							       

                   EUCHRE  card  game  from  SPECIAL K




                             release 3.23 - 2025

			    	           created by G.M.McKAY





 COMPUTER REQUIREMENTS:

      Any 486, pentium or better IBM compatible computer will successfully 
run this game as long as it can run Windows, and has over 8 Mb  of 
memory.  It  will  use any sound driver that your Windows has fitted 
(ie. a sound card or PC speaker driver).   A mouse is preferable (as with 
all  Windows activities), but this is not a requirement.  It works best if 
Windows has a standard screen resolution, such as 640x480, 800x600, 
1024x768, or 1280x1024.   However, it can accommodate any resolution.




 DISTRIBUTION:

       This copyrighted game is distributed under the SHAREWARE system which 
depends upon your support for on-going development.   You are encouraged to 
freely copy and distribute this product unaltered to  friends,  business 
associates, bulletin boards and user groups.   HOWEVER THIS  PRODUCT IS NOT 
FREE !   You have an evaluation period of two weeks.  If you decide you do 
not like the game, simply pass the disk along to someone else.   If you are 
still using "EUCHRE from SPECIAL K" after two weeks  of  evaluation, you are 
obligated to send a minimum payment of $40.   If the future of low-cost 
quality software is to continue, we all must support this concept.   If you  
cheat on this payment may you be constantly finessed.  

       When you register, you get lots of goodies, as well as that warm 
feeling that only comes from the knowledge that you are more saintly than the 
scum around you.   Read the end of this file to find out about all the 
goodies.
 
       If you registered a previous version that gave you life time 
registrations (like this one does), simply setup this Shareware program on 
top of the previous one (ie into the same directory).  It will become 
registered.


RUNNING IT:

       See later in this file for full details on installing this program (if 
you are reading this, then chances are that you have already installed it 
correctly).

       Once the program has been installed, running it is as easy as clicking
on the icon installed in your Windows START button Programs group.  If this
is too easy, you can also start it by double clicking on EUCHRE.EXE in the 
File Explorer (naturally you have to find the correct directory if you choose
the hard way).





LET'S PLAY:


       In keeping with the traditions of Shareware, the preliminary screen 
you see is a "nuisance screen", reminding you of the virtues and good Karma 
bestowed upon you by registering the program.   The delay time increase from 
10 seconds to 20 seconds after a month if you do not register.

       The first menu you see is the Main Menu which allows you to set the 
bidding rules, Misere rules, personal preferences (eg card table colour), 
view these instructions, and print out a registration form.   You can alter 
this menu's background picture in the registered version of the game.   
In the registered version place your Bit Map picture in the directory 
which contains the "EUCHRE" files, and call it "BACKGRND.BMP".



"start game"

       Obviously, you press the top button on the menu to start the game.   
You can access this Main Menu at any time during a game, and return to the 
same game.



"bidding rules" - 

i)  There are a myriad of local rules for the euchre card game.   This is 
a consequence of it being so popular among so many societies.   The more 
common rules are accommodated here.   You can choose to play with 24, 
25, 32, or 33 cards.   25 and 33 cards use a .b(Benny), usually represented 
by the Joker, which becomes the highest trump.

ii)  You can choose what sort of partner to have.   You can have a partner who 
bids conservatively, standard, or as a cowboy.   This way, your partner's 
style can match your own.   This affects your opponents as well as your partner.

iii)  Some people play that any person can play alone, and some that only the 
declarer can play alone.   If any person can play alone you can have the 
situation where only one player from the declaring side and only one from the 
defending site play - in this case the defending player leads first.

iv)  You can choose how many points constitute a game.

v)  If the Benny is turned up as the card in the centre (if you are playing with 
a Benny), you can choose whether it automatically becomes a Heart and bidding 
continues as normally, or whether the dealer must nominate a suit (before 
looking at their cards) and wins the bidding.

vi)  If you get a bad hand, you may want to be able to order a re-deal.   Options 
here are to order a re-deal if you have no face cards (ie Jack, Queen, or King) 
and one or more Aces, or order a re-deal if you have no face cards or Aces 
(ie, no Jack, Queen, King, Ace).   The last option is also known as Farmer's Hand.





"Rules Variation" -
i)  A popular variation of the most common rules is that the dealer's partner is not 
free to order up the exposed card into his partner's hand during the first round of 
bidding.   His only options are to pass or to order it down - ie. choose the card as 
trumps, but play alone.

ii)  If the defending team win all five possible tricks, they may get a hearty 
well done congratulation, or may be rewarded with a Super Euchre worth four points.

iii)  The person who feels inclined to order up a card to bid a suit, or to simply 
nominate a suit in the second round of bidding, may be free to do this without 
encumbrance, or may have to already possess one of the suit in order to do this 
(you may question why a person would want to do this with none of the suit, but you 
cannot delve too deeply into your partner's thought processes.

iv)  Any person playing alone, may want the option to receive a card from their 
partner.   Their partner chooses the card to pass over without help, and the bidder 
must discard a card (or decline their partner's card) without looking at the card 
being passed to them.   If your partner is the dealer, you can choose whether they 
can accept the turned up card before picking their best card to pass to you.

v)  A popular option is to force the dealer to bid if no one has done so by the end 
of the second round of bidding.   This prevents multiple deals where everyone 
becomes timid and passes continually.




