旼컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� � LUCKY-7 JACKPOT DOCUMENTATION � 읕컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� ______________________________________________________________________________ TABLE OF CONTENTS: Copyright Notice............................. 1 Credits & Disclaimers........................ 2 Requirements................................. 3 Operating Notes.............................. 4 Author's Address............................. 5 1.0 COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Copyright (c) 1990 by Bard L. Kallestad All rights reserved. This program and all associated files are copyrighted material. They are released as Share-ware for evaluation purposes. You may freely download, copy or upload these files in their entirety. All files must be present including the documentation file. If you like the program and continue to use it, please send your license fee to the author. The registered version of this program will have all the latest updates and features. 2.0 CREDITS AND DISCLAIMERS DISCLAIMER: The author has written this program in good faith and believes it will operate as advertised. Extensive debugging has taken place and though no program is perfect, the program should operate in a satisfactory manner. Any suggestions or constructive criticism will be taken into consideration. For registered users: The author warrants that the physical disk is free from defects in materials and workmanship for a period of 90 days from date of purchase. If notification of physical defect is received within the warranty period, the author will replace the defective disk. The remedy for the breach of this warranty will be limited to replacement and will not encompass any other damages, including but not limited to loss of profit, and special, incidental, consequential, or other claims. The author specifically disclaims all other warranties, express or implied, including but not limited to implied warranties or merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose with respect to defects in the diskette or the programs therein contained. CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE: Many people have contributed to the present look and feel of today's slot machine. It is a composite of borrowed ideas from many people and companies. The first slot machines were created in the late 1800's. The creativity and craftsmanship used to build some of these machines was remarkable. Today, these antiques are valuable collectors items. The Liberty Bell was the first 3 reel machine with an automatic payout. It was invented in 1905 by Charles Fey from San Francisco, California. The overall function of the machine has not changed much through the years. He protected his secrets by not selling any of his machines and by running his own route and doing his own maintenance. However, it wasn't long before the Mills Novelty Company owned by the Chicago Tycoon, Herbert Mills, had somehow acquired one and made it's own version, the Mill's Liberty Bell (circa 1909). This machine even had the same symbols on the reels as Fey's machine. In 1910 Mill's brought out the Operator's Bell which had the now familiar fruit symbols on the reels. Another not so obvious difference was the number of positions or "stops" on each reel. Fey's original machine had 10 stops per reel creating a possible 1,000 combinations (10x10x10). Mill's machines had 20 stops/reel making for a possible 8,000 combinations (20x20x20). Mill's and other companies have made improvements through the years, but most were cosmetic. The basic function and feel of the game remains the same. In fact, about 1910 a competitor copied Mill's machine and brought out the Caille Brother's Liberty Bell slot machine. Several companies did like-wise, getting in on the action and the profits. A cloudy past: Remember, until recently gambling was illegal in all states but Nevada. The use and operation of slot machines was gambling. Many ruses and disguises were used to try to circumvent this fact. Some machines even dispensed gum or mints. Others supposedly paid off in trade of one kind or another. Free cigars and drinks were the most common rewards. Some machines carried signs describing exotic profit-sharing schemes. During the 1930's the manufacturer's and distributors of slot machines sold devices called safe-tables. It was a metal cabinet on which to place a slot machine. At the first sign of trouble a button on the table was pressed and the slot machine disappeared down inside the safe-table and the top recovered itself. Presto, no slot machine! During times of political reform the slot machine was an easy target. Many met their demise in a raid at the end of a sledge hammer. Only a small percentage of these early machines have survived. Many ended up on the scrap heap while others found sanctuary in private homes. Today these machines are quite