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PLEASE NOTE. I HAVE MERGED BLACKJACK LAB,AND CARD GAMES DOCUMENTS
TOGETHER FOR CONVENIENCE OF READING,PLUS ALSO TO SAVE SOME DISK
SPACE!
"Blackjack Lab" by Dan Cogliano, Version 1.0.1 Release Notes
May 3, 1990
===========================================================================
B L A C K J A C K L A B I S A S H A R E W A R E P R O G R A M !
"Blackjack Lab" is a freely distributable, copyrighted program for posting
on bulletin boards, as long as the original LHARC file and all files within
it are included and remain unaltered, and may not be duplicated or utilized
for any commercial purposes without the expressed, written consent of the
author. No fee can be charged for this program except for implied fees due
to downloading and fees based solely on media costs and duplication
and shipping.
You now have in your possession one of the most powerful blackjack programs
available on ANY microcomputer today! This program has taken over 1 and
1/2 years to develop. If you enjoy using this program, you are encouraged to
become a registered user. Your support of high quality shareware programs
will encourage future enhancements to this product, and encourage other
programmers to continue developing more high quality shareware products.
As a thank-you gift from the author, you will receive the following
bonuses when you become a registered user of "Blackjack Lab":
- A printed user's manual (over 30 pages), which includes not only a
complete description of the program, but also explains basic strategy
and card counting techniques.
- A diskette containing the latest version of "Blackjack Lab", complete
with the save feature enabled.
- Casino rule files for 10 casinos from around the world, including Las Vegas
and Atlantic City (not to mention video blackjack!).
- Strategy files for Las Vegas and Atlantic City.
- Expanded help facility, including on-line user's manual and glossary.
- A complete course on how to learn blackjack basic strategy and card
counting, using the program's unique experiment facility.
- Advance information on future enhancements.
- And last, but not least, the author's undying gratitude.
To register, send $25 ($30 if outside U.S. or Canada) in U.S. check
or money order to:
Dan Cogliano
P.O. Box 1379
Pasadena, Maryland 21122 U.S.A.
===========================================================================
* Program Features *
"Blackjack Lab" contains the following features:
- The ability to simulate nearly any casino blackjack game in the world
(and allow for future rule changes). Registered users receive rules for
10 casinos from around the world.
- Allow the use of the most popular playing strategies (basic strategy and
card counting) and allow modification to them.
- Color-coded strategy tables to enhance the learning of the strategy.
- Tracking of play statistics (# of hands played, bankroll limits,
casino profitability and others).
- Computer monitoring of blackjack play, and informing the player when
an incorrect play has been made.
- Allowing from 1 to 7 players to play the game, and the computer can be
allowed to play any or all of the hands at the table using a user-defined
playing strategy, simulating other players at a real casino table.
- An interactive on-line help facility.
- A special practice mode, which drills the blackjack student with various
hand combinations (determined in advance by the user), keeping track of
incorrect plays and repeating them until correct.
- A self-running demo mode.
- The ability to customize the program to meet the needs and preferences of
the player.
- Digitized sound and card dealing animation.
- On-line "experiments" are available to registered users and serve as a
complete course for learning to play winning blackjack.
- Loading the program from either a floppy disk or a hard disk.
- Multitasking gracefully if there is sufficient memory.
===========================================================================
* Self Running Demo *
To start the self-running demo, type "BJL:Blackjack BJL:Demo" from the CLI,
or double-click the "Demo" icon from the workbench. To stop the demo,
toggle the "Bet Window" option under the game menu. After the current game
is finished, the bet window will appear. Press the "Current Game" gadget to
avoid starting another game. Select "Quit" from the project menu to quit
the program.
Using "Fast Demo" disables the card animation and speeds up dealer play to
allow nearly 300,000 hands to be played in a 24 hour period (make sure to put
the screen behind workbench to get best performance results).
===========================================================================
* Tour of Blackjack Lab *
1. Type "BJL:Blackjack" from the CLI, or double-click the "Blackjack" icon
from the workbench. press "OK!" gadget when the "About Blackjack Lab"
window appears. The game play table has the name of the casino and
the payout odds at the top, and the play gadgets at the bottom.
