Readme for BW.EXE:
Copyright 1998, Mark G. Meyers, Squattsi International

     I. How to Play
        -Objective
        -Basics (board layout, playing the board, rule of ascending order)
        -Hopscotch, Lucky Seven, Squattsi, Cheshire
    II. BW.EXE 
        -info on the executable
   III. General Discussion
        -notes for the novice, notes for advanced

==========================================================================
=======================  BOARDWALK - HOW TO PLAY  ========================
==========================================================================

========================================================================
OBJECTIVE
========================================================================
   To score a win, it is only necessary to clear row 1.
   To score a perfect game, organize all of the cards into the 13 
destination locations, thus scoring 52 points, or 4 points each in 13 
stacks of four-of-a-kind.

========================================================================
BASICS- The Physical Board Layout
========================================================================
   Open a game window for Lucky Seven.  The card images are simple: 
A for Ace, T for ten, J for jack, Q for queen, K for king, and 2 through 
9 for the number cards.  

   You can see 5 rows, where 2 of these begin void of cards.  The 
top 2 rows are the "upperwalk", the next 2 rows are the "lowerwalk", and 
the last row is the "hand".

   Each of the two walks includes a row of source stacks and a row for
destination stacks.  Each walk divides vertically into "columns", where
each column contains; one source stack, and one (declarable) 
destination.  Cards played to destination stacks are done moving in the 
game, and will score 1 point apiece.

   The player "declares" the face-value to stack upon a destination with 
his or her first play upon it.  Once a column is declared, only cards 
of that face-value may be stacked there.  

   In Lucky Seven, Squattsi, and Cheshire, there is a "hand" which acts 
as a type of column in that it is both a source and a destination for plays.

========================================================================
BASICS- The walks and how to makes plays on the board
========================================================================
   Each of the two walks functions uniquely.  In the beginning of the game, 
only the lower can be played upon by the upper, but soon after, other 
types of plays will become available.

   On the Upperwalk, the top card of each source stack is always flipped 
up, and as such is available for play anywhere on the board.
   An upperwalk column's destination cannot be used until its source stack 
is emptied.  Upon lifting the last source stack card, the destination
is available for the "filing" of cards of the player's choice of any 
one face value.  

   In playing "live" to a lowerwalk column (from anywhere), two inseparable 
actions occur.  First, a card is placed upon its destination, and second, 
the top card of its source stack is flipped up in place.  
   The face up card atop the source stack, which is then a source card for 
further play, "blocks" its own column.  A blocked lowerwalk column cannot 
be played to again until the blocking card is played elsewhere.

   The game may develope to a point where a spot on row 3, the lowerwalk
source row, becomes "open", i.e. presently holds no cards.  As a reward,
The player can "slide" any one face up source card on the board to that 
opening.  In effect, another blocked column is relieved.

========================================================================
BASICS- Rules of Ascending Order
========================================================================
   Where Aces are low and Kings are high, the columns of the lowerwalk must 
be declared in ascending order from left to right.

   In Squattsi and Cheshire, the upperwalk must also be declared in ascending 
order from left to right.

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HOPSCOTCH- very difficult to win
========================================================================
   Nothing else need be known.  Be careful, like the sign says, this game 
can be as frustrating as purgatory to win.

========================================================================
LUCKY SEVEN- A good recreational game
========================================================================
   Lucky Seven gives the player the ability to interact with the lowerwalk 
using a four card hand.  Cards in the hand which cannot play live upon any 
of the seven columns of the lowerwalk cannot be used to make plays.
   The added hand strips a column from the Hopscotch lowerwalk for 
its existence, so please note, in jumping from "very difficult" to 
"good recreational"- a powerful entity has been created.

Hand Plays to the Lowerwalk
---------------------------
   The hand play always follows the same basic format, but it can be 
followed through in 3 distinct ways.  A card from the hand always plays 
(live) a lowerwalk column, and a "return" card from the lowerwalk source 
row is placed in the hand.  
   Where the column played to is blocked, the blocking card is returned 
to the hand.  Where the column played to is not blocked, the player can
return to the hand any one blocking card from the lowerwalk.  In either 
case, the next source stack card of the column played must flip.
   Lastly, there is the "blind" play, where upon a column which is not 
presently blocked, and prior to witnessing the face of the source card 
that is to flip, the player elects to return the flip card to the hand.

Scoring The Hand
----------------
   The hand score is a card count of that face value which occurs most 
frequently in the hand.  Four-of-a-kind scores four points.  Less than a 
pair scores one.

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SQUATTSI- Mentally very challenging, a little easier to win
========================================================================
   In addition to all the available rules of Lucky Seven, hand cards may 
now also play upon the Upperwalk.  By itself, this makes the game too easy, 
and so now the upperwalk must also be declared in ascending order.  The 12
face values declared across the two walks must interlock neatly to win.

