___ King's Casino Solitaire Evaluator __________________________ Release 2.0 is a major update providing five new games and a multi- tude of new features. Here are some highlights: - New Games: Bristol, Eight Off, Penguin, Pyramid, and Tournament. King's Casino now has 22 games! - New Look: King's Casino now supports background pictures to add colour and pizazz to the otherwise plain playing surface of the program's main window. - New Look: When you win, the winner's dialog box will randomly display one of many different pictures, rather than the same one each time. - New Look: You can add your own background and winner pictures and select which background picture and card back to use or have the program change them for you randomly. - New Feature: Illustrated WinHelp system with screen shots of each game and play examples to get you started on new games quickly and easily. - New Feature: Pile Info: right-click on any card pile for a pop-up all-you-need-to-know report on how to play to and from that pile. Learn new games simply by exploring the screen. - New Feature: Auto Finish (on the Actions Menu) saves wear and tear on your mouse. When you get close enough to the end of a game that a win is certain, click on Auto Finish to automatically play the final cards to foundations. - New Feature: You can now assign double-click instead of single-click to King's Casino's default card moves feature. This prevents those unexpected card jumps when you move a card aside to see what's under it. King's Casino Solitaire requires VGA or higher resolution and a mouse or other pointing device to run: this release does not provide keyboard support. ___ Installation ____________________________________________ Here's how to install King's Casino Solitaire from the archive: 1) Un-Zip KCSol2.zip into some temporary directory. You've already performed this step to be reading this file. 2) Copy all files into the directory in which you wish to keep this program, preferably a directory of its own. We'll presume you've named it KCSOL2. 3) One of the files in the KCSol2.zip archive is another archive, KBSVGA.zip. This contains background images for 800 by 600 SVGA video. If you only use 640 by 480 standard VGA you don't need this file. If you only use 800 by 600 (or higher) video, unzip KBSVGA. In this case you should remove all files with names starting with KB6 from the KCSOL2 directory. You may want to create a sub-dir- ectory under KCSOL2 called KCSPIX to store unused KB6 or KB8 files in case you change video modes in the future. 4) Optionally, create another sub-directory of KCSOL2 called some- thing like GAMES. Unzip the archive KCSWins2.zip into this sub. 5) drag KCSol.exe from File Manager into the Windows group of your choice in Program Manager (or your other favourite Windows Shell). (Alternatively, you can run King's Casino by selecting File/Run from the menu in Program Manager or File Manager and typing in the path to KCSol.exe and its name.) King's Casino Solitaire does not modify your Win.ini, your System.ini, your AutoExec.bat or your Config.sys. ___ Files Supplied __________________________________________ - Files installed in the directory you specified - - KCSol.exe the King's Casino program file - KCSol.hlp Windows help file - KCSol.ini configuration file updated by program - QCardX.dll playing cards library - KWCrown.bmp a bitmap image used when you win a game - KWDragn1.bmp ditto - KWDragn2.bmp ditto - KWDuocrn.bmp ditto - KWUnicrn.bmp ditto - KB6/8Fleur.bmp a bitmap image used as a background - KB6/8Grifn.bmp ditto - KB6/8Links.bmp ditto - KB6/8Lions.bmp ditto - KB6/8Ucorn.bmp ditto - KBCelt1.bmp background bitmap good for most video modes - KBCelt2.bmp ditto - KCReadMe.txt this file (not necessary to run program) - KC_Order.txt order form (not necessary to run program) - KCSWins.zip an archive of winnable games (see below) - Files you may already have in your Windows System directory - - MSAFinx.dll (potentially used by other Windows programs) - CmDialog.vbx ditto - CommDlg.dll ditto - Ver.dll ditto [Note for advanced users: You may delete any of the second group of files if you have the same file with the same or later date in your Windows System directory (usually C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM). If any of the second group are dated later than a file with the same name in your Windows System directory, you may want to move it to your Windows System directory, replacing the copy residing there.] While you also need the file VBRun300.dll in your Windows System directory in order to run this program, it's big and most everybody already has it, so I haven't added it to the archive. If you don't have it, you can download it from almost any BBS, and use it with hundreds of other nifty Windows shareware programs also on your favourite BBS. ___ To Un-install ____________________________________________ To remove King's Casino Solitaire from your system simply delete the files listed in the first group, above. If you added an icon for King's Casino Solitaire to some other group, highlight the icon by clicking once on it (then again if necessary to get rid of the pop-up menu) then press Delete. [Advanced users: be wary of deleting any files in the second group from your Windows System directory, since they are files which other programs may also be using.] ___ Getting Started ___________________________________________ King's Casino Solitaire uses standard Window's menu commands and should require no effort to use or understand for anyone familiar with other Windows programs. Each of the twenty and two different solitaire card games you can start from Games on the main menu has instructions you can access from the Help/Game Rules menu or by pressing F1 when the game is on-screen. All other features are documented from Help/Contents or by pressing F1 with a specific program feature selected. For example, if you are using the Visuals dialog box to change background images, pressing F1 will bring up the