The File Menu handles a few odds and ends.
New Match starts a new match immediately. Match score, game score, and statistics are all reset, but player options are retained.
Whenever you start the program or switch to a different player name, the program always picks up where the last session left off for that player. Use this option if you want to start a fresh match instead.
Change Player lets you select a player name from an earlier session or else type in a new name. Names may be up to 8 characters (letters/digits/hyphens allowed). The program then restores the last session for that player or starts with system defaults, if you entered a new name.
The program INI file saves restart information for up to a dozen player names. This includes option settings, match and game scores, match statistics, and current game state.
Different names allow several people to play on the same machine without mixing up the respective game states and settings. But you can also maintain several aliases, each with different groups of option settings, for yourself. E.g., you might want to keep a Match alias for a long-running ruthless match, a Replay alias for duplicate autoplay of the same match, and a Practice alias with friendly options enabled.
Show Statistics and Log shows updated match statistics and session settings for the current player. The tail of the log file (last 8K) for that player is also shown, if anything has been previously logged.
The statistics give running per-hand averages for dealer/crib/pone hand scores and dealer/pone pegging scores. Total penalty points are also shown. The final hand of each game is excluded from the statistics, since it is frequently incomplete or skewed. Some extra statistics, generally for extended autoplay sequences, are also provided.
The following sample shows statistics/settings after the 100th game of an autoplay match.
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* Games: 100 Match Score: 107/109 Point Differential: -178 *
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First table excludes final (usually skewed and/or incomplete) hand
of each game and includes any points for jack cuts in peg averages.
Hands Hand Averages Peg Averages Penalty
Deal Pone Deal Crib Pone Deal Pone Points
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
Moonbeam: 399 400 7.94 4.48 8.02 3.33 2.04 0 missed
Computer: 400 399 7.90 4.68 8.04 3.58 2.01 0 taken
Win Margin 1-5 -10 -15 -20 -25 -30 -35 -40 -45 -50 -55 -60 61+ Sum
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
Moonbeam: 12 8 11 5 1 4 4 1 2 0 0 0 1 49
Computer: 4 11 10 4 8 8 4 1 0 0 0 0 1 51
Total: 16 19 21 9 9 12 8 2 2 0 0 0 2 100
Hands/Game 1-5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13+ Sum
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
Moonbeam Won: 0 0 2 9 24 14 0 0 0 49
Computer Won: 0 0 5 11 19 13 3 0 0 51
Total: 0 0 7 20 43 27 3 0 0 100
Initial match seed (or file pointer, if applicable): 12345
Current session settings follow.
Hints (Mouse Icon): On
Scoring Details: On
Allow Autoplay: On
Allow Autoscore: On
Sort Hands: Off
2-3-4 Weights.
Friendly Corrections.
Normal Game (121 Points).
Loser Deals.
Default Sequence.
Disable Logging.
Default Deck.
Default Patter.
Default Sounds.
Default Green.
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No log file to display.
Append Statistics to Log lets you append current statistics and settings to the player log file. A good time to do this, if you want to preserve the information, is at the end of a match. The statistics are cleared whenever you start a new match.
The name of log file is set under Options/Activity Log. Other automatic logging may be enabled under that menu. Appending statistics is a one-shot save, rather than automatic.
Print Window prints the form image to the default printer. Not all printers support a graphics print. For a better print image, change the window color to gray under Options/Background Color. The available print sizes are relative to the current paper size and print orientation. If your printer has limited memory, choosing a smaller print size may avoid an out-of-memory error at the printer.
Exit quits the program. Session settings, game state, etc., are saved automatically.