CD Direkt: Spezial 1/CDD_SPIELE_.ISO/wingames/rummy500/readme.txt

Text File | 1995-02-06 | 10KB | 211 lines

RUMMY 500 (Version 3.81) - README.TXT
=====================================

** See "Having Problems?" below if the cards don't display correctly. **
** Also review the "Frequently Asked Questions" in RUMMY500.FAQ.      **
** RUMMY 500 may not be able to display cards at resolutions at       **
** resolutions of more than 256 colors on your system.                **

Rummy 500 is an exciting member of the Rummy family of card games.  Its
main differentiating feature is that you can pick up any number of discards
if you can lay down some of them immediately.  Rummy 500 is believed to be
the first shareware Rummy game available for Microsoft Windows.

You play against the computer, which can be set to use a number of different
skill levels.  At expert and champion level, the computer is hard to beat and
provides a very challenging game.

Customizable features include:
    Colors
        Sound effects
    Card backs
    Screen resolution (600x480 or 800x600)
    AutoMouse (moves mouse pointer automatically between deck and hand)
    Opponent skill level
        Rule variations

The only installation requirements are that RUMMY500.EXE, RUMMY500.BMP, and
RUMMY500.HLP reside in the same directory, and that VBRUN300.DLL,
CMDIALOG.VBX, and VBCTL3D.VBX are present in your path (typically in the
windows\system directory).  CMDIALOG.VBX and VBCTL3D.VBX are included with
this distribution.  VBRUN300.DLL should be downloaded separately if you don't
already have it on your system.

To use the sound effects, you must either have a sound card installed in your
system, or have the speak.exe driver installed to use your system's regular
speaker.  Speak.exe is a freely distributed product from Microsoft, and is
available on most online services and bulletin board systems.  Rummy 500 is
not distributed with any sound files, but you probably have some already on
you system, and they are freely available from online services and bulletin
boards.

Rummy 500 is shareware, and is fully functional.  You may evaluate this
program for a period of 21 days after which you must register it or remove it
from your system.  To not comply with this condition is a violation of United
States and international copyright law.

You register your copy of Rummy 500 by sending $12 (check or money order,
U.S. funds only) to:

    Carol Bufton
    58 Prendiville Way
    Marlborough
    MA 01752
    USA

You will receive your registration code by mail.  The registration code is
encoded from your name, so be sure to provide your name exactly as you wish
to be registered.  Please allow 28 days for your registration to arrive,
although every effort will be made to mail your registration within 5 days.
Your registration code licenses you to use the version of Rummy 500 that you
are currently evaluating, irrespective of which is the latest version
currently available on America Online, CompuServe, or registered diskette.
Your registration may also be valid with future versions as they become
available.

****************************************************************************
IMPORTANT NOTE: MeggieSoft Games does not process any registrations between
December 15th and January 15th.  Any registrations received during this
period will be processed after January 15th.  The registration reminder
will not be displayed between December 20th and January 15th.
****************************************************************************

If you require a diskette (3╜" only), add $3 making the total cost $15.  The
diskette version may contain a later version of Rummy 500 if improvements
have been made since the release of your evaluation copy.  Because we cannot
track which versions are currently available at what locations, it is very
possible that Rummy 500 will have been updated since your evaluation copy
unless you downloaded a recent version from CompuServe or America Online.

You may not share your registration code with others.  Your registration
permits you and other users to use Rummy 500 on any single-user computer
system. You may also use Rummy 500 on any other computer system of which you
are the primary user, such as a laptop.

You may distribute Rummy 500 to others provided that you derive no revenue
other than the cost of distribution, and provided that you distribute the
following, and only the following, files intact:

    RUMMY500.EXE - The program
        RUMMY500.BMP - The card images
        RUMMY500.HLP - The help file
    VBRUN300.DLL - The Visual Basic Runtime
        CMDIALOG.VBX - The Visual Basic Common Dialog extension
        VBCTL3D.VBX  - The Visual Basic 3D Effects extension
        README.TXT   - This file

To use Rummy 500 you need Microsoft Windows 3.1 and a mouse (with at least
two buttons).  An Intel 386 class system with 4 megabytes of RAM is
recommended as a minimum.  Rummy 500 has not been evaluated on less capable
systems, but should present no problems other than responsiveness and speed.

You may encounter graphics problems if you have your configuration set to
display more than 256 colors.  see "Experiencing Problems?", below.

You are recommended to take advantage of the comprehensive help file
information in order to learn how to play Rummy 500.  Perhaps the best
first step to learning Rummy 500 is to use the "Player | AutoPlay"
option and watch the computer play against itself.  Enjoy!


Upgrading From Version 2.x
--------------------------

If you are not installing Rummy 500 Version 3.81 from diskette and you
already have Version 2.3 or earlier installed on your computer, you should
delete the file RUMMY500.INI from your windows directory before using
version 3.81 for the  first time.  This is because versions 3.0 and later
use a new format and will ignore the previous content anyway.  If you do
not delete RUMMY500.INI, no ill effects will occur, but RUMMY500.INI will
contain redundant and unused data.

Registered users installing from diskette using the automatic install
procedure can ignore this note.  The installation procedure will
automatically replace RUMMY500.INI for you.


Having Problems?
----------------

The only known problem outside of Rummy 500's control is when Rummy 500 is
initiated on a system with insufficient memory or other graphics resources
available.  This problem usually manifests itself by Rummy 500 "locking up"
when loading, or by all cards being displayed as blank images.  The reason is
usually one of the following:

1. Insufficient low memory.  Try loading high some of the DOS start-up
   utilities in AUTOEXEC.BAT and/or CONFIG.SYS.  If you have DOS 6.0 or
   later, you might try the memmaker utility.
2. Too many other programs running.  Exit Rummy 500, terminate some of the
   other programs, re-execute Rummy 500.
3. Insufficient resources to handle graphics colors.  If you have your
   graphics driver set to handle more than 256 colors, try resetting to
   256 colors before executing Rummy 500 again.
4. Deficiency of the graphics driver handling Windows BitBlt functions.

All other reported problems have been related to logic errors in the Rummy
500 program itself.  These are always fixed in the next release.  If you find
such a problem, please report it to us at the above address.


Revision History
----------------

Version 1.x  - Development versions.

Version 2.0  - First Shareware release.  Fully functional.

Version 2.1  - Scoreboards.
        2.11 - Minor improvements.

Version 2.2  - Player can freely select the last discard.

Version 2.3  - Startup window.

Version 3.0  - 3D-style user interface.
             - Multiple player scoreboards .
             - AutoResume.
             - Sound effects.
        3.01 - Maintenance release
        3.02 - Maintenance release

Version 3.5  - Conforms to "Hoyle's Rules Of Games".
             - Suggest.
             - Undo.
             - Hall Of Fame.
             - League Table.
             - Displays of total games won.
             - Swap Cards.
             - AutoPlayer.
             - Quick Display.
             - Animat