Christian Jung

Software Development & Sales

Fax: 0049-6894870948

E-Mail: 100414.673@compuserve.com

HomePage: http://members.aol.com/ChJung/enghome.htm

_______________________________________________________

presents:

Watten

for Windows95

Watten is a card game which has its roots in Austria and Bavaria and it has a lot of variations. One of those versions serves as foundation for this variant, which we will describe now.

- The basic rules of Watten

- Laying down the cards

- Adjustable rules of the game

- Program settings

- Sound settings

- The calculation of the points for the high score

- The size of the cards

- Watten and the ASP

Important: Watten is a genuine 32bit program, this means, it will work only with Windows 95 and Windows NT. It is not executable under Windows 3.1.

Last but not least I would like to thank Wilfried Lottermoser, Josef Nell, Ellsworth Hall and all others who have been of great help.

Christian Jung


ASP
 Watten and the ASP

This program is produced by a member of the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP). ASP wants to make sure that the shareware principle works for you. If you are unable to resolve a shareware-related problem with an ASP member by contacting the member directly, ASP may be able to help.

The ASP Ombudsman can help you resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP member, but does not provide technical support for members’ products.

Please write to the ASP Ombudsman at 545 Grover Road, Muskegon, MT 49442-9427 USA, Fax 616-788-2765 or send a CompuServe message via CompuServe Mail to ASP Ombudsman 70007,3536.


The size of the cards

If you use a resolution of 640x480, the cards in the lower row can not be seen in full. You can solve this problem as follows:

Draw the button-bar that you find under the menu to an other place of your choice. Click the edge of the bar with the mouse and draw it e.g. to the right side of the screen.

Therefore all cards move to the top and all can be seen.


Laying down cards
Laying down the cards

In this game, cards can be put down only. You are not able to draw new cards. There are two choices for laying down a card.

- Click the card with the left mouse button, keep it pressed and draw the card directly to the card deck next to your cards.

- With the right mouse button click on the card.

Select trump card and hitting card

You always select trump card and hitting card at the beginning of each round. If the computer does this selection, it will be shown in a window, where you just click the OK button. Is the selection up to you, simply click the mouse button at the beginning of the new round and the window for choosing will show up.


Rules of the game
The rules of the game

What’s it all about?

In Watten you have to make as many tricks as possible. You score a trick if you have laid out the highest scoring card in one round (each player puts down a card).

For each trick scored you receive 5 points. The player who scores the most tricks in a round, receives an extra 10 point bonus per trick.

Trump card and hitting card

In this game counts the usual ranking order of the cards:

Diamonds, Hearts, Spades and Clubs

Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Jack, Queen, King, Ace

An Eight of Hearts therefore counts more as the Jack of Diamonds.

Interrupted is this order from a trump card. Defined is this by a color (e.g., Diamonds) selected from a player and this is worth more than any card of a different color.

For example: Diamond is trump, therefore an Eight of Hearts is worth less than a Jack of Diamonds.

To add more spice to this game you have besides the trump cards also hitting cards. These are cards of certain types, e.g., all Nines, who consequently have then a higher value as the trumps. With a hitting card you can beat all other cards, from there the name hitting card originates.

Is a hitting card laid down the trick definitely will go to the player who has put down this card as it cannot be beaten by any other card. Except of course, someone holds the hitting - trump card which counts as hitting card as well as trump.

A little advise: Only put down a hitting card if there has been none in this round and if you are more or less sure, no other player holds the hitting-trump card. If you yourself hold this hitting-trump card, play it whenever you feel like it, as this trick is absolutely yours.

The course of this game

Each round starts with the nomination of the hitting card from a player. Logically he will choose a card from which he holds many in his hand.

E.g., if he hold 3 Sevens, he would be wise to choose Seven as hitting card.

Then the next player may dominate which color should be trump. Also here it would be wise to choose the color of which one holds most in hand.

The next player will then be the first to lay down a card. His successor will consequently try to lay down a higher valued card in order to obtain the trick. All following players will try to do the same. When everyone has laid down, the trick will go to the one who has put down the card with the greatest value. This player is then allowed to lay out the next card.

The winner is the one, who has scored the most tricks in one round. He is allowed to choose the hitting card for the coming round. This carries on until one player has reached or gone past the appointed scoring amount.

This is roughly all you need to know. In the fullversion you have the added possibility to change some of the rules of the game.


Scoring of points

For each trick, a player gets 5 points. The player who scores the most tricks in a round, receives an extra 10 point bonus per trick.

Winner of the game is the player who reaches the assigned amount of points first. Then you can determine if the result should be registered in the scoring list. The high score stores the points reached from all four players. Rank 1 always holds the player which reached the highest score of all games played.

You can reset the high score anytime by calling the same name function in the menu “High Score”


Select players

The game Watten can be played up to four players. It is not to wise to play with four people since one can see the cards of each of them. But it works...

Besides for the name of each player, you can also determine if there should be 3 and 4 players (tick “Playing”) and if they should be handled by the computer (tick “Handled by computer”)

The first 2 players always have to play, therefore you cannot deactivate the function “Playing” for this players.


Change rules of the game

To adjust the rules you can use the following window. Click the separate elements in order to obtain the meaning of them.


Program settings
Change program settings

To change the settings of the program you can use the following window. Click the separate elements in order to obtain the meaning of them.


Here you can preset the amount of points the game may reach. The first one who reaches or passes this goal is the winner.


Here you preset how many cards each player gets delt at the beginning of the round. Valid values are 3-6.


This value defines how much time each computer driven player gets for a draw. This indeed has no influence on the quality of his decision, but merely serves the purpose for you to see which card has been put down.


Mark this box in order to switch on the movements of the cards. Therefore the cards move slowly across the screen, which looks much better. If you have a slow working computer this function may be turned off. The cards jump then immediately from the starting point to the end point.


If you have a fast computer, you may diminish the speed of the cards. Therefore select one of the three speeding levels. This function only has an effect if the movement of the cards is switched on.


Activate this box if it should be mandatory to put a trump card on a trump if you own one. If you don’t hold one, or this box is not marked, any card can be laid on a trump.


If this box is checked, five points will be given for each trick. Besides that, only the winner of the round will receive points, all other players lose out.


If Watten confuses you still a little, you may look up a window in this function showing you who has won the trick. The more experience you get, the more irritating the window will become, so here you may turn it off. On top of that, the winner of a trick is also shown in the status line.


Sound settings

To change the sound settings you can use the following window. Click the separate elements in order to obtain the meaning of them.


If this box is ticked, a few sounds will be played back during the game.


Tick this box in order to switch on the background music. Therefore you need your sound card correctly installed under Windows. By the way, the sound file will be played once only in the shareware version. In the registered version you can hear your sound files constantly.


You may select which music file will be played, by entering the name of any MIDI file in this field. Should this not be filed in the folder of Watten, you have to state the complete path. Should the file name be unknown to you just click the button “Browse” and select one file of your choice.


Press this button, in order to select a background music. Therefore a window will be opened which indicates all existing MIDI files. Simply select a file from there.