"Preferences" -
i)  If you have installed a sound driver in your Windows, you can choose the 
level of sound you want.   The Full Sound option makes congratulatory 
noises at every opportunity and calls the bids made, while Part Sound is 
somewhat more discrete.  Euchre From Special K supports all sound cards that your 
Windows is set up for.   This includes the standard PC speaker if you have 
installed a speaker driver.

ii)  You can also set the volume of the sound.   Typically, mixer programs 
allow you to set the individual components of sound (eg Wave, Midi, Microphone, 
CD player, etc) as well as the total volume.   You can only set this volume if 
you have chosen the Full Sound, or Part Sound options.

iii)  When you adjust the colour of the card table, the colour of the background 
changes instantaneously.   This helps you to choose the colour that you 
really want.   Remember that if you decide on a dark colour, any black 
writing will be difficult to read.
       Remember also that Windows can be customised to view different numbers 
of colours (through the Display icon in the Control Panel).   
Many people choose not to show millions of individual colours, but stick to 256.   
When an application, like Euchre, tries to show a colour which is not an exact 
colour, then Windows will dither it.   This means that over the background, 
it will show a series of dots and crosses to approximate the colour that you 
chose.   You will quickly find that Windows dithering does not help readability.   
If you do not find a card table colour you like, you can always set up Windows 
to show more colours (and less dithering).
       If you do not like the colour you have chosen - change it to another.
       You can also choose various background textures to your card table.

iv)  You can give names to the buddies that you are playing with, or simply 
leave them as Player 1, 2 & 3, or West, North & East.

v)  You can display tool tips or not.   These show the name of cards and 
options.

vi)  You can slow down or quicken the game by adjusting the length of time 
for which the cards are displayed during a hand.   This also affects the time 
bids are displayed.

vii)  Similarly, you can adjust the speed at which the cards move.   So if you 
have a slow computer, or are simply in a hurry to get the cards played, you 
can set this to a fast speed.

viii)  The number of games won and lost are recorded.  Press the reset button to 
set these game scores back to zero.

ix)  You can change the order in which your cards are displayed in your hand. 


"help"

       These instructions can be read from the text file EUCHRE.TXT, or 
from the "help" menu button.   Use the scroll bar, or navigation keys, 
to read the whole document.   Exit HELP to return to the Main Menu.



"register"

       If you have read this far, you know that this enjoyable program is NOT 
free, but is being distributed as SHAREWARE.   This means that if you 
continue to use it past a short evaluation period, you must register it.   
This option helps you to print out the registration form.   If there is a 
problem printing through Windows, the form is stored in a file called 
REGO.FRM in your EUCHRE directory.   You can print this out from 
DOS.



"quit"

       Press the "quit" button to see what happens.




THE GAME:
 
       You can make bids and play cards by either clicking the left mouse 
button on the card or button, or by using the F1 - F6 function keys.

       To stop playing the game and return to Windows, press the Options button 
(or right mouse click on the background), choose 'Main Menu', and press "quit".

	Other choices on the Options Button menu are:
review bids made
review cards played during the hand
review the last trick
review the score card with the last 15 scores in your game
save the current game
load the saved game and play from the start of the hand








 RULES:

       EUCHRE is a well loved card game with a number of local rules 
(which are accommodated here via the rules menu).   It is probably derived 
from the game Juker which was played in Alsace.   It reached the USA in the 
early 1800's, and in the 1850's it became the first game to use a Joker.    
In 1904 the US Playing Card Co. created a variant called 500.   Since then, 
its popularity has increased, which resulted in many new euchre variants 
all over the World.

      The object of the game is to collect a specified number of points and 
stop your partner from collecting the same points.   The game is played in 
teams with you and your partner (sitting opposite you) playing against the 
players sitting facing each other.   Cards are ranked in order of Ace down 
to 9 (except if you choose to have cards down to 7),  except in the suit 
that has been designated the TRUMP suit for that hand, in which the order 
is - Joker, right bower (the Jack of the trump suit ), left bower (the 
Jack of the other suit of the same colour), Ace, King, Queen, 10, 9, etc.

       The game starts with each player deciding which suit they want as 
the trump suit, so that they can win at least three tricks (with their 
partner's help).   Once one suit is chosen, then that becomes the trump suit.   
The bidding starts with the player to the left of the dealer.   One card is 
turned up, and that is offered to everyone as the trump suit.   All four 
players have the chance to pick this suit, starting with the player on the 
dealer's left.   If any player chooses this suit they "order up" the card, 
and the dealer has the option of accepting it into his own hand and discarding 
another card.   If no player wants that suit, the card is turned over and 
all players are given the chance to choose another suit.   If all players 
pass, the cards are dealt again (unless you have chosen the "shaft the dealer" 
option which means that the dealer may not pass the second time.

