VB programs - Version 0.1   by Mexelite

RUMMY 500 (Version 3.81) - README.TXT ===================================== ** See "Having Problems?" below if the cards don't display correctly. ** ** Also review the "Frequently Asked Questions" in RUMMY500.FAQ. ** ** RUMMY 500 may not be able to display cards at resolutions at ** ** resolutions of more than 256 colors on your system. ** 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, U.S. funds only) 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 America 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 (3╜" 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 a recent version 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 3.81 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 3.81 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. 4. Deficiency of the graphics driver handling Windows BitBlt functions. 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 - Scoreboards. 2.11 - Minor improvements. Version 2.2 - Player can freely select the last discard. Version 2.3 - Startup window. Version 3.0 - 3D-style user interface. - Multiple player scoreboards . - AutoResume. - Sound effects. 3.01 - Maintenance release 3.02 - Maintenance release Version 3.5 - Conforms to "Hoyle's Rules Of Games". - Suggest. - Undo. - Hall Of Fame. - League Table. - Displays of total games won. - Swap Cards. - AutoPlayer. - Quick Display. - Animate Display. - Restructured menus. - Revised card taking algorithms for "Expert" & "Champion". - Updated Help. 3.51 - Revised discard algorithms. Version 3.6 - Changed method of taking discards. - Undo Version 3.7 - Sort by Suit - Show Remaining Version 3.8 - Fixed problem whereby valid melds were sometimes deemed invalid following the use of the "undo" capability. - Fixed problem whereby Rummy 500 would occasionally hang when opponent ("Novice") was discarding its last card. - Added "Overlap Melds" option to force meld overlapping and reduce distraction of meld compression on slower systems. - Added "Display Turn Count" option to display current turn number within a round. - Enhanced winability of "Expert" and "Champion" skill levels by approximately 14%. - Added "Master" skill level; even smarter than "Champion". - All sorting is now done in order of Clubs, Diamonds, Spades, Hearts in order to more clearly differentiate them by color. 3.81 - Removed the check for >256 colors because some users are able to run at these higher resolutions. ⌐ MeggieSoft Games 1994, 1995. All Rights Reserved.