Hand Plays to the Upperwalk
---------------------------
   A card is played from the hand to an upperwalk column.  From the 
player's choice of upperwalk source stacks, a card is then returned 
to the hand.  If the entire upperwalk source row is void of cards, hand 
plays to the upperwalk can no longer be made.
   The card playing to the upperwalk from the hand may be placed 
upon either the source or destination position, as follows.  If the column 
in question can be legally filed upon, i.e. its' source stack is empty, the 
player may "trump" by playing to its destination.  If both the source and 
destination are clear, i.e. the column is entirely void of cards, then the 
hand card may be placed upon its source position if desired.
   The latter is referred to as "juggling", since the hand card played to 
an upperwalk source position remains available as source for further plays.

========================================================================
CHESHIRE- Maximum control over the game
========================================================================
   The walks in Cheshire are resized to 6 columns apiece, which makes this
game more challenging in that respect, but cheshire begins with four
upperwalk source stacks which may initially be "coaxed".  I believe that 
Cheshire can be won most of the time, when played very carefully.  

Coaxing and Favors
------------------
   Four of the source stacks in Cheshire start with all cards face down.
The act of flipping up the top card of an upperwalk source stack is referred
to as using a "favor".  
   In Cheshire, prior to an upperwalk column's declaration, a card can be 
played from the hand to the top of its source stack, so long as it is not 
presently blocked by a face up card.  The player's choice of source card 
from row 1 is then returned to the hand.  This is "coaxing".


=============================================================================
----------------- BW.EXE for Windows 3.1- unfinished executable  ------------
=============================================================================

About this executable:
   All source code was lost; this program won't be changed.  (If anything, 
   it has to be restarted from scratch)  Cheshire is stuck at "4 favors" on 
   the start of the deal, the actual number of which has yet to be finalized.  
   Tentatively, the opening play is required to be taking one favor of choice.
   This program does not tally points, and it does not know when the game has 
   ended, but it is virtually bug-free on all legalities checking for all four 
   gametypes.

MARKER STYLE INTERFACE
        click on a legal source card location,
        if so, then an S gets printed.
        Then click on a legal destination location.
        if so, then a D gets printed.
        For a hand play, then click on a legal return card.
        If so, then an R gets printed.
  When a fully legal play is marked out,
        press CONFIRM to make it happen, CANCEL to erase 
        the markers currently selected, or << to back up 
        in the marker selections made thus far.

AUTOMARKING:
      When the playtype checking sees only one legal D for
      your S selection, it marks it for you, and the same applies
      to R in the SDR.  there were plans to differentiate between 
      "legal" and "obvious" in automarking, but "obvious" never made it 
      into the code, and it is technically legal to declare the same 
      value on both walks.  
      It used to be legal to do so on the same walk, but this was done 
      away with to simplify the code.  The ascending order rule was 
      originally stated as "no lesser value to the right- no greater 
      value to the left" to allow for this.  These rules existed to 
      facilitate "crumbing" for points at the point of a games demise 
      (and for a little extra je ne sai quoi).

PERPETUAL PLAY RULE 
  When you play a card from the hand to the UW (Squattsi, Cheshire),
  you will see a red border appear around that card.  The red border 
  means that a card has to flip up somewhere on the board before you can 
  legally go back and trump or coax the same card back into the hand.
  Logically, this isn't going to affect your game.

KNOWN BUGS   
  -Sliding a face-down card from row 3 is allowed, but it is illegal.
     (doing so would be strategically absurd).
  -Closing one window of gametype X while two or more windows of that
   gametype are open will crash the program.  
  -Multiple, simultaneous running instances of BW.EXE on one machine
   may crash the program.
  -Maximizing a game window cannot be reversed, except by launching
   another game window.  Min, Max, Close buttons of a maximized game
   window are not handled.  Running games listed in the file menu also
   don't respond.  (The messages are not handled)

==========================================================================
=======================  GENERAL DISCUSSION  =============================
==========================================================================

For the Novice
--------------
   At first, in the games of Hopscotch, Lucky Seven, and Squattsi, the novice
looks upon the board with an untrained eye, and sees undifferentiated 
potentials.  A variety of plays can be made, but none seem better, none
seem worse.
   The discussion into "which play is best" produces a mathematical forum
for discussion which may digress beyond the practical.  But there are one or
two generalized statements that can be made.  Here's how the first game
usually goes...
   You witness how easy it is to start by playing any card you like upon the 
wide open plane of the lowerwalk.  You graze lazily upon the fertile plains 
of the great wide lowerwalk valley.  Soon, in all likelyhood you are buried 
alive by cards that will not play.  Ironically, you are unwittingly prone to 
this- you don't see it's approach until the smothering is complete.  

   Mathematically, at the beginning in Lucky Seven, there are at least 7 
face values you can manage, one each for the 7 open columns for play across 
the lowerwalk.  The deck contains 13 different face values, and so the other 
6 will have to be dealt with at some point.  When?  Sometimes better sooner 
than later, which means there is a clock ticking against the source stacks 
of the upper walk to clear them.  These stacks have to be cleared to create 
openings for additional face values.

