Loadstar 128 23/q23.d81/t.auld lang syne

Text File | 2022-08-28 | 6KB | 124 lines

                       A U L D    L A N G    S Y N E

                              by Fender Tucker


     Before getting into the particulars for AULD LANG SYNE I'd like to say
that Jon Mattson's CONTROL80-C utility made writing this game pure fun.
Instead of designing cards and writing routines for shuffling and displaying
the cards (boring stuff, usually) I was able to jump right in and write the
code that makes the game work (the good stuff).  In fact, I had a working
version of the game after one night's work.  Adding all of the bells and
whistles (and mainly scoring) took up the rest of the week.


 THE GAME
 --------

     AULD LANG SYNE is a classic solitaire game with very simple rules.  The
four aces are taken out of a deck of cards and placed as the foundations.
The foundations are to be built up in sequence to king REGARDLESS OF SUIT.
In fact, you can disregard suits altogether in this game.  Then four cards
are dealt to the four tableau piles.  The top card of each pile can be
played to the foundation.  If you see no more plays then you deal four more
cards.  This goes on until all the cards are played or there are no more to
be dealt.  Get all four foundations built up to the kings and you win.

     The game, as described in the solitaire book I have, is over after once
through the deck.  Talk about hard!  My wife has played this game on her IBM
over 900 times and hasn't won yet.  That didn't sound like fun to me so I
made three versions of the rules for my game.  You can play it with:

 One deal - the "expert" way.  Call Guinness if you win.

 One redeal - much better.  Win about 10% of the time.

 Unlimited redeals - impossible to lose.


 SCORING
 -------

     AULD LANG SYNE keeps your scores and averages.  The first thing you do
upon going to the Main Menu is to enter your name.  All subsequent games
will be under your name until you go back to the Main Menu, when you can
change names (or players) if you want.  A scores file takes up one block so
you can have many different scores files on a disk.  If you want to start
over, but use the same name, just scratch the file from the disk.  Scores
files begin with a "als." prefix.

     You get a score based upon the number of cards you play to the
foundations.  Maximum score is 48 since the aces are played for you. Because
the Unlimited Redeals option is impossible to lose, it is scored
differently.  It keeps track of the number of redeals you require to
complete the game and that is your score.  So for the first two games you
want to get as high a score as possible, and for the Unlimited game you want
to get as low a score as possible.

     When asked for your name enter "knees" or "fender" and you'll see their
scores.  To play under your name, go back to the Main Menu and enter your
name.  A file will be created and will be updated after each game.  For this
reason you should leave the disk in the drive and the drive on at all
times.


 GAME PLAY
 ---------

     I originally designed the game to be played with the keyboard.  A
righthanded person will use the F-keys (or 1, 2, 3 and 4 on the keypad) to
select which of the four tableau piles will be played from and use his left
hand for pressing SPACE to deal four new cards.  A lefthanded person would
use the 1, 2, 3 and 4 keys for selecting tableau piles and deal with his
right.  Later I added a joystick interface (in Port #2) which uses arrows to
indicate which tableau pile to play from.  Push the joystick UP to play the
card pointed to, pull it DOWN to take back your last move, and press the
FIREBUTTON to deal four more cards.

     To use the keyboard, make all of your selections from the menu and the
game screen with the appropriate keys.  To use the joystick, simply use the
joystick at the Main Menu and the program will assume you want to use the
joystick mode.  You may use the keyboard when in the joystick mode but you
can't use the joystick when in the keyboard mode.  I didn't want the arrows
showing unless you're in the joystick mode.

     At my wife's insistence, I added an OOPS feature.  After you make a
play to the foundation, you can take that play back.  This way, if you have
a choice of cards to play, you can see what's under them and pick the best
one.  You cannot take back a deal; you can only take back a play to the
foundation.  The prompt "(O)OPS" only shows when it's available.

     Anytime you want to quit you can press M.  This takes you to the "Enter
Name" prompt, then the Main Menu.  Your score for the game you just left
will be not be added to your scores file.  To keep playing under your name,
press RETURN or FIRE.  To change names just delete the old name and enter a
new one.

     When a game is over, the score is saved and you get a little menu
asking if you want to play another of the same game, see the Scores screen,
or go to the Main Menu.  If you're using a joystick, push it left for
Scores, right for Menu and press the firebutton for another of the same
game.


 BOTTOM LINE
 -----------

     That's all there is to it.  I modified the built-in font in CONTROL80-C
because I wanted nifty outline boxes.  Later, I dropped the boxes but still
used the box characters for the title.  If you want to use a different font
with CONTROL80-C the font is saved as part of the ML at $1AE0 through $22E0.
Don't change any of the characters used for the cards if you're planning on
using the CARD command.

     I hope you don't get as hooked on playing AULD LANG SYNE as I have.
After all, there's a big old world out there to see.  But if you do, I hope
you enjoy your addiction as much as I have enjoyed pandering to it.

FT

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