CFSPoker - A fully-functional Video Poker program for OS/2 (c) 1995-96 by C F S Nevada, Inc. Introduction ============ While the idea of video poker games for personal computers is neither new nor unique, CFSPoker is different both in its design and its operation. CFSPoker is distributed with 1,000 bonus credits. The game is unrestricted in its use until your credits diminish to 0. At that time, a key, available from C F S Nevada, Inc. for $34.95, is required to re- enable the game. See "Registration Instructions" in CFSPoker.HLP or CFSPoker.INF for ordering information and an order form. The following describes some of the features of the program that set it apart from previously available programs. What is CFSPoker? ================= CFSPoker is a commercial quality computer software program. CFSPoker presentation and operation resembles the current, generally available International Game Technology, Sigma Games, and Ballys gaming machines found around the world. CFSPoker is fully configurable by the player. Many of the options are summarized below. Full details are contained in the CFSPoker.INF file which can be viewed from within the game or by double-clicking on the CFSPoker.INF file icon in the CFSPoker directory. Game selection -------------- There are multiple variations of the three basic types of video poker: Jacks or Better, Joker Poker, and Deuces Wild, distributed with CFSPoker. In addition, you can configure your own variations of the game. Context sensitive Help ---------------------- The Help information is available while you are playing CFSPoker. If you have a question, just set the focus to the object that you want help for and press . You can select Help & Info from the menu bar and then select Help getting started to launch the OS/2 Information Presentation Facility (IPF) VIEW program. From there, you can select Contents to see the Table of Contents for this document or Index to view a sorted index of the contents of this document. Audio enabled ------------- If your computer has a sound card, CFSPoker will optionally use it to play sound files for winning hands. (see Notes concerning OS/2 Warp 4.0 below). Redisplaying hands ------------------ If you've ever played a video poker machine, you might have wanted to look back at the cards that were dealt to you before you played the hand or to look at the cards in some hand besides the current hand. Only casino employees can do that with a video poker machine. With CFSPoker you can redisplay the hands from the current session (hands since the game was launched), and optionally for all the hands you have played that exist in the log file. Customized card backs --------------------= You can personalize CFSPoker with card back images of your choice. Statistics ---------- Curious about the number of hands you've won or lost, how many hands per hour you are playing? These figures are available from the statistical display facility either when you terminate the session or on demand. Log file -------- If you enable the log file facility, every hand you play is captured. This information is available in a form that allows you to analyze it, crunch it, or manipulate it any way you choose. Color ----- The background color of the game window can be set to any of 16 colors. Credits ------- There are numerous options which control the way that credits are handled by CFSPoker. Unlike a video poker machine which requires that you buy more credits when your balance reaches zero, CFSPoker allows your credit meter to go minus if you are behind and plus if you are ahead (which hopefully will most often be the case). The credit-related options include: o Whether credits are preserved, game-to-game. o Whether credits are preserved, session-to-session. o The ability to reset your current credits on demand. Deal speed ---------- If you have played video poker machines, you probably noticed that some machines can take forever to deal a hand, while others appear to flash all five cards on the screen at once. The deal speed option can be set on these machines by the casino. Unfortunately, there is rarely any consistency amongst the machines in the same casino. You can set the deal speed on CFSPoker to a level that you are comfortable with - from clunk, clunk, clunk to the non-delay speed preferred by experienced players. CFSPoker is available from electronic repositories, including anonymous FTP from C F S Nevada, Inc.'s World Wide Web server and FTP server, Hobbes (hobbes.nmsu.edu) and Walnut Creek (ftp.cdrom.com). CFSPoker is also available on the Family Sampler CD-ROM which accompanies IBM's OS/2 Warp 4.0 (Merlin). The program can be installed from the Family Sampler CD-ROM to any version of OS/2 (2.1 through 4.0) by running CFSSetup.EXE from