Loadstar 128 14/q14.d81/t.quiltin bee

Text File | 2022-08-28 | 6KB | 114 lines

                           Q U I L T I N '    B E E

                               by Fender Tucker


     Here at the LOADSTAR Tower we provide meeting space for all sorts of
community groups.  We feel it's the least we can do for this city that looks
up to us for guidance and protection.

     One of the most fun-loving groups is the Patch-As-Patch-Can Quilting
Society that meets every Thursday on the 83rd floor.  The five ladies and
one gentleman who belong to the Society get together for friendly gossip and
back-biting and in the course of an evening produce some of the most
colorful patchwork quilts you've ever seen.

     They've devised a dice game based on their quilting bees and thanks to
Knees Calhoon, who inspired me to write this program, you too can now play
along on your C-128.

     Here's how it works.  First, choose which of the six members will play.
By pressing the number of the player you can cycle her through the three
game "statuses" -- A-QUILTING, COMPUTER-CONTROLLED, or NOT SEWING.  The game
starts up with Scarlett Reddy playing for you and Azura Blue being played by
the computer.  Change it to whatever you want.  I sometimes enjoy setting
all six players to COMPUTER-CONTROLLED and letting the patches fall where
they may.

     Press RETURN when you have the statuses (stati?) set as you want and a
window will open up asking for the number of cigarette burns each player has
caused.  Oh, did I mention that they all smoke like fiends?  You can choose
any number between one and eight.  I prefer three or four but play the game
a few times and decide what you like best.

     Finally you'll go to the quilt screen.  It will be covered with
cigarette burns.  Each person's own burns will be of her color.  There will
also be a white arrow pointing to a random spot on the quilt.  On the right
are three dice which will automatically be rolled for each player.

     Let's say Scarlett Reddy is A-QUILTIN'.  The dice are rolled and she
has to choose TWO of them.  She does this by pressing any key to get the
highlight to move from die to die.  She makes her choice with the RETURN
key.  What she is choosing are the dimensions of the patch that will be
placed on the quilt AT THE ARROW.  The first die will be the horizontal size
of the patch -- the width.  Once a die is chosen for width it can't be used
for the vertical size -- or depth.

     The patch will be drawn on the quilt.  It must completely fit on the
quilt without extending over any edge.  It will touch the dot the arrow is
pointing to at one of its corners.  If the arrow is away from the edge of
the quilt, there will be four possible patches -- one for each corner of the
rectangle.  She presses any key to cycle through these four patches and
presses RETURN to make her final choice.  Then it's the next player's turn.
The arrow will move to the DIAGONAL corner of the patch from where it was.

     How does she decide which patch to choose?  The Society has devised a
somewhat complicated scoring system.  Of course, the player with the highest
score wins.  This is the system:

 (1) If no cigarette burn is covered, then the player's score is equal to
the AREA of the patch.  Width times height.

 (2) If the patch covers another player's burn, then a 'multiplier' is
incremented by one.  The 'multiplier' starts off with a value of one.  If a
player's own burn is covered then the 'multiplier' is increased by two.  The
'multipliers' add up if more than one burn is covered with a single patch.
Then the final 'multiplier' is multiplied by the product of 7 minus the
depth and 7 minus the height.  Mathematically speaking:

     Score without burn = W x H

     Score with burn(s) = M x (7-W) x (7-H)

where M = multiplier  W = width  H = height

     What it all boils down to is that if there is no burn covered, the
bigger the patch, the bigger the score.  If there's one or more burns
covered, then the smaller the patch, the bigger the score.

     Of course there are other considerations besides scores.  You have to
think about where you'll be leaving the arrow.  Should you take a lesser
score in order to keep the next player(s) from having the chance of scoring
big?  Should you head towards the middle of the quilt or is it time to
tighten the game up in a corner?

     This brings up the endgame.  A patch can't be placed over another patch
or the quilt border so there will be times when a player can't play with the
dice she's rolled (or chosen).  There's not enough room.  The computer will
announce that there's no play and it's on to the next player.  Once a player
can't play, each of the other players will have a chance to roll and play.
If every player can't play then the game is over and the winner is
announced.

     You can also end the game early by pressing the Q key.  When the game
is over there's a menu that allows you to:

 (1) play the game again with the same players and burns

 (2) play the game again with new players and burns

 (3) return to LOADSTAR 128 or BASIC.

     All of these directions are available in the game.  Press H at almost
any time and three help screens will pop up.

     No one (except the Patch-As-Patch-Canners) has played this game enough
to develop a strategy so you'll have to come up with one of your own.  I
hope you enjoy the challenge and the nifty patchwork quilts that a
cut-throat game produces.  My thanks to Jon Mattson and his CONTROL 80
module (from LS 128 #10).  Without it, this game would have been hard to do.

FT
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