left mouse button [Key: ENTER]. You may notice that one or more of your cards are darkened. Darkened cards are cards it would be against the rules to play. The program won't let you play cards that are darkened. Before you play a card you may want to select one of the options represented by the icons on the right side of the play menu. These icons are: DOCS View on-line document HELP Get help on operating this screen TUTOR Get advice on what card to play. ODDS Go to the Odds screens, where you can view odds and statistics for the hand in progress RULES Go to the Rules screen, where you'll be able to view and change house rules and program controls QUIT Stop this game. The program will ask if you want to save to resume later. End of Hand At the end of each hand, the program displays scoring information. The arithmetic next to each player's portrait shows: the player's points on this hand being added to their points before this hand, giving their grand total. To begin the next hand, select the "Continue" icon. The Title screen The Title screen is simple to operate - no controls to select or parameters to change here. The only thing to do is to look at the program title, copyright notice, scrolling credits, for as long (or short) a time as you wish. Then exit the Title screen by pressing either mouse button, or any key on your keyboard. The Players Screen On this screen you select the opponents you want to play against in the game you are about to begin. You'll need to select exactly three. The top half of the screen contains portraits of the six computer opponents you have to select from: Jeffrey, Lindsay, Michael, Ellen, David & Julia. When you enter this screen you'll see three of these players already selected - selection being indicated by a check mark that appears on the player's portrait. You can accept the selection of these players by exiting this screen. Or you may want to change the selections. To do this move the cursor onto a player you want to select. A halo will appear around that player's portrait and a short biography of that player will appear in the text window on the bottom of the screen. Press the left mouse button [Key: ENTER] to - 8 - select the player. A check mark will appear on the portrait to indicate the selection. To UN-select an opponent, use the same procedure - move the cursor onto the portrait, press left mouse button (or ENTER key), watch the check mark disappear. When you've selected the three opponents you want, exit the Players screen by selecting the "DONE" icon [Key: ESC]. Exactly 3 opponents must be selected for you to exit this screen. If you try to exit with either more or less than three opponents selected the program will display a warning message and keep you in the screen. While in this screen you may select any of the icons displayed across the middle of the screen: DOCS View on-line document HELP Get help on operating this screen SAVE Make the player selections shown the new 'default' selections LOAD Set player selection to previously saved 'default' DONE Exit this screen - return to the Options Screen The Rules screen The Rules screen contains controls that let you select 'House Rules' and program modes. To get a detailed explanation of any control on this screen, move the highlight onto that control using the arrow keys or the mouse. A halo will light up around the control and its explanation will appear in the window at the bottom of the screen. To change the control, press the left mouse button[Key: ENTER]. You'll see the change reflected in the control itself, and perhaps even in the explanation window. This program allows you to change any control at any time. You can do this even in the middle of a hand, when changing a rule could have great effect on the hand in progress. While real live human opponents might strongly object to rule changes in the middle of a hand, this program is good-natured in this respect. While in this screen you may select any of the icons displayed across the middle of the screen: DOCS View on-line document HELP Get help on operating this screen SAVE Make the selections shown the new 'default' selections LOAD Set selection to previously saved 'default' DONE Exit this screen - return to previous screen You can exit from the Rules screen at any time by pressing the ESC key. The sections that follow explain various controls from this screen. Sound Board With this control you tell the program what hardware device you want music and sound to be played on. Possible selections include: AdLib, Sound Blaster, Sound Master, Speech Thing, Voice Master, & PC Speaker. - 9 - When you select Music Digitized Audio this option plays on plays on --------------- ------------ --------------- AdLib AdLib PC Speaker Sound Blaster Sound Blaster Sound Blaster Sound Master Sound Master Sound Master Speech Thing PC Speaker Speech Thing Voice Master PC Speaker Voice Master PC Speaker PC Speaker PC Speaker If your system has an AdLib or Sound Blaster compatible board you probably won't need to use this control. This program detects the presence of these boards quite well. Music With this control you tell the program if you want it to play music. There are four possible selections: Full - Play both theme music and background music