       A game option is that the dealer's partner may not choose to order up 
the card into the dealer's hand, but only order it down, ie choose the suit, 
but play alone.

       Each player can elect to play alone, rather than as partners.   In 
this case their partner does not play.   An option is that when playing alone 
your partner can pass their best card to you and you discard before looking 
at it to accept it.

       Each player plays consecutively in a clockwise direction, with the 
winner of the last trick leading.   Each player must follow the suit led if 
they can (otherwise it is called reneging).

       The bidding team scores 1 point for winning 3 or 4 tricks, and 2 points 
for 5 tricks.   If they win less than 3 tricks the opposing team win 2 points.   
You can choose for the opposing team to win a Super Euchre of 4 points if they 
win all 5 tricks.

	The game ends when one side reaches the designated number of points 
(usually 10 or 11).





 INSTALLATION:

       Euchre is distributed in a form which makes installation easy for you.    
Like all Windows programs, its installation is more complex than DOS 
programs, but the SETUP.EXE utility takes care of all this for you.    This 
way, it can ensure that you have the correct Windows System files that it 
needs to run properly, without you having to do any work.

       After installation, you should have these files in the 
\Program Files\Euchre From Special K directory -
 	EUCHRE.EXE -  base program
	EUCHRE.CHM -  Windows help file
	EUCHRE.TXT -  ASCII text help file
	SCORES.EUC -  game scores and set-up info
	*.CRD      -  data files.

       In addition, it will make sure that you have Windows system files in 
your \WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory.


       If you received this software from a Bulletin Board or the Internet, 
it will be compressed into the one file, eg EUCHRE.ZIP.   Before running the 
installation program you will need to decompress it.   Create a temporary 
directory, eg C:\MYTEMP, and decompress all the files into it.   The software 
is now ready to install, as if you had bought it on a floppy disk.  Now run 
the SETUP.EXE program.   The easiest way of doing this is choose RUN from 
Windows START button, and type in the drive, directory, and SETUP.EXE name. 
Alternatively, you can run it from the File Explorer.   If you have Winzip 
installed, you just have to open the .ZIP file and run the SETUP.EXE file.

       The installation program prompts you to enter the directory name in 
which to store the files.   The installation program does NOT interfere with 
any of your standard set-up eg, AUTOEXEC.BAT, CONFIG.SYS, *.INI,  path.   It 
places the icon to start the EUCHRE game in a group called "Euchre From Special K"
 that it creates in the Programs group on the START button.   If you want, you can 
easily move this icon to a different group (by the usual method of dragging 
and dropping).

       If  you created a temporary directory, eg C:\MYTEMP,  you can  now 
remove it.

       The total space that this program takes up on disk is about 3.8 Mbytes.   

       If you run Euchre and find that it does not fill the whole screen, the 
answer is probably the screen resolution that you have chosen for Windows.   
You can change this via the Display icon in the Control Panel.   It works 
best with standard resolutions, such as 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, or 
1280x1024.   However it supports most other resolutions.  If it does not fill 
the whole screen, you can force it to use another.

	Windows also lets you uninstall this program (not that you would ever 
want to!).



************************************************************
	If you have any problems with this program, whether installing 
it, or running it, please let me know.   You can contact me on
gmckay@specialksoftware.com 
************************************************************



VERSION 3.23

       This version of Euchre From Special K is designed for new players 
as well as experienced players.   It is recognised as the most enjoyable Euchre 
software game.   It provides support for standard and non standard screen 
resolutions.   It has been optimized for Windows 11, 10, 8.1 and above, 
for PC and touch tablets.



REGISTRATION :

       If you are still enjoying this game after two 
weeks you should support the  Shareware concept and register your copy 
at my homepage at   https://www.specialksoftware.com


	Choose from the following:

- the latest, updated registered version (with even better card playing skills).

- if you want it, I will include a registered 
copy of 500 Card Game From Special K, Bridge Card Game From Special K, 
Canasta Card Game From Special K,  Skat Card Game From Special K, 
Whist Card Game From Special K or Rummy Card Game From Special K.

    An additional incentive is that you can register this version and have 
registered versions for life!   With this registered version you receive a key.   
Download any future shareware version from the Internet, or any other source, 
and you can turn it into a registered version!


    Yet another incentive to register is that the registered copy does 
not make you endure the initial "nuisance" screen when you run it.

   SPECIAL BONUS -  The registered copy also has a pleasing picture 
as the background to the Main Menu.  It also allows you to put in 
YOUR OWN background to this menu, so if you have a pleasing Bit Map 
Picture, or even a scanned-in picture of yourself, this can be in 
the background every time you run it.


    You can also register on line by credit card by visiting my homepage at 
https://www.specialksoftware.com .

       Dealer enquires are welcome.  Corporate licenses are available.