appropriate help topic. Alternatively, once you start a game you can right-click on the various card piles to learn what each pile is for and how to move cards to and from it. ___ Accessibility ____________________________________________ This program is, unfortunately, inaccessible to anyone with visual impairment. You will find a speech-friendly solitaire suite and much more in the archive VIP611.zip available in the Disabilities forum on CompuServe, BlinkLink, PC-Ohio, CRS and many other fine BBSs. I have no experience in programming for motor disabilities. I believe everything in this program is accessible via single mouse clicks and very occasional mouse drags. Don't forget that you can - configure the program so that a single click on any card cause a default card move - use the space bar to deal cards - use the right mouse button to pop up the Games menu or Pile Info. If you can think of any changes to improve this program's accessi- bility, please let me know. Anyone with a disability and limited financial resources may acquire the fully functional version of King's Casino for the reduced price of $3.50 by including a photocopy of any legal document confirming the disability. -------------------------------------------------------------- Note: the following topics are purely optional. The information from here on is not needed to get up and running with this program. -------------------------------------------------------------- ___ More on Background Pictures ______________________________ If you followed step 3 in the Installation section above, you intalled a set of picture files for your favoured video mode in your King's Casino directory. When you run the program you can choose Visuals from the Options menu or press F7 at any time to pop up a window for selecting which picture(s) will be used as a backdrop for your game play. If you subsequently change video modes from VGA to SVGA, you can copy the KB6xxxxx.bmp files from the King's Casino main directory into the KCSPIX sub-directory, and copy the KB8xxxxx.bmp files from KCSPIX to the main directory. If you change video modes from SVGA to VGA, simply reverse this procedure. If you use the 1024 by 768 video mode, the KB8 pictures will fill an 800-by-600-sized main window for King's Solitaire. If you want pictures to fill more of the 1024 by 768 screen, see the topic, Adding to the Artwork, in the King's Solitaire help system. Look there also for information on creating your own picture files and image sets. The two KB files, KBCelt1.bmp and KBCelt2.bmp, with no numeral as the third file name character (such as KB6 or KB8), have the peculiar property of working with any video mode from 640 by 480 right up to 1024 by 768. There is nothing special about the pictures supplied with the program. See Adding to the Artwork in the help file for simple instructions for using any 16 colour .bmp format image. Unfortunately, for technical reasons most colour photos will initially appear to work properly but will become smeared by the 16 colour card images as play progresses. Conversely, if you are short of disk space or find you prefer the simple solid colour background, you can delete any or all .bmp files. ___ What to do with KCSWins2.Zip ______________________________ Exchanging winning and/or unusual games with other players is one of the more important functions of Games/Save and Games/Load menu options. Inside the main download KCSol2.zip file is a second .zip, KCSWins2. This contains one saved game each of all the games in King's Casino. Each of these games is winnable. Step 4 under Installation, above, explains how to install these saved games. In King's Casino, then choose Load Game from the Games menu. Change the directory box to point to the sub-directory in which you unzipped KCSWins2. Double-click on any of the games shown in the files box. The game you've now loaded can be played to a win by a correct choice of moves at every turn. This does NOT mean you will win the game the first time you play it, since there are so many decision points in any solitaire game for which there is more than one equally logical move. Sometimes playing a known winning game can be even more frustrating than playing an unknown game. Game files have a new format in release 2 which supports double deck card games. The program will attempt to read release 1.x saved game files. In a few cases with release 1.0 saved games (should you have been using that version) it may not succeed. ___ High Scores ______________________________________________ Sheila McNamee of Renton Washington broke the bank at King's Casino! When I started work on this program I anticipated that the greatest problem players would have would be staying out of the red. As the program developed, I made decisions which took it away from strict imitation of a real casino. With Undo, run bonuses, etc. the odds at King's Casino actually favour the skillful player in certain games. Sheila proved this in her first week with the registered version by racking up over $23000 in the black. Unfortunately, I had not designed King's Casino to store numbers of this magnitude and it crashed. Rest assured that the program now handles winnings (and loses), even in the millions, without a hiccup. I'm sure Sheila broke the bank without resorting to such underhanded practices as saving a nearly-won game and restarting it multiple times. You may want to challenge yourself to meeting or exceeding Sheila's score. If so your choice of games to play will make a crucial difference. Certain games, like Baroness, Golf, and Idiot's Delight, with high odds against can be a bottomless pit for your funds (unless you win, of course). Other games, like Eight Off, King's Clover, and Penguin, favour the skilled player. Let me know your own high scores, we'll presume they're honest, and I'll post the highest of the high in future versions. Happy computing and thanks again for your support, Dale Cotton CompuServe 73632,703 (Internet 73632.703@Compuserve.com)