Theme - Play theme music during title screen only Background - Play background music only after title screen None - Don't play music Sounds With this control you tell the program if you want it to play digitized voices and sound effects. There are four possible selections: Full - Play both Digitized voices and sound effects Effects - Play only sound effects Voice - Play digitized voices only None - Don't play voices or sound effects Your Portrait With this control you tell the program which portrait you want to represent you on the main playing screen. You may select either a male or female silhouette. Play Speed With this control you tell the program how fast the computer players are to play their cards. Possible values for this control are numbers from 1 through 10. The higher the number you select the faster the computer players will play. At first, you'll probably want to set the value in the middle of selections, say from 4 through 7. Then, as you become more familiar with this program, you may want to increase this value several notches. Note: The setting of this control does not affect the quality of the computer player's decisions. On older computers such as the original 4.77 Mhz PC the computer players may take half a second or more to decide what card to play regardless of a high speed setting of 7 or higher. Auto Advice With this control you tell the program if you want to display playing advice on screen whenever it's your turn to make a play. There are two possible selections for this control: 'Yes' and 'No'. If you select 'Yes' the program will display its recommended play in a box on the main play screen labeled "Advice" whenever it's your turn to make a play. If you select - 10 - 'No' the "Advice" box will not automatically appear - though you'll still be able get advice, when you need it, by selecting the "Advice" icon. Between Tricks With this control you tell the program how long of a delay you want from the end of one trick to the start of the next. Possible selections range from 1 through 5 seconds, with an additional selection entitled "prompt". If you select a value from 1 to 5 seconds that will be the length of time you have to study the cards played on a trick. When the selected time limit expires, a new trick automatically begins. You might prefer the "Prompt" option instead of a fixed time limit. If you choose "Prompt", the computer will display an icon labeled "Continue" after each trick, and will not begin the next trick until you've selected it. In this way you can have total control over the flow of the game, and ensure proper time to see and study each play. Back design With this control you tell the program which design to use for the backs of the cards you see being dealt before each hand. There are two possible selections here: 'Standard' & 'Alternate'. As you might guess the 'Standard' design looks like a typical generic deck of playing cards. The 'alternate' design, which incorporates the Villa Crespo Logo, is in the style of a 'bridge' deck. 2C must lead With this control you tell the program if you want a house rule requiring that the player holding the 2 of clubs lead it as the first card in the first trick of each new hand. There are only two possible selections here: 'Yes' and 'No'. Select 'Yes' and the player holding the 2 of clubs will be the first leader in the hand - he must lead it as the first card. Select 'No' and the player to the dealer's left gets the privilege of leading the first card of the hand. In this case the card to be lead is at the player's option. The only restriction here is that it must not be a heart. Must Play QS With this control you tell the program if you want a house rule requiring that a player who cannot follow the suit led play the queen of spades. There are only two possible selections: 'Yes' and 'No'. Select 'Yes' and the player holding the queen of spades must play that queen if he cannot follow another players lead with the suit that was led. Select 'No' and decisions about which card to play when a player cannot follow suit, are at the player's sole discretion. End Game With this control you tell the program at what point total the game is to end and a winner is to be declared. There are five possible selections for this control '50', '100', '200', '500', and 'no limit'. If one of the point totals is selected the game ends when a hand ends and one or more players equals or exceeds the selected point total. If 'no limit' is selected, the game will continue regardless of point total. - 11 - The Odds screens When you select the "Odds" icon the program sends you to a series of Odds screens. These screens contain information that might help you make your playing decisions. You can go from screen to screen by selecting the "Next" and "Prev" icons in the bottom left corner of these screens. To exit these screens select the "DONE" icon, or press the right mouse button or keyboard ESC key. Several of the odds screens contain computer estimates. These estimates are based solely on information that you are rightfully entitled to know, and NOT on the contents of your opponent's hands. These estimates are often very good. But, as they are based on incomplete information, they are subject to being wrong once in a