MARIANT, encore une reussite!
(A Solitaire Cards Game for the ST)
Version 1.1, September 17th, 1995
Jean-Etienne Doucet
IMPORTANT:
Mariant should run well on any ST or STE
but only in LOW RESOLUTION!
GAME RULES:
Just a word about "encore une reussite",
this is a wordplay in French: "reussite"
means "a brilliant achievement, a
success" but also "a card solitaire".
This closes our French learning time.
Now to history: Mariant is a short form
of "Marie Antoinette", the real name of
this game, coming from a queen of France
who had serious problems during the
French revolution: it was her favorite
solitaire, or so says the legend...
Back to serious things: the game:
Mariant is played with 104 cards
(2 packs). The aim of the game is to
sort all the cards in the 8 suits.
The board is made out of 10 columns,
initially filled with face-up and face-
down cards (see Initial Setup below),
and the deck of remaining cards: it
is not materialized, but you can know
how many cards are left at any time.
You can move cards from one column to
another: all the cards must form a valid
group, and the first card of the group
must be compatible with the last card of
the destination column. A valid group is
a suite of cards, starting with the last
card of the column, such that each card
is compatible with the preceding card.
Compatibility: one can put a card onto
another if:
- it is of the next higher rank,
- it is of any suit except the other
red or black;
Examples:
- a 5 of Spades may go onto a 6 of any
color but Clubs; or in an empty
column;
- a King may only move into an empty
column.
When moving cards from one column to
another, you may move only a part of a
group, not necessarily a whole group.
You can move any group (or subgroup) in
an empty column.
When a group is formed by a complete
suit (Ace to King), it may be removed
from the game; this may be useful to
free cards underneath this group.
The game is won when all that's left on
the board are complete suits.
INITIAL SETUP:
At the beginning of a game, you are
asked for the number of face-up / face-
down cards in each column: you can have
up to 7 cards, with no less than 2 face-
down and 1 face-up cards. To set the
number of face-up cards (resp. face-
down), put the mouse cursor on any face-
up (resp. face-down) card: clicking on
the left button will increase the number
whilst the right button decreases it.
MOVING CARDS:
To move cards, you have to 1) select the
cards to be moved, and 2) determine the
destination column.
You can select the topmost group of a
column with a left click under the last
card of the column or on the very first
card of the column. You can select a
subgroup by a left click on the starting
card of the subgroup.
The current selection is marked by a
yellow outline. Use a right click to
de-select.
To determine the destination column, you
just click the left button anywhere in
this column.
To eliminate a complete suit, move it to
its own column.
If an attempted move is illegal, you can
hear a sort of grunt, the move is not
done but the selection remains active.
CONTROL PANEL:
A right click will pop-up the control
panel and its 6 operations. To cancel,
use the right mouse button. The opera-
tions are selected with a left click on
the corresponding button. These are:
- HELP: will put a little marker under a
column if its topmost group may be
moved on an other column; please note
that Help only deals with entire
groups, not with subgroups; if no
moveable column is found, you're then
advised to use an empty column or to
deal a new hand;
- DEAL: will deal one remaining card on
each non empty column; the Deal button
also helps in ending the game, see
"Auto Ending" below;
- UNDO: goes back one or more moves;
when the UNDO button is "lighted", it
means that undoing the move will flag
you as a cheater and you will not have
access to the Best Scores, whatever
your number of points;
- VIEW: is used to "remove" some card
rows from the display: selected the
first and last row to hide; to return
to the normal display, choose View
once again;
- INFO: gives you your current score and
the number of cards still to be dealt:
this is called "reste" (in French!);
you may also have a look at the Top 10
Best Players list;
- QUIT: does what it says, but only
after a confirmation.
AUTO ENDING
When each non-empty column contains only
a full group (King to Ace) and there are
no more cards to deal, you may ask the
computer (usually an Atari ST or STE)
to finish the game by doing the correct
permutations between columns: this is
called an "Auto Ending" and may be
achieved via the DEAL command of the
Control Panel. The first time the AE is
possible, the program proposes it
(along with some music!); after that,
you'll have to explicitely ask for it.
Nothing is free (except this game!!):
you'll have to pay some points; in fact
they will be added to your stock.
Doing the permutations by hand may lead
to a better score... So, the Auto Ending
is of some concern only for people who
don't care about the Hit Parade.
Anyway, it exists!
SCORING
Points awarding is quite simple:
1 pt for each move,
2 pts for an UNDO,
5 pts for each empty column found
during a deal, except in the case
where all the non-empty columns
only contain ONE group;
removing an entire group is free.
There are bonuses:
-20% for each face-down card added,
-10% for each face-up card added
when choosing the setup.
Thus, if you add one face-up and one
face-down card, you'll score only 70% of
a normal score...
If your final score is good enough, you
may enter the Hit Parade; if you don't
want it, just enter an empty name.
To reset the Hit Parade, delete the file
MARIANT.SCR.
TECHNICAL CONSIDERATIONS
Mariant is written in GFA Basic (v3.07F)
and packed with PFXPAK.
All the graphics are made with CrackArt,
and the music has been done with a nice
program called MUSIC EDITOR (musedt), by
Seymour Schlien, and that you can find
on any good ftp site. (The tune is a
variation on "Freight Train", taken from
a guitar tablature from a folk guitar
record).
REPLACEMENT FOR THE SHAREWARE PLEA
This game is ABSOLUTELY FREE (*), and
you can distribute and spread it as you
like, but for one thing: keep the game
(PRG) and the docs (DOC) files together.
(*) This name is copyrighted by the
late Frank Zappa...
However, since you'll soon be spending
hundreds of hours playing Mariant, I
suggest you could take 1/4 hour to buy
a postcard and send it to me, as a sort
of shareware fee: you know, this way I
could start a postcards collection
instead of writing stupid games like M.
My address is:
Jean-Etienne Doucet
38 chemin Malclabel
31500 Toulouse
France
or by e-mail (but this doesn't count as
a real postcard):
doucet@laas.fr
Thanking you in advance.
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PS: if you don't already know it, I've
written a very similar game: SPIDER
that you may try, but it's harder than
Mariant.