==================================================================== EUCHRE V2.0 DOCUMENTATION ==================================================================== By Richard Gardner THE OPENING AND START SCREENS The opening screen is just a random placement of cards. Press any key or press a mouse button to move to the start screen. After a few minutes, the start screen will appear whether a key was pressed or not. The start screen has instructions on how to get to the pull-down menus to set desired options. The pull-down main menu is displayed when either the Alt key is pressed or the mouse cursor is moved to the very top of the screen. The menu choice may then be selected by either picking the button with the mouse or pressing the key of the highlighted letter or the highlighted letter in combination with the Alt key. When a menu is first popped up, if no selections are made in that menu, the right and left arrow keys may be used to switch menus. If no key is pressed for 45 seconds, the program will go into demo mode and start playing on its own with the current options. If the program switches to Demo mode, go into the Options menu and select start new game. Demo mode will be switched off automatically. Please note that if at sometime during the game the game seems to freeze, either move the mouse to the top of the screen or press any key. This should either pop up the pull-down menus or let the game continue. ======================== PULL-DOWN MAIN MENUS ======================== The Main Menu has 7 choices: Help, Colors, Partner, Sound, Modes, Options and Quit Game. The options of each are discussed below. When in any menu, pressing the ESCape key will return to the main screen or continue with the game if in progress. The main menu can be cancelled by hitting the ESCape key or clicking the mouse anywhere not on a button choice. *** HELP *** This brings up the Help Menu where information about the Menus and the Rules may be viewed. *** COLORS *** This menu has the option of changing the color of the Border, the Background, the Text, the Spot that appears on the turned card to show what suit has been called and who called it, the color of the "In the Barn" text when a team has nine points and the color combinations of the backs of the Cards. After Picking one of the options, a color sub-menu appears. Either arrow up or down to choose the new color or pick it with the mouse. The Default option returns the color to the internal pre-set color. Note that the Default color is not the color set in the saved configuration files. Also note that black can not be chosen for the spot. This would prevent the clubs or spades suit icon from being seen. Also note that if the same color is chosen for the text and background, the option not currently being chosen will automatically switch to the next color. This prevents text from not being seen. The Random color selection for the backs of the cards picks a different color each time you start the game. *** SOUND *** This menu lets you choose whether the sound is on or off. The default is to have the sound on. *** PARTNER *** This menu changes the demeanor of you partner and of the suggestions given to you by the help option. This menu is split into two parts. The first (upper) part controls how your partner calls trump. The second part controls how your partner plays. The first menu controls how aggressive your partner call trump. The "Go For It!" partner will call trump on just about anything (for example: right bower and suit ace) where the "No-Way No-How" partner will need at least 3 high trump to call it. Your two computer opponents play at the aggressive level at all times. The second part of the menu controls how your partner plays during the hand. Since there are many different "ways" of playing euchre, this helps tailor your partner to play like you do. If the Play Trump option is enabled, your partner will lead trump early if he called trump. If not enabled, your partner tends to lead suit and rely on trumping in to get his tricks. The two computer opponents play as if this option were off. The defaults are aggressive trump calling and not to lead trump early. *** MODES *** The first part of this menu gives a choice of three main modes: Normal, Demo and Learn Modes and the second part of the menu lets you customize for different rule options. NORMAL MODE... is for normal play. You play the cards yourself and playing suggestions are made by the program by moving the selected card. This is the default. DEMO MODE... is to have the computer play itself...you make no choices at all. At the opening screen and after a game has been played, the game reverts to this mode if no key is pressed for about 45 seconds. LEARN MODE... is available to provide tutoring to help learn the game of euchre. When in this mode and you ask for a suggestion during card play, a brief description will pop up explaining why the choice was made. This will enable someone to learn some of the ins and outs of Euchre. These explanations are by no means hard and fast rules because every player has a different way of playing the game, but they will give a good guide to a beginner and a different point of view for an experienced player. MODE FEATURES AND RULE OPTIONS Under the three main modes are other choices. These are toggle buttons that work with all of the main modes. PAUSE MODE... pauses after every trick so you can study or catch up on the cards that were played. In Pause Mode the word "Paused" appears at the bottom of the screen. Just press a key or mouse button to continue. The default is off. AUTO MODE... when enabled, the game plays the card for you if there is only one card in your hand in the suit that was led. If disabled, this card