while. The First Odds Screen - No estimates here! Only 100% true and accurate information on what cards have been played and passed. The top half this screen recaps all cards played in this hand, by whom and in what order. There are 13 columns in this display, one for each trick. When read from top to bottom, each column shows the order in which the cards were played. On the bottom half of the screen, there is a box showing which cards have been played without respect to who played them or when. This display is arranged by suit and rank, so that it's easy to determine, for instance, "how many spades remain unplayed, and which ones are they". Finally, the box on the bottom right portion of the screen shows you which cards you passed and which cards you received at the beginning of the hand. Second Odds screen - This screen contains computer estimates. The graphs on the top half of the screen depict the computer's estimate of the chance that each of your opponents is void(has no cards) in each of the four suits. The graphs on the bottom half of the screen show its estimate of the chance that each opponent has the queen of spades in his/her hand. All Graphs on this screen depict chance as a percentage from 0%(impossible) to 100%(a sure thing). Third Odds screen - Another screen containing computer estimates. The graph on the top half of the screen shows the computer's estimate of the danger of your holding in each suit. This danger is expressed as a value from 0(safe) to 100(big trouble). The lower graph shows the computer's estimate of the chance that you could shoot the moon this hand. This chance is depicted as a percentage from 0%(impossible) to 100%(a sure thing). The Ad Screen This screen most likely contains an advertisement for some other software that you might enjoy. Its content may vary, depending on what version of this program you have. To find out for sure what's on this screen in your version, you'll have to look at it! To exit this screen, press any keyboard key or mouse button. The Options screen After choosing of a new game, the program sends you to the options screen. Here you have a chance to review on-line documentation and change the 'house rules' and program controls, - 12 - before the game begins. The icons displayed across the center of the screen represent various options available now. Select an option by clicking on its icon. When you are ready to begin, click on 'PLAY" icon to the far right [Key: ESC]. Icons displayed on this screen include: DOCS View on-line document HELP Get help on operating this screen THEM Select your opponents for this game RULES View and change house rules and program controls PLAY Begin the game On line Docs When you select the 'DOCS' icon, you go to the On-line help Index. This index lists all major sections of the on-line document. To view the text for a subject, move the cursor onto the small square button to the left of the desired subject name. Then 'select' it by pressing the left mouse button [Key: ENTER]. The index will disappear. It is replaced by a large window containing the document text for the subject then you selected. A label on bottom right of this large window tells you what portion of the document you're looking at: subject & page number. At the bottom of the screen is the small choice menu you'll use to control the text. On this menu you can choose to view the next page by selecting "NEXT" [Key: PgDn] or the previous page by selecting "PREV" [Key: PgUp]. You can, at any time, go back to the index by selecting "DOCS" [Key: F10], or exit On-line Docs entirely by selecting "DONE" [Key: ESC]. Running from Floppy For optimum performance we recommend that you run this program from a hard hard disk. However this program can be run from floppy disk, even on a computer with only one disk drive. If the capacity of your diskette if 720k or greater, create a diskette with these four files: HEARTS.EXE, HEARTS.DAT, HEARTS.DOC & HEARTS.IDX. To run the program from drive A, insert the diskette, then at the DOS prompt type "A:HEARTS". The procedure is the same for drive B, except you type "B:HEARTS". Leave the diskette in the drive for the entire time you are running hearts. The program may need access to its data from time to time. If your diskette is a 360k capacity, the procedure is slightly more complicated. This is because a single diskette won't hold all the needed files. So you'll need to create 2 diskettes. The first diskette should contain only one file: 'HEARTS.EXE'. We'll call this first diskette your 'program' diskette. The second diskette that you'll need should contain these three files: 'HEARTS.DAT', 'HEARTS.DOC' & 'HEARTS.IDX'. We'll call this second diskette your 'data' diskette. To run the program from drive A, insert the 'program' diskette, then at the DOS prompt type "A:HEARTS". The procedure is the same for drive B, except you type "B:HEARTS". When the program begins running it will tell you to remove the 'program' diskette, and replace it with the 'data' diskette. Do this, then press the ENTER key. Leave the 'data' diskette in the drive for the entire time you are running hearts. The program may need access to its data from time to time. - 13 - Error Messages This section lists examples of various error messages