the CFSPoker directory on the CD-ROM. The program is distributed with 1,000 video poker credits. After you have exhausted the credits, the game will lock and must be registered with C F S Nevada, Inc. An electronic key to unlock the game will be available for a retail price of 34.95 USD. Keys will be available via postal mail, FAX, and secure electronic mail. Registration will allow future unrestricted use of the game. At various times there will be bonus awards for Royal Flushes made with CFSPoker. Check the World Wide Web site at www.cfsrexx.com for the latest bonus awards and how to redeem them. Installation ============ If you have downloaded CFSPoker.ZIP from an electronic repository, unzip or pkunzip (OS/2 or DOS version) CFSPoker.ZIP into a temporary directory of your choice. If you are installing CFSPoker from the Warp Family Sampler CD-ROM, the file has been unzipped for you. Run CFSSetup.EXE in an OS/2 windowed session from the above directory. The setup program will show you all of your drives that have adequate space to install the program (approximately 8 MB). You can then select a drive and directory of your choice (CFSPoker recommended) where the program will be installed. If you unzipped the distribution file into a temporary directory, the contents of the temporary directory can be deleted after CFSSetup completes. CFSSetup.EXE will also build a program object for CFSPoker on your Desktop. The CFSPoker program object may be moved to a location of your choice. REXXLIB (1.32 - Quercus Systems) and VROBJ.DLL (2.1d - Watcom International Corp.) are included in the ZIP file. These DLLs may be left in the CFSPoker directory or moved to a library of your choice that is included in your LIBPATH statement. In either case, be sure that the current directory designation (.;) is included in the LIBPATH statement in CONFIG.SYS. The REXX program MakeObj.CMD, located in the directory where you install CFSPoker, can be used to recreate the CFSPoker Desktop object should it become lost or corrupted. Hardware / software requirements ================================ CFSPoker is an OS/2 program written in VX-REXX and it will run on any OS/2 2.1 or OS/2 Warp (3.0 or 4.0) system. The program requires the Watcom VX-REXX run-time module, VROBJ.DLL, along with Quercus Systems REXXLIB. Unless you are a licensed REXXLIB user, the copy of REXXLIB included with CFSPoker may not be used for other purposes without permission of Quercus Systems. CFSPoker will utilize any MMPM/2 supported sound card if the MMPM option in CFSPoker is not turned off by the user. Documentation ============= CFSPoker is distributed with both an .INF and .HLP file which provide the same detailed information about CFSPoker and video poker in general, including how to calculate the best way to play a hand. The .INF file is viewed with the OS/2 Information Presentation Facility VIEW program and the .HLP file provides immediate access to the same information while you are playing the game. The following items are covered in the soft-copy documentation: Welcome Getting started What is video poker Types of video poker Introduction to CFSPoker Features & Options CFSPoker Program Updates CFSPoker as an Information Resource How to play CFSPoker Game window layout Playing a hand Creating your own variations of CFSPoker CFSGames.CMD program CFSPoker.GAM file Game name line Game detail line Wild card line Additional Information About CFSPoker Hardware Software Creating your own card back bitmaps Glossary - Terms and Definitions The glossary contains over 60 definitions and descriptions of CFSPoker and video poker information. This same documentation is also available from C F S Nevada, Inc.'s World Wide Web site at http://www.cfsrexx.com/. Notes concerning OS/2 Warp 4.0 (aka Merlin) =========================================== While beta testing OS/2 Warp 4.0 it was found that when using the normal startup sequence of programs to launch the program (i.e CFSStart.EXE, CFSPoker.EXE), the sound file used by CFSStart plays properly but .WAV files will not play from CFSPoker. Yet, if CFSPoker is started directly from an object or from the command line, the CFSPoker .WAV files play properly. This problem does not occur on any previous releases of OS/2. This problem can be circumvented by replacing the default path and file name value of ?:\CFSPoker\CFSStart.EXE in the CFSPoker Desktop object with ?:\CFSPoker\CFSPoker.EXE. The effect of this change is that the introduction screen and music will not precede the game screen. This bug has been reported to the IBM Merlin development team. If the changes in Merlin require any change in CFSPoker, the updates will be available, free for download, from the World Wide Web site and FTP server detailed above.