_____________________________________
| |
| QUINZAINE (XVN) |
| |
| a game by Jean-Etienne Doucet |
|_____________________________________|
v1.0 20/03/95
XVN is a 104 cards patience. You can
play it on an Atari ST or STe computer
in low rez only. It should work on TT
and Falcon 030 in ST Low mode, or so am
I told...
It's an almost free game: if you find
yourself playing it regularly, you're
required to send me a postcard from your
hometown. My address is below, near the
end of this doc file.
Magazines who put XVN on their cover
disk are asked to send me the correspon-
ding issue. PD or shareware distributors
can distribute XVN if they send me their
catalog where XVN appears.
I think it's not a really extortionate
price.
Game rules
==========
XVN is a patience with all the 104 cards
on the table at first. The only
randomness is in the initial deal, all
the rest of the game is on your own.
As usual, you've got to reorder the two
packs in two series, one ascending (from
Ace to King) and one descending (from
King to Ace), for each of the four
suits.
To achieve this goal, you can move
cards, one at a time, either to the
series, or to another column whose upper
card is in the same suit and have the
next upper or lower value. You always
can move a card to an empty column. Be
aware that a card put on a serie cannot
be brought back in the game.
When a column only contains cards that
form an ascending or descending serie,
you only can move on it cards that
respect this order; for example, if a
column is made of 6 and 7 of Heart, you
only can put an 8 of Heart on it.
Program control
===============
Control panel:
--------------
You get it by moving the mouse cursor
in the "XVN" window; a left click
activate the command.
Cards moves:
------------
Choose the card to be moved with a
left click on it; this doesn't work
if there's no move for this card.
If there's only one possible move, it
is done; otherwise, a question mark
is printed on the card and you have
to show the destination with a left
click; resign with a right click.
Multiple moves: you can move a group
of more than one card by selecting
the LAST card to be moved; this group
must be a regular cluster: same suit
and upper/lower next values.
When the game is blocked (no more
moves), you're given the choice to
either undo last moves or quit the
game.
Show all moves:
---------------
With this command, the game goes into
HELP mode; an arrow appears under the
first moveable card; each subsequent
left click brings it to the next
moveable card. Return to PLAY mode
with a right click.
Empty columns are not taken into
account: in this case, it may happen
that the game return at once in PLAY
mode.
Locate a card:
--------------
A panel with all the cards is
displayed: a left click on one of
them show you where they are. A right
click takes you back to PLAY mode.
Undo last move:
---------------
Game goes into UNDO mode, mouse
cursor is hidden. Each left click
undoes a move. You're back into PLAY
mode with a right click or when there
are no moves to undo.
Quit the game:
--------------
A confirmation is asked to know if
you really want to quit.
High Scores
===========
After you've moved the last card from
the board, you're told the number of
moves you've done and your score: the
lower the better. The ultimate best
score is 0 points, but you'll need some
luck to get it...
Points are awarded according to the
number of moves, including undo's,
you've made. Time doesn't count.
If your score is low enough, you may
enter the High Scores Gallery: enter
your name, or an empty string to cancel
your entry.
Delete the file XVN.SCR to clear the
High Scores Gallery.
Addresses
=========
This is version 1.0 of this game, so I
won't be surprised to hear about strange
or erroneous behaviors. Don't hesitate
to tell me if such things happen. I'd
also like to hear from you about
enhancements or changes.
The snail mail address is:
Jean-Etienne Doucet
38 chemin Malclabel
31500 Toulouse
France
For people who can access it, I've also
an e-mail address:
doucet@laas.fr
but this one is for bug reports or sug-
gestions only. Posts here don't count as
postcards.
Home made programs
==================
I've already written 4 games for the
Atari:
Spider: a nice but difficult 104
cards patience;
Hexmines: a sort of "MineSweeper" but
with hexagonal tiles;
Mariant: another 104 cards patience,
easier than Spider (the best one)
and XVN (the last one);
Molecule: a deduction game, based
upon the famous Black Box board
game.
All these games can be found on good FTP
sites or on good PD distributors
catalogs. In case you can't find them,
send me FF20 (US$5) and I'll send you
the very last version of each one.
Outside the European Community, double
prices: FF40 or US$10.
In progress:
------------
-- a space adventure game with
encounters, trading, exploration
and the so; don't expect it before
some reasonable time...
-- a (jazz) CD database designed to
find tracks by name, musicians,
instruments, recording dates. It
should be ready in a few months,
but it will not be a freeware
program.
You may not know, but it's quite late.
I'll stop here and hope to hear from you
soon.
J.-E. Doucet
Toulouse, March 20, 1995.