that this program may display. Each example is followed by a brief explanation of the message. The characters 'xxxx', where they appear in the example messages below, would be replaced by an actual relevant parameter in the actual error message. Couldn't find VGA, EGA, CGA or Hercules graphics adapter. In order to run this program requires a VGA, EGA, CGA or Hercules display adapter. But the program could not find such a board in your computer. If you get this message, it's probably because your computer has an original IBM MDA board - a board that displays text only. There is no cure for this message - short of upgrading the graphics board in your computer. Not enough memory for this program to run - Sorry. The program cannot find enough conventional memory in your computer to allow it to run. It requires a total of about 400k of free conventional memory. One way to find out how much free conventional memory you have is to run the CHKDSK program that is part of DOS. The last line of its report lists the number of (memory) bytes free. If the number shown is a lot lower than 400000, it may be time to upgrade your computer. Otherwise, check your DOS manual for tips on how to increase the amount of conventional memory available. There you may find a way to get the extra few thousand bytes you need. ???Illegal option: 'xxxx' in HEARTS.CLI file. The program found a file called 'HEARTS.CLI', but it contained an option that it could not recognize. Along with this message the program will display a list the options it does recognize. You'll need to modify your HEARTS.CLI file so that it contains legal recognized options only. ?'xxxx' file corrupt The program read data from a file, but the data was not in the format the program was expecting. Most likely cause: the data file was created by different version or revision of this program. ?Error writing 'xxxx' file The program tried to write data to the disk, but was not successful. The most likely reasons for this error is that you are using a write protected diskette. It also could be that your diskette or hard drive is full. Cannot find 'xxxx' data in 'HEARTS.DAT' The program needed to read a particular piece of data, could not find it in the HEARTS.DAT file. Most likely cause: The HEARTS.DAT file is not the one that belongs to the version of hearts you are running. It's from an earlier or later version. On-line documentation is DISABLED You are running from hard disk and the program could not find the 2 files it needs 'HEARTS.DOC' & HEARTS.IDX' for on-line documentation. The program will continue to run, but with its on-line document feature disabled. To fix this, exit the program and find the two files it needs. Copy them into the same drive/directory as the 'HEARTS.EXE' file. - 14 - Troubleshoooting Q & A Q. How do I start up the program quietly, so that I won't get sound & music? A. Include the argument: "quiet" on the command line when you start up this program. For example "HEART QUIET" instead of just "HEARTS". If you want to turn sound on later, you can do this in the controls menu. Q. I have a sound board in my computer. Why don't I hear sound when I run the program? A. Enter the control screen and make sure that the "Sound Board" control if set appropriately for your sound board. Also make sure to set the "Music" and "Sound" controls to give you the sounds you want. Q. When I run from hard disk the music sounds fine. Why, when I run from floppy disk, does the music occasionally stop, only to start up again in a few seconds? A. This is normal. The program needs to turn off the music before accessing floppy disk. Q. My sound volume is too low(or loud). How do I adjust it? A. There are no volume adjustment functions built into this program - it outputs sound at a constant volume. To adjust the volume you'll need to use the volume control on your sound board and/or external amplifier. If there is no volume control, or if adjusting doesn't fully solve the problem, check the documentation that came with your sound board. Most AdLib & Sound Blaster compatible sound boards come with utility programs that allow you to make volume adjustments. If you're using your PC's speaker for sound there is nothing to be done. Q. The program seems to be working, but the digitized voices are very low and slooooww on my 8088/8086 based PC. What can I do? A. Aside from upgrading to a faster computer, there's no cure for this. A classic 4.77 Mhz PC just doesn't have the 'horsepower' to meet the demands placed on it by the digitized sounds in this program. Q. When I start up the program I don't see the title screen. Instead I see thin stripes running up and down the screen. A. It may be that your memory manager software is extending conventional DOS memory into the graphics memory area. To try to confirm this, check if: - The characters "A000" appear somewhere in your "CONFIG.SYS" file - The "CHKDSK" program reports more than 640,000 free memory. If either or both of these are the case, it's all but confirmed. To fix this you'll have to refer to your memory manager's documentation. Q. My computer has Super VGA capabilities(VGA w/512k), but the program doesn't work unless I specify a lesser video mode with a command line option. A. Install the VESA