xpat2 1.07-20 / usr / share / games / xpat / help.Spider

	The Rules of Spider
	===================

The object of the game is to build a sequence of cards
in the same suit from King to Ace and move it from the
slots to the stacks above.  When all eight sequences
have been built and removed, you have won the game.  A
more challenging version of this is to leave all eight
sequences on the table until done instead of removing
those that are complete to the stacks above.
  One may move the next lower card onto a card of the
same or different suit; however, one may only move
contiguous cards of the same suit as a group.  For
example, one may move the 5 of spades into either a 6
of spades or a 6 of hearts. Moving the 5 of spades onto
the 6 spades is a better move since now the 5-6 of
spades group may be moved as a unit where the 5 of
spades, 6 of hearts group may not.  Also, moving the 4
of spades onto the 6 of spades is not a legal move.  A
King may only be moved into an empty slot (or removed
to the stacks above when the sequence King-Ace is
complete) since there are no higher cards than a King.
  For general strategy, one wants to try to create a
space since this is the most flexible way to move cards
around.  A space is where all cards in one column of
the table have been removed.  Note: before dealing the
next round, all spaces have to have at least one card
in them.
  Also, when moving the cards, it is generally to your
advantage to move the highest cards first and the
lowest cards last doing the obvious moves first.  For
example, move a 5 of spades onto a 6 of spades, then
Queen of hearts onto a King clubs before you move the 7
of clubs onto the 8 of hearts.  Then you may choose to
move 5-6 of spades group onto the 7 of clubs.  The
strategy is to combine the cards into same suit groups
that may be moved as a unit.  Once the group 5-6 of
spades has been created, it may be broken up by using
the middle mouse button on the lower card.


The Initial Tableau:

Shuffle together two decks of cards (104 cards in all)
and deal ten cards face down in a row.  Deal three more
rows face down on the first.  Next deal one card face
down on each of four piles (traditionally the leftmost
four, but it doesn't matter; for aesthetic reasons some
people prefer the first, fourth, seventh, and tenth
piles), for a total of 44 face-down cards.  Finally,
deal one card face up on each pile.  These 54 cards
constitute the initial tableau.  NOTE: In the
description below, the card at the bottom of a pile is
taken to be the last one dealt or played onto that
pile, as opposed to the card that is underneath all the
others in the pile.  Thus the bottom card is the one
displayed bottommost on the screen by the Spider
program.


Building:

All building is done in the tableau, there being no
separate foundations.  On the bottom card of a pile may
be placed any card of next-lower rank, regardless of
suit.  (Cards rank King (highest), Queen, Jack, 10, 9,
\ldots, 3, 2, Ace.)  The bottom card of a pile is
always available to be moved, as is any sequence of
cards at the bottom of a pile that are consecutive and
ascending in rank and of the same suit.
  For example, suppose the 6, 5, and 4 of hearts are
together at the bottom of a pile, with the 4
bottommost.  They may be moved as a unit, or the 4 can
be moved by itself, or the 5 and 4 can be moved without
moving the 6.  If the 6, 5, and 4 were moved onto a 7
of hearts at the bottom of some other pile, the four
cards could then be moved as a unit onto any 8; if the
7 were not a heart, however, then once the hearts were
placed upon it it would not be available to be moved
until the hearts had been moved from it (to another 7
or into a space; see below).
  When all face-up cards have been removed from a pile,
the bottom face-down card is turned up and becomes
available for play.


Spaces:

When all cards have been moved away from some pile, the
resulting empty pile is called a space or hole.  Any
card or sequence of cards available for moving may be
moved into a space.  A King, or sequence headed by a
King, can be moved only into a space, and once moved
there can never be moved out (except into another
space, which doesn't accomplish anything) unless it is
being removed entirely as described below.


The Deck:

The 50 cards not dealt initially form the deck.
Whenever you wish (typically, whenever you get stuck),
you may deal a new row of ten cards from the hand
face-up upon the piles.  NOTE: You are not allowed to
do this if you have any spaces.  You must first fill
them in.  Notice that these additional deals tend to
introduce discontinuities in the piles; that is, you
can get cards covering others that are not next-higher
in rank.  If you get stuck after having dealt the last
of the five additional deals, you have lost.


Object of Play:

When you have assembled a complete suit of thirteen
cards, in sequence from King down to Ace, at the bottom
of a pile, you may remove the thirteen cards from the
tableau entirely.  Cards so removed are never brought
back into play; thus it is not always desirable to
remove a suit when you have the opportunity (though it
usually is), since it may pay to keep it around to aid
in manipulating the other cards of that suit (recall
that there are 26 cards in each suit).  The game is won
if you manage to remove all eight suits.
   If you find that a game is going so well that you're
sure you're going to win, you can spice things up by
trying to finish with as many completed suits as
possible still in the tableau.  Hardest of all is to
finish the game with each of the eight suits brought
together in sequence from King down to Ace, with all of
the cards still in the tableau.  Note that, once you
start striving toward such a goal, you may make such a
mess of the position that you won't be able to win at
all!


Scoring:

Spider is a difficult game to master, and some players
like to be able to evaluate their progress by scoring
unsuccessful games.  No rules for scoring are in the
literature, but the program implements the following
rather arbitrary formula: 10 points for each initially
face down card that gets turned over; 15 additional
points for each column where all the face down cards
have been turned over (even if you don't manage to get
a space); 2 points for each card that is sitting atop
the next higher card of the same suit; 50 points for
each completed suit (in which case you do not also
score for the 12 cards sitting atop next higher cards).
This yields a maximum score of 990.  If you win the
game with 4 or more completed suits still in the
tableau, add 2 points for each suit after the first
three.  Thus winning with all eight suits still in the
tableau yields a score of 1000.

With the option '-relaxed 1', you may deal new cards if
all nonempty slots are in correct order, i.e. with
respect to rank AND suit.
With the option '-relaxed 2', you may deal new cards if
all nonempty slots are in relaxed order, i.e. only with
respect to rank.
The purpose of this option is, that you need not
destroy existing sequences before getting new cards.