The lower right corner shows the number of cards and the equivalent
number of 1/4 decks in the discard pile. This information is
useful to the card counter. When the discard pile turns yellow, the
deck will be shuffled after completion of the current game. The deck
of cards is spread across the table, signifying this table is open
and is ready to receive players.
2. Select "New Game/Bets" under game menu. Click at "Player 4", then
again at the edit box. Change the name to your own name, and press
<RETURN>. Click at the Bet total for Player 4, then the top half
of the blue chip. This will increase your bet by $10. Clicking on
the lower half of the chip will decrease your bet by the same
amount. If you hold down the mouse button when you click on a chip,
the chip amount will repeat. Modify your bet to show $25. Press
the "New Game" gadget, and the dealer will begin a new game, discarding
any current game in progress. The "Current Game" option is used if
you wish to modify the parameters and return to the current game.
3. Play a few hands, by pressing the gadgets at the bottom, or by
using the function keys on the keyboard (F1 for Stand, F2 for Hit,
etc.). In a two person game, one person can use the mouse while the
other person uses the keyboard. Now, click on the monitor gadget for
player 4 the next time the bet window appears. Now, if you do not
pick the best play, the computer will inform you what the best play
is for that hand. You can find out what the best play is anytime by
choosing "Hint" from the game menu. Choosing "Shuffle" from the game
menu will force a shuffle of the cards after the current game, not
immediately. You should notice that the discard pile has turned yellow,
signifying a shuffle will occur.
4. Select "Preferences" from the project menu. Choose one of the card
backs and press the USE gadget. Play a few more hands.
5. We will now change casino rules. From the function menu, select
"House Rules". Then from the project menu, choose Open, switch
to the Rules drawer, and pick the "Hard Luck Casino" rules, and press
the OK! gadget.
6. Switch back to the Game Play Screen using the function menu. The casino
name will change to "Hard Luck Casino" and both the surrender and
split gadgets will disappear the following game. This is so because the
Hard Luck Casino does not have either the surrender or split rule, so
there are no gadgets for them.
7. From the Bet window, enter $25 bets for players 3 and 5. Toggle
the HUMAN gadgets to ROBOT for these two players and press "New Game".
Now, you have two robot players playing on either side of you!
The program will pause when it is your turn, and will play the
robot hands automatically. This closely simulates a real casino
where other players are seated at the same table with you. Toggle
the ROBOT gadget for your seat, and the computer will play all
three hands. Toggle the Bet Window option in the game menu to
disable the bet window, and the computer will play indefinitely
until you re-enable the Bet Window option.
8. Press "Current Game" from the Bet Window, and choose Game Stats from
the game menu. Blackjack Lab has been watching you! This screen shows
the maximum and minimum bets and bankrolls for each player,
as well as the number of hands played and the casino
profitability.
9. Select the Practice option in the function menu, then select the
"New Drill" option from the drill menu. The computer will test you
with various play combinations, remembering your mistakes and
repeating problem hands. Use the Drill Stats option in the
drill menu to check on the problem hands and to see how well you are
doing.
10. From the function menu, select "Help". Blackjack Lab contains an
easy to use, interactive help facility. To find an index of the topics
available, click on the words "Help Index" at the top left of the
help window. If a topic is longer than one screen can display, you
can "turn the page" by clicking on the page gadgets in the lower
right of the help window. Click on "Quit" to quit the help facility.
11. Other features of the program include customizing the casino rules,
playing strategy and card counting (card counting is for the advanced
player), which you may want to check out.
===========================================================================
* General Notes *
Rule changes do not take effect in game play until the next round. Rule
changes for the deck (for example, number of decks) do not take effect
until the next time the deck is shuffled. Shuffling can be forced by the
user, however.
Although not tested fully, I ran this program for about 5 minutes on a beta
version of the Amiga 3000 running workbench 2.0. It worked fine, and boy,
was it fast too! Try the Fast Demo on this machine!
Refer to the on-line help for more information about the program.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
END OF BLACKJACK LAB DOCUMENTS
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CardGames by Martin Wilson
--------------------------
Introduction.
-------------
This game is based upon a game I found on an IBM PC for which I could find no
counterpart in the Amiga world.
