@database Spider.guide @width 72 @node "Main" "Spider Documentation" @{b}@{fg shine}Spider V1.0@{ub}@{fg text} @{b}@{fg shine}User Documentation@{ub}@{fg text} Copyright © 1995, Horst U. Stolz Spider is a challenging double-deck solitaire game. It requires at least Version 2.05 of the Amiga-Operation system. Table of Contents @{"Introduction" Link "introduction"} @{"Installation" Link "installation"} @{"Rules" Link "rules"} @{"Controls" Link "controls"} @{"Examples" Link "examples"} @{"Author" Link "author"} @{"Disclaimer" Link "disclaimer"} @endnode @node "introduction" "Introduction" @{fg shine}Introduction@{fg text} SPIDER is a double-deck solitaire game. In contrast to other patience games (like the Solitaire-Game that comes with Windows respectively CardZ or Solitaire on the Amiga) it is more difficult and provide possibilities to overcome bad luck. Like all other card games, SPIDER take the roll to shuffle and display the cards. It also keep track of all your moves and allows to undo or redo a move. A full session with the actual state of the tableau and the performed moves can be saved to a file and later continued. This version is functional and graphical based on the excellent 'Spider' program from Donald R. Woods from Sun Microsystems, which is part of the OpenLook-Distribution. @endnode @node "installation" "Installation" @{fg shine}Installation Hints@{fg text} @{b}Requirements@{ub} Spider needs at least Version V2.04 of the Amiga OS. No exorbitant memory size, harddisk capacity or CPU power is needed. It's a nice little game which should work on every amiga computer (tested only on a A1000 with a MC68000). @{b}Installation and Configuration@{ub} Sorry no Env-Variables, Tooltypes or Assigns needed! Copy the Program, Documentation and the Sessions-Directory to your favourite place. Perhaps it's only necessary to change the Tool of the documentation-file from 'multiview' to 'amigaguide'. @endnode @node "rules" "Rules" @{fg shine}Rules for Spider@{fg text} @{b}Objectives@{ub} The aim of the game is to build a stack of cards from King down to Ace in the same suit. You win the game when you have built all eight stacks. @{b}The tableau@{ub} You play with two decks therefore 104 cards. After shuffling the cards the first 54 form the initial tableau. They are spread over ten stacks, but only the last card is up-face in the stack. The rest of the cards remains in the hand. A finished sequence from Ace to King in the same suit can everytime removed from the table. But it's more challenging to leave them on the table and try complete all the eight stacks on the table! @{b}Moving cards@{ub} The last single card on a stack can only moved to another stack if this stack is empty, or if the last card is of the next higher rank regardless of his suit (Cards rank from King (highest), Queen, Jack, 10, 9, .. 2, Ace (lowest)). The last cards on a stack with correct ranking and the same suit form a sequence which can be moved as a single 'card'. If the card under the moved cards is down-faced it will turned. For example: you can move the sequence '10,9,8 of spades' to a 'Jack of hearts', but to move a '2' onto a '4' is illegal. Please note that the King is the highest card and can only moved to an empty stack! If a sequence is complete (13 cards), you can remove them into one of the free places above the ten stacks. But it's not possible to remove a single or incomplete card to get a empty stack or to move the removed cards back to the tableau! @{b}The Hand@{ub} The remaining 50 cards in the hand can be dealed in 5 steps with 10 cards to the tableau. But make sure that no stack is empty! @{b}Scoring@{ub} To value the progress of an game, the following arbitrary formula of scoring is used: 10 pts for each initially face down card that is turned over 15 additional pts for each stack without any face down cards 2 pts for each card of an incomplete sequence which sits atop the next higher card of the same suit 50 pts for each completed sequence 2 pts for each completed stack still the tableau (after the first three) That makes 590 points for all turned cards and a sum of 990 points for all eight completed sequences removed. Winning with all completed sequences on the tableau yields to a score of 1000. @{b}Strategy@{ub} Perhaps the best strategy is to create at least one "space" (a empty stack) for moving and sorting the disordered cards. So turn up as much cards as possible without leading the tableau to chaos. Thus create sequences where it is feasible, and use equivalent moving possibilities to sort and turn up new cards. First move the cards with the highest ranking so that you can hang other cards below them. But never move a King to early to an free space! @endnode @node "controls" "Controls" @{fg shine}Controlling Spider@{fg text} Spider opens a window in his own screen where it display the table with all cards. The program is controlled via Menu (see below, the A- denotes the right Amiga-key) or equivalent keyboard-shortcuts and the mouse by drop and drag. Menu-layout: Game Play Help ---------------- ---------- ----------------- New Game A-N Give A-G Suggest Move A-M Start Again A-A Undo A-U Information A-I Open A-O Redo A-R Save A-S Score A-# About Quit A-Q @{b}The Display@{ub} The spider window as four different entities. In the upper left corner the hand with the remaining cards. The eight outlines on the right are the placeholders for the removed suits. Below the placeholders are the eight stacks. On the bottom of the window sits an status-line where spider prints information or error messages. @{b}Playing@{ub} The moving of cards its totally done with the mouse. Please consider following list of possible actions and remember that even the cleared area below a stack belongs to them. Mouse-actions: * Move last sequence from stack (mouse-down) to stack (mouse-up). * Remove or move sequence to (hope so) best (mouse-down-up) place. * Move a single card or a part of an sequence to another stack. (Pick card at the top) * "Give" the next hand (mouse-up-down on the hand) * "Undo" (mouse-up-down in the free table) Spider also informs you of the current "Score" only on demand. With the action "Suggest move" the novice player get a good hint which cards he has to move next (it's still not perfect: has loops and looks no pace ahead). @{b}The Undo/Redo-buffer@{ub} Spider stores each performed move in an undo-redo buffer. You can go forward and back in this buffer with "Undo" and "Redo". The stored removes will be erased if the performed move differs with the next move in the redo-buffer. This mechanism allows the user to ship the cliffs of bad luck. But be honest to yourself, to play without using undo/redo is the true fulfillment! @{b}The Game@{ub} It's possible to restart the same game at the beginning ("Start Again") or play with fresh shuffled cards ("New Game"). You can also "Load" or "Save" a game-session (with full undo/redo-buffer) from or to a file. If you are interested how many moves you have done or the number of cards in the hand use "Information". @endnode @node "examples" "Examples" This package includes some sample game-sessions in the "Sessions" directory. You can "Load" and replay them by "Starting Again" and "Redo" my moves. So can learn about my strategy and have a starting point of games which can definitly solved. @endnode @node "author" "Author" Send your suggestions, bug-reports or flames to the author: Horst Ulrich Stolz Pfalzgrafenweg 22 71083 Herrenberg Germany email: stolz@hermes.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de @endnode @node "disclaimer" "Disclaimer" This package is public domain. It's code and documentation is totally written by the @{"author" link "author"} from scratch and comes with no warranties. All use is at your own risk. Spider software and documention are Copyright (C) 1995 by Horst U. Stolz. All rights reserved. AMIGA is a registered trademark of Commodore-Amiga, Inc. @endnode