will have to be manually played by you. The default is to have Auto mode enabled. Note that the last card in each hand is always played for you regardless of this setting. *** MODES *** (Continued) CANADIAN mode... is for a version of euchre played in Canada and maybe elsewhere. When this mode is enabled, if the partner of the dealer orders trump up, the partner of the dealer must go alone. Therefore, the turned card will not be played in that hand. If you order trump into your partner's hand (who is the dealer), you must go alone. You are still asked if you want to go alone, but you must answer yes or press escape to not call trump at all. The default is off. END IT... mode is for experienced players who don't like to play useless tricks. As soon as the winner of a hand can be determined, the hand ends and all cards are "thrown in". "Lay-down" hands are not detected. If the hand ends early by a player having the right and/or left, the cards will flash a different color and a sound will alert the end of the hand. If the random color choice is selected for the backs of the cards, the cards will probably not be the same after they flash. The default is off. TRUMP * ... is a sub-menu that sets the rule for calling trump. Under this menu are three options: None Required, Just Dealer None Required and All Required. Under the None Required options, a player is not required to have any trump in their hand to call that suit trump. Under the Just Dealer option, everyone but the dealer is required to have trump in their hand to call trump. This is going on the idea that the turned card is an extension to the dealer's hand and therefore he already has trump in his hand if he would like to call trump. Under the All Required option, every player must have trump already in their hand to call trump. This is the default setting. NOTE: The left bower is not considered trump until trump is called. Therefore, if the All Required option is set and you have the jack of spades in hand and no clubs and your partner dealt and turned up the jack of clubs...you can not order clubs as trump. MUST CALL... is for the dealer. If no one else has called trump either on the turned card or the second time around and it makes it back to the dealer...he must call trump if this option is set even though he might not have a very good hand to call anything. The only exception to this is if he has no other suit but the turned card and for some reason passed on it. With this option off, if the dealer doesn't want to call trump, the deal is just passed on. The default is off. *** OPTIONS *** This menu gives choices for controlling the game parameters. SAVE CURRENT SETTINGS... saves the current game options to the file euchre.cfg in the same directory where the games is. These settings will be automatically loaded the next time the game is loaded. The settings that are saved include all color combinations, type of partner, sound setting, current play mode and the delay time. RESET ALL SETTINGS... will reset all options to the built-in defaults. See each menu item for the default value. This does not save the settings to file, it just resets them for the current playing session. INCREASE OR DECREASE DELAY... allow the delay between card playing to be changed to your liking. Each button press will increase or decrease the delay by 0.02 seconds. To see a definite change, a button may have to be selected a few times in a row. Once you get close to the speed you like, one button press can adjust it slightly to get the exact speed you like. Be sure to use the Save Current settings once you find the speed you like. START NEW GAME... will start a new game. Use this if the game has gone into Demo Mode and you would like to start a new game where you make the choices. This may also be used to start over if you feel you've been dealt some bad hands and are losing. You will be asked to verify that you want to start a new game. If the game has gone into Demo Mode and you select to start a new game, Demo Mode will be turned off and the game will go back to Normal Mode where you make the playing choices. *** QUIT GAME *** This menu is for quitting the game. "Cancel" and "No" are basically the same thing. These will take you back to continue the game. Hit the "Yes" button to actually quit the game. ======================================= GENERAL FEATURES ======================================= * One file contains the executable and the data. Less clutter on your hard drive. (The configuration file [euchre.cfg] is optional and available in the Registered Version only, so I don't count it.) * Trump called and who called it are available at a glance. The spot on the turned card will show an icon of what is trump and the position of it in the spot corresponds to the player who called trump. After a few minutes of playing, this will be much quicker and easier to recognize what is trump than to have it written in text. * Cards are flushed from the table toward the player who won each trick. * Original text font is much easier to read than standard VGA text. * Automatic score keeping with actual cards. * Special sound effect each time the right bower is played. Other sound effects for getting euchred, getting all the tricks in a hand, and going for and making a loner. * HELP At most any prompt, by hitting the right mouse button, or the F1 key or the letter 'H', will get you help. The computer will signal its suggestion by either momentarily pressing the button it would choose, or moving the card that it would play or discard. Online help is also available to view the rules of euchre and to review the menu choices. * Many different rule options to tailor the game to a particular set of rules that vary from region to