The game contains 6 different solitaire type card games called Pyramid,
Golf, Klondike, Corners, Calculation and Canfield each of which can be
selected for play on it's own.
The game has a further option called the Grand Tour in which all 6 games are
played one after the other.
Each of the 6 games game is described in detail below.
Note. with the Grand Tour option the program maintains a high score table
where the score is the accumulation of the score on each game (if a
game is won - score 52 - then a bonus of 50% is given - 26 points) -
the maximum score is then 6 * (52 + 26) = 468.
The games are played completely with the mouse by simply clicking on the
card to be moved and clicking on where to move it. The game selection is also
done using the mouse to simply point at which game is to be played and
clicking the left mouse button.
Pyramid.
--------
The objective of Pyramid is to move all cards to the foundation pile (one
pile in this case).
Twenty-eight cards are dealt into a pyramid-shaped tableau with the rows of 1
to 7 cards overlapping. Only the fully exposed (uncovered) cards are
"available" to be played (with one exception, noted below).
The cards are moved to the foundation (automatically) in pairs which total
13 points (the point value of each card is equal to it's face value, i.e.
Ace=1, Jack=11, Queen=12, King=13 regardless of suit/colour).
As the King has a value of 13, it is moved to the foundation bt itself (not
as a pair).
The Queen (12) is moved with an Ace (1) as it's pair, the Jack (11) is moved
with a 2, 10 with a 3, etc.
Cards are moved by first selecting an "available" card (it will flash when
selected) and then selecting it's "available pair. If the two cards selected
total 13 points they will be moved to the foundation pile otherwise man error
message will be displayed and the first selected card remains selected.
To unselect a card simply select it a second time.
The exception to the "available card" rule on the tableau is if the card
selected is the only card covering it's pair, then the covered card may be
selected as the pair for the first selected card.
Play begins by selecting all pairs (or Kings) that can be played from the
tableau. Then, turn the cards from the stack (by simply selecting the stack)
and pair the top stack card with either an available card from the tableau or
with the top card of the waste pile. (The top cards from the stack, the waste
pile and available cards from the tableau are all playable). If the stack
card cannot be played, it must be placed on the waste pile.
The game ends when no more pairs can be selected to be moved to the
foundation pile. To win you must have moved all cards from the stack, the
waste pile and the tableau to the foundation pile.
Golf.
-----
The objective of Golf is to move cards to the foundation pile (one pile in
this case).
The tableau is dealt with thirty-five cards (7 columns with 5 cards in each
column). Only fully exposed (uncovered) are available to play on to the
foundation pile.
Cards are moved from the tableau in either ascending or descending order
(regardless of suit or colour) according to the top card on the foundation
pile. Aces are considered low and Kings high (therefore, one an Ace has been
played onto the foundation pile only a 2 not a King may be played onto it).
Play begins from the top card of the foundation pile. For example, if the top
card of the foundation pile is a 5, then a 4 or a 6 may be moved from the
tableau to the foundation pile. (Simply select the card to be moved and then
select the foundation pile). If a 4 is moved to the foundation pile, then a
3 or a 5 may be moved from the tableau to the foundation pile. Play
continues in this way until none of the fully exposed tableau cards can be
moved to the foundation pile.
At this point, the top card of the stack is played to the foundation pile
(this is done by simply selecting the stack) and play from the tableau can
then be resumed.
Whenever a King is played onto the foundation pile, play from the tableau
stops and the next card must be selected from the stack before play can be
resumed from the tableau.
The game ends when there are no more cards in the stack and no cards can be
moved from the tableau to the foundation pile. To win you must move all cards
from the stack and from the tableau to the foundation pile.
Klondike.
---------
The objective of Klondike is to move all cards to the foundation piles (four
piles in this case).
Twenty-eight cards are dealt into a tableau of 7 columns, the first column
containing one card, the second containing two cards, and so on to the
seventh column containing seven cards. When the game begins all cards in the
tableau are face-down except for the fully exposed (bottom) card in each
column which is face-up. Only fully exposed (face-up) cards in the tableau
are available for play.