valuable. Some of the companies who have made slot machines during the past century: Bally Manufacturing Corporation, Chicago, Ill. Caille Brothers Company, Detroit, Mich. Charles Fey & Company, San Francisco, Calif. Clawson Manufacturing Company, Booton, N.J. Mills Novelty Company, Chicago, Ill. O.D. Jennings & Company, Chicago, Ill. Pace Manufacturing Company, Chicago, Ill. Watling Manufacturing Company, Chicago, Ill. For those who have an interest, check out the public library for some of these books on the subject of slot machines: The Facts of Slots by Walter I. Nolan Drop Coin Here by Ken & Fran Rubin The Gamblers (Old West Series) by the editors of Time-Life Books 3.0 OPERATING REQUIREMENTS: GRAPHICS: This program requires an EGA or better (VGA VGA+) graphics adapter. The graphics are all done on a 640 x 350 format. CLOCK SPEED: Performance is best if run on a CPU operating at 10 MHz or faster. The program automatically compensates for any CPU speed. However, clock speeds under 10 MHz will show degraded performance due to slow graphics updating. In plain english, the reels will turn slower! DISK ALLOCATION: The program and associated files will occupy about .5 MegaBytes of disk space. Best performance is obtained on a hard drive. Any drive that can accommodate the decompressed files will work. FILE TAMPERING: All files except the README.BAT & DOC-L7.TXT files must be present in the same directory as the L7.EXE file. Do not rename any files. Renaming any of the associated files will cause the EXE file to abort. 4.0 OPERATING NOTES: The program is Lucky-7 Jackpot. It is a video slot machine. Short of taking a trip to Nevada or shelling out $1000 for a used machine, this program should provide the thrill of the real thing. Operating the machine is very intuitive. Pull the Handle (Play): Enter key or Space-bar Increase the bet: Plus key (+) Decrease the bet: Minus key (-) Help (Winning combinations): F1 Cash-in (Quit): ESCape The Lucky-7 Jackpot slot machine was detailed to simulate a real mechanical slot machine. To offer more screen area for graphics detail the handle was left out. This allowed for a close-up view of the functional part of the machine. On an expanded keyboard, all play can be handled with the right-most keys on the key-pad. The minus, plus and enter keys are all close together. You can play with one finger. Joy-stick players can play from the first game port. Pull back and release the stick to play. Joystick play allows the long-pull or the delayed release. Proportional pull is also available. If you pull the stick all the way back you get a longer spin than you would if only pull the stick part way back. Also, bets can be incremented from the joystick button. A little added realism for gamers. 4.0 -Continued- This is a quarter machine. Each time you pull the handle, you have bet a quarter. You can increase your bet by hitting the plus key. Each time you hit the plus key you bump your bet up a quarter. The maximum bet is $10. A jackpot on a $10 bet would payoff at 75:1 or 75 times the bet or $750. This type of machine is known as a multiplier. That is, it multiplies whatever your bet is by the reward factor. You can decrease the bet by hitting the minus key. Obviously, you can't bet less than a quarter. When you cash-in... the exit screen will tell how much you have won or lost. You can settle up then or just put it on-the-tab! A possible future feature will be a running-tab file for each player. This would automatically keep track of rising or falling fortunes. The Share-ware version has a pay-back rate of 100%. This is a long term average. So, some people will win and others will lose. If you play the machine several thousand times consecutively, you should break even. In other words, the house-take is zero (0%). This is more fun because we win more often. However, it is a bit deceiving. A real slot machine takes a percentage for the house. This is the profit or the house-take. The registered version of Lucky-7 Jackpot has a selectable house-take. You can run your machine with a house-take of 15% or let the kids run it for fun with no house-take. The registered version also has other features. One of which is not having to look at all those Share-ware screens. For those statistic minded or curious people, a high speed automatic mode is available. It allows the machine to play itself in high speed. At the end of this cycle it will display a complete set of statistics: pay-off percentage, how many times each winning combination occurred and the percentage of error from the theoretical values. It is interesting to watch the pot rise and fall as the quarters do a high speed dance on the simulated counters. Good luck! 5.0 AUTHOR'S ADDRESS: You may contact the author by writing to: Bard L. Kallestad Ravenwood Systems 20234 Raven St NW Cedar, MN. 55011 ______________________________________________________________________________