region. ======================================= FEATURES (Registered Version Only) ======================================= * The ability to save favorite options into a configuration file including colors, partner demeanor, sound setting and general game speed. These options are automatically loaded each time the game is started. * LEARN MODE During card play if ask for help, an brief description will pop up explaining the reason behind the suggestion. This will allow a beginner to learn the game of euchre and will provide a different point of view for an experienced player * The "boss" key. During play, hit the Left-Ctrl key and a "C:\>" prompt will appear. Hit the escape key to exit quietly or any other key to resume the game. ======================================= POSSIBLE FUTURE FEATURES ======================================= * Statistics. Keep track of wins, losses, euchres, etc. for different players. This could let you know if you might need to be more or less aggressive in your trump calling. * Sound Blaster support. I am starting to investigate this option more and more, but since I don't do this for a living and it seems to be a lot of work, it might be a while. * Any other suggestions will be given consideration. ====================== RULES OF EUCHRE ====================== There are a variety of rules used for the game of euchre. The main idea is the same in all, but some of the details are quite different. Euchre is a trump card game for four players in two partnerships, using 24 of the highest cards of a standard 52-card deck, with ace ranked high. Each player is dealt five cards face down; the next card is turned face up and is called the turned card, and the players, in turn starting at the dealer's left, accept or reject the turned card's suit as trump. See the TRUMP * Menu and the CANADIAN option under MODES for different rules on being able to order trump. Once a player accepts, the dealer takes the turned card and replaces it with one from his hand. If no one accepts, the players, in turn, have an opportunity to call trump in a suit other than the turned card's suit. If no one calls trump, the deal is passed to the left. See the MUST CALL option under MODES for an exception to this rule. When trump is determined, the jack of that suit becomes the highest trump, called the right bower, and the jack of the same-colored suit becomes the second-highest trump, called the left bower. For example, if hearts is called trump, the jack of hearts becomes the highest trump. The jack of diamonds is then the second highest trump. The trump then follow in order from ace to nine of hearts. A redeal may be granted to a player who has all nines and tens and no trump. If this occurs, the same player deals the cards again. If this occurs to a computer player, they show their hand and ask for a redeal. If this happens to you, you are asked if you would like a redeal. If you answer yes, a redeal occurs. If you answer no, the hand continues as normal. The player who orders trump may also go alone. This is where the player challenges his opponents on his own without his partner's help. If successful in getting all five tricks when going alone, the team scores four points, otherwise the scoring is the same as in normal play. See the CANADIAN option under MODES for requiring the caller to go alone if ordering trump into dealer's hand and the dealer is the caller's partner. The person to the dealer's left begins play by leading a card, and the other players follow suit, if possible. The trick is won by the highest card of the suit led or by a trump card played from a hand with no cards in the suit led. If more than one player lacks cards in the suit led, the trick is won by the highest trump card played. Unless a trump is led, however, a player void in the suit has the option of trumping or of discarding any card from another suit. The winner of each trick leads the next. To win a hand, the team of partners who names the trump suit must collect at least three of the five tricks in the play of one hand. If unsuccessful, they are euchred and the opposing team scores two points. When one side wins all five tricks, it scores a march, worth two points. A game is played to a total of ten points. The term "In the Barn" is used when a team has nine points and therefore only needs one more point to win the game. COMMON TERMS Alone or Loner: When the person calling trump plays without his partner. If this person gets all five tricks of the hand, he get four points. Euchred: When the trump-calling team fails to get at least three of the five tricks of a hand. The opposing team gets two points for this. In the Barn: When a team has nine points. (I guess if both teams have nine points...you could call the game a real "barn burner") March: When the trump-calling team gets all five tricks of a hand. This team gets two points for this. The Left or Left Bower: The jack of the same color suit as trump. For example, if diamonds are trump, the jack of hearts is the left bower. This is the second highest trump. Order Trump: This usually refers to accepting the turned card as trump as opposed to Calling Trump which is naming a trump suit after the turned card has been rejected as trump. Redeal: When a person has all nines and tens and no trump may ask for the hand to be dealt over. Trump must first be determined before asking for a redeal to make certain the hand contains no trump. The Right or Right Bower: The jack of trump. This is the highest trump card. Trump: The suit which outranks all other suits for the duration of the hand. The nine of trump is higher than an ace of any other suit. Turned Card: The card that is turned up by the dealer that will either be accepted or rejected as trump.