The stock is "turned" (by simply selecting the stock) 3 cards at a time onto
the waste pile. If the top card of the waste pile can be played onto a
foundation pile or onto tne tableau, the next waste pile card becomes
available for play and so on. When the entire stock has been turned onto the
waste pile, it is available to be turned again by selecting the blank space
where the stack would normally be located. This process may be repeated until
no more available cards can be played to the foundation piles or the tableau.
Cards are played on each other in the tableau in descending order (i.e. King,
Queen, Jack, Ten, etc) alternating red (hearts and diamonds) with black
(clubs and spades). As long as this pattern is maintained in each column,
cards can be played to the tableau from the top of the waste pile or from
"available" cards from other columns in the tableau.
Cards are "available" in the tableau to play to other columns if they are the
first face-up card in the column (the bottom card). If this card has other
cards already played on it (i.e. there is more than 1 face-up card in the
column) then all face-up cards move as a unit to the new column. Kings may be
played to vacant columns emptied by the movement of cards to the foundation
piles or to other columns in the tableau.
When an available card (or unit of cards) is moved from a column the next
face-down card in the column (if there is one) is turned over (i.e. is made
face-up).
The foundation piles are built up starting with Aces and continuing in
ascending order according to suit in the spaces above the tableau. Cards may
be played to the foundation piles from either the waste pile or the tableau.
The game ends when no more moves are possible from the waste pile or from the
tableau to the foundation piles. To win you must move all cards from the
tableau and the waste pile to the foundation piles (i.e. four foundation
piles with 13 cards in each for the four suits).
Corners.
--------
The objective of Corners is to move all cards to the foundation piles (four
piles in this case).
The playing area consists of a 3 by 3 box where the corners of the box are
the foundation piles and the "cross pattern" left is the tableau. 5 cards are
dealt to the "cross pattern" and the first foundation pile card is dealt (to
the top left hand corner). The other 3 foundation piles must then be started
with the same face value as has been dealt to the first foundation pile card.
The stock is turned (by selecting the stack) 1 card at a time onto the waste
pile from which the top card is available to be played onto the tableau or to
one of the foundation piles. In this game, the waste pile cannot be turned
over and replayed (as in Klondike). The only way to play from the waste pile
is with the current topmost card. When the entire stock has been turned over
to the waste pile and no more cards can be played (from the waste pile or the
tableau), the game is over.
Cards are played to the tableau in descending order regardless of suit/colour
(i.e. King, Queen, Jack, etc). As long as this pattern is maintained in each
tableau stack, cards can be played onto the tableau from the top card of the
stock, the top card of the waste pile or "available" cards from other tableau
stacks.
Cards are "available" in the tableau to be played onto other tableau stacks
or onto foundation piles if they are the topmost card in the tableau stack.
Cards are played to the foundation piles in ascending order according to suit
(i.e. Ace, 2, 3,...,Jack, Queen, King).
Note: in Corners, Aces and Kings are considered neither high nor low, they
are merely part of a cycle whose order depends on whether play is to the
tableau or to a foundation pile. Therefore if a tableau stack contains a 2,
then you can play an Ace on it followed by a King on the Ace, Queen on the
King, etc. If a foundation pile starts with a Queen, you can play a King on
it followed by an Ace on the King, a 2 on the Ace, etc.
The game ends when the entire stock has been "turned over" to the waste pile
and no more moves are possible. To win you must move all cards from the
stock, the waste pile and the tableau to the foundation piles.
Calculation.
------------
The objective of Calculation is to move all cards to the foundation piles
(four piles in this cases).
The game begins with a tableau of 4 columns containing no cards at the
outset. The four foundation piles have been dealt with 1 starting card in
each pile (Ace, 2, 3 and 4). The foundation piles are built (regardless of
suit/colour) by 1's in the first pile (Ace, 2,3,4,etc), 2's in the second
pile(2,4,6,8,etc), 3's in the third pile (3,6,9,Queen,etc) and 4's in the
last pile (4,8,Queen,3,etc). The name of this game is derived from the
necessity to "calculate" which card to play next onto each foundation pile.
