*** Four-Handed Euchre *** Version 3.5 Copyright 1993 David Feltz SHAREWARE TERMS OF FOUR-HANDED EUCHRE Four-Handed Euchre consists of two files, EUC35.EXE, and EUCHRE.DOC, which are being distributed as Share ware. The two files may be copied and distributed freely, so long as no money is charged. Organizations in the business of distributing Shareware programs may charge a small fee to cover distribution costs. If you like the program and intend to keep using it, please send $10.00 in U.S. funds only to : David Feltz 5385 S. Mt. Zion Rd. Connersville, IN 47331 Suggestions and comments may be sent to the above address. Your support, provided through suggestions, comments, and PAY- MENT,will help to ensure the future availability of user support- ed software (SHAREWARE). Please feel free to give unmodified copies of Four-Handed Euchre, (the EUC35.EXE file and EUCHRE.DOC) to friends, relatives, and co-workers. They to may enjoy the opportunity to try it out! RUNNING THE PROGRAM Four-Handed Euchre has been tested and seems to perform well in as little as 100K bytes of RAM. It requires NO graphics card. All screen objects are created using ASCII characters. Four- Handed Euchre can be played with the keyboard or mouse. The software detects the mouse automatically. Four-Handed Euchre is ran by entering EUC35 at the DOS prompt. There are various command line switches available to enable the user to customize the program. The available switches are: /NOSOUND (turns sound effects off) /NOSORT (turns card sorting off) /NOSKIP (causes all 5 tricks to be played, even when not necessary) These switches can be use in any order or combination so long as there is a space between each. For example: EUC35 /NOSOUND /NOSORT Since the command line switch must be used each time the program is ran, it may be necessary to create a batch file as follows. 1. Log on the drive and directory containing the Four-Handed Euchre files. 2. At the DOS prompt, type COPY CON EUCHRE.BAT and press the enter key. 3. Type the startup command (EUC35 plus any command line switches) and press the enter key. 4. Depress and hold the control key. 5. Press the Z key and then press enter. The EUCHRE.BAT file should now be saved to disk. To run Four- Handed Euchre, simply enter EUCHRE at the DOS prompt. THE USER INTERFACE Four-Handed Euchre 3.5 incorporates a keyboard and optional- ly a mouse driven point and click user interface. This interface consists of three sections - hotkeys, dialog boxes, and card selection. HOTKEYS Hotkeys are displayed at the top of the game screen and can be selected with a corresponding key stroke or by mouse. The mouse action is performed by moving the mouse's rectangular pointer into the hotkey's on screen colored "button" and pressing the left mouse button. All hotkeys are available at any time during program execution. After hotkey action is complete, the program picks up where it left off. QUIT immediately terminates to the operating system. It does not verify if you are sure. Be certain you really want to quit before making this selection. Before termination to DOS, the current game speed, and the "human" player's name are saved to disk. These will become the default settings next time the pro- gram is ran. The ABOUT hotkey displays information about the program. When complete, game play resumes where it left off. Located at the upper left corner of the screen is the GAME SPEED control. Game speed can be changed with the press of the plus (+) key or the minus (-) key. Plus (+) increases the game speed (makes things happen faster) while the minus (-) key de- creases the game speed (makes things happen slower). Speed con- trol can also be accomplished with the mouse by moving the pointer into the purple or red box containing the plus (+) or minus (-) characters and clicking the left mouse button. A black colored box indicates the current speed selection. The BOSS hotkey is a special hotkey which is not displayed on the screen. It blanks the screen and displays a fake DOS prompt ( C:\>_ ). When the BOSS key is pressed again the game play resumes where it left off. This key can be useful if playing at work. To use the BOSS key simply hold down the ALT key and press the spacebar. When it is safe to resume game play, repeat the ALT spacebar combination. Pressing the left and right mouse button simultaneously also activates the boss mode. The ESC key immediately exits to DOS while in the boss mode. DIALOG BOXES Dialog boxes are the main method of input from the user. They consist of one or two lines of text and one, two, three, or four "buttons". The boxes are always displayed over the bottom part of the user's cards. When the dialog box is displayed, the first button will be colored light blue or green. If more than one button is available, the others will be purple or red. A selection is made by pressing the TAB key or the LEFT and RIGHT ARROW keys until the desired button is light blue or green. Then press the ENTER key or the SPACEBAR. Also, the user can press the key enclosed in brackets ( < > ) to make the selection. To select with the mouse, simply move the mouse pointer into the desired button and press then release the left mouse button. CARD SELECTION Card selection is also done with dialog boxes, except there are no buttons. Instead, an arrow pointing down appears above the first card. This arrow can be