driver(software) that came with your video board. This will allow the program to recognize and use your computer's Super VGA capabilities even if it's totally unfamiliar with your graphic board's chip set. The possibility of video adapter incompatibility will be - 15 - virtually eliminated. Q. I have a CGA graphics adapter with color monitor. Why is it that sometimes when I run this program I only get monochrome graphics? A. Most likely the software you ran before running Hearts left your video board in one of it's monochrome modes. With a CGA graphics adapter, this program assumes that your monitor matches the video mode you are in when you first enter the program. To insure that you get a color display on your color monitor, include the argument "COLOR" on the command line you use to start this program. As an alternative you can enter the DOS command "MODE CO80" before running this program. Q. I don't have a mouse, but I do have a joystick. Can I use the joystick? A. No. This program does not support joystick. Q. Why is this program ignoring my mouse? A. Make sure that the mouse is connected properly to the back of your computer. It's not uncommon for a few light tugs on the mouse cord to cause it to come partially unplugged. If your mouse still doesn't work type "HEARTS SYSINFO" at the DOS prompt. If the report says that no mouse driver was detected, you'll need to refer to the documentation that came with your mouse. There you'll find instructions on installing your mouse driver software. Q. When I try to run this program it tells me "Not enough memory". What can I do? A. You need to increase the amount of conventional memory available to the program. Some things that you can try are: - Run this program directly from the command line rather than from a batch job or menu shell. - Remove TSR programs (see DOS manual) - Reduce the number of FILES & BUFFERS (see DOS manual) - If you have DOS 5.0 or higher, load DOS into high memory (see DOS manual) Q. The program is running, but very slowly on my 8088/8086 based PC. What can I do? A. Turning off sound and music can help. Also, if you are using EGA or VGA graphics, try running the program with CGA graphics. Lower resolution brings with it faster drawing speeds - you might find it to be a good tradeoff. To do this include the argument "CGA" on the command line you use to start this program. For instance type: "HEARTS CGA" instead of just "HEARTS". Q. Would the computer give me bad advice in order to help itself to win the game? A. No! The computer advises always advises the play that it would make if it had your cards. Keep in mind that the computer is not perfect, so it may give you bad advice every once in a while. But the advice always reflects the computer's honest opinion of the play that would be in your best interests. Q. How often, and under what conditions do the computer players 'cheat' by peeking at my hand or the hands of the other computer players? A. None of the computer players cheat under any conditions. The game is on the 'fair and square' at all times. - 16 - Contents Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Limited Warranty & Support . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Your display adapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 User Interface - General . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Using your Mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Using your keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Command line Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 The Rules of Hearts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Optional rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 The Main Playing screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Passing cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Playing a card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 End of Hand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 The Title screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 The Players Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 The Rules screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Sound Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Sounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Your Portrait . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Play Speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Auto Advice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Between Tricks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Back design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 2C must lead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Must Play QS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 End Game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 The Odds screens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 The Ad Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 The Options screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 On line Docs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Running from Floppy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Error Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Troubleshoooting Q & A . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 i ii