The complete order for each foundation pile is as follows :
pile 1.. A,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,J,Q,K
pile 2.. 2,4,6,8,10,Q,A,3,5,7,9,J,K
pile 3.. 3,6,9,Q,2,5,8,J,A,4,7,10,K
pile 4.. 4,8,Q,3,7,J,2,6,10,A,5,9,K
The stock is "turned" (by selecting the stock) 1 card at a time and this card
must be played either onto a foundation pile or played onto one of the four
tableau stacks. The tableau stacks follow no order and no colour pattern,
they are simply used to "hold" cards until they can be played onto a
foundation pile.
Once a card has been placed in one of the tableau stacks, the card can then
only be moved to a foundation pile (not to another tableau stack) and only
the fully exposed (bottom) card of each tableau stack is available for play.
The game ends when the stock is exhausted and nor more moves can be made to
the foundation piles. To win you must move all cards from the stock and from
the tableau to the foundation piles.
Canfield.
---------
The objective of Canfield is to move all cards to the foundation piles (four
piles in this case).
The cards are dealt into a tableau of 4 columns (with the four foundation
piles immediately above) with each column containing 1 card dealt face-up at
the outset. The game uses 2 stocks; the main stock at the top left of the
screen and a holding stock below the main stock (the holding stock initially
contains 13 cards).
The main stock is "turned" (by selecting the main stock) 3 cards at a time
onto it's waste pile. If the top card of this waste pile can be played onto
the tableau or onto a foundation pile then the next card in the waste pile
becomes available for play. When the entire stock has been turned onto it's
waste pile, it is available to be "turned again" by selecting the blank space
where the main stock would normally be (in a similar manner to Klondike).
The holding stock is "turned" (by selecting the holding stock) 1 card at a
time onto it's waste pile. If the top card of this waste pile can be played
onto the tableau or onto a foundation pile then the next card the the waste
pile becomes available for play. When the holding stock has been turned onto
it's waste pile it cannot be "turned again", it is now exhausted and only the
top card in it's waste pile is available for play.
Cards are played onto the tableau in descending order (K,Q,J,10,etc)
alternating red (hearts and diamonds) with black (clubs and spades) in a
similar manner to Klondike. As long as this pattern is maintained in each
tableau column, cards can be moved to the tableau from the "main stock" waste
pile, the "holding stock" waste pile or from "available" cards in other
tableau columns. Vacant tableau columns emptied by moves to other columns (or
the foundation pile) may only be filled from the "holding stock" waste pile
until the "holding stock" and it's waste pile have been exhausted at which
time Kings from the "main stock" waste pile may be played to these vacant
columns.
Cards are "available" in the tableau to play to other columns if they are the
first face-up card in the column (the bottom card). If this card has other
cards already played on it (i.e. there is more than 1 face-up card in the
column) then all face-up cards move as a unit to the new column.
The foundation piles are built up in ascending order according to suit
starting from an Ace. Cards may be played to the foundation piles from the
"main stock" waste pile, the "holding stock" waste pile or from the tableau.
The game ends when no more plays are possible from the waste piles or from
the tableau. To win you must move all cards from the stock, waste piles and
tableau to the foundation piles.
=============================================================================
Notes:
This game requires the following library files in the Libs directory
of the disk on which the game is started :
mathieeedoubbas.library
mathieeedoubtrans.library
mathtrans.library
The game expects to find itself and all required files in the same
directory. The following files are required along with the main
program :
CardGames.DAT - a binary file containing the card graphics
HighScore.DAT - the highscore file
If "CardGames.DAT" cannot be found in the same directory as the main
program, the program will abort with the error message "File not
found".
If "HighScore.DAT" cannot be found in the same directory as the main
program, it will be created and used therafter. It is therefore quite
OK to delete the HighScore.DAT file and let the program create another
empty file.
=============================================================================
The program was written in Hisoft Basic on an Amiga 500 with 1Mb of RAM and
was compiled with no shared library so that it is completely stand alone
(other than the need for the maths function libraries).
The game has been tested on a standard Amiga 500 with no expanded memory and
was found to work satisfactorily with no memory problems.
The program (and each game contained in the program) has been thoroughly
tested and appears to be bug free (famous last words !!).
Please send bug reports, suggestions for improvements or any other comments
to :
Martin Wilson
58, Swinfield Close,
Hanworth,
Middlesex,
TW13 6YW,
England