moved with the TAB key or LEFT and RIGHT arrow keys to until it points at the desired card. Then press ENTER or SPACEBAR. Cards can be selected with the mouse by moving the mouse pointer over any exposed area of the card and then clicking the left button. GAME PLAY The first step in playing Four-Handed Euchre is to enter your first name. The name of the last player (if any) will be displayed. If you want to use that name, simply press enter. If not, begin typing your name and the previous name will be erased. There is no need to backspace over the previous name. Only alpha- betic character will be excepted. Spaces, function keys, numbers, etc. will be ignored. A maximum of ten letters can be entered. At least one letter must be entered. The names of the computer players will be picked at random from a list of about fifty names. The computer player names will never be the same as the human player. DEALING THE CARDS The "Human" player's computer controlled partner will be the first to deal. The deal will then move to the left on each successive hand. The act of dealing the cards will be performed by the PC, even if it is the "Human" player's deal. The dealer will distribute the cards in a clockwise direction start- ing with the player on his or her left. In keeping with the rules of the game, each player will receive three cards, then two cards. After each player has all five cards, the dealer will turn one card up in the middle of the screen. The "Human" player's cards are face up at the bottom of the screen and his or her partner's cards are at the top of the screen. The opponents' cards are on the left and right of the screen. The game will be played by the rules of Euchre (described below). The computer generated players will NOT renege (cheat) and the "Human" participant will not be permitted to renege. If the human player tries to renege, a dialog box will popup and say "You must follow suit". Simply press the enter key or space bar or click the "Continue" button with the mouse to resume play. When the game is over, a dialog box will appear stating that the game is over. It asks if the player would like another game. If the answer is no, the program exits to DOS. If the answer is yes, a new game will begin with the same players. GAME INFORMATION The computer players "talk" to the user though a popup dialog box which appears over their cards. How long this box remains visable depends on the selected game speed. The game score (tricks taken and points scored) are dis- played at the upper left and upper right portions of the game screen. The name of the player who dealt and the name of the player who lead is displayed at the bottom left of the game screen. Trump suit and the player name who made that suit trump is displayed at the bottom right of the game screen. RULES OF EUCHRE Euchre is a card game usually played by four people with a pack of cards consisting of nines through aces. The cards are ranked downward with the jack of trump suit (called right bower) as the highest card. The jack of the same color as the trump suit (called left bower) is the second highest card and is also considered a trump card. The remaining cards are ranked from the ace down. The cards are dealt to each player, three on the first round and two on the second. After the last card is dealt, the dealer places the next card face up to indicate the trump suit. Starting with the player to the left of the dealer, each player in turn has the option of accepting or passing the trump suit. If the player accepting the trump suit is not the dealer, that player orders the card up. If the player accepting is the dealer, he or she picks the card up. No matter who makes trumps, the dealer must place the card that is turned up into his or her hand and discard one card in exchange for it. If all the players pass the trump, it is turned down, and each player in turn may make the suit, that is, call another suit trump, or may pass again. If all players pass the second time, the hand is abandoned and the deal moves to the left. A player making trump may go alone without the aid of his or her partner. The partner will give the player the best card he or she has available and the player will discard one card in exchange for it. As soon as a player makes trump, the player to the left of the dealer leads. Each player must play a card. If the player has cards of the same suit as that led, that suit must be played. Please note, the jack of the same color as trump (left bower) is played as if it had the same suit as trump. Failure to follow suit is called reneging and will not be allowed. If the player doesn't have cards of the same suit as that led, any card may be played, including a trump. Tricks are taken by the highest card of the suit led or by the highest trump. Cards that are not trump or the same suit as that led, can never take a trick. The player who took the trick then becomes the lead. Play continues until all cards have been played. The object of the game is for the team making trump to take three or four tricks, which would score them 1 point. Taking five tricks would score them two points, unless the player went alone, which would score four points. Failure to take at least three tricks is referred to as being euchred and scores the oppo- nent team two points. The game is played to ten points. The team who reaches ten points wins.