Whist

by Les Howarth

 

Issue 32

Mar/Apr 88

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Les Howarth brings you two classic card games with classic Atari graphics

Computers are ideal for solo play games or for when you can't find a human opponent and card games can give hours of challenging play when the opponent is your Atari computer. This graphically superb program gives you the choice of two classic card games.

WALBURGE WHIST

The object of the gains to win most tricks. 13 cards are dealt to the player and to Atari. One Card is placed face up on the deck and this decides the trump suit throughout that game. A random choice decides who plays first, either the player or Atari. Whatever card is lead must be followed by a card of the same suit if able. If unable to follow suit then any card or a trump can be played.

A trick is won by the highest card of the suit lead or by a trump if suit not followed. The winner of each trick takes the card which is face up into his hand. The loser takes the next card in the pack which cannot be seen, therefore the number of cards in each players hand stays at 13. The next card is turned face up but trumps remain same. Play continues until there are no cards left in the deck. The hands are then played out with no pick ups off the deck.

BLACK MARIA

This is a well known version of Whist. The game is played similar to Walburge Whist but it does not matter how many tricks you take. The object of the game is to avoid winning any hearts or the Queen of Spades. Every heart taken in tricks count one point against you and winning the Queen of Spades counts five points against you. There is no trump suit and the top cards are not shown, but the entire deck is used as in Walburge Whist with cards being picked up to replace cards used from each players hand.

  AtariLister - requires Java

TYPING IT IN

DISK USERS:

1. Type in Listing 1, using TYPO 3 to check it, and SAVE the listing to disk.
2. Type in Listing 2, using TYPO 3, and SAVE it. The filenames used are not important.
3. Make sure that the disk you have saved the listings on is in Drive 1 and then RUN Listing 2. This will create a character set on your disk called GMK15.
4. To play the game RUN Listing 1 which will automatically load the character set. Listing 2 is now no longer required but the file GMK15 must always be on the same disk as Listing 1.

CASSETTE USERS:

The program was originally written for disk but we have made a number of modifications to allow cassette users to enjoy the program.

1. Type in Listing 1, using TYPO 3 to check it, but leave out lines 22005, 22010, 22020, 22030, 22040, 22050 and 22060. It is a good idea to CSAVE at this point for safety but do not delete the listing from memory.
2. With Listing 1 still in memory, type in Listing 2 leaving out lines 28000 and 28010.
3. Type in Listing 3, again with the main listing still in memory.
4. CSAVE the entire listing. It is a good idea to CSAVE a second copy at this point as the listing is very long.
5. To play the game just CLOAD and RUN in the normal way.

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