   In order to clear your first upperwalk source stack, you have to move 
four cards down to the lowerwalk.  This will block 4 lowerwalk columns.  
There is no room for debate on this.  Since the lowerwalk is only 7 columns 
wide, the number of cards that have moved from the upper walk to the lower 
cannot be 8 greater than the number of cards that have moved from the 
lowerwalk back to the upper.  
   The way to beat this particular problem (there are others) is to blend
cards moving down with cards moving up.  If you play out one stack at a time
from the top, then one at a time you create openings for further play.

   Strategically, other options exist for dealing with the general dilemma
of "Gee ma, they just don't fit".  For example, one can dedicate plays to the 
creation of slide openings for pulling cards off of upper walk source stacks
from below, or one can wander into multi-upper-stack leads in an attempt to 
facilitate a broader contingency portfolio.  These words may seem foreign
now, but in time they may reveal themselves.
   Really advanced gamplay recognizes that the level of randomness on the 
board is so high, that one cannot be expected to strategically outwit the
cards on all occasions.  Consider this recreational endeavour to reside in
the ether- between chance and skill.  Lady luck will have her day, but then,
so shall I.

What is Winning?
   For managing more cards and more situations, a mathematical limit does 
exist.  You cannot from any one egg be expected to score 52 points on every 
deal.  You can play a hand for as much as it will bear.  (Lady luck and I are
thinking about getting married.)
   "Winning" technically occurs when row 1 is clear.  A "perfect game" is 
where all 52 cards have scored.
   A "spike" is a card on row 3 that cannot flip up.  For example, you play 
Aces to the leftmost column of the lowerwalk, and the fourth Ace is the last 
card in that column's source stack.  It will never flip, since it is the very 
same card required to flip itself.  It is permanently stuck face down.
   One point can be tallied for each spike if spikes are the only source cards 
which remain face-down at the end of the game.  (This determination can always
be made without having to flip everything up to check).

Kingdom
   "Kingdom" is a metaphor upon the game of Squattsi whereby the game can be
conceptually grasped more readily while it is played.  If not for how the 
order of operations have fallen, timewise, the name may have been different.
   Named after the classical medieval kingdom, the hand is regarded as the
King's hand, and it is capable of; holding gold, acting as the purveyor of 
the people, and holding a sword in battle.  Within it are the capabilities
of all that you can find in the kingdom.
   "Gold" are the cards held in the hand which will tally points towards the
final score.  A hand position holding gold will no longer serve to provide
for the people or to fight the enemy. 
   "The purveyor" are the cards held in the hand which will play live upon 
the lowerwalk.  "The sword" are the cards held in the hand capable of playing
as trump upon the upperwalk.
   Now imagine the battlegrounds.  Row 1 is the castle wall of thine enemy.
You must tear it down!  You must chip away at the enemy wall and in its place
construct your own.  It is your knights who shall file upon row 2.  Behind 
the front lines, the affairs of civilians within the castle walls are at hand.  
On row 4, civilian homes are being built, while on row 3, there is much bustle 
and activity- and to some degree- there will be enemy resistance to deal with.
Do your best to build a kingdom.

---------------------------------------------advanced
   I enjoy getting in the groove.  Somehow, and I'm not likely to produce a 
logical explanation for this, playing some number of times prommelgates a kind
of active mood, as though the ability to play well comes to pass.
   The number and type of cards in the deck is fixed, but the arrangement of 
the cards is virtually never the same.  One might call the "starting 9" as a 
good example of randomness, but I would go one better.  (The starting 9 are the 
9 cards which are face up on the deal.)  Where randomness is likened to a coin 
toss, 43 cards face-down on the deal are still "spinning in the air".  (Now
that, my friend, is random!)
   Strategically, two categories of development will occur.  On the one hand,
a general concept of the total game will take form.  On the other hand, less 
general (more specific) tactical actions will be issued in response to the
particular arrangement at hand.  A profound assessment of the total game is a 
great way to keep ones feet on the ground amidst real-time tactical digressions.  
So hit the street and play against specific situations, but continue to assess 
the total game.  While strategy will arise from the arrangement of the cards, 
the game itself will always be the same.
   An example of total game assessment comes immediately to mind.  There have
been occasions where I have sat up and looked at the board, and where with 
vigorous analysis, I would then sit back and see that it was beautiful.  If a
single card would move, the perfect balance of the arrangement would be lost.
   Perfect balance at the present moment would seem to imply that movement can no
longer occur.  This is the paradox of movement and balance.  It's just another
way of looking at it- the big picture has to combine with a continuous stream
of plays.  First in movement, balance may then be acquired.  Such is the nature
of cards face down.  Alas, to some extent you must arrange them before you 
can see them.  Any other way- would it still be a game?
