RUMMY 500 (Version 3.51) - README.TXT ===================================== [NOTE: See "Having Problems?" below if the cards don't display correctly] 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) 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 Akmerica 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 (3½" 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 it 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 3.51 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 3.51 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. 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 - Enhanced scoreboard now shows the scores of previous games and the scores of previous rounds in the current game. - Includes ability to store game totals and round scores between sessions. (See help file "Menus, Game, Quit" for details) - Added "Save Scoreboard" option. - Fixed problem when Rummy 500 sometimes demanded discard before player had yet taken a card to start their turn. - Fixed problem when more than two cards added simultaneously to an existing meld sometimes yielded an incorrect "invalid meld" message. - Fixed problem (VGA mode) when vertical compression of melds sometimes did not occur when meld length exceeded the visible display area of the table. - Improved display cosmetics when player's hand is updated. - Now shows all changes to cards in opponent's hand as cards are taken, melded and discarded. - Now shows opponent's cards sorted when visible option is enabled. - Expert mode is tougher. The opponent now checks all previous discards when making discard decision. Version 2.11 (Registered distribution) - Minor improvements to registration code validation process - Overrides an SVGA setting in ini file if screen currently set to VGA resolution. Version 2.2 - RULE CHANGE. Player can freely select the last discard as an alternative to taking a card from the deck, in accordance with the traditional rules. The card is added to the players hand. If multiple discards including the last are required, select (highlight) one of the others first. - Dramatically improved speed of opponent thinking process. Now 3-10 times faster depending upon current state of play. - Opponent now highlights card in discard pile before taking multiple discards and shows it highlighted when melding. - Added menu option to supress opponent highlighting if desired. - Opponent now pauses briefly when taking and melding cards. This improves visual feedback of the opponent's actions on faster systems. - Added total lines to scoreboard (games and rounds). - Fixed "overflow" error which could occasionally occur during opponent's analysis of meld possibilities. - Fixed problem when player could sometimes meld all cards from his or her hand and leave nothing to discard. - Fixed problem of opponent only scoring for three cards in the rare instance when it melds four cards of the same value together. Version 2.3 (Registered distribution) - Fixed problem when scoreboard was not updated after the last round of a game when exiting Rummy 500. - Fixed problem when player couldn't deselect the only card left in the player's hand once it was highlighted. - Added startup window to confirm Rummy 500 is loading (which takes a little time on slower systems). Version 3.0 - Version 3 provides a full 3D-style user interface. This is suppressable for users who prefer the traditional 2D look. - Added support for storing multiple player scoreboards and changing players during a session. - Implemented AutoResume to remember which player was playing last and automatically starting up the next session for that player. - Added optional sound effects (using wav files) when Rummy 500 starts and finishes, and when games and rounds are won and lost. - RUMMY500.INI format now complies closer to ini file norms, and saves each player's options separately. - Added "Champion" skill level. Champion is similar to Expert, plus it: (i) remembers what discards the player has picked up; (ii) will sometimes take the last discard rather than a new card from the deck; and (iii) discards higher value cards when the player has very few cards remaining. - Added "Rule Variations" options. "Ace Always High" prevents Ace-Two-Three from being considered a valid meld. "Meld Last Discard" prevents the last discard from being taken instead of a new card from the deck (i.e. inhibiting the v2.2 rule change, see above). - Added status bar to accomodate status messages, error messages, and a traffic light replacement. Removed menu options for hiding error messages and traffic light. Current player name and skill level are also displayed in the status bar. - Added "hotkey" capability to status bar. For example, click on skill level to change it. - Completely revised the help system and implemented context sensitive help (F1). - VGA Resolution Only: Improved meld area display. When a meld extends beyond eight cards, the meld is now split into two parts instead of vertically compressing. - Reworked the user interface mechanics to make graphic effects more stable and interaction more snappy. - Fixed problem of an ace in the player's hand being considered an invalid meld with a matching two and three. - Again fixed a problem when player could still meld all cards and have nothing left to discard. - Fixed problem when player could be trapped by not being able to discard the discard just taken when it is the last card in the player's hand. 3.01 - Repaired some minor display cosmetics regarding horizontal compression of overlapping melds. - Additional minor improvements to user interface handler. 3.02 (Registered distribution) - Fixed problem whereby card melded by opponent sometimes stayed highlighted. - If sounds are enabled, a tied round now plays the same sound as a player win instead of nothing. Version 3.5 - Rummy 500 now conforms to "Hoyle's Rules Of Games". In addition to some minor rule changes, thirteen cards are now dealt. Almost all previous Rummy 500 conventions are preserved as available rule variations. - Implemented "Suggest" capability to give the player a hint regarding what to take, what to meld, and what to discard. - Implemented "Undo" facility to restart the player's current turn. - Implemented "Hall Of Fame" to report highest and lowest scores of recorded players. - Implemented "League Table" to report relative scores stored in all players' scoreboards. - The Logos are now replaced by displays of games won after the first game. The "No Logo" option has been removed. - Implemented "Swap Cards" capability. This swaps the cards in the opponent's hand with those in the player's hand. - Implemented "AutoPlayer" capability. When in effect, the computer plays both hands while you watch. (Useful for beginners.) - Introduced a brief pause when opponent takes and plays its cards. (Some registered users commented that the action takes place too quickly on faster systems.) - Implemented "Quick Display" for opponent. This suppresses the brief pause after the opponent takes and plays its cards. - Implemented "Animate Display" for player. This updates the player's hand card by card, instead of "in a flash". This is considered to be more attractive on faster systems. - Restructured menu system to simplify navigation. - Revised opponent skill algorithms. "Champion" and "Expert are now a little smarter. - The "No Cards" symbol is now displayed when the player or opponent has no more cards in hand. - Implemented option to suppress the "who starts" reminders. - Updated Help facility now also includes Index and Glossary. The help menu now includes instant access to these. - Fixed some minor problems. 3.51 - Increased intelligence of opponent when selecting card to discard ("Expert" and "Champion"). - Fixed problem when an ace was sometimes displayed at the wrong end of a melded run. - Fixed problem when the "Best of 7 Games" rule variation was sometimes erroneously disabled. - Autoplay now has a "fast display" option. - Rummy 500 now tries to detect when there is insufficient resource or memory available when loading, and offers advice to resolve. - Made improvements to the fluidity of card display updates. © MeggieSoft Games, 1994. All Rights Reserved.