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loud cry of "muggins" so everyone
else in the room can hear.
If you are new to Cribbage you
should not play muggins rules
until you are comfortable with the
scoring system — the computer will
automatically add up your score
for you.
Next we cut for deal. In this
implementation of the game, whoever
cuts lowest wins the deal and
the first crib.
Six cards are dealt to each
player. Yours will be displayed on
the screen face-up, but the computer
can't "see" them. Your first
job is to discard two cards into the
crib.
The dealer may not look at the
crib yet, but at the end of the game
any scoring combinations it contains
count in his favour. So before
we go any further with the rules,
you need to know what scoring
combinations are allowed.
The order of cards in each suit
runs from Ace (low) to King (high).
Each card has a point value equivalent
to the number of pips on its
face. The court cards count as 10
each. The scoring combinations
and the amounts they score are as
follows:
Fifteen: Any two or more cards
totalling exactly 15, score two
points.
Pair: Two cards of the same rank,
score two points.
Three of a kind: Three cards of the
same rank, score six points.
Four of a kind: Four cards of the
same rank, score 12 points,
Run: Three or more cards in
sequence. score one point per card.
Flush: Four cards of one suit in the
hand, score four points.
Flush: Four cards in hand and start
card of same suit, score five points.
Some examples of a fifteen are
7-8, 5-1:1 end 2-4-9.
A hand containing 2-4-4-9
would count fifteen twice, once for
2-9 plus the first 4, and again for 2-
9 plus the second 4; the hand
would also score two for the pair
(six in total). But a hand 7-4-4
counts fifteen only once because
the two 4's must be used once
together instead of once in each
order to make up the total. They
still count two points for the pair,
of course.
If a player's four hand-cards are
60 AMIGA COMPttTING November 1990
Tactics
EN presented with your six two cards the computer discards.
cords, study all permutations to see If you play first, avoid laving
which four cards will give you the or a 10. Chances are the comp
will have either of these also,'
fib card, the start card, to be make a total of fifteen and peg
'en into consideration. You will points. Watch out for the comp
I . y see this once you have dis-
. carded two cards, so you will have
I
to use educated guesswork (luck)
here. Assume the start card will
s
help your scoring.
c Also take into consideration
playing first.
If it plays a 10, chances are
it also has a 5, so if you lay a 5
will get two points for fifteen
the computer will pair it off for
points itself.
o who has the crib. If it is the com-
r puter's crib, try not to throw it too
e many points. Giving it a pairs of 5's
would be close to disastrous.
.
Unless vou cheat (by selecting
R
Reveal On) you will not know what
e
m
Try to avoid making the count
reach 21 because the computer
may hold a 10 or a court card to
peg two points for 31.
The computer will try very hard
to make runs during play, be aware.
e
of the same suit, he may peg four
m
points for the flush, or five points
bif
the start card (see below) also
count 15, at which point he pegs
two points for bringing the count
to 15, and another three points for
ematches.
forming the three-card sequence 4-
r A score is credited for each dif- 5-6, even though they did not actu-
t ferent combination of cards that
h
can be made, Any individual card
may be used in different combina-
ations
or more than one of the same
ally appear in that order.
If the dealer now adds a 3. he
would score four points for a run
of four, extending the sequence to
t type. So a hand of 7-7-8-9 is
t scored cumulatively as follows:
3-4-5-6.
Flushes do not count in this
h Fifteen 2, fifteen 4, pair 6 and two
e
runs of three 12. Note that the 7's
r
not only count together as a pair.
but also can each be used in turn
e to score two different fifteens and
part of the game.
The play continues so long as
neither player brings the combined
count above 31. If you cannot add
a card without exceeding this
i two different three-card runs total, you must pass by clicking
s So that's the points system, now the GO button, whereupon the
back to the game.
After the discarding. the non-
computer must add as many cards
as it can without exceeding 31.
dealer cuts the pack and the dealer Whoever plays the last card
takes the top card of the bottom
half and lays it face up on the top.
pegs one point, or two if he brings
the count to exactly 31.
This card is known as the start If either player has cards left
card. If it is a lack, the dealer
immediately pegs "two for his
unplayed, those played so far are
turned face down and a new series
heels".
is played with the remaining cards
Before any combinations are up to 31 as before, the first card
scored, a little game of cat and being led by the opponent of the
mouse is played with the four player who played the last card in
cards each player is holding.
Starting with the non-dealer,
each player in turn plays one of
his cards face up in front of himself.
As each card is played, the
cumulative total of the cards
the preceding series. If this still
fails to exhaust all the cards, yet
another series is started. And so on
until all the cards in each player's
hand have been played.
Now we get the main scoring
played so far is displayed. If either round. Starting with the non-
player adds a card which forms a
scoring combination when considered
in conjunction with the previous
card or cards consecutively
dealer, each player scores for any
combinations his hand contains,
played. he is entitled to peg the
• • • • • • •••
points value for it. For example:
Non-dealer plays a 4; dealer
plays a 6 making the count 10;
non-dealer plays a 5 making the
IONIC IiO4411
.••• • • • •
••
CRIBBAGE was written in
HiSoft BASIC by 29-year-old
Kevin Farrow. This program.
plus its support files and documentation,
is Copyright
0
1
9
9
0
Mt
V011
considering the start card as if it
were part of his hand. Whoever
holds the Jack of the same suit as
the start card pegs "one for his
nob".
After the non-dealer counts his
hand, the dealer does the same.
Lastly, the dealer turns up the
cards in the crib and scores it as if
it were yet another hand, again
counting the start card as part of it.
As soon as one player reaches
the target score of 121 (twice round
the peg board), play ceases and that
player has won the game.
512k users
THE first thing Cribbage does on
running is open a couple of large,
med-res, four bitplane screens. It
therefore requires a fair amount of
memory. The game has been tested
on a vanilla A500, booting from the
cover disk, and it runs perfectly
well provided all other windows
are closed before double clicking
its icon.
If Cribbage fails to run and you
get an error requester, close down
all windows except the Cribbage
drawer one (including the main
disk window), type endcli into the
CU window, drag the Cribbage
icon on to the workbench and then
close down the Cribbage drawer
window.
Cribbage will now run correctly
on a vanilla A500 without problems,
unless, of course, you have
run something else previously
which hasn't given back all of the
